Never Stop Learning!

Shooting RangeAs an actor you must always keep up on your craft as well as other crafts that will better your craft as an actor, such as if you say you dance, then not only do you need to keep up on your acting classes, but also dance classes, or work on your dialects, or martial arts, or piano, etc.

One thing I am really interested in doing is action films.  For some reason, even though I had never really been a huge fan of action movies previously, ever since I did a short film in Seattle where I played a secret agent and had to do some stage combat where I learned the fight choreography right before we shot the scene is when I really became interested in it. I also learned that I pick up fight choreography quick and I look almost pro-like when I do it, especially for having absolutely no background in martial arts. 

There is this action film that I am interested in doing.  I tried out for the leading role (as previously mentioned) and I will be going back in this week for a second reading/callback for the role (mainly because I know the casting directors and they believe I can pull it off).   I feel incredibly unprepared going in for the callback when I have absolutely no idea on how to truly fight (and this female lead is a fighting machine), nor do I even know how to shoot a gun or even how to use weapons such as: quarterstaff, sais, or tonfa to name a few or even how to open and close a switchblade knife without hurting myself. 

So, to help me feel more prepared for the role and feel like I might even have a slim chance of getting it, I begged my boyfriend (which was not hard to do at all) to take me to the shooting range to learn how to hold, prep, load and shoot a gun as well as some gun safety.  Since my boyfriend LOVES guns this was a piece of cake and he was more than excited to take me, especially since he has been begging me to go with him for the last two years.  Let me just say that I absolutely hate guns!  I almost chickened out walking into the front lobby (it is all about the career).  You can even see the guys shooting guns in the next room through a glass window which then made me realize I would be shooting in the same room as several other people to whom I do not know and they all have loaded weapons – eek!  I asked the sales guy what my chances were of being shot by a total stranger in that room, but he assured me that they check people before they even go in to the shooting range and that I should be just fine (meanwhile I was signing the release form incase something like that actually happened – if it’s on the form, then something like that must have happened previously, scary). 

Jason picks us out a gun that does not have too much kick as to not scare me or hurt me my first time around, 9mm.  The sales guy hands us our safety glasses, earmuffs and a pair of ear plugs for me as well as our gun and ammo.  Jason and I put on our safety gear and head into the shooting range.  I hear, BAM, as I walk in and it makes me jump, my heart starts to race like crazy.  Someone is shooting and extremely loud gun, very unsettling.  We are the last lane in the shooting range which makes me feel slightly better that we are not totally surrounded by crazy men (or so I assume) with guns.  He shows me how to check to see if the gun is loaded and then how to take out the clip, load the clip, take the gun over to the shooting area and how to aim.  We put up our targets that look like paper men and he goes first with 10 rounds to show me how to do it. 

As I hold the gun and learn how to properly aim (I was closing one eye, that’s a no-no), I shoot my first shot and WOW, I did not expect it to kick like that, but now I know what to expect (and that was even the gun with the smallest amount of kick).  As I aim my first shots toward the target I am right on, even though I still do not have my aim skills down yet.  My next round of ten I do a perfect shot to the chest (the first 10 rounds were to the head).  I started to feel bad once we brought the paper man back to see what I had shot, I could never really kill someone, no way. 

As we finish up with our ammo, I feel accomplished.  I even want to come back and shoot again, and learn more.  I must say, if it was not for acting and wanting an action role so badly, I would have never touched a gun.  My next step, bow and arrow and martial arts classes.