This school was called The Loft Studio. Sean Penn had gone to that acting school. It’s a very good acting school. ((Cup Of Tea Pt. 1, Replace A Clown)) I went there for two years, from 18 through 20. And there was somebody that had worked on — there was an actress that was going to the acting school, who had done some — I think she had done some like catering work on the initial short film that was the first year student video version that Sean Penn had done at the AFI.

The way it worked at the time was that there was a two year program, and the first year the directors would make a movie on video. And if they were invited back to do a second year program, they would shoot a short film on film. Sean Penn was supposed to come back and play the character in the film version. And there was a character that was available to audition for. And this actress that was at The Loft Studio, who had worked on the first one, that Sean Penn had done, said that there was this audition, she told me about it.

So, I went in for the audition at the AFI, and it was for the friend of the character that Sean Penn was playing. And I auditioned for it, but I wasn’t going to get the part. The director let me know that — he actually thought there were too many — I didn’t look different enough from Sean Penn, he felt, for me to play the part. But then Sean Penn was of course working a lot. And I think he had a job conflict and wasn’t able to do the film. And I think he may have said something to the director about me. Oh, that’s right, I forgot about that. I played a small part in Racing with the Moon. That was actually my second, or third film. Now, I’m actually forgetting. I think it was my second film. I auditioned for it, Richard Benjamin directed it, and I was working on a television movie called High School USA at the exact same time. I had to shoot on the same day. I had two days of shooting on Racing with the Moon — or one day, just one day.

And I shot in the morning, and then went to work on this High School USA television movie thing the same day. And I had the same haircut, but a very different look in both of the films, the projects. But yeah, I had a scene with Sean Penn, where I’m playing this obnoxious rich kid, and he’s playing like a lower working class person that I’m obnoxiously throwing bowling balls to try to hit him, and then he punches me. It was actually a funny scene.

But I had known Sean Penn a little bit as well, and liked him and got along with him. And I think he recommended — knew of me, and when he didn’t end up doing the part, I think — I’m not sure about this, but I think he did recommend me. And the director had remembered me from the audition and thought that it would be plausible for me to play the part. And I went in and auditioned for that role that I ended up playing, and of course I got it, and I was very happy to do it. ((Staging Things)) And we shot that, I don’t know, over a period of a month. I did that for no pay. I signed a contract, a SAG contract that made it so if it was ever released, I would get some kind of payment at that point. But Trent, the director of it, took about more than a year I think editing it. And he did a very good job. That’s a film I like very much.