character training continues and a revelation brought on by Star Trek

Continuing my training for my first role I decided to walk downtown today. It was only about two miles and it gave me a chance to practice how an Ex G.I. may walk and carry himself. The soldiers of WWII walked almost everywhere across Europe, so today gave me a very small taste of what it would have been like to get from point A to point B only by walking. I read a little from the book Band of Brothers while I was at Barnes and Noble. Just a little though, turned to a random page and it happened to be about when two of the soldiers went on leave for a weekend, just like the character I'm playing. On my walk back I stopped at the Veteran's Memorial here in SLO. I read all the plaques on the side of the building, in front of the Sherman tank, and then walked around and inside the building that was built in 1950. It really gave me a feeling of being around back then. I don't know what it was about the essence of that building but there was definitely something there. The Veteran's Museum was closed however and I'm going to have to go on another day to see that, but that's good because I'm still growing the character.

On another note, I saw Star Trek today and realized something. The people that were mostly there today where fans of the old series; men and woman in their fifties or sixties. Some even brought their parents with them because of their love for the characters. I stayed for the entire credits to finish rolling and so did a few others. People cheered and clapped during the movie when certain characters came on screen for the first time, even though it was a completely new actor playing their favorite character. What I heard one older woman, in maybe her late fifties, say when it was all over really had an impact on me. When the credits were done rolling and the Paramount logo came back on the screen, she said, "They did a really good job." This meant a lot to me because it means that people that liked the original felt that the new version did it justice. It was faithful to the characters and still provided a new original story and opened the franchise up to a new generation.

This makes me want to be an actor even more now. If I could simply make someone feel good and entertained from a performance, then there is nothing I would rather do in this world. Just knowing that someone was entertained today by these actors and filmmakers brought a smile to my face.