Guest Blogger: Nat McIntyre

Followers of Southern Apple Girl, it is my great pleasure to be the first guest blogger in the illustrious history of SAG. For those of you who do not know me, I am the reason that your beloved Jenny Moss is braving the windiest, snowiest, and coldest New York winter in years. I am her boyfriend, Nat McIntyre. Jenny moved here because she loves me (or is punishing herself for some horrible crime she committed in her past, but I choose to believe she loves me). And because she loves me, she wanted me to be able to pursue my career in theatre, film, and television. I wanted to give you a taste of what life is like for a first year NY actor. Many of you would probably think that after I finished my 3 years at one of the top acting conservatories in the country I would move to NYC and start auditioning and performing in plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Mamet, and Churchill. And movies with actors like Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, and Tom Hanks. Well, year number one has been a bit more humorous than that (although I cannot complain). Here is a list of some of the roles I have gone in for in film and television-

Royal Guard
Douchey British Guy
Working Class Boyfriend/ Murder Suspect
Dangerous Hick
Stupid Hick
Neglectful Dad
Chauffeur
Stupid Bouncer
Drunk Irishmen
Irish Cop
Irish Thug
Irish Friend
Irish Thug
Journalist
Cop (4 times)
Russian Gangster
Russian Wrestler
Helmsman of Pirate Hunting Yacht
Mover
Construction Worker
Sheriff

PRETTY GLAMOROUS, HUH!?

It has not all been for nought, however. I was indeed cast as the Irish Thug, Cop, Helmsman of Pirate Hunting Yacht, and mover in a commercial for the Tribeca Film Festival. It is this last one that Jenny thought you all would like to hear about. It was between that and the audition for a Russian Wrestler in Angelina Jolie’s “Salt” where they told me I had to act like I was holding my newborn baby for the first time and then pretend I found out my new baby was dead. All without any prep, baby, or lines. But as bizarre as that was, it wasn’t nearly as bizarre as my two days on the set for the Tribeca Film Festival Commercial…

Day one started at 6am - I was playing the part of a mover who was literally moving Tribeca (which is a neighborhood in NYC) to people’s living rooms so they could watch the festival remotely. Sounded funny. It wasn’t funny at 7am when they had me and another guy out in 20 degree weather shooting our first shot of the day which consisted of the two of us lifting a 140 pound man on top of a 90 pound cast iron bench and carrying it about 50 yards…12 times! The rest of the day consisted of chasing a mime down the street, moving a cab wrapped in bubble wrap, carrying a 350 pound Hasidic Jewish man, moving a model, garbage, a steam pipe, numerous boxes, a walk sign, a stop light, and a horse… Ah yes, the horse. I was in charge of walking the horse down the street. I had been practicing with the horse and its rider for a while and we were all feeling very comfortable. That was when they decided to put a humongous moving box that had been built special for the horse on top of my new friend Brutus. Well he was a little skittish from the start, when out of nowhere a small van turned down the road and spooked the horse. Oh man, Brutus went crazy. Kicked through the box and started bucking backwards down the street. The rider barely stayed on, but the horse ran into a car. No worries, Brutus was fine, but when you see the spot, there will be no horse. The day ended at 6pm after 12 hours of moving everything in sight and I thought that was it.
However, they called me back the following Monday to shoot a final scene…. With Robert Deniro. Quite a couple of days!

So, ladies and gentleman, there is a taste of the life of this first year New York actor, who is incredibly thankful for your friend Jenny Moss and all the support you are giving both of us.

My incident with the car

So apparently everyone who has lived in NYC for any given amount of time, has had an “experience” almost or actually getting hit by a car/taxi/bus/bike/etc. I guess it was only a matter of time until my time came…

Nat was working another conference, although this time it was in New York which meant an awesome hotel (The Intercontinental) right down the road from home. So of course, this also meant that I would be joining him for a mini-vacay and date night in the city. Hey, gotta make the most of every opportunity!

I meet him at the hotel after I get done working and we head out to find a dinner spot. We have a great dinner at a Thai/Sushi place that we stumbled upon and then head out to find a Pinkberry for dessert. We get Pinkberry to go since it’s such a nice night out and decide to walk back to the hotel and eat our dessert. It’s such a beautiful night. I just had an awesome dinner with my boyfriend. We’re heading back to our beautiful (and free!) hotel. I couldn’t be happier.

We’re waiting at the crosswalk and all cars have passed so we proceed to cross the street. There had been a taxi and car that had just passed in front of us and stopped just in front of the crosswalk to make a right hand turn. We head across the street, walking behind the stopped, right-turning car and taxi. I’m not paying a ton of attention because there’s honestly not much to pay attention to when all of a sudden the couple behind us start yelling at me to get out of the way! I look up and the car that had previously been sitting, stopped, waiting to make a turn is now backing into my leg! I make a diving-ish awkward leap to throw my body out of the way while Nat attempts to pull me and get in between me and the car. The couple behind us is literally yelling at the guy in the car for backing up into a cross walk without looking! The whole thing lasts about 5 seconds and no real harm was done. Everyone asks me if I’m ok, which I completely am. At this point, I’m just a bit shaken and doing that awkward laugh that I do when I don’t know what else to do.

Here’s hoping I can cross this one off the list and that it counts as my NYC encounter with a moving vehicle.