2005 - Friday, April 8th - Planning:
As we walked out of BBW our minds were racing. Rosemary’s friend Jefferson (who’s Italian and speaks it fluently) was on his way to meet us and come back to my house for the story stage and some food that Jon made. We stood outside waiting for Jefferson and running ideas. We decided on the “Mockumentary” style because our required character was “J. Wither – Former Child Star” so it just lent itself well to that formula.
My mind first went to pearl necklace and former child star! The Italian Traci Lords I screamed out. The two WOMEN I was with didn’t feel as enthusiastic. But come on, how incredible would that “pearl necklace” have been? Eventually Rosemary mentioned “Anastasia” and mistaken identity. From there we ended up with a former child star that disappeared while still a child and never resurfaced, being one of the great pop-culture mysteries. Which then led to mistaken identity and impersonation and all the way to J. Withers was a boy, now J. Withers is a girl!
We went back to my house, called the cast. I decided to include everyone. We added Rosemary’s son, Allesando to be the child J. Withers and decided that his adult version would be Amanda, a fun gal we met only a week or two earlier. Gotta love Italian language gender bending! The final version of our story was a mockumenary about what happened to J. Withers… Interviews with all the Italian speaking North Enders who would be reminiscing about J. and his impact on their lives, his celebrity (akin to Shirley Temple), the rise and ultimate mystery surrounding his fall from the spotlight. There would be posters, and pictures from Allesandro’s childhood to plaster around the North End and in the shops we will be doing interviews. There would be an American fan club run by two competitive and clueless best friends. There would be an imposter/junkie arrested in recent years posing as the “real” J. Withers. There would be a final reveal on national television! The real J. Withers was always a girl but her overbearing, attention starved mother thought all the “plum” roles were for boys (ala. The Corey’s and Webster) so she forced J. to dress and act like a boy. Why not!
We had an outline, a plan of action, the locations we would shoot, our actors in place. I was in bed around 2am.
My mind first went to pearl necklace and former child star! The Italian Traci Lords I screamed out. The two WOMEN I was with didn’t feel as enthusiastic. But come on, how incredible would that “pearl necklace” have been? Eventually Rosemary mentioned “Anastasia” and mistaken identity. From there we ended up with a former child star that disappeared while still a child and never resurfaced, being one of the great pop-culture mysteries. Which then led to mistaken identity and impersonation and all the way to J. Withers was a boy, now J. Withers is a girl!
We went back to my house, called the cast. I decided to include everyone. We added Rosemary’s son, Allesando to be the child J. Withers and decided that his adult version would be Amanda, a fun gal we met only a week or two earlier. Gotta love Italian language gender bending! The final version of our story was a mockumenary about what happened to J. Withers… Interviews with all the Italian speaking North Enders who would be reminiscing about J. and his impact on their lives, his celebrity (akin to Shirley Temple), the rise and ultimate mystery surrounding his fall from the spotlight. There would be posters, and pictures from Allesandro’s childhood to plaster around the North End and in the shops we will be doing interviews. There would be an American fan club run by two competitive and clueless best friends. There would be an imposter/junkie arrested in recent years posing as the “real” J. Withers. There would be a final reveal on national television! The real J. Withers was always a girl but her overbearing, attention starved mother thought all the “plum” roles were for boys (ala. The Corey’s and Webster) so she forced J. to dress and act like a boy. Why not!
We had an outline, a plan of action, the locations we would shoot, our actors in place. I was in bed around 2am.
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