Growing Up Geek: My Audition For THE GOOD SON
It's been awhile since my last Growing Up Geek column, but I thought I'd start it up again. I have a lot of fun stories to share, and they're fun for me to tell.
In my days as a struggling child actor, I almost got my big break co-starring alongside Macaulay Culkin in the R-rated thriller The Good Son. I was up for the role of Mark, which was played by Elijah Wood.
I don't know if you remember this movie, but Culkin plays this psycho kid named Henry who puts his family through absolute hell. He's just a bad seed looking to hurt people. Wood's character, Mark, is sent to live with his cousin Henry and his aunt and uncle after his mom passes away. While there, Culkin shows him the art of being bad, and along the way a dark mystery begins to unfold.
The movie was supposed to give Culkin more of an edge by playing a dark and disturbed kid. The whole production was actually built around him, but I think it did him more harm than good. After this film, his acting career started to tank.
I went to several auditions for this movie and was getting one callback after another. It was really exciting, and it eventually came down to Wood and me. I remember seeing him at a few of the auditions, but I never talked to him. I was just focused on the audition and wanting to land the role. He seemed like a nice enough kid, though.
I remember the final audition I went to. It was a screen test, and the scene involved the following conversation between the two main characters along with a couple other scenes:
Henry: "I feel sorry for you, Mark. You just don't know how to have fun."
Mark: "What?"
Henry: "It's because you're scared all the time. I know. I used to be scared too. But that was before I found out."
Mark: "Found out what?"
Henry: "That once you realize that you can do anything... you're free. You can fly. Nobody can touch you... nobody. Mark... don't be afraid to fly."
Mark: "You're sick... "
Henry: "Hey, I promise you something amazing, something you'll never forget. Where's the gratitude?"
I was really confident in how the audition turned out. Apparently, I impressed everyone involved with the development of the movie as well. According to my agent, they had a long debate about who should be cast. Some of them wanted me while others wanted Wood. In the end, the part went to Wood because he had more movie experience than I did.
It would have been so cool to get this role. My family jokes around with me that if I had gotten my big break with the movie, I could have played Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings films. Who knows what would have happened had I gotten the part?
In the end, even though I didn't land the role, it was another great life experience that I'll never forget. As I've said in my previous posts, I loved the rush I got from acting and auditioning for stuff like this when I was a kid. To catch up on all of my previous Growing Up Geek articles, click here.