My First Movie Memories

My first memories of childhood are pretty much based around movies. No wonder I ended up here in Hollywood working on… movies.

One of my very first memories was going with my then pregnant mother to see E.T. We walked into the theatre late, the previews were already starting.

At the little one-theatre movie house, they played previews for all movies, regardless of whether you were taking your kid to see ET. Fucking stupid if you ask me. Anyway, they were showing a preview for the movie HOUSE, which if you don’t remember it, was about a haunted house. The poster was this skeleton hand holding a key, it still gives me the creeps.

Anyway, as we walked in, the preview of this haunted house was on the screen. I yelled and screamed at the top of my lungs, I wasn’t going in there. Everyone turned around and stared down my mom with evil eyes. In the little town theatre I was at, everyone knew everyone else, so my mom was immediately an identifiable villain. But she wasn’t about to walk out. She dragged me in and wouldn’t let me go, even if I was crying and making a scene.

After the movie started, I remember holding my Mom’s hand. She looked at me and smiled. What came on the screen was movie magic at its finest. I was so happy at the end of the movie. I still thank my mom for dragging me inside the theatre that day.

My first memory of my father (and one of only a few memories of my father when I was young) was when he brought my brother and me to see “Return of the Jedi” the night it came out. My father was a huge Star Wars nerd, so he put so much hype into this movie before we got there. I was excited as we drove to the theatre, I wondered what I was about to see that my father was dying to watch. Who was this Han Solo and why was he maybe, kind of, dead?

We went to this huge theatre in Detroit and got there late (apparently my parents don’t like to go to movies early), we were the last people to sit down. The only problem, there were no seats to sit down. We stood at the top of theatre, my dad propping my brother and me up on a ledge, with the perfect view of the theatre. I felt like I was special, having the greatest seat in the house, sitting where I wasn’t supposed to, next to my Dad. As the 20th Century Fox orchestra came on, it sent chills down my spine. I loved the movie, the Ewoks were the cutest things on the planet... I was a little kid, give me a break!

The other thing I remember most about this night, my one year old baby brother dropped a DOT candy in the lil’ kids urinal, picked it up and ate it. Man, that was gross.

Those two memories hold such a high place in my life, they will always remind me of why I do what I do, and why I love films.