The Bad Director

Some rainy day a few years back I was approached by a director while shopping around Virgin Records. He approached with a classic line asking me if I'm an actress. I said I was currently attending school at a musical theater academy uptown. He informed me that he was working on a new film that I looked the part for and would like to meet me at a later time to discuss the details if I was interested. At the time I wasn't familiar with his work so he gave me his card and told me to look at some of his films and give him a call if I would be interested. Honestly, at this point I was a little flattered but more or less just assuming it was all bull. Then he left because his wife and child were downstairs waiting for him.

So I figure, what is the harm in googling the guy and checking out some of his films? I was out with some of my friends at the time and they were nice enough to humor me in all of this. We found out that he had done a lot of films so I rented a few. They were good. A little twisted maybe but so am I so I figure, I'm giving the guy a call. He wanted to meet that night a a bistro I was very familiar with. I informed my friends of this and they offered to be my backup just in case he drugged me or something.

I met him at the 24 hour bistro. My friends came in after me and sat another table. We talked for a bit about his career, what he was currently working on. He asked me about what acting I had done. He showed me papers for a film festival he needed to attend the next week because they were honoring him. He came prepared with all sorts of proof of what he was working on and what an impressive man he was. I was still hesitant but interested.

It was requested that we go for a walk and continue talking. As we walked he started talking about the people he knew like Robert Downey Jr. and Heather Graham. He talked about how shy Robert was when they met and he taught him how to approach women. He was Robert's mentor. He talked about sexual stuff. I'm thinking, this guy is a little off but, nothing shocks me much anymore. He was a really nice guy. He let me joke with him without getting pretentious and offended. This man was almost sixty and very overweight. He had to walk with his head tilted up because his asthma was so bad. He taught me some karate moves so that I could defend myself by knocking someone in the windpipe. He was just showing off. I went home.

He proceeded to call me a couple days later. We talked about what he was working on. He would tell me random stories that progressively got more disturbing. He said to let him know when I was available for coffee again so I could look at the script he was working on. Then he started calling every day. He said if I ever ran into him on the street and he was with someone that he had a very jealous wife and another girlfriend that he keeps an apartment for so he might not acknowledge me. Another story was the time he met Heather Graham. She came into the hotel room they were holding an audition at. She asked to use the bathroom and he walked in on her and proceeded to ...well... it was a shocking story. Finally he told me about the time he killed a guy that tried to mug him in central park.

Alright, this guy is nuts. He is out of his mind but for some reason he is so amusing and honestly, he never made a pass at me. He wasn't even trying to meet me anymore. It was like he was calling just to tell me stories. Then he wanted to know if I would go to that film festival he had told me about. We would only be gone for the weekend. Uh.... no.... I don't want to do that.

Eventually I did something that pissed him off. He was trying to convince me to come to the festival and my phone died. When I was able to plug it in again I had this very angry message saying I was an immature little bitch and if I didn't want to speak to him I need not rudely hang up. Whoa, he had never flared up in anger like that before. I responded directly to his voice mail and explained that I had not intended to hang up. I did NOT want to be on this persons bad side. Then I never answered his calls again.

Fast forward a few years. My friend and roommate of four years that had been with me at the Virgin Store and at the bistro that night was working at her fancy restaurant serving job when in walks the director with a young hopeful girl. I'm sure she just shook her head and thought poor thing. He then began coming in all the time. Always with a different woman. Frequently taking them up to his hotel room next door. Everyone working at that restaurant knew him and knew what he was doing. Sadly I was the one on the other side of the table once. I've been aware for years of what a scary man he is but today I found this article detailing a lot of the things he had told me. He is an old perverted womanizer and yet I really enjoy that I have this story to share. So thanks James. (I did not write his full name in this story for obvious reasons.)