I was a shy kid. I listened a lot. I read a lot. I played with my He-Man action figures a lot.
I was not much of a talker. I was not much of a go-getter. I was not an in-your-face, out-there, have-wild-fun type of kid. Not that I wasn't any fun. I don't mean to imply that I was a boring kid, or anything. I'm sure I was really cute and charming. Hell, adorable even. But I wasn't very bold--I think that's what I'm trying to get at.
Until I saw Back to the Future.
Back to the Future came out in 1985. I was eight-years-old. I saw it at the Big Newport Theater in Newport Beach. After the movie, I turned to my mother and said, "I want to drive a flying, time-traveling car when I grow up."
And then I'm sure my mom was supportive of that idea, but she was also probably realistic, and she might have told me something along the lines of "flying, time-traveling cars don't actually exist--that was movie magic," and then I decided that I wanted to be just like Michael J. Fox and become an actor so that even though I might not ever be able to drive in an actual honest-to-goodness flying, time-traveling car, then at least, maybe, one day, I might be able to pretend that I was driving a flying, time-traveling car.
That was the second I decided I wanted to become an actor. Now, I'm not an actor anymore, but if I hadn't decided I wanted to become an actor when I was eight-years-old, then I never would have enrolled in acting classes at South Coast Repertory when I was ten, and I never would have become obsessed with theater, and I never would have gone to the school I went to, and I never would have gotten tired of acting, and I never would have taken Laural Meade's playwriting class, and I never would have started writing plays, and I never would have quit acting so that I could focus entirely on writing, and I never would have realized that the first crush I ever had was on Michael J. Fox and that I'm totally gay, and I never would have met all of the people I've ever met in my entire life, and I would probably be working at Kinko's right now and completely uncertain about what I wanted to do with the rest of my days on Earth.
In 2001, I had the good fortune of working on a show on the backlots of Universal. I was working on the same lot where they filmed Back to the Future. It was like working in Heaven. One afternoon, we hung out on the lawn in front of the clock tower and I have a couple of pictures to prove it. The pictures aren't great--they're really shadowy--but they're proof and they make me believe in magic.
In this photo, I'm pretending to be that lady in the first act of the movie who comes up to Marty urging him to help her "SAVE THE CLOCK TOWER!"
And in this photo I'm pretending to be Doc Brown and I'm worried because Marty's late and the clock is going to be struck by lightning really soon.
29 comments:
I loved Doc Brown too, but not in a sexual/crush way.
And Erik, I'm so excited! I just published my first real wildinbed blog! (so go look at it and be the first to comment!)
Fourth.
Urp,
I loved Doc Brown too, but of course I LOVED marty mcfly. If you know what I mean.
xo,
Erp
Christy, Bonnie beat me to the punch. I was getting a haircut. I will post pictures soon to prove that I was getting a haircut. If I had not been getting a haircut, I totally would have been the first to comment on your first real wildinbed blog.
Nope. No way.
I showed up at this blog comment thread at 4:09pm by my computer's clock (which is the timestamp of Christy's comment inviting you over to her blog for the challenge) and since we know that your comment timestamps are two minutes ahead of our computer clocks, the ONLY way you would've beaten me to the comment punch is if you too saw her comment and clicked over as fast as I did.
And I'm a WAY fast clicker.
(I think most women are, actually. Think about it.)
But I'm still excited about your haircut.
Okay, YES, you are a much quicker clicker than I, I will give you that, but you know I get emails that coincide with your comments and if I had been online and not getting my haircut, then I might have at least had a fighting chance of being first.
Your short shorts scare me a little.
Jesse, you're not into my Jack Tripper shorts?
I love how upset you are at not claiming first!
But I'm glad you got your hair cut. I'm sad it had to happen to be right when I posted my very first wildinbed blog, but there will be more blogs for you to claim first on...
(wink wink, nudge nudge)
(Bonnie, don't be mean)
(I mean, be mean if you want to)
I'm not mean! I'm talking about the happy finger of masterbation. Duh! Nothing mean about that! ;)
Mahty! Mahty!
When did we start talking about masterbation? Is that what you meant with all of the clicking talk?
Is it embarrassing that I have a crush on Will Forte from SNL?
Doc! (joe)
My last comment made no sense.
Gulliver Kang!
Ooh, who's Will Forte?
Will Forte is on Saturday Night Live. I don't know him from anything else. I find him, like, oddly incredibly attractive. Now, the fact that I say oddly shouldn't imply anything other than...well, okay--he's a handsome guy and he's funny, but I had probably seen him in a few dozen skits over the years (I only watch SNL sporadically these days, and I generally fast forward if the first few seconds of a sketch haven't grabbed me) and he never really turned my head, but then a few weeks ago something clicked for me with him and now I think he's the sexiest guy on the show. I am not quite sure what clicked/what did the trick. Actually, that's a lie. It was a spelling bee sketch. I bet you could find it on youtube. Before the spelling bee sketch, Will Forte was just some dude on SNL, and after the spelling bee sketch he went on my list. You know what I mean when I say he went on my list. We all have a list.
Oh yell yes I know all about the list.
John Cusack
Jon Stewart
Seth Green
There's more, but that's a start. ;)
Speaking of the list (and I was going to post this in our long-lost terribly-neglected amazing comment thread, because it refers to something that's already in that thread, but I'm posting it here because I just thought of it when we were talking about "the list") (anyway, speaking of the list) I met Chris Messina the other night. Very briefly. And when I say we met, it was literally, like, we shook hands and said hello and then continued talking to the other people we knew who had introduced us, but we still met and I thought of you and your story about his story about trying to work "fuck you" into all of his performances and it also made me think about how you brought copies of your books to Dan Tana's that night but forgot to get them out of your car and about how I want to read the books, and, well, anyway, I met Chris Messina, and he's hot, but we already established that in The Comment Thread That Everyone Thinks Has Been Abandoned But Which I Will Revive One Of These Days (And That's A Promise).
Oh, and my (partial) list includes:
Jeff Probst
Jake Gyllenhaal (however you spell his name, he's still sexy)
Justin Thoreaux (apparently I like men with "J" names)
Oh, and how could I forget ANDERSON COOPER????
Yes, I would like to J with those guys.
(I have no idea what I mean by "J" in the above sentence, but dear me, those are some hot boys.)
And I love that you met Chris Messina and thought of me.
Isn't he cute?
And I seriously have to see you soon so that I can give you books.
And besides, it's been like THREE WEEKS since we've seen each other.
It feels like forever!
;)
OMG--Anderson Cooper!!!!!!!! Of course!
YUM.
OHMYGOD. These pictures made my whole day.
- Gulliver Kang
Oh, and I couldn't remember what Will Forte looked like, so I googled him and found his bio on the SNL site.
He LOOKS LIKE MICHAEL J. FOX. (But with more jaw...)
Gulliver! I am really happy those pictures made your day, but I am even MORE happy that you noticed the resemblance between Will Forte and Michael J. Fox. I, myself, had not (consciously) realized that they have such a striking resemblance, but now that you say it, I totally see it and it all makes sense. It's like, my entire obsession with Will Forte JUST CLICKED in my brain and I GET IT now. You know?
Oh, and Bonnie, yes, Messina is super cute.
How could I have never read this comment thread?
My thoughts on Anderson Cooper:
He is universally adored.
Lesbians & Straight Men love him (and may or may not feel uncomfortable about it, depending on their confidence in their own sexuality) (pure speculation here) because he's oddly but undeniably feminine.
And Straight Women and Gay Men love him because he is so fucking masculine.
My list:
Gabriel Byrne
Daniel Day-Louis
(had to put those two by themselves)
William H. Macy (without a mustache)
Jon Stewart (duh)
Owen Wilson (this one grew on me...totally caught me by surprise)
And do you know people have told ME I look like like Michael J. Fox?? Well there was this conversation:
Roommate 1: You look like Conan O'Brien.
Me: CONAN O'BRIEN!?!
Roommate 2: No, she looks more like Michael J. Fox.
Me: MICHAEL J. FOX!?
And Will Forte DOES have a jowl. Man alive.
Okay, if you look like Michael J. Fox OR Conan O'Brien, I totally need to meet you IRL.
Well *I* don't see it...
(but I don't *really* see Kristen Davis, either...)
But if KiKi sees it, that means he will develop a man crush on me.
And his mom already has a lesbian crush on me.
And that makes the female Anderson Cooper!
I rock.
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