The Roundtable Fall of '99: My First Independent Film

I actually started filming this in the middle of my run for Puss in Boots. It was September 1999. Puss In Boots had just opened and Debbie Phelps, my manager, had called me to tell me about this independent film called "The Roundtable". It was produced by Alpha Productions out in New Jersey. I asked her alot of questions about the film because I made it very clear that I wouldn't do any films that had profanity, sex, drugs or violence which basically covered most films. She assured me it didn't. So I trusted her. I went to the audition in New Jersey. When I got there I met the director Paul McDaniel and the assistant director Avril Speaks. They asked me to do a monologue. I did a monologue from "The Amen Corner" where my charecter is telling his mother that he has to leave her and go out in the world to make his own way and pursue music. At the end of the monologue he tells her "you have to let me go!" I loved this monologue because it related to me so well. Anyway, about two days later Debbie called to tell me they wanted to cast me in the lead for the film! I had curbed enthusiasm because I still hadn't read the whole script. I needed to be sure it was not an improper film for me to do. They emailed me the script and it was very clean like Debbie assured me. The film was about my charecter, James "Lucky" Sanderson, who was a star basket player at his highschool. Then there was a robbery and murder of a store owner and my charecter was framed by crooked police. The film's primary message was about coruption in the police department. I liked the message and the charecter and couldn't wait to start filming. The producers were hoping to get the film a theatrical release. That never happened. You can buy it online though I believe. If you go to www.netflix.com and type in the search bar The Round Table you will find the movie and a summary. The actor on the cover is not me but it's supposed to be my charecter Lucky. I was intrigued by the film making process. First of all we shot all the last scenes first. So in one day you could be filming the last scene and then filming the first scene the next day. I thought that would throw me off as an actor. Not being able to carry over the emotion from one scene to another. But it didn't. One day I was on my way to set. We had a night shoot and I was leaving school. I had to take the subway to 8th and Market street. I bought my ticket to get on the PATCO train to Lindenwood NJ where the shoot was going to be. I put my ticket in the machine and it was supposed to come back out so I could get on the train. For some reason it didn't and my train was coming! I paid for my ticket so I jumped the bar and jumped on the train. The next thing I knew I heard the bell on the train ringing and heard a bunch of people running towards the train! It was two police officers! They cuffed me and arrested me and took me to the back office in the subway. I didn't even know they had one of those. I tried explaining to the cops that I paid for my ticket and it wasn't a theft of services. But they weren't buying it. I wasn't officially arrested but I was fined and given a court date. I never paid the fine though. I did show up for the court date a few months later. The irony was when I finally did get to the set we shot the scene when I was falsely arrested for a crime I didn't do! A week before we shot the last scene I went to New York to audition for Theatre Works USA. They are the largest national touring theatre in the USA for young audiences! I was very excited and confident about this audition! I knew I was going to get cast in one of their tours!