May 29 2009
Last night
Brad and I were invited to attend the cast & crew screening of Brad’s latest movie Road Trip 2: Beer Pong at the Raleigh Studios in Hollywood. We had been looking forward to this evening for a while and the excitement kept building through the day and as we were driving to the city.
Once we arrived, there was a cocktail reception and a chance to re-meet and mingle with all the actors, crew and executives. Even though I knew some of the key players from the American Pie movie Brad wrote, I was somewhat on the sidelines while Brad was busy being congratulated and thanked for writing a script that all these actors and crew had a chance to work on.
We then made our way into the theater and could barely stand the anticipation of finally getting to see what had become of the script Brad had labored over for many months. We have come to accept that the vision Brad has for a movie, and the scenes he writes into his script, don’t always make it into the final “locked movie” but are always hoping that the general mood, ideas and character voices remain. As the movie starts, we settle into our seats and hope for the best.
Sitting there in the dark, hearing cheers when certain actors that are in the audience appear on the screen and people around us laugh at various spots throughout the movie, I realize that this, this moment, this experience is why we are in LA. Writing movies for a living is what Brad told me he wanted to do a long time ago when we were still living in Lexington. We made a decision to pursue this dream and see where it would take us. He quit his job and applied to film school. Got in and worked really hard for 3 years to learn the craft and refine his skills. Since then, he’s done great work, earned the trust of executives at various studios and proven himself to be able to deliever on their vision.
I am so very proud of his dedication to this work; his commitment to providing for our family and in the midst of this crazy Hollywood life we’re living, still make the time to be an absolutely incredible husband and father. When the lights came on, and the audience clapped, Brad got up, walked towards the people who had worked in his movie and was received with nothing but compliments, accolates and pats on the back.
On a side note – while I am bursting with pride today, I know that there are many, many more ideas in Brad’s head and I hope that one day soon, his own scripts will also see the lights dim in a screening room on a Hollywood lot.