I had a director named Chris Hayes who used to warn his actors not to make a scene too precious.

It was a simple but powerful idea.

As an actor the tendency with any performance is to squeeze the most out of it. If a scene calls for tears, you go for Niagara Falls. If a scene calls for anger, you blow the ears out of the unlucky bastards in the first three rows. By making a scene too precious, you as an actor may end up having the most wonderful performance, but your audience will be praying for your character to die on the very next line.

Mr. Hayes taught me to act less, and enjoy more. Always remember that the audience should be having at least as much fun as you are, and if you’re lucky they’ll be having more. This direction is something I have leaned on in all of the work I have done since, and it has served me very well in my artistic pursuits.

In realms outside the theater Mr. Hayes’s direction is harder to apply. But upon reflection I am here to say that I realize my selection of ‘Network’ was too precious, too precious by far.

It meant too much to me that it was savored and enjoyed by the audience and any deviation from that goal made me unreasonably perturbed. I broke an unwritten rule of Movienight. I made a Selection for myself, and not for the crew - and for that I must apologize.

Unquestionably, the audience was unruly on Wednesday, and movies should not ever be paused once they begin, but the truth is, I’m the guy who paused the film. I’m the guy who had the opportunity to start us off right with our brand new sound system, but I stubbornly stuck with the film I wanted everyone to watch.

The key is right there, the film I wanted everyone to watch. Like I’m teaching a class or something - the best Selections to date have been the films that everyone, even it they didn’t know it at first, wanted to watch.

Now before you start to think that this Blog Entry is in itself too precious (for it most certainly is) I want you to understand that I see us at the top of a slippery slope. Movienight is a moment in time for us all, and it is a wonderful one at that, so before our innocent jabs at Justine or Andy or Zack or me turn this whole thing into a sour mess I want to say I’m sorry.

To those who agree the crowd was too unruly, I say: it was my fault.

I chose the right film at the wrong time, and neither I nor anyone else should cast aspersions at an unruly crowd. It is in the end no one’s fault but the SELECTOR’s. It’s like the cast of a crappy play blaming the audience for walking out: “Can you believe those shit heads, they don’t understand that this is a great play!”

Justine, defending herself to jabs from Wiener and I, reminded us this morning that the most important word in our Mission Statement is “camaraderie.” The last thing that I would want to see is Movienight picking up the energy (I can’t believe I live in Los Angeles) of a nasty Poker Night.

Zack was so astute when he chose ‘Stand By Me.’ He was honoring his friends, he was honoring this wonderful moment of time we have made for ourselves and each other, he was in the end, paying more attention to his audience then he was to himself.

I applaud this example, and all of the other wonderful Selections we have enjoyed since all of this began.

I love all you guys, and won’t ever again make a Selection that I treat more preciously than I do each of you.

My bad.

I can’t wait till Wednesday.

bbd