This scene is me, crystalized in video form. For my class “building the actor’s reel” we weere supposed to find scenes from movies, shows, whatever, that we thought fit our type to put on our demo reels. For obvious reasons, a scene couldn’t be too popular, or else somebody watching the scene on our reels would go “hey, that’s from ‘The Office!’” So that meant we had to either find niche scenes, or edit a scene until it wasn’t recognizable.
Many classmates chose to find scenes, or edit ones they liked. Me? I couldn’t stand it. It didn’t matter how much I edited something, I still knew where it came from, and I still recognized it. I was miserable at finding scenes too. Which meant when the deadline approached, I was looking for any other way to get my hands on scenes. My professor encouraged me to write my own. “Make movies,” he said, “don’t remake movies.” I didn’t think I had any talent at screenwriting, but anything would be better than what I was doing, so I gave it a shot. I wrote this, and “Jessica,” which you can also find on this site.
The scene was an instant hit. Hearing classmates laugh at my jokes was a joy unlike anything I had ever felt before. I couldn’t believe how well it went over. Even the professor was laughing at it. We set up the confessional booth a few weeks later, shot the scene and I’ve since put it on every portfolio I can make.
Throughout my entire acting life people have been telling me I was born to play the priest. Priest is my type. This scene is influenced by a play I was in called “Making God Laugh” by Sean Grennan, where I played the priest character there. This scene couldn’t be more perfectly my sense of humor if I tried. Everything about this scene is just how I like it. I hope you like it as much as I do.