Whale Rider

I rented the DVD of the movie Whale Rider on Friday. Beautiful, beautiful movie. Literally and figuratively, it sings. The little girl, Keisha Castle-Hughes (who earned herself a nomination for Best Actress at 13, the youngest such nominee in Oscar history) is simply wonderful. Duncan, I think Clair would especially like this movie--it's not just a girl power movie, it's much more than that, but I think Clair would really respond to this girl. I loved the look into Maori culture--I know a teeny bit about it but the movie really shows a culture in transition. The scenes with the other boys were just great--the one who played Pai's friend/rival was heart-breaking. And the whales, the beautiful sad whales--I wept when they stranded themselves, especially when Pai was saying how she'd called them, and now they didn't want to live, they saw no reason to live. The villagers were trying to save the whales, spraying them with water and covering them with wet blanket and towels. Incredibly sad.

And on a much more shallow note, the guy who played Pai's father was HOT.

Short Audition

My late afternoon audition Saturday was fun. It's for a student film (I think) about a guy who's a total horn dog, who literally ends up sprouting a horn on his forehead and acting like a sex-crazed zombie. I was auditioning for the role of one of his victims. I read two scenes, and had a blast with the second one. In it, I was supposed to have been "changed"--turned into a female sex-crazed zombie, and I made this face which kept cracking up the actor playing the original SCZ (with the horn). We reshot it and at the end of the scene, I was supposed to take the initiative and act all female goth sexy vampirish (how's that for precise?). I led the guy over to the chair, pushed him down, drew him to my bosom...and then pretended to rub his face in my breasts while making bbbbbb sounds. The AD lost it. I usually don't have such strong comic instincts in an audition. Don't know if I'll get cast but it was fun.