Last week I was filming a self tape audition with friends Cary Judd
Cary Judd photographer and Camera
and Austin von Johnson at Cary’s studio in Boise, Idaho and this week I am cutting out numbers to go onto sails, at friend Gary Swenson’s Sail Loft, with Gary and friends Rossi Acree and Deke Klatt in Ventura, California. My life seems to be hopping around various locations spending time with good long standing friends at the moment. Wonderful! And another pal Marie Boller, a wardrobe lady I worked with came to visit the Loft and me…..she’s working with Matt Damon and Christian Bale on a major Production at the moment about a famous car race ….what would I give to work with them…both wonderful actors…but she seems to be more interested in all the Italian Stunt drivers on the film!
With old pal Julian Glover at a Film Festival we did in Dorset this summer
I love being in Ventura, close to the ocean and planning to go sailing this coming weekend. Last weekend was spent doing the Hollywood Show, a signing event where fans turn up to meet and greet their favourites and get their photographs taken with them and getting their autographs. I love doing these shows as we get the opportunity to meet the people who have put us there in the first place and who keep us there! I have had two or three of these Events this year, in the UK and now for the first time in the US. Met up again with Julian Glover pal from years back in England.
The Schizoid Man – “The Prisoner”
I am always surprised and very happy that some came just along because they read that I will be there. Also surprising were some of the old shows they seemed to like. Favourites appeared to include The Prisoner – the original show with Patrick McGoohan, not the later one…they all love Patrick and they watch the series on Amazon. Other surprise was the film:
The Hands of the Ripper a Hammer Horror about the daughter of Jack the Ripper. One man brought three posters of the film – the size of large tablecloths for signature! I met Richard Dreyfuss at the Hollywood Show…had met him once before in London, nice guy, so talented and very intense. See pic below.
The sailing connections go back 30 years to the 1980’s in the days when I was married and we had a sailboat “Flyer” an Olson 30, a race boat, a sort of boat that surfs….it goes through the waves fast and you can get very wet doing it. It was wonderful fun and we met some very good people …my friendship with Gary, Rossi and Deke has lasted over 30 years. Gary designed and built the sails for “Flyer” and Deke drove (the helmsman) the boat, when we won the Olson 30 National Championships in 1987. Heady days. Nowadays I go out with Gary and sometimes Rossi on his boat “Tonka”, a Peterson 34, also a racing
Sailing on Tonka
boat and we cruise. I was always a bit of a fair weather sailor, not brave enough to go out in really heavy weather, unless by accident, certainly not design. Unlike Deke who is still racing and winning races, this last weekend he won the Wylie Wabbit Championships in Santa Barbara……beautiful city. He likes 15-18 knots of wind….quite breezy. I learned to sail on a lake it a small dinghy – a Sabot- I was quite good in that boat, winning some races, until I tipped it over in Ventura Harbour and couldn’t get it back up again (you are taught to do that) and spent a quite bit of time – cold and wet in the water until my husband rescued me. My son won a couple of Championship Regattas in a Sabot…..he was a really good sailor!
Olsen 30
Will von Tagen
Had lunch with young Will von Tagen last week and we caught up. I was in Will’s film Almosting It and we did Cougar together, that one you can watch here on my website. You can even download and keep it forever, if you don’t mind paying a bit. So friends, life is full and good and so long as I can keep on acting, sailing and seeing friends and family, all is good…..’till next time!
All we need for a little joy in life!
