I had forgotten that the hair/makeup trailer is such a crossroads until my cousin Phillip flew back to L.A. with me from Dallas. Raising three daughters — he separated from their mother because he "always had his eyes open for what might be around the corner" — and orphaned at the age of 14, he's a devoted father, saving for his three daughters' futures. He gets up in the morning at 5:30 am, seven days a week, to take a bus to his job at a milk plant. He'd like to buy a house one day where all his girls can have their own rooms — "Even after they're grown they can live with their dad." He stresses education and is ever-protective of his girls — always gives them the practical advice, like, "Don't let the boys talk you out of your panties." Phillip has muscle-bound arms and the sweet smile of a teenager that belies the fact that he is about to hit 40. He takes two weeks off every year but never really goes anywhere. Wanting to do something for himself for a change...
read more
We wrapped shooting in April. We then had two-and-a-half months off. We actors go our separate ways to discover ourselves in different roles.Michael Irby headed off to New Orleans to shoot a jazz movie featuring Wynton Marsalis. Demore Barnes went back home to Canada and worked on his own film project. Abby Brammell traveled to Bangkok, where her tattooed blues-singing husband was making his acting premiere in a Sylvester Stallone movie.I returned to Dallas to start a home-renovation project. My aunt Virginia currently lives in the atomic ranch-style house as I go back and forth to L.A. I'm moving in another aunt who has a disabled daughter by the end of the year and wanted to make the home wheelchair accessible — ramps, wider doors, a new bathroom — so I find a contractor who says they can knock the job out in three weeks. In my mind I tack on a couple of extra weeks, thinking I'll still have plenty of time to sit on a beach in Tahiti during the remaining hiatus and "rene...
read more