JUNE 6, 1996

It's about 8:00am. I'm not sure what the time is because I'm about to do a "hands double" for Brendan Fraser and have had to take my watch off - A "hands double," meaning, a scene needs to be shot of Fletcher doing work in the garden. Because it's only Fletcher's hands that shall be seen, it's not worth bringing him to the set... so they shall film my hands dumping rocks instead. Jim has asked if I'll dump some rocks off a wheelbarrow and then place them as if building one of Fletcher's rock creations. So this is my big break. Like a true star, I bide my time while all rush around me and I wait for my call into the world of acting.

So I dumped the rocks and placed them strategically in the garden. I was made to wear gloves but I'm still sure when I return to Australia people will recognise my hands. I'll just have to make a point of walking the streets with a wheelbarrow full of rocks and gardening gloves on.


LATER IN THE DAY

Lou Rawls has just arrived on set. A friendly man, with a deep gravelly voice, who remembers everyone by name. Pretty impressive for a musical legend. A lesson learnt.

I'm seated on a rock in the back yard of the Fletcher house. There's a baby grand piano in the garden, which I just played through the lunch break. A release of pent-up musical angst. Another hot sunny day in Texas. Lunch was baked chicken and salad cooked from the sun's heat off the bonnet of a car. I have got to say that people who make movies really know how to put some good food in their bellies. The meals are huge. In between meals there is a food truck, on set, that has all the food and drink you could want. This is manned by an instantly likable young bloke named Rooster. Always friendly; he must have inherited his good nature from his old man, the moustached, cigar smoking, rancher Wally Welch.

Something that becomes more and more apparent to me on my trips to America is the musical direction that I shall take. Whenever I sit down to play for people it is always swing tunes that I play. At lunch some of the crew sat around and listened to me play. It's a style that I compose and perform naturally and most who hear it say "There is hardly anyone doing that shit anymore," like TC said today at lunch.