Sunday 9 December 2018

Last Seen Wearing...

Rather than let 2018 vanish without another post on my acting blog, I decided to pay tribute to some of the clothes I've worn on camera!

It may not be well known outside the industry but, often, what you see on the actor's back is the actor's own clothes. And woe betide you, if you do not have exactly what the director wants!

I once got a call, after 9 p.m., to the effect; "The director wants you onset tomorrow in a black T-shirt and khaki pants." My reply was: I don't own any khaki pants.

Stunned silence at the other end of the phone. (You mean, there is someone on planet Earth who doesn't own khakis??) In the end, a compromise was reached. I think I wore all black.

While in the past, I have held onto clothing I no longer really wear in my everyday life - in case it might be needed for a shoot - I've reached the point where, increasingly, many items will be making a trip to the dropbox. But not all... here are some selected items - and their fate.


The navy jacket and matching top was once part of a "power suit" I wore during my business career, way back when. I wore this to play the manager in"The Janitor" but, as of now, it has been sent to the next stage of its life via Value Village.


I wore this sweater for a short film where the director wanted a sad, grey look. I also used my pale grey parka for an outdoor scene. That was the film where my scream - I can do a great scream - seriously disturbed the sound man, the first time he heard it! Rarely worn in my day-to-day life, this item has now moved on to Value Village.



On the other hand, my green double-breasted cardigan sweater is probably a keeper. It sure has been on-screen a lot. I wrote this in the Diamond and Diamond commercial which ran forever, wore it in an episode of Fraud Squad, and probably in other films, including a short film where I played a school secretary. It was while filming the Fraud Squad episode that I learned from the producer that "HDTV hates red and loves green". (I also learned that they didn't want buttons on anyone's clothing but they had to let me wear this, it was too late to make changes.) (And, I am probably really lucky they didn't ask me to cut all the buttons off!)



This raincoat makes an appearance in the music video I filmed for Maestro Wes' recording of I Wanna Know. In the graveyard scene. That was a shoot where I had to take at least 3 outfits for each scene! (At times it becomes ridiculous.) (Although the infomercial shoot where each of us had to take about 50 items of clothing for the director's review was the most ridiculous.)


Ah, yes, the Victorian boots. I bought these specially for the Black Donnellys shoot. And, if these boots could talk... what they could tell you. That was the shoot where two young men would not let me use the washroom in the trailer prior to my 3-hour drive back to Toronto (although there was a porta-potty on site, those facilities aren't quite the same...)  I made a promise to myself, to never again do pro bono shoots that were so far from home...

Tuesday 24 April 2018

2018: Sharing some stills from recent work...

I recently went through the process of updating my demo reel. As usual, it took months of nagging to get any footage, a common problem facing many actors I hear.

I did manage to get some footage for a small fraction of the work I have done. Sadly, not all of it could be used in the reel, due to issues with the dialogue or the framing of the scenes. And so on, and so on.

So, instead, I managed - with the help of a more tech-savvy friend - to clip some stills from a few productions. I'm adding them to my blog here. Now I know how to do this, there'll be no stopping me!


From the short film, Black Donnellys, portraying Ms. Thomson

From the short film The Clean-Up, portraying Elizabeth, the much older girlfriend of the protagonist

From the web series. From Here To Breakfast, portraying Jessie, mother of Cheryl

Thursday 18 January 2018

Looking back on 2017

Seems time did not permit for me to update my acting blog before now.

So, here, in the proverbial nutshell, is a review of highlights from my acting career in 2017.

Probably, the easiest way to do this is to start with my most recent acting work, and work backwards into early 2017.

In the last quarter of  2017, I portrayed a character named Jessie in an Internet series titled "From Here to Breakfast" which was shot at Versus CafĂ© in Toronto, on Adelaide St., East.

I also played the role of a 1990s newscaster in a short film directed by Angie Bird called "The Day Grunge Died". This involved both voice acting and and recording visual footage to go with my voice recording, done a day or two earlier. That isn't as easy as it sounds; synching yourself takes some work! It also meant I had to get my hair and makeup done in true 1990s style!

In September, I also appeared in the film "Rubbles of Love" directed by Nollywood director Isioro Tokunbo (TJ) Jaboro. Well-known Nollywood and Ghallywood stars appeared in this film, most notably Jackie Appiah in the role of Molly. I played Molly's mother-in-law from her first marriage… One of my friends found the following link to information on the film and so I'm including it here.

 http://www.damiadeniyi.com/anticipate-tokunbo-jaboros-next-movie-rubbles-love-starring-jackie-appiah-desmond-elliot-nosa-obaseki-kenneth-okolie-bts-photos/

NB: This film has since been given the title of: Molly's Love Story.

As always, it's really challenging as an actor to get a hold of footage, meaning it's even more challenging to put together a decent show reel. I really want to get mine updated but have been holding off, in the hopes that some directors would be decent enough to let me have some footage.

It hasn't happened lately… That's why, a film I was in called Transmission in which I played a society matron named Dina Welles, won't be featured in my reel - the film is still in post-production but is supposed to be released this year - and also why I can't get any footage from my role as Mrs. Thompson in the short film "Black Donnellys".

And I haven't even bothered to try and get the footage where I played at new Interpol boss in a TV series called "Killing the Cure" or for my role as Candy Spelling in an episode of "Broke and Famous" which looked at the story of Candy's daughter Tori Spelling.

I also shot a number of commercials and/or industrials, as they are known, and those may be available on the Internet or on TV. Like many performers, I don't really have time to follow up on it all, although I do hear from people that they have seen me. One training video I was in, for Scotiabank, was seen by someone I occasionally go to movies with, and another actor told me that the commercial we shot for Telus was also up and running.

So, sorry there aren't more links in footage for you on this blog post but, as they say, that's showbiz!

Copyright Deborah C Sawyer