Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Coco and David Arquette

I don't get to see kids to often, so it was cool yesterday to watch Coco Arquette hanging out with her dad on the set of "In Case of Emergency".

http://i2.tinypic.com/rk57cj.jpg

Mom and Dad, David and Courteney Arquette:

http://cdn-channels.netscape.com/gallery/i/c/coxarquette/52419256.jpg

Both are cool people. Courteney was friendly with background (including myself) on the set of "Dirt" a few months ago. Yesterday, David was not only fun to watch do his job, but friendly and 'normal'. He did not exclude himself from the people around him during down time, as well-known actors often (understandably) feel more comfortable doing. He brought his kid in for a snack where I was hanging out.

When you first meet or see a well-known actor in 3-D, like I often did in the store and usually do on whatever set, here's what happens:

1) You have to re-recognize them. It is completely different for your brain to 'see' a whole human moving in front of you in real space-time, rather than just an image or image set seen in 2-D. It needs a moment to cast a whole new file for this person, which can now have a live, whole-being heading on it just like everyone else you've ever met and remember. It has happened (as in the cases of Sean Astin and Ruth Buzzy, the latter of whom I've been familiar with literally my whole life) that I fail to recognize them for a few minutes. I'll know I know them, like on the tip of my brain, but draw a strange-feeling blank in trying to make the ID.

2) In stepping into your realm of actuality, they do this thing that feels to me like becoming unremarkable, maybe de-lustering. They don't, they are still remarkable, but you now learn the magic of the person the same way you do everyone else's: aspect by aspect, from the inside out. And it will be markedly different than the 'aura' you've learned (you now automatically un-learn that) from the remote ways in which you had previously become familiar with them. It will feel like others' magic or aura feels; David Arquette is now special in much the same way as my brother Noah is special. It feels more real, more whole, a little more crumpled and charming, substantial, chewy. A lovely result of this is that the well-known person now seems innocent of something, like he's put a cumbersome thing down and has had a seat in the kitchen, sipping a drink.

3) You stop taking for granted the singular, utterly unique experience of a human being's eyeballs looking at your own eyeballs. Even a lucid imagination of this from a favorite well-known person, or a photograph of them looking into the lens, does not come close to this actual, living act. Maybe look at a friend's eyes during conversation and give it a shot during that, also take a moment to appreciate your connection with the friend.

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