-Several months ago I was contacted by producer Shadow LaValley and asked to be in his film “Drive.” The film is actually broken down into several parts or “episodes” and I was asked to be the one called “relationships.” My role is police officer Skinner and touches upon the subject of racial profiling. Filming was to be done in Utica, NY-but three days before filming I found out it had been moved to Oneonta-almost twice the distance. In addition, it looked like more than half the people initially involved in this episode had to be replaced for one reason or another. I still stayed the course though 🙂
-This film is more about making statements and causing people to think rather than profit and fame per se. This was a role very different than what I normally do and I wanted to see if I could meet the challenge. I was also able to add some suggestions to the dialogue as well as add something-I had a friend I went to high school with named Brian Skinner who passed away years ago. Since it was already established that the officer’s last name is Skinner, I got in where I was able to say my name is Brian Skinner. It’s not a reflection on the role I played, cause Brian was not like that at all. Just a nod towards a friend who I wished was still here.
-Getting to Oneonta required me to take back roads most of the way. In addition, I was just getting out of an overnight shift at my normal job and call was at 9 AM. Yes, I was late-very late actually, but there was no way I could have made it so I did let Shadow know a few days earlier and he was cool with it. Oneonta’s main street was quite busy and compact. I felt a tad like being in NYC to a degree. I met up with the Shadow and the rest of the cast / crew-which consisted of Bo Smith, Jamil Lindsay, Danielle Purdy and James “Hot Dog” Cacciatore. 🙂 The first scene was outside with me dressed as a cop. I had to be hidden a few times cause no one knew if I’d get in trouble if a real cop showed up (probably due to something Jim did -HA!) 🙂 Since we were filming outside, we did have a few interesting interruptions. Jamil got stopped by a guy who was, apparently, an extra in “Spider-Man 3” and given acting advice. A guy came up to the rest of us asking what we were filming and got some improv story from me-I don’t even remember what I said. It must of been at least a tad entertaining cause everyone went with it and the guy was engaging with it 🙂 This went off pretty well on my end.
-Then we went to Shadow’s place the film the next scene. Immaculate place. Don’t let Shadow ever inspect your home for messiness 🙂 This one was a tad rougher for me cause the hours were starting to catch up with me, but I got thru it. It didn’t take too long for me to get picture wrapped-more of the others enduring my bad jokes than anything else 🙂 Then came time for the journey home.
-I wanted to reach Utica before nightfall so I could just have a straight shoot to Syracuse via the thruway. I had to pull over three times though for power naps (one on the thruway-all lasting 30 minutes or less) cause I had to. I really need to be more careful when it comes to this-not to mention with all the caffeine I was chugging all day and the day before. Thanks to Shadow, Bo, Danielle, Jamil and James for putting up with me (HA!) and looking forward to seeing the final cut for the whole film.
WAYNE W. JOHNSON 