This week.....It begins.

Ellen and I have been blogging and tweeting about Blue Like Jazz the Movie for almost two years now, and I can officially say that in just a few short days I will fly to Nashville to start filming! Thanks to over 3000 extremely generous fans and this killer website, a movie that has been 4 years in the making (and once declared dead) is finally happening. It is a huge understatement for me to say that I am grateful to be involved. I am the epitome of gratefulness. Thank you all so much for your prayers, support, and for giving your money. This is my first feature film and it has vaulted me into the Screen Actors Guild. I really cannot say thank you enough.

Now, let's get on to what I'm actually doing in this movie. My character's name is Yuri. He's a Russian exchange student at Reed College in Portland. Which, by the way, is truly a beautiful, classic college campus.

Yuri is the antagonist to the main character, Don. This role doesn't exactly play into my type...generally I'm cast as the "geeky friend," but for this movie I get to be a total douche. Let's be honest - I'm really looking forward to it. He's a complex character who I really love, and I'm so grateful to Steve and Don and everyone involved with the movie for allowing me to play him.

And now a little picture for y'all. Steve Taylor, the director of the film, sat down with me over 2 years ago and we decided on a look for me to model my character after. Here is the picture we decided upon:

The hair and all. It's going to be awesome.

I'm also really excited because Yuri appears in some of my favorite scenes in the film. If you're familiar with the book, I get a chance to be in the Ren Fayre scenes and the confession booth sequence. Plus I get to act like a smarty pants in the Reed classrooms. I really can't tell you how excited I am. But most of all, how grateful I am. Ellen and I were just discussing how the Lord has blessed us so much. He has provided for us to move to Los Angeles and for me to be an actor. Now He's given this movie to us, and even if I never do another film again, I'm so blessed and grateful to be involved in one like Blue Like Jazz.

I plan on blogging while I'm shooting as well, so I'll try to give you all some more updates as things come along. I start filming in Nashville at the end of this week! Again - thank you all so much for keeping this project buzzing and ultimately keeping it alive. Now we're going to try to make a great movie for you. Thanks for your support.

Blue Like Jazz is Being Saved

Matt and I are visiting home this week so blogging has been low on our priority list, BUT we are thrilled, stunned, excited, etc. to say that in just 9 days, the Blue Like Jazz campaign is a little more than $8,000 short of reaching its goal. That means that if things keep moving at this pace, tomorrow could be the day that this movie definitely gets the green light! What a difference two weeks makes. It has been neat having this taken away from us (and Steve and Don) only to get it back in a such a collaborative and exciting way. More on all this and what is to come soon, but a couple of days ago, Don Miller wrote a blog that couldn't sum up the last week any better. You can read that by going here.

Heavenly Grass

My feet took a walk in heavenly grass.
All day while the sky shone clear as glass.
My feet took a walk in heavenly grass,
All night while the lonesome stars rolled past.
Then my feet come down to walk on earth,
And my mother cried when she give me birth.
Now my feet walk far and my feet walk fast,
But they still got an itch for heavenly grass.
But they still got an itch for heavenly grass.


Tennessee Williams