Well this is how I got involved with "Sparks" the "motion comic" project.

I first got a call from Dennis "Danger" Madalone who was the stunt coordinator for The Greatest American Hero. Dennis told me about an effort being made by Billy Katt, the lead of Greatest American Hero to make an action comic of GAH . Billy called me to ask if I would be interested in doing Tony Villicana's voice for the project and also would I participate in a reunion of the cast of GAH? I said that all sounds like fun and it was. I'm not sure how people will get to see it but Billy, Robert Culp and Connie Sellecca were there as well as Stephen Cannell the producers and a couple of directors and of course Dennis Madalone. We all talked and reminisced on a panel while footage and out takes were being projected on a screen behind us and it was a lot of fun.

While this was all going on I met the comic creators and the computer guy Chris Folino and "Huff". They later called me to talk about another comic they wanted to produce with me as the lead voice actor, "Sparks". They came up to meet me and brought the paper comic of Sparks and told me the basic story and it all sounded interesting. Voice over work in Hollywood is a very guarded society and very hard to break into so I thought if nothing else I would like to try since I've never done voice over before.



We all, Billy, Michael Bell, Brill and myself met at a voice over studio and recorded the first book and a few weeks later re-recorded the same and that was all I had to do.

Huff and Chris went to work doing what they do. They both have a company called Sideshow that produces trailers for Gamers and Movies so they had tremendous experience working in this medium of short story.

I've since seen the finished product of Book 1 and am very proud of my involvement. I believe it will be an interesting new venue which is always fun.

I said goodbye to my family and friends and started on a new adventure.

As things turned out I was called for a screen test for Franco Zeffirelli's Endless Love starring Brooke Shields the day I was to leave for L.A. and The Greatest American Hero I did the test but when they said I would have to wait in New York for some reason I said sorry I have a plane to catch and grabbed a cab for the airport.

I woke up in what used to be the Holiday Inn on Highland and Hollywood Blvd. My curtains were wide open and I could see the Hollywood sign. So I knew it wasn't a dream. I ordered room service and discovered my tab was covered!! I ate just about every meal in my room except when someone from ABC or Stephen Cannell's company needed to see me.

Stephen Cannell took me to lunch at Muso Franks a famous Hollywood eatery where stars going all the way back to the silent movies ate. I wasn't quite sure who Stephen was until Joyce Selznick told me he would be my future boss. Stephen even lent me a car to use while I searched for an apartment to live in. I had never had a car available to me before so I did what guys in the movies did with parking tickets when they were issued, I threw them away. This later caught up to me when we started shooting GAH and they took the teamster captain away in hand cuffs for outstanding warrants. I never apologized to Stumpy the teamster captain for that, which I regret.

Stephen held a read through of the script for GAH and I got to meet all the cast, Don Cervantes and Faye Grant and I quickly became friends and it turned out we all lived in the same neighborhood; so Faye would pick us up and we became really good friends for a while. As things turned out before we could start shooting the actors went on strike so there I was in L.A. with nothing to do but go back to acting class and wait.

Joyce Selznick and her Partner Jan McCormick had me over to their house quite a bit and Joyce became my unofficial Manager. She was under contract to ABC at the time.

A warm, friendly smile can go a long way. A smile can uplift a soul, who in turn passes that energy to another.

A smile is … love.
A smile is … contagious.
Your smile is … dazzling.
Your smile is … shining forever.
Your smile is everyone's smile.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Michael!

So here I am living on the lower eastside of Manhattan with my brother Terrence. He is going to Columbia University studying English Literature and I am going to acting school. We had inherited 300$ each from our grandfather on my father's side Terry was working part time at Rikers Island, Men's House of Detention, and my agent got me some print work once in a while so we were getting by.

I did a student film with a beautiful actress named Vivian and she invited me to dinner at the Laurent in Manhattan. I was surprised to arrive and find myself at dinner with Vivian and Salvador Dalí, his wife Gala, Mia Farrow and an assortment of characters from aspiring artists, actresses, drag queens and even a homeless guy called peaches. I sat next to Gala Dali' and she told my fortune with flower petals and gazing into my eyes. She said a woman would come into my life that would make my name known nationally. She couldn't say who where or why only that it would happen in the next six months.

Well sure enough I heard about a "Cattle Call" being run by Joyce Selznick for the ABC Network's talent development program. I followed another actor in to the audition hall picked up some slides "Audition Scenes" and started studying the scene. A woman came out into the area where all the actors were sitting and studying, she had a cane. She walked over to me and said "if you do what I say I can make you a star, I'm Joyce Selznick." I said, "O.K. Joyce what should I do?" Her partner came back out and gave me their phone # in LA and said to call her next week. I went back home and told my brother about it and went to work; I was back in the restaurant business by now thinking my acting was just a dream.

I called Joyce and Jan exactly a week after she told me to and she said she was sending me a contract to sign. I signed it and sent it back and Joyce called and said she was coming back to NYC to do the screen tests. She sent me slides to study of two test pilots and told me where to be and when. I prepared the scenes and showed up on time did the tests got a free lunch and went to work at the restaurant again.

Joyce called me about a week later and said ABC was sending me a cheque for 8000$ and a round trip ticket to LA first class. I was off to Hollywood to be a supporting role in Stephen Cannell's The Greatest American Hero.

I was born in NYC in 1958. Four years later my father died and my family moved to Westchester New York. Growing up in the 60's there were no contemporary role models for boys. The "WAR" was wrong, the "Establishment" was wrong; it was the beginning of blaming the white man for everything that was wrong in the world. With no role models I guess I turned to movie leading men. All the stars were my role models, Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, James Dean, Paul Newman, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Robert Mitchum, Rod Steiger, Bruce Dern, Dennis Hopper and Cagney, Bogart, Spencer Tracy. They were all my secret role models.

In high school I started working in a fast food place and by the end I was working in a regular restaurant. I liked restaurants and the work the chef in a restaurant suggested if I planned to make a career in restaurants that I should get a degree like he did. He suggested I apply to a great school in upstate New York. I was accepted and I studied there for one year and then got a job at a great restaurant in NYC owned by Warner LeRoy which would soon prove to be an interesting coincidence. A year or so later I was working on Columbus Avenue in a chic place with a French chef, living off Columbus Avenue, life was cool, I was secure and was looking forward to a career in NYC as a chef.

It was kind of surreal when I remember it but this is how it happened. There was a bar in my neighborhood where a girl friend worked that I spent most nights in. One of those nights a pretty little woman sat next to me and wanted to know all kinds of things about me, we chatted and began to think it odd. Especially after I said lighten up my girl friend works here. That's when she said, Listen I am an agent for actor and I think you should have lunch with me and we can talk. I blew her off but she came back several times and one of the waitresses where I worked said, Go ahead, are you kidding there are a million actors in this town with no agent and one wants to rep you, don't be stupid. Even the chef said, Go have lunch with her and then my brother also said why not.

We had lunch, she gave me an acting teacher to see, Rachel Ward was in the class before she started working. Beautiful chicks were talking to me. Once I got over stage fright and started to understand the craft I was hooked. I really liked acting class, doing scenes from plays that my heroes had done, there was a feeling of transcendence when a scene was really working.

I studied acting during the day and worked in restaurants at night, life had taken on a new meaning, I was doing something only special people could do, artists. This went on for a year or so and then it happened.

Well that's all for now.

Hello there,

Here we go, I was invited to the Estepona Film Festival this month, and I am very proud to announce I was given two awards. One for best actor which I believe was for my performance in Uwe Boll's movie soon to be released in theaters "SEED" and 'The Jury's Life Time Achievement" Award I think. The actual title may be lost in translation. It was really cool. My first Award.


SEED was really an experimental film I did with Uwe. We worked with only an outline which Uwe provided a couple of months before production. Working like this meant at least to me that Uwe was depending a lot on the actors to prepare and show up with a lot of ideas and inspiration which Uwe would sort through before we started to shoot.

I am not so much a mystical actor who can't explain how I prepare. I believe acting is a craft and there are certain reliable steps that I follow. This worked very well I think when working with Uwe because he seems to have a very organized analytical mind. I noticed this first on "Sanctimony" where we all showed up a week early and Uwe wanted to rehearse with the cast assuming everyone would be "Off Book" already.

The best example I have of the fun of working like this is a scene when I am alone at my desk.
Uwe said "Michael you must call your boss, and ask for protection for your family."

I paced around and said "How about I call my boss and complain that I want more protection?" Then Dan Clark, Uwe's producer, said "Wait your boss should call you and complain about something." Then Uwe said "this is what we do, your boss calls to complain about the cost of extra protection for your family, you refuse to comply and agree to work harder."
So this is what we shot. What was cool is the trust between director, actor and producer that all were trying to make a better screen moments before we shot. I may be wrong but it felt very stimulating as an actor.

This week my agent submitted me on a few television projects.
Hollywood will never make sense to me but I don't know where else I could do what I do.




Who knows what the future holds but there is always something cooking. I'll try and post another blog at least once a month unless something hot comes up.

Until then
Michael Paré

Michael has amazing ideas for the supernatural character of the spirit and I think it will be a startling change of pace for him, channeling some of the classic Asian ghost story movies in his performance. You will be blown away by the performance Michael gives in "100 FEET." In terms of his generating powerful emotion and presence without words, it far surpasses "BAD MOON." In fact, I think the Japanese audiences will be particularly attuned what we are going after with his Ghost character because the great tradition of "JU-ON" and "RINGU."

Famke is exceptional in the film, beautiful but playing a real, vulnerable, complex woman. The actress was unafraid not to look pretty when her character was going through hell, which only makes her more beautiful in the manner of actresses like Ms. Moreau. She and Michael have some amazing scenes together at the end.

I'm getting ready to start cutting the film, and the stuff we shot is terrific so I'm sure it will come together well. Michael's the coolest guy to work with and I'll put a role for Michael in every film I do. It's going to be a lot of fun! I certainly will cast Michael as a good guy, hopefully next time. But I must say as an actor he really likes playing edgy and darker characters, so he hasn’t minded!

posted by BlogConcierge with permission from Eric Red, writer/director of 100 FEET

Hi there,

Well recently I finished shooting 100 Feet, a movie by Eric Red. Eric and I worked together a few years ago on his movie "Bad Moon". That was a great experience, fun stimulating and we made a very good movie I think.



So at the AFM of last year I was promoting and seeing a rough cut of some movies I had made when John Fallon, an internet journalist and film critic, came up to me and said Eric Red was looking for me. I said take me to him.

Five minutes later Eric came up to me and said he was making another movie, well before he could say another word I asked if there was a part for me. He said he was making a Ghost story and I said let me play the ghost? He said he wrote the Ghost with me in mind. We didn't talk money or anything but story, who else was going to be in it and where he could send the script.

He sent me the script and I read it, called him and told him, I loved it and we set up a meeting to talk story, character, motive, backstory, my relationship with Marnie (to be played by Famke Janssen) my relationship with my partner (to be played by Bobby Cannavale). We would have to go to Toronto to get a few life casts made for the ghost effect and 1 week rehearsal in Budapest.

I knew what working with Eric was going to be like and it was all I could hope for. He wouldn't want any of this bullshit some actors fall in to like "I want my character to be likeable or redeem himself." I was going to be very real and display some of the darkest sides of humanity. Clinging to all the negative emotions that bind us to this plane of reality.

Budapest was the most accommodating countries to work in of all the ex-Eastern block countries I have worked in. The crew were skilled and the production was really looking at the big picture of Making a Good Movie as being the ultimate goal.

Famke was a real professional, putting the movie first and playing her character to the "Hilt". She was photographed beautifully by Ken Kelsch, Eric's chosen DP. Ken is a great guy with like 30 movies he DP'd a lot of them for Abel Ferrara.

I can't wait until I see some cut together footage.

Well I never BLOGGED before, so I will quit this first attempt and try again in the middle of Aug.

I will try to do this once a month.

Michael Paré