Last spring, I became involved in an indie film project in Birmingham, AL. The project is now complete!
A friend of my mother-in-law, Bernadette Chapman, was directing a movie. I didn’t know anything about the indie film scene in Birmingham, but after meeting me at a party intended as a kind of wedding reception for the people who couldn’t make it up north for my husband and I, Bernadette sent me a script and asked me to read for Maggie, the love interest.
A few months later I was at the Theatre Downtown, reading opposite potential leads, and in the spring of 2011, we started filming. The production wrapped during the summer. I filmed all of my scenes early on, and then there was a month of filming “The Zoo House.” The film is about Angelo, a young actor who signs on for a reality TV show, only to find out that this reality is not what he wanted. He has money, women, and a party every night, but the shallow life he leads as his TV character, “The Animal” is unsatisfying.
The character I play, Maggie, is a college student/waitress that Angelo meets during his crisis. He latches on to the potential of romance with this “normal girl” as he works to find a way out of his contract.
I had a lot of fun and met a lot of friends on this project. The movie, which is edited and complete, is going out to film festivals now. I had the opportunity to go to the cast screening of the film a few weeks ago, and I’m very pleased with the final cut. Check out the Facebook for Lost In Reality for updates on when/where you can see the film.
(Left- Bernadette Chapman (Director) and Corey Merrida (Angelo); Right- Amy Leigh Albro (Me/Maggie) and Thad Mickler (PA) at the first script reading)
Amy Leigh Strickland is a writer and teacher from Townsend, Massachusetts. She has a BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Amy currently lives outside Birmingham, Alabama with her husband, Kyle and their two dogs, Apollo and Linus.
