Well Played, Fate

I got the message last week. The Downs Clinic forwarded the email from the casting company. They're looking for a boy with Downs between the ages of 8 and 12, preferably with light hair. That couldn't describe Micah any better. It was like they were looking for him. He'd be cast as a boy mourning the death of his father in a movie filmed later this summer.

My gosh, how fun!

I spent a day fantasizing about how Micah would wow the casting crew with his charming ways, and thinking of how fun it would be for him to actually act. He loves that kind of stuff. And then how that would become his new favorite movie so that he could watch himself over and over and over so much that we'd be sick of seeing it and regret the whole thing.

If he got the part, of course. But that was trivial. Even the part where it said, "must be able to repeat a few sentences" wasn't a deterrent. He has a talker. A little outside the box thinking is all that's needed, right? It's not a stretch, and wouldn't hurt to have him try out for the part.

I emailed the casting company and asked what I needed to do to schedule a time slot. They replied back and were kind enough to send a script along so that I could look over the part played by the boy with Downs. It's a good thing they did, too. Turns out, the little boy's big brother is bribing him to keep a secret. "Remember, don't tell anyone what you saw, okay?" That kind of thing.

I had to email back and say that the irony of casting a nonverbal child in the role of a kid who is being sworn to secrecy was not lost on me, and recognized that it would be a waste of everyone's time. Micah's five minute claim to fame was just reduced to a sigh of what might have been.


No comments: