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Post by Miss Kitka on Oct 14, 2004 6:38:45 GMT -5
Just saw MALCOLM in the background of a Toyota commercial. He was the sales rep with a couple beside a red Toyota when some other sales guy who couldn't figure out which set of keys were his accidentally popped open the trunk of the car Malcolm was standing at. Saw the ING commercial last Sunday too! And according to your home page Malcolm, we'll be seeing you in PERFECT STRANGERS this weekend. Any clues where to look?
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Post by MALCOLM XERXES™ on Oct 14, 2004 10:01:07 GMT -5
Just saw MALCOLM in the background of a Toyota commercial. He was the sales rep with a couple beside a red Toyota when some other sales guy who couldn't figure out which set of keys were his accidentally popped open the trunk of the car Malcolm was standing at. Saw the ING commercial last Sunday too! And according to your home page Malcolm, we'll be seeing you in PERFECT STRANGERS this weekend. Any clues where to look? THU. OCT. 14/2004/11:09 E.S.T.
MS. KITKA,
Thanks for the intel, Eagle Eye G.I. JANE™!
I have never seen that Ontario TOYOTA™ Dealers commercial, so could you tell me what station you happened to be viewing @ the time, please?
Likewise with the current incarnation of the ING DIRECT™ commercial, please.
Thank you for having taken the time to investigate MALCOLMXERXES.COM. You shan’t have any trouble discerning me in PERFECT STRANGERS™, for my role is quite prominent in it, & I shall be speaking with a Mancunian accent that has been modified for North American ears, as per the Director’s wishes.
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Post by Miss Kitka on Oct 14, 2004 12:20:16 GMT -5
The TOYOTA commercial was on CITY TV Vancouver. The ING Direct ad was playing in the top right corner of the TV GUIDE channel. If I see anything else, I'll keep you posted. Looking forward to PERFECT STRANGERS, I like Rob Lowe and now I have another reason to view it!
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Sirona
Junior Member
Posts: 98
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Post by Sirona on Oct 14, 2004 12:56:42 GMT -5
Whew! Glad I'm not the only one. Malcolm
Synopsis:
A couple are interested in purchasing a car. The salesman is demonstrating how the automatic trunk opens. He is somewhat somewhat inept and causes the other trunks to open as well as situation whereby the other salesmen look at him. You are in the background looking perplexed and annoyed at the inability of the salesmen.
My apologies at not be able to accertain the East Coast station, however, when it appears again I will take notice and report promptly.
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Post by Miss Kitka on Oct 18, 2004 9:18:43 GMT -5
RE: PERFECT STRANGERS with Rob Lowe. It felt like I was watching an old Bewitched episode only WITHOUT the magic! The lone bright spot in the entire presentation was the all too brief moment with Malcolm who managed to exude more warmth and personality in those scant seconds on screen than Mr. Lowe did the entire production. 'Nuff said!
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Post by MALCOLM XERXES™ on Oct 18, 2004 13:30:02 GMT -5
RE: PERFECT STRANGERS with Rob Lowe. It felt like I was watching an old Bewitched episode only WITHOUT the magic! The lone bright spot in the entire presentation was the all too brief moment with Malcolm who managed to exude more warmth and personality in those scant seconds on screen than Mr. Lowe did the entire production. 'Nuff said! MON. OCT. 18/2004/14:38 E.S.T.
MS. KITKA,
Acknowledged, thanks for the intel.
I was not aware the TOYOTA™ campaign was being broadcast that far afield, so that is a pleasant surprise.
I have not patronised the TV GUIDE™ channel since 2002, so the ING DIRECT™ commercial being shown there came as a very pleasant surprise, indeed.
I managed to record most of PERFECT STRANGERS™ barring the opening credit sequence, which I didn’t get because the programme was pre-empted by 20 or 25 min. on CBS™, so I have not yet seen the entirety of it, but thank you for your kind words.
I’m sorry that MR. LOWE did not fulfil you in the ways you have come to expect.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
SIRONA,
Thank you for your vigilance.
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Post by ShowbizPRgirl on Oct 18, 2004 20:17:16 GMT -5
Jeeze! I see that Toyota commercial 3 or 4 times a day on different channels and didn't even notice Mal in the B.G. Duh! I'll have to pay more attention next time it's on. Occasionally, I switch on the the TV Guide channel and half-listen while I'm doing other things (washing dishes, feeding my animals, sewing a button on a pair of pants etc.) and Mal's ING commercial is on a 4 minute loop. I've heard it so many times by now that I can recite it from memory. Sorry I missed you in Perfect Strangers, sweetie. I didn't read the FSQ forum on the weekend, so I didn't know about it. Bummer. Hopefully, I'll catch it in reruns. KJC www.kjcgroup.net
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Post by MALCOLM XERXES™ on Oct 19, 2004 10:38:44 GMT -5
Jeeze! I see that Toyota commercial 3 or 4 times a day on different channels and didn't even notice Mal in the B.G. Duh! I'll have to pay more attention next time it's on. Occasionally, I switch on the the TV Guide channel and half-listen while I'm doing other things (washing dishes, feeding my animals, sewing a button on a pair of pants etc.) and Mal's ING commercial is on a 4 minute loop. I've heard it so many times by now that I can recite it from memory. Sorry I missed you in Perfect Strangers, sweetie. I didn't read the FSQ forum on the weekend, so I didn't know about it. Bummer. Hopefully, I'll catch it in reruns. KJC www.kjcgroup.net TUE. OCT. 19/2004/11:47 E.S.T.
KJC,
Ta very much, love, that’s gratifying to know. I have not yet seen the TOYOTA™ commercial myself, so I shall have to step up my VTR campaign for a deep trawl mission.
I was likewise unaware of the “4 minute loop”, which is very pleasing to know. Now I feel as though I’m that voice in BLADE RUNNER™ that tells everybody to “Move along! Move along! Move along! Move along!”
Having missed PERFECT STRANGERS™ doesn’t make you a bad person, love; it’s alright; you’re a very busy woman.
I have received some very positive feedback from various sources about that work, most of which has been demanding to know why I did not appear in a larger role that which I enjoyed in PERFECT STRANGERS™, so I shall provide some background about the conditions under which I operate.
First of all, I am more than willing & able to portray characters with "more dialogue", but I can only get auditioned for the roles my agent chooses to submit me for, & which casting directors permit me to be auditioned for, in turn.
Beyond that, it's out of my hands.
Exempli gratia: Yesternight, my agent & I were speaking of how I had assisted a black actress with her audition for an episode of QUEER AS FOLK™ after she & I had had a callback audition together for a 2-hander called TWO CAN PLAY™.
He asked me whether her character (a defence lawyer) was Lesbian & I told him that from the sides provided, that her sexuality was neither implied nor stated, then I asked why he wanted to know.
He said that it was because the Casting Director of QUEER AS FOLK™ has been “importing black actors from America” to portray black homosexuals "because nobody up here will touch them".
My immediate response to my agent was that this was nonsense, since I had several times essayed such roles, & would be *more* than willing to portray such a character, regardless of their sexuality, or of how explicit the sexual situations he might be seen & heard to engage in, & furthermore, why had I never been submitted for such an audition?
My agent informed me that I *had* in fact been submitted "several times" over the course of the 5 syndicated seasons, but that the Casting Director had chosen not to have me auditioned for the suggested roles, probably because “[my] masculinity is too hard” for the characters. (I have heard the same thing said of SIR SEAN CONNERY, but I doubt that it ever cost him as much money as that perception is costing me!)
Before ringing off, my agent told me that he would "step up the campaign" with that particular Casting Director for QUEER AS FOLK™, now that he was aware that I did not have any such homophobic strictures about the roles I am willing to portray.
On 1 hand, I was glad to learn of why it is that I have been excluded from opportunities to become involved with that programme (& others, presumably!), but I was also disappointed that my agent waited so long to bring such a situation to my attention.
It also happened that I received an irate telephone message last Sunday from a woman who had produced a short film on which I had worked, demanding to know why I was “passing [your]self off as a Casting Director”.
Naturally, I was shocked @ her vituperation & the slander, since I have *never* @ any time even fantasised about the possibility of becoming involved in that line work!
She said that someone had posted on her film’s IMDb™ page “under the name of a character played on some series” that I had been Casting Director of her film, & that she was extremely angry that I would make such a claim, since it cheapened & dishonoured the efforts of people like MR. JOHN BUCHAN, who have been “doing that job for years”.
While on the blower with her, I pulled up the page in question, where I learned that the same disinformation had been added to my own (incomplete) IMDb™ page, as well!
I told her that, so far as I knew, IMDb™ is a fansite, & that I knew nothing of the entries until she had brought them to my attention, & that I had not been responsible for such allegations.
@ this, she bridled further: “I thought you said you never HEARD of IMDb™?!”<br> “No, I never said that. What I said was that I had never heard of it until it was brought to my attention by a friend who searches that site regularly, when he came across a page with my name on it.”<br> The more she talked, the more offended I became, & told her so, telling her that I was very disappointed by her behaviour toward me, since I had thought we had enjoyed a good working relationship that was predicated upon mutual respect.
“I thought so, too, which is why I can’t believe you would do something like this!”<br> “As I said before, I knew nothing about this until you brought it to my attention, but since you are more concerned with fixing blame on me for something that you are convinced is my doing, why don’t you tell me what it is that you would like *me* to do to help rectify the situation?”<br> “Just tell your publicist, your friend, or whoever’s responsible that it’s wrong to interfere with someone else’s page!”<br> “I don’t have a publicist, & no friend of mine would do such a thing as you have charged me with doing.”<br> “Well, then, tell IMDb™ to change it!”<br> “I have contacted IMDb™ several times in the past in order to request that credits on my own page be either corrected or omitted because they were inaccurate or utterly false, but my efforts have always been in vain, possibly because I am an actor, which makes my motives suspicious in their eyes. Do you think that I would have more control over your film’s page than over my own?”<br> “Well, I’ve already contacted IMDb™ to tell them to remove that information!”<br> “Then why tell me, since you’ve already taken steps to address the situation, unless you’re looking for a scapegoat?
It’s obvious that you were never on a fact-finding mission when you called me, but on a witch-hunt.
You said that I had done something libelous to you & your film, & you had no Objective Proof that I had done what you claimed, so you committed slander when you left that voice message, just as you have been doing throughout this conversation, during which you have been quite rude to me, despite my own efforts to be polite with you.
Did you consider the possibility that this might have been perpetrated by an overzealous, mis-informed viewer, or that someone was committing mischief for their own amusement?”<br> The telephone call continued like that for some time, she maintaining that I was attempting to pass myself off as her film’s Casting Director, placing all responsibility in my lap, even when I offered to draft a letter to the attention of whomever she might want it addressed to, & it became clear that not only was I not going to get an apology from her, but that if we continued talking, I would be tempted to commit a felony.
When she finally begged off with the excuse that she had another commitment in 20 minutes’ time, I was not disappointed.
Immediately thereafter, I got on the blower to my agent about what had just happened.
To my mind, if she thought & felt that she had a legitimate grievance against me (which she did not!), the correct course of action would have been for her to contact my agent directly, rather than to harass me on the telephone with threatening messages & vitriolic telephone calls.
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Post by ShowbizPRgirl on Oct 19, 2004 12:48:20 GMT -5
I swear to God, Mal, it wasn't me. I don't make any changes to people's IMDb pages unless I have their express written permission to do so. This situation reminds me why I detest dealing with the people at IMDb.com. One of my writer/producer clients helmed the SPAWN animated series, and after I made this update to this person's page, the IMDb instead gave him the title of creator/exec prod of the feature film. Holy crap, that's a huge mistake! I thought SPAWN creator Todd MacFarlane was going to have a sh!t-fit similar to what this ex-lady friend did to you, Malcolm. It took three weeks for IMDb to fix their mistake. In another incident, I have an actor friend whose agent contact information somehow mysteriously disappeared from his IMDb page. He asked me to act as his rep and get the info back up there ASAP. FOUR MONTHS and NINE EMAILS later they finally got off their asses and fixed it. Regarding your inability to get acting work as a gay character because you're just too manly...well, please don't take this the wrong way, Mal, but the first time I remember seeing you on TV was in those Shoppers Drug Mart commercials. Watching you strut down the isle in spandex and talking in what I thought was a fake British accent I said: "Omigod, that guy is SO Queer!" I've lived with, worked with and been very close friends with gay men and women all my life, so I was absolutely stunned when I found out that you were not only straight but single, too. So, Mal, you tell your agent to get you gay roles because you can totally pull it off, dude. On a somewhat related issue, I have an actor friend who had a guest starring role on an episode of BLISS last year. It's a semi-explicit, soft porn Canadian anthology series. It felt very strange and very awkward for me, watching my friend engage in exuberant anal and oral intercourse with a woman on-screen after having just had coffee and donuts with him an hour earlier. I know it's all fake but still, I feel weird discussing his 'performance' with him after having seen him butt naked and talking dirty while nailing a bare-breasted woman from behind. So, my question to you, Mal, is do you draw the line at acting in soft porn, straight or gay? Do you feel it might damage your career, one way or the other? What are your thoughts concerning performing in explicit sex scenes with full or partial nudity? KJC
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Post by ladytass2001 on Oct 19, 2004 17:09:47 GMT -5
Seems to me that someone needs to be tracking down the person purporting to be you and give him a double whammy--One on the left and one on the right--If he has left any kind of a trail on the IMDB database it should not be too hard to do so(unless it is being done by a hacker) I have trailed a couple of people who where using my handle,it is quite funny what happens when you pop into a room and there you are already--it usually ends up with the other person backing down,knowing that you caught them.
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Post by MALCOLM XERXES™ on Oct 20, 2004 10:56:13 GMT -5
I swear to God, Mal, it wasn't me. I don't make any changes to people's IMDb pages unless I have their express written permission to do so. This situation reminds me why I detest dealing with the people at IMDb.com. One of my writer/producer clients helmed the SPAWN animated series, and after I made this update to this person's page, the IMDb instead gave him the title of creator/exec prod of the feature film. Holy crap, that's a huge mistake! I thought SPAWN creator Todd MacFarlane was going to have a sh!t-fit similar to what this ex-lady friend did to you, Malcolm. It took three weeks for IMDb to fix their mistake. In another incident, I have an actor friend whose agent contact information somehow mysteriously disappeared from his IMDb page. He asked me to act as his rep and get the info back up there ASAP. FOUR MONTHS and NINE EMAILS later they finally got off their asses and fixed it. Regarding your inability to get acting work as a gay character because you're just too manly...well, please don't take this the wrong way, Mal, but the first time I remember seeing you on TV was in those Shoppers Drug Mart commercials. Watching you strut down the isle in spandex and talking in what I thought was a fake British accent I said: "Omigod, that guy is SO Queer!" I've lived with, worked with and been very close friends with gay men and women all my life, so I was absolutely stunned when I found out that you were not only straight but single, too. So, Mal, you tell your agent to get you gay roles because you can totally pull it off, dude. On a somewhat related issue, I have an actor friend who had a guest starring role on an episode of BLISS last year. It's a semi-explicit, soft porn Canadian anthology series. It felt very strange and very awkward for me, watching my friend engage in exuberant anal and oral intercourse with a woman on-screen after having just had coffee and donuts with him an hour earlier. I know it's all fake but still, I feel weird discussing his 'performance' with him after having seen him butt naked and talking dirty while nailing a bare-breasted woman from behind. So, my question to you, Mal, is do you draw the line at acting in soft porn, straight or gay? Do you feel it might damage your career, one way or the other? What are your thoughts concerning performing in explicit sex scenes with full or partial nudity? KJC WED. OCT. 20/2004/12:04 E.S.T.
KJC,
I was not accusing you or any other patron of this domain, never fear. I am not 1 for insinuations & implications: if I have something to say to someone, then I say it.
It’s reassuring (although cold comfort!) knowing that IMDb™ has done this sort of thing before, but I’m sorry that it had to happen to a client of yours, & I can well imagine that MR. TODD McFARLANE would have been very cross, indeed. I would hope, however, that MR. McFARLANE would not have reacted the same way toward your client that this particular Producer did toward me!
As for your friend the actor, I am sympathetic to his plight, as well, for my own requests to have that same agency contact intel posted have also been in vain.
I hasten to re-assert that the “too manly” comment was my agent’s opinion as he voiced it to me, rather than my own personal opinion, which is that I have not been getting those opportunities for other reasons, such as stereotype-casting.
I have not misconstrued your remarks about the SHOPPERS’ DRUG MART™ campaign (of which I am still very proud, thank you for remembering it!), but it was not my intention to have THE DRUMMER perceived as “queer”, so when the demographic response to those commercials was being tabulated & analysed, it was found that The Homosexual Community were responding particularly well to it because of my character, whom they & many heterosexual people were perceiving as “gay”.
I was not unhappy about this outcome, since my own approach to the work is that of a Capitalist storyteller, so if each individual who saw those commercials interpreted my character in a given way, or superimposed traits onto him that made the character more attractive & appealing to the individual viewer, then I think & feel that I earned my fee for that campaign.
What I did find to be an unexpected development was the increased level of interest in me from homosexual males in my personal life, since once they began sussing that I am the same bloke from the SHOPPERS’ DRUG MART™ commercials, they began coming onto me more often & in fairly persistent ways, none of which were in the least offensive to my sensibilities, but all of which were & are very flattering.
To this day, I am confronted by people on the street who thought/think me to have affected “a fake British accent”, but I put that down to what they perceive as in incongruity, given that they have been exposed to so much American Film/TV, & Canadian blacks try as much as possible to conform with the modes of idiomatic speech & dress that they hear & see therein.
Thank you for your very kind words of simultaneous endorsement of my acting ability & perceived sex appeal.
After having read of your actor friend’s adventures on BLISS™, all I can say to that is, “The jammy b*st*rd!”
I have no qualms whatsoever about acting in so-called “soft porn”, whether it be “straight or gay”, as I think & feel that it is not my job to pass judgement on any given character whom I might be hired to portray, but that is my job to advocate to the viewing audience on behalf of that character. ...Of course, the fact that I am a dyed-in-the-wool exhibitionist doesn’t hurt, either!
I never worry about whether or not accepting a given role “might damage [my] career, 1 way or the other”, since I cannot control how others think & feel about a given subject. What is of primary concern to me is that I enjoy reading a given screenplay, that I become exuberant about the possibility of incarnating a given character therein, & that I get paid on time & in full for having done so.
I am very much in favour of “performing in explicit sex scenes with full or partial nudity”, particularly if I were to be working with someone like DAME HELEN MIRREN, MS. MIMI ROGERS, MS. ELLEN BARKIN or MS. DARIA ARGENTO. There is nothing quite so compelling as viewing onscreen sexual behaviour that is being played by obviously intelligent, strong personalities such as MS. GLENDA JACKSON in WOMEN IN LOVE™ & MS. TILDA SWINTON in FEMALE PERVERSIONS™.
I was once auditioned for a non—paying theatrical production of THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE, & HER LOVER™. The Directors took so long to inform me of their casting decision that I had since gone on to be auditioned for another play with an inferior script, but which paid well, & had a longer run, so I found myself in a quandary.
In order to “sweeten the pot”, the Directors also offered me the job of being the show’s Dialect Coach, since I was the only actor in the cast who was English & could produce the necessary accents on cue, & had not been given the role that I had expressed interest in @ the audition.
The work was potentially very exciting, but I perceived that all concerned were far more concerned with the smearing of canine faeces than with the noble experiment of presenting full-blooded, passionate human sexuality onstage, & that they were quite puritanically prudish, so I decided that rather than having to train a lesser actor to do something I can do better than he, listening to him mangle MR. PETER GREENAWAY’S marvellous language, while watching the actor show the paying public how ashamed he is of his own body & his own sexuality, I would take the paying gig that would prevent me from having to grind my teeth for what would have felt like an eternity.
I was also auditioned for NAKED NEWS™, but did not get the job, regrettably....
POST SCRIPTUM: I have no aversion to wearing SPANDEX™, but I was clad in black leather trousers in the SHOPPERS’ DRUG MART™ advert, actually.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
LADYTASS,
It was an assumption made by the Producer that I had done it because the person was using a character name I have portrayed onscreen.
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Post by MALCOLM XERXES™ on Oct 20, 2004 19:49:41 GMT -5
WED. OCT. 20/2004/20:58 E.S.T.
Salutations unto thee, SIRONA!
Thank you; that is good to know, particularly since I have never viewed ROB TV, myself. Is it a specialty cable channel?
GAZ was giving me the gears about that, actually, jesting that he was risking his reputation on a bloke who has made a career of answering doors.
I can think of worse things to have happen to oneself than coming to the attention of American Producers as a result of some exposure on the Columbia Broadcasting Sytem™ (however brief it was!) Milady, thy silver tongue wouldst charm the Nemean Lion into shearing his own mane.
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Post by ShowbizPRgirl on Oct 21, 2004 14:48:05 GMT -5
Thanks for that very frank response to my post, Malcolm. I always enjoy engaging you in online discussions about showbiz, as we seem to be on the same wave-length regarding most issues. I look forward to the day when we can banter back and forth about the business of show over thick, juicy steaks and vintage wine at one of Toronto's famed eateries. Kisses, Kel
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Post by gaz on Oct 21, 2004 16:00:56 GMT -5
GAZ was giving me the gears about that, actually, jesting that he was risking his reputation on a bloke who has made a career of answering doors.
Which is why, at the very least, you'll be granted the part of PORTER in the 2006 Titan-Rainbow Media Productions presentation of the Scottish Play by Mr. Wm. Shakespeare!
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