Friday, October 12, 2007

Meeting Jeff Blitz


The rocket scientist, that is myself, met up with Jeff Blitz, the director and writer of Rocket Science in Westwood on Sunday morning for breakfast. Luckily, Jeff also stutters so I had the opportunity to meet my first Hollywood director. He was not accompanied by blonde girls or bodyguards. I met Jeff at the opening of the research center at UCI Medical Center. So if you young, stutter and see no hope for a future career, don't worry: you can still become a Hollywood director, a quantum physicist, a UK pop star (Gareth Gates), a top sprinter (Ben Johnson), guitarist of Wet Wet Wet (Graeme Duffin), professor of comparative literature at Harvard (Marc Shell). I wonder if we also have a famous serial killer or mafia boss in our ranks. Did you make fun of my stuttering? Or if you don't want to be any of the above at least they will meet up with you as you stutter, too!

Jeff is the "older" person on the right with the main cast and the film producer. To be fair, Jeff looks younger in reality, but this is the only picture I could find of him. You definitely need to check out the movie website for previews. The main character is a teenage boy who stutters and joins the debating society. It is good to know that someone who stutters wrote the script and knows what it feels like to stutter. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I am convinced that it is one of the most faithful portrayal of stuttering so far. Jeff spoke about the challenge to present his movies in front of audiences during Q&A sessions. You should also check out his most famous movie, Spellbound, which received many awards including an Oscar nomination for best documentary. And this BBC interview.

1 comment:

a boy fading said...

I loved Rocket Science. That's cool you got to meet those folks.