Yeah buddy!!! You read it right, last summer I landed the chance to star in my very first film. Ok, “star” might be an exaggeration, so let’s just say I was IN the film for a minute or so. Considering that the, indie short film DayBlack is only about 19 minutes long, I’d say that’s pretty impressive. Sooo, maybe I’m not quite ready for Shondaland, but I’m just putting some positive energy in the atmosphere, shoot… you never know! Anyhoo, I’m sure you are wondering how I happened to land myself in a film of all things. Well sit down, pull up a chair and scootch on over here and let me tell you (yep, I said scootch).
I was sitting in my office tweeting my lil heart out when I got a DM (direct message) from one awesomely lovely Charity Jordan about an opportunity. You might know Charity as the star of the award winning comedy web series Mommy Uncensored, but to me she is just one of my down home tweeps. Still doesn’t ring a bell? No worries, sit tight and hold your wig on tight, cause I’m going to blow it off a little later in this post.
Sooo, Miss Charity sent me an email detailing a film project that she and her husband were working on and she wanted me to be a part of the cast. Ok, at first I was like “Lawd, please don’t let this be some bootleg mess, cause I hate be like HELLL NO!” But I then read the script and it was like wayment! Vampires, tattoos, mystery,comedy and me… Cha-Ching, I’m in! So I jumped on board the project and started filming 10 days later.
THE IRONY:
I might not have mentioned this before, but I have a degree in Theater. I have always had a passion for acting, but I have always stuck to the stage. Quite frankly, I never thought anyone would seek to cast me for anything film related. You see my twenty-something year old self once aspired to be a television news anchor, I thought I would be the next Oprah! And I was good, I mean pretty good according to all my professors and mentors with the exception of one thing… “you just need to lose some weight”. After hearing that more than a few times, I put my broadcast journalism career on hold thinking I would circle back to it when I had lost enough weight to be “acceptable”. Until then, I would just stay away from TV, film or hell cameras all together.
So that’s what I did. I spent the next 20 years shying away from all cameras hoping some day I would be “skinny” enough to be on film or TV without the scrutiny. It’s amazing how we learn to hide from our greatness at such a young age. And the truth is, I really wouldn’t have had any insecurities about my weight but for being told by other people that I was “too big”. What I wouldn’t give to go back in time and talk to my younger self and tell those naysayers to “take a flying leap with a slightly faulty parachute”, humph!
So fast forward 20 years and here I am a good bit “fluffier” than I was back in the day, with no aspirations at all to have my image immortalized on film, and POW, it happened. When I asked Charity what made her reach out to me, she said… I looked up some of your stuff online, and I could just tell from your videos that you would be PERFECT!”. So how about them apples! The very thing I was trying to hide from is what drew her to me. Ok, enough about me, let me tell you about the film.
FILM TRAILER & SYNOPSIS:
Beneath the polluted clouds of Day Black, Georgia exists a mysterious who has killed to survive for a very long time. But Mercer no longer wants to simply exist, he wants to live. Day Black is the story of a former slave who was bitten by something in the cotton fields. Three hundred years later, he works as a tattoo artist in the small town of Day Black, a town whose sky is so dense with pollution, that the sun is nowhere to be seen, allowing Mercer to move about freely, night or day.
Even darker than the clouds are the dreams he’s been having that cause Mercer to fall asleep at the awkwardest times (even while he’s tattooing someone). As he struggles to decipher his nightmares, someone from his pasts returns with plans for him–plans that will threaten his new way of ‘life’ and turn him back into the cold-hearted killer he once was.
Based on the Graphic Novel by Keef Cross.
Directed by Justin J. Jordan.
Written by Keef Cross.
BLOWING YOUR WIG OFF NOW!
Remember when I said that you would know Miss Charity soon enough? Welp, here is the wig blowing part… Charity just dropped a bug in my ear that she will be starring in the highly anticipated movie SELMA directed by Ava DuVernay (Middle of Nowhere & Scandal: Vermont Is For Lovers Too Episode) SELMA also stars David Oyelowo (Rise of The Planet Of The Apes & Red Tails) and Carmen Ejogo (Sparkle & Alex Cross). Is that wig of yours crooked yet? I know I had to straighten mine up when Charity dropped this news on me. I’m just glad that I got to know her before she got so fannnncy! Can somebody say Hollywooooood! Meanwhile, I guess I need to go off and “brand something” so I can pay the bills.
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