The Agony and the Ecstacy of the Actor Hunt

I went to my friend Missy's house today to watch some films. She and I both have a tradition: when either of us find an actor who does an excellent job and/or is incredibly attractive, we rent or buy as many films that they've worked on as we can find. For example, we've done it for Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films) and Paul McGann (8th Doctor Who). Sometimes it's easy to do, and sometimes our movie crushes have only been a major character in one movie and have had bit roles in others (it can be hard to find Random Guy On The Left #53).

A tale of woe: before Myst IV came out, I tried to find any other films that Brian Wrench (Sirrus) had been in. He's mainly a theater actor in Toronto, but he's had bit roles in a few movies. The trick is usually to pick films where the actor's character actually has a name, and Brian had a name in this film called Dead Awake--Brett Birmingham. Picture me at 3 AM, trying to stay awake during a barely-mediocre black comedy about Stephen Baldwin (the ugly talentless Baldwin I might add) as an insomniac who witnesses a murder and tries to clear his name. Finally, he mentions Brett Birmingham, and my ears prick up. I watch the rest of the film and the credits start to roll. I groan in despair. I watched a crappy two-hour film. I had to get up at 8 AM for school, so that only gave me a few hours' sleep. How much Brian Wrench did I see? All I got was his answering machine message, and a three-second flashback of Brett sawing off a cadaver's foot (don't ask). Oh yeah, and his face was covered by dark goggles, so I only recognized him by his hair. I might have better luck in the near future though--Brian has a role in this cute live-action Disney golf movie The Greatest Game Ever Played. He will play as Know-It-All Gallery Member, so hopefully he'll have a few lines to show us why he is the Know-It-All Gallery Member.

Anyway, after seeing Batman Begins last night, both of us decided that we were going to have a Christian Bale mini-marathon. We went to Blockbuster, hoping to rent a few of his films. Unfortunately, everyone else must have had the same idea, because we found nothing. The Machinist, American Psycho, Velvet Goldmine (Bale and Ewan MacGregor makeout scene!!11 *drool*)--no copies. However, we found a copy of Equilibrium, and that turned out to be quite good. After that, we watched the extras on my DVD set of "Reno 911" Season Two and called it a day.

We're hoping to have better luck another day to find the films we failed to rent today. And I for one am looking forward to our inevitable hunt for Cillian Murphy roles (Scarecrow in Batman Begins, Jim in 28 Days Later, the villain in the upcoming Red-Eye)!