Premiere and Friends

The TakenIt was Saturday and that meant I finally got to see the premiere of The Taken!

Saturday was a long day as well, actually I do not believe we had one relaxing, less rushed day the whole time we were in Seattle.  Christine, Jessica and I woke up early to head to practice in Tukwila on Saturday morning.  This time we had about five girls show up (the most at one practice yet).  We practiced several plays and drills and the girls had to learn them all within one day.  We had one girl, Kelly who was never aloud to play on her old team and since we were short players, it was a must for her to step up her game.  She complained and fussed, but by the end of the practice she was catching the football and pulling flags – I knew she had it in her. Vanessa, one of our key players showed up, but she was injured, so she cheered us on from the sidelines while we practiced.  Poor Christine could not throw any longer either, so we had to have Ryan throw some passes and then I stepped in (just in case she couldn’t throw in the game). 

After practice, Christine, Jess and I rushed home to shower and change into our “premiere” clothes.  We got all dolled up, Ryan came over to carpool with us and we stopped to pick up my good friend Christina who I hadn’t seen yet since I had been back in Washington – I missed her!  We left around 2pm and of course we hit some traffic heading up to Mt. Vernon, luckily we left in enough time that it did not really matter, besides the fact that it was slightly annoying, but there were so many of us in the car, we stayed entertained! 

Since we ended up arriving early, we stopped to grab some dinner in Mt. Vernon, the whole time I could not stop thinking about my boyfriend, since every weekend when we both lived in Washington, I would drive up to see him. Since I was back at home this weekend, and he was in San Diego, I was missing him. 

Once we arrived at the premiere, an acquaintance of mine from Los Angeles had flown up to see the premiere of The Taken as well as our bikini football game.  He had been waiting for us to arrive.  I went and introduced everyone (Ryan, Christina, Christine and Jess) to him while I mingled with the other fellow actors and crew from The Taken.  I saw Jessika (lead actress, producer, etc) gave her a big hug and she told me that the house seats were open to go on in – yay!  I led my friends inside the theatre, we took pictures of me next to “The Taken” poster and grabbed a seat.  Guess who was there!  Pat, Curt and Laura, the founders of Bikini Football! I was super excited to see them, glad that they could actually make it out to one of my premieres, although I had a feeling this was more about Jessika and Valentine Entertainment than me, but still, I was glad to have their support. 

As I was settling in with my friends Pat and I were joking about theme songs to my wedding, oh Pat cracks me up!  We took some more pictures with friends, joked around with Curt and Laura too and then all of a sudden someone taps me on the shoulder.  Kaare.  Kaare had just gotten out of the Navy finally (about three months prior) and he has grown a full beard and gained probably about thirty pounds, I barely recognized him – actually I didn’t at first. Weird. 

Jessika, Rick and Ryan went up to talk before the film and then lights out – movie time!  I grabbed one hand from Christine and one hand from Christina as we watched me open the film.  The only thing that was slightly disappointing and maybe that was because I was the first to film way back when, was that my makeup made me look paled out, almost zombie-ish instead of just badly beaten and bruised.  My character was a news reporter; she had to look semi-decent, especially if he had just taken her from work.  In the film, the other characters even mention me and how the killer had just taken me a few hours before hand.  All the other characters looked normal, but I looked like a zombie.  I also wished that I would have had a voice over line in the film that said something like, “And this is Sara Lewis with Channel Five News.” When they went over my pictures, since everyone else had a line, it just seemed odd that my character did not. Oh well, I was the tester, the first scene shot. I am also sure that I pick at myself and my scene more than others, since it is me.  Over all I was actually pretty impressed with the film, it was not cheesy and the special effects actually looked pretty darn good!  I would totally do it again!  It also helps that everyone I worked with were super sweet!

Watch for The Taken by Valentine Entertainment to come out to (possibly) theatres near you in the next 8-10 months or even for rent at Blockbuster!

www.whoarethetaken.com