Sitting at Cracker Barrel last Thursday, I get a text from my agent in Nashville to ask if I had had class on Friday. Usually I do, but for some reason it had been cancelled. She wanted me to trot down to Nashville for an audition for Josh Groban’s music video to his new hit called “Hidden Away.” She said if I were to get it, it would shoot on that Sunday. Since the audition wouldn’t cause me to miss school, which is fairly abnormal, I decided, what they hey! So I drove down (about 3 1/2 hours) for a 10 minute long audition and drove back. I honestly felt it was one of the worst auditions of my life!!! They asked me to walk on video for them, tell them about myself and a couple questions. I knew these were only asked so they could see my personality, but I still wanted to have great answers. With all the times I’ve been put on spot with questions in pageants, one would think I could have had this mastered. Nonetheless, when asked what the funniest thing that ever happened to me was, my mind went blank… Not to mention, I also told them that I am focusing exclusively on modeling right now and going to school, despite that this was an ACTING audition and that one of the biggest ‘no-nos’ is to present yourself as only a model and not an actress as well!!!! What was I thinking? I thought, oh well! That was a fun-long trip to get Chick-Fil-A, where I ate on the way home!

By a matter of a miracle, about 10 pm Saturday night, I get a call that I booked the audition. I was shocked and so excited! One of the main things I wanted to sign with Advantage in Nashville for was to possibly book a music video, and here it was! It always surprises me how last minute this industry works as far as the late phone call goes. Regardless, I traveled down to Nashville again the next morning and they had everything ready to go and were one of the kindest, most hospitable crews I’ve ever worked with.

After arriving early for hair and make-up and wardrobe planning, which I was instructed to bring my whole closet for, the shoot began. My title in the video is “Josh’s love interest.” I met Josh on location at my first scene of the video, an apartment porch. Despite the posse that formed around Josh, he approached my mom and I to shake hands which I thought was very nice. I could tell from that moment that his friendly smile was genuine and that he was going to be easy to work with. For the rest of the day he was very considerate to all the extras, crew, my mother, drooling fans on the street, and me. The scenes carried on from one location to the next downtown Nashville. At times people would build up on the sides of the road to watch and some even would walk by as their friend snapped the picture of them near Josh and Josh had no idea the photo was ever being taken! It was pretty funny! Another interesting part of the day surprised me much more than the other people of Nashville, “The Zombie Walk.” This consisted of close to 1,000 teenagers walking downtown all dressed as Zombies. They weren’t out knocking on doors, or acting like they had any real goal, but to walk with straight faces dressed as Zombies. Although a couple filtered in on set, the security kept them back pretty well. However, Josh was pretty amazed and got one of his publicists to record him with them for a moment. I thought that was very kind as well.

I was surprised several times throughout the day. One thing I was surprised about was how little I’m “star-struck” anymore. This by no means is because of Josh’s status, as he was the number one selling artist in 2007 out of all the United States (and making the status of best artist of the year in only a few weeks since the CD was released late in the year!!!) as well as the singer of the well known song “You Raise Me Up.” However, since participating in Miss USA  where the contestants and I met several celebrities and after meeting celebrities at the KY Derby, I look at them just as regular people. I appreciate this as I seem to trip over my words much less now when speaking with them than I would have previously . Josh’s approachability made this even more true. He truly is one of the most grounded, kind, and light-hearted “celebrities” I’ve ever met. I was also surprised by how quick the crew moved throughout the set. Each section of the video only required a few takes and then the producers were happy with it and moved on. I was also thankful to have my mother with me who provided feedback. I was honored when she said as she watched the mini TV on set which showed what was being recorded, that she felt that the emotions were genuine, so much she wanted to beat up whoever upset me!! But no worries… I wasn’t upset at all

That night we got back about 5:30 am. My mom deserves the Number One Mom in the Planet Award because she literally slept for 30 minutes then had to be at work at 7 am. I don’t know how she did it. She also has officially had her debut of fame when she didn’t turn down the opportunity to be an extra in the video. She’ll be sitting in the crowd at the restaurant scene to the left. I’m unsure when the video will be released, but I will try to keep you updated. As of now, you can download “Hidden Away” on iTunes and make sure you catch and vote for the video once it’s released! Moral of this story, I let my agent know that I enjoyed acting more than I ever thought I would. I enjoy the depth that it requires and just how fun it is to play another personality. I asked her to please, please submit me for more acting jobs such as this! I think I’ve found a new door to include in my work!

Me, The man that needs no introduction, Mom

Share this: