Email Me

Correspondence

I find it immensely amusing that anyone at all has come and seen this site, watched Sugartown Traders, etc.  And I’m genuinely flattered by the emails I’ve received.  Unfortunately, I don’t have time to reply to everybody individually, but I thought I’d mention some of my favorite things people wrote.

• “Have just found your website, and on the off chance that this really is you rather than some nutter pretending, I thought I would take a great liberty and write my very first fan letter to say congratulations on an entertaining site…”

It is indeed really me, and I think “some nutter pretending” describes the situation quite accurately.

• “hi, i cant really believe that i can just email you simple as pie like this but its worth a try! Here are the only two times i've cried while watching movies - once when i was 8 in "gremlins" when they had a cute gremlin trapped in a cage (?!) and once last tuesday in mysterious skin when neil is lying on the ground
  and says "mom..." i just wanted to give him.. you..a big hug!”

This might get corny, and for that I apologize, but it really does mean a lot to me that somebody would take the time and effort to write me a letter and tell me that something I did meant something to them.  I can’t thank you guys enough for that.  People have mentioned everything from A River Runs Through It, to Manic.  A lot of people wrote to say they saw Mysterious Skin.

• “I travelled 200 miles to see this film in the UK and it was worth it."
•  “One of my first experiences as a therapist was working with sexually abused young adults.  In them, I saw many of  the same traits that the main characters display.”
• “I hope you feel that your performance was appreciated.”

I think it’s truly generous for anybody to hope such a thing, and I’m thankful.

Then, just when I thought I couldn’t possibly be feeling any better about myself, some people wrote to me about the little things I made on the site.

• “Oh, I downloaded/watched your stuff On hitrecord.org...interesting.”

Thank you.

• “Also, Sugartown Traders is brilliant.  The song in it is so catchy.  Did you and Scott write and record that?”

No, it was only me!  All me!

• “i watched the videos today and i loved em... especially because me and my friends have a habit of making our own little amusing videos when we get bored, kind of like your Sugartown Traders video without the music and editting... we don't have the editting software...”

It’s a fun habit, eh?  You know you can get simple editing software that’s plenty powerful for just about nothing.  The program iMovie comes free with every Mac.  And I’m sure there’s some sort of PC equivilent.  I should look into that.  I only learned to use Final Cut Pro a few years ago.  It’s so fucking fun.  I highly recommend it. 

• “the way the images complemented the music in 6 may matinee was beautiful.  who composed the music?”

The music in that one is the music that plays during the opening logo of Fortissimo Films, one of the producing entities of Mysterious Skin.  But I don’t know specifically who composed it.

• “I'm amazed to see your video diary of the first showing of Mysterious Skin at Film Forum - I was there!”

Here’s a simple question without a simple answer:

• “I just want to know what made you an actor. I was hoping that this would be helpful in my journey to be an actor.”

I think I always just loved it.  As far as anybody’s journey to be an actor, the only thing I think I can say with any authority is that you shouldn’t rely on showbusiness to tell you whether you’re an actor or not.  People always say “it’s all about who you know.”  No.  Connections like that might make a few lucky winners rich and famous, but they won’t make anybody an actor.  If you want to be an actor, don’t wait around for some money-minded producer to give you a job.  All you need is a video camera and a decent computer to make your own stuff.  If you love what you’re doing, and you love your audience, with time, the stuff you make will get seen.

• “I read one of your personal quotes and I was wonder why you don't want to become a celebrity. Do you think acting and being a celebrity go together?”

No.  Acting is a tradition that predates Hollywood, predates the USA, predates the English language, goes about as far back as human beings have been telling stories.  Up until very recently (a couple hundred years ago) actors were far from celebrated “celebrities.”  Theaters used to be built next to brothels, and actors were looked upon as little more than vagrants.  The “celebrities” of those days were just rich people, land owners, kings and queens and dukes and lords and the like.  I am proud to be an actor, because I love the art and craft and tradition of acting.  But the tradition of “celebrity” has nothing to do with art or craft or anything but being rich and thinking oneself better than everyone else.

Some people got me excited just telling me where they were from.

• “my name is Francesca, I am 17 and I am writing to you from Italy.”

Others provided me with useful recommendations.

• “If you or Scott travel to Chicago, "Unabridged Books" is a great stop .”

This question might be my favorite of all.  The answer’s yes.

• “I was just wondering if it is okay that I put up a link to your page, www.hitrecord.org, on my blog.”

But the inverse intrigues me too.

• “If you have a moment--check out our site and sign the old guestbook.”

The symetrically inclined had the following to say:

• “And thanks for the stuff on the hitrecord site.   Pretty trippy :-)  I'm looking forward to more! What can your fan's do for you in return?”

And to answer that, I’ll quote Kelley the therapist again.

• “We as a generation (I myself am only 24 as well) have so much to contribute to this world.  We have something substantial to say, contrary to what MTV may portray.”

            Thanks again for writing in, everyone.  I hope you keep it up.  It might take me a while (I’m heading off to work in Winnipeg in a few days and I won’t be back until the end of May), but I’ll try to keep it up on this end too.

Love

J