Actors are dramatic people.

Acting on stage and screen has its challenges. I am trained in the Stanislavsky Method, and the variations Stella Adler and Sanford Meisner created. I practice regularly in a group called Method with Mike, which is put together by my agents, Lisa Meuser and Mike Caza, both seasoned professionals. I apply what I learned and practice when cast. One of my more challenging roles was in a short film called The Addiction Status. The film was written, directed and produced by Dimitri Abdul Nour, an actor and filmmaker I met in an acting class. The role I played was that of an Orthodox Christian priest. Initially, I passed on the audition call as it asked for an actor who could speak Arabic. I do not. When I saw little response to the audition call, I messaged Dimitri and told him I was interested in the role. He asked me to submit an audition tape. I saw in the script that he sent the lines that he wanted the character to deliver in Arabic. I submitted my audition tape, and he offered me the role.

I strive to inhabit the characters I play entirely, so I translated the lines Dimitri selected for delivery in Arabic using an online translation program. I practiced the lines' delivery; it was difficult as I am a native English speaker. My lips, tongue, throat and palate are accustomed to forming sounds and syllables in English. It took a lot of work to pronounce the lines in Arabic right. When I arrived at the Orthodox Cathedral, where we had permission to shoot my scenes, I tried out the delivery of my lines in Arabic for Dimitri. He paused, then thanked me for the effort but told me that though the translations were technically correct, the delivery would sound strange to an Arabic speaker-like poorly written phrases of Arabic expressions in a book for tourists. In the end, he kept two brief phrases in Arabic in the lines I delivered.

Filming my scenes was not without drama, either. Actors are dramatic people, after all. Shooting started early in the evening and continued into the wee hours of the following day. I had been up since 3:00 am the previous day; having driven to Mississauga and back to shoot a scene in a Netflix film the same day, I was bone-weary. As the shoot wore on and in one scene, I kept flubbing a line. I forgot myself and exclaimed, "Jesus Christ!" I immediately clapped my hand over my mouth and said sheepishly, "I meant no offense." After a beat, Dimitri composed the situation when he assured me that I need not worry about being struck by a lightning bolt. We completed filming with no more faux pas from me. The film was successful; it has had screenings at film festivals in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Dimitri, who also appeared in the movie, is a fine actor and filmmaker, and it was a pleasure working with him.