George Donald W. - Lights, camera-- travel!: on-the-road tales from screen storytellers

Andrew McCarthy is a contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler. Hes written for The Atlantic, Travel + Leisure, Mens Journal, Slate, Afar, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. In 2010 he was awarded the Lowell Thomas Award for Travel Journalist of the Year. As an actor, hes appeared in more than two-dozen films, including Pretty in Pink, Less Than Zero, Weekend at Bernies, The Joy Luck Club, and The Spiderwick Chronicles. He has starred on Broadway (Side Man), appeared often on TV (Lipstick Jungle), and directed numerous television shows (Gossip Girl).

Don George has edited five previous Lonely Planet literary anthologies, including A Moveable Feast, The Kindness of Strangers and Tales from Nowhere. He also wrote the Lonely Planet Guide to Travel Writing. Don has been global travel editor for Lonely Planet, travel editor at the San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle and founder and editor of Salon.coms Wanderlust. He is currently contributing editor and book review columnist for National Geographic Traveler, special features editor and blogger for Gadling.com and editor of the online literary travel magazine Recce (www.geoex.com/recce). Don appears frequently as a travel expert on television and radio and hosts a national series of on-stage conversations with prominent writers. He is also cofounder and chairman of the annual Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference.

LIGHTS, CAMERATRAVEL!

ON-THE-ROAD TALES FROM
SCREEN STORYTELLERS

Lights, CameraTravel!
On-the-Road Tales from Screen Storytellers

Published by Lonely Planet Publications

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Published 2011

Copy edited by Victoria Harrison & Patrick Kinsella
Designed by Seviora Citra
Cover Design by Mark Adams

ISBN 9781742208664

Lonely Planet and contributors 2011.
Cover images Photolibrary & iStockphoto

LONELY PLANET and the Lonely Planet logo are trade marks of Lonely Planet Publications Pty. Ltd.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be sold or hired without the written permission of the publisher.

T he premise behind this anthology is simple: since the ancient Greeks, actors have been societys storytellers. And ever since Hollywood first left the backlot, these storytellers have been traveling to far-flung corners of the world to tell those tales.

By necessity of the job, and often by nature, these Hollywood types are a nomadic breed. Actors travel always with an eye and an ear sometimes unconsciously, often deliberately looking for characters, details of behavior, or inflections of voice, that can be logged away, stored for a future date, only to be recalled and employed for a role at the appropriate time. Writers move about listening for lines of dialogue that will unlock character, and directors bask in atmosphere in order to create a world on screen both specific and authentic. Most filmmakers will tell you that making a movie is easier on the backlot, but richer on the road.

We thought it would be illuminating and entertaining to ask some of these peripatetic storytellers to tell us their most personal, inspiring, funny, embarrassing and human stories from their time on the road. The result far surpassed our expectations: thirty-three tales by distinguished actors, directors and screen writers from around the world that are rich, raucous, and intimately revealing. While these stories are multifaceted in setting, voice and subject, one common theme threads through them: contact with the wider world through travel can delight, enlighten, inspire and change lives.

About half of these stories revolve around experiences related to a film. The other half recount travels not related to filming, in some case before careers even got started, in other cases in the troughs between triumphs, and in other cases on temporary career breaks.

In organizing these tales, we tried to follow both a chronological and a thematic structure. We begin with a couple of pieces that take place in the distant past Alec Baldwins wonderfully warm and wistful remembrance of Los Angeles, and Malcolm McDonalds poignant picturing of an epic journey he took as a youth around the world, accompanied by his flute and a friend named Floot.

These stories segue into further romantic remembrances set in Brazil, Australia and Hawaii. From there we present five stories that revolve around the theme of renewal renewal through confronting the challenges of the road.

Beginning with Bill Bennetts evocative In Search of a Dolphins Grave, we present fourteen stories that focus on film-related experiences. Sitting around on set, actors, writers and directors often regale each other with stories of glory days and famous mishaps often with a showmans one-upmanship. Our tales capture this atmosphere: some recount adventures and discoveries encountered in the process of doing background research either for the writing of a script or for the making of a film; others focus on the rigors of filming in remote, often undeveloped places and the unexpected riches and revelations that can result.

For the last act in this multi-part epic, we present a suite of family stories stories that explore themes of bonds made and broken, obstacles encountered and overcome, lessons learned, deaths endured and renewals nurtured. The final story in the book, Brett Paesels extraordinary Life is a River in India, beautifully illustrates the many-faceted gifts travel can bestow when we are open to and trusting in the world, our loved ones and ourselves.

Whether secure in a backlot or on distant location, working from a script or off book, the storytellers in these stories ultimately reveal that they are just like us: human, full of foible, longing and grace and that, just like us, when they venture into the wide world, that journey can touch and transform them.

Alec Baldwin has appeared in over forty films, including Beetle Juice, Working Girl, Miami Blues, The Hunt for Red October, Glengarry Glen Ross, Malice, The Juror, The Cooler (National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor; Oscar nomination), The Aviator, The Departed and Its Complicated. On television, Baldwin currently stars with Tina Fey in NBCs 30 Rock, winner of three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series (2007, 2008 and 2009). Baldwin has received five Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, the Television Critics Association Award and two Emmy Awards as Best Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance on the show. He last appeared on stage in the 2010 Guild Hall (East Hampton) production of Peter Shaffers Equus, directed by Tony Walton. Other stage performances include the Roundabout Theatre Companys 2006 production of Joe Ortons