I want to tell you about the time I met William H. Macy. For those of you that may not know who he is, William H. Macy is an American actor that has appeared in known for his appearances in Fargo, The Cooler, the TV Show Shameless, as well as many other great projects.
My experience with Mr. Macy was in his directorial debut for the film Rudderless, in which he took a small acting role as well as directing the entire film. Rudderless was my first experience on a film set, I told my mom that I was going to be an extra for the film and told her the actors that were starring in it. She was most excited about William H. Macy, In fact she told me that if I meet Mr. Macy that I HAVE to get an autograph for her. Well filming a movie is a very hurry up and wait business, there are times when at least for the extras you're literally doing nothing for hours. During the waiting period for a scene the extras were involved in we had to learn a dance of sorts, the Assistant Director brought in Mr. Macy to see our progress on learning the moves, he was in and out very quickly. I had missed my opportunity once, eventually we were ushered into the room we would be filming in, I ended up in the very back of this room, Everyone was moving around and having a good time so I just made my way as close to the front as I could. I ended up in the front right corner of this room.
At this point Mr. Macy was in and out of the room to watch the takes that were filmed, and he was standing next to me waiting to start the next take, however, the production assistants were working on some technical difficulties. I of course took my opportunity, I said "Hi I'm John" he looked at me and reached his hand out and said "Nice to meet you I'm Bill" then there was a little more waiting around. I turned to him and said "You know my mother told me I was not allowed to be in this movie unless I got an autograph from you for her" he said "Really, well we can't disappoint your mom, do you have anything to write with?" I of course pulled out a deck of cards and a sharpie, I gave him a playing card and the sharpie he asked for my mother's name and signed the card!
He asked why I had the cards with me I of course told him that I was a magician! He said "well show me what you got" I proceeded to show him several card tricks, he even gathered other cast and crew members in to watch what was going on. I had impressed him enough that he wanted to show others, after showing several others magic it was time to go back to work for the amazing film that is Rudderless!