by daiailun » Sun May 15, 2005 4:23 am
The Saturday London Expo was really well attended. At one point there was a general announcement that the line was so long for tickets at the door there was an approximate 1-2 hour wait to get in. Amber was scheduled in the main area for 11:30am-12:00noon. The screening of her film was due at 5pm after the event closed. I wasn’t able to stay so I’m hoping someone in attendance will post a detailed review (please?)
Amber’s 11:30am time was well attended; very appreciative audience. I feel sorry for the folks who showed up to get tickets at the door to see her and couldn’t make it in. Amber showed a trailer to the movie at 11:30, but unfortunately the lightening was so poor (e.g. bright) that that the projection just turned out blank—very difficult to make anything out, except wording interspersed throughout: “Sex. Drugs. Definitely no rock and roll.” Amber was good with the improv though, and joked that ‘oh no, you mean I did all that work at 3 o'clock in the morning and you still can't see it!’ She immediately turned the event into a question and answer session, saying that she wasn’t really any good with prepared 'spiel'.
Let’s see, she was asked what kinds of preparations she did for moving into directing, and Amber said she has done a lot of reading about the subject, and because she’s an actor, she has insight with how to deal with actors and their quirks and that she tries to be someone they can lean on during the shooting. She also said she comprehensively storyboarded Dirty Business (her sister’s boyfriend helped her out a lot with this) and because she knew what she wanted to do beforehand, it made shooting go rather smoothly. Thus, she was able to be there for the actors. It wasn’t like she got to a set, she said, and thought ‘Now, how should I film this?’ and ‘waste everyone’s time setting up a shoot.’
When asked what she likes to do in her free time she said without hesitation ‘read’. She said she reads anything and joked about the backs of cereal boxes. Then she added Scientific American to the list and confessed to liking physics, and reading about that! On her way to the UK this time, she stopped off in New York where she and Chris Golden met with publishers for ???? , and the publisher gave her as a courtesy thing, a bag of books upon leaving. Which she said was cruel because books are really heavy and being a reader she was unwilling to give any up even at the airport when the airline wanted to charge her for extra luggage!
As for Race You To the Bottom, she said the script was so well written that it was a real pleasure to do the character Maggie, the character just flowed, and there was little preparation she had to do beforehand. She also said she enjoyed doing a character that was different from her in personality. The film had ‘a zero budget’ and she said it was just really fun driving around the California wine country. And she stole Cole Williams from that shoot for her own movie Dirty Business.
She also said she gets really nervous doing love scenes and she has a tendency to sweat during them. One time she said she got so nervous that the crew had to dry her blouse with a hair dryer. But I couldn’t catch whether that was a Buffy, Chance or other movie.
She did laugh when someone asked her about being a melter in love scenes with Alyson, and she said she was completely surprised when Alyson started to melt and said that she wasn’t used to being ‘the toast’. ‘Hey, I wanna be the butter!’ she kind of pouted. Which was cute.
I hope others post more of the Q and A as there were a lot of other questions she fielded, some which I had no reference for, like ‘the chair thing at FedCon’. And I’m really interested to hear some more specifics about Dirty Business. I was really disappointed to have had other plans for the evening and not be able to see the movie.
Amber’s mom was there, her lovely down to earth self. There’s something about the heartfelt support Amber receives from her family that I find really endearing and very special. And Amber is just so darned nice I don’t see how anyone couldn’t come away from her events without a smile and a little more spring to one’s step! She—and her mom—are really just lovely people, inside and out.
the BBC, methinks. 
Will you be there?
8-)
