Chazz palminteri Story
So I did a two-week film actors boot camp thing with the Manhattan Film Institute in Long Island this past summer and I found out early on that we were going to be meeting Chazz Palminteri at a wine & cheese event the second week. So, for the first time, I knew that I was going to be meeting a Dickie Award winner (rather than a bump-into situation) and had the time to prepare an actual Dickie Award.
(Chazz won Best Supporting Actor for his stunning work in 2006's A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints.)
Of course, it's not easy to come up with a good idea of what an actual Dickie Award would look like, especially if you'd rather avoid the phallic option, which I've concluded would be best. So having a heads up didn't exactly land me anywhere remarkable - plus the camp was crazy busy, and I was in the boonies with few resources. But I wanted to give Chazz SOMETHING!
So, day of, I gathered what minimal "art supplies" I had and went to work. Here's what I came up with:
Yup, I took an old headshot business card (oh yes, the same card I gave to Cameron Diaz 5 years ago), crossed out my info and my first name so that the word "Dickie" could be used for the name of the award, and then wrote the rest on there - on, yes, a paper plate. And then I found a balloon string stuck in a tree - found a chair to assist me in getting it down - and cut it up & taped pieces on as streamers. The apparent effort to actual quality ratio got a touch high.
So I get to the wine & cheese evening, find Chazz (with whom we had a surprise Q&A in class earlier that day; we knew he'd be around that night, but not in class) with a group of my peers, and then find my moment to say, "Chazz, I wanted to give you something..."
While holding this award slightly behind my back, I explained who I was and what the Dickies were... Then I presented him with this... plate... explaining, "Now, you don't need to keep this or anything, I just felt like making something silly, I know this is ridiculous, and I know this looks
Dickie Awards Stories
Cameron Diaz Story
Joan Allen Story
Chazz Palminteri Story
like something a special 7 year old would make, but I thought it'd be fun, so here you are!" And he goes, "Uh, thanks... I just don't wanna carry it around with me though." And so I grab it and put it on the table near us and say, "Oh, of course! I'll just leave it right here and you can grab it later, or... not grab it later - whatever happens to it, no worries! So... tell me more about the shoot of that movie - I loved it so much!"
And we transitioned nicely into talking about the wonderful Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. But I think he definitely thought my overboard Dickie Award effort was a little creepy/weird, ha! But only mildly so (we had nice interactions later) so I find that hilarious. Not surprisingly, he left without the award, but the guy who ran the camp (who's friends with Chazz) thought it was all hilarious and grabbed the award to jokingly give to Chazz again at a future date. I wonder if that's happened! And what Chazz would have to say behind my back, haha...
So, lesson learned: The impromptu "hey, crazy running into you, I thought you should know you won an award from me once!" approach seems to work a lot better than the "hey, I creepily made you this stalkery thing while I thought about you all day" angle. Or Chazz is just not the standard candidate for this kind of an interaction. Who knows. Much to ponder before my next Dickie Award offering! Haha.
