E.C. Glass graduate guest of honor at CINEviews Film Festival

By Casey Gillis

Published: November 14, 2008

Paul Fitzgerald was in the hot seat Friday night.

 
The CINEviews Film Festival continues with several film screenings that begin at 10:30 a.m. today.
Fitzgerald and David Crank, the Emmy-winning art director of “John Adams,” will also lead a workshop, “The Challenges of Creating Period on Film: John Adams From Both Sides of the Camera,” at 1:30 p.m. It costs $10 for students and $20 for the general public.
For a complete listing of films, visit http://www.riverviews.net.

The E.C. Glass High School graduate, now an actor, screenwriter and director living in New York, is the guest of honor at the fourth annual CINEviews Film Festival, which is being held at Riverviews Artspace this weekend.

During Friday night’s opening gala, Randolph College communications professor Jennifer Gauthier and Fitzgerald kept the crowd laughing as she grilled him about his career for a special program called “The Three Faces of Paul,” which was modeled after Bravo’s “Inside the Actor’s Studio.”

The hour-long program had Fitzgerald reflecting on when the acting bug first bit him — “I went onstage at 8 years old and got a laugh, and I never really looked back” — and getting a little nostalgic about his time at Glass.

“I never talk to anybody who speaks about their high school theater program in the same spirit that I do,” he said.

Gauthier also showed a reel of clips from Fitzgerald’s work, scenes that had him acting opposite people like Paul Giamatti (the HBO miniseries “John Adams”), Anthony LaPaglia (a recent episode of “Without a Trace”), Sam Waterston (“Law & Order”) and Lara Flynn Boyle (“The Practice”).

Fitzgerald said working on the Emmy-winning “John Adams,” which was shot near Richmond, was a thrill.

“From an actor’s standpoint, in the industry, it was definitely considered a gem to be involved with,” he said.

“It was unlike anything I’d done because it was a period thing. You’re in a powdered wig all day long. And knickers.”

He also spoke about going to the Sundance Film Festival in 2006 with his directorial debut, “Forgiven.”

The film, which he also wrote and starred in, was nominated for the prestigious Grand Jury Prize.

“They sort of take care of you in a way, (and) guide you in the process,” he said. “You realize you’re a part of this whole movement.”

Meeting Sundance founder Robert Redford was a highlight.

“That was my Sundance moment,” Fitzgerald said.

Gauthier concluded the program with the same series of questions “Actor’s Studio” host James Lipton frequently asks his guests. The topics ranged from Fitzgerald’s favorite word (apropos) to turn-ons (“people with passion”) to the sound or noise he loves the most (“The silent street outside my apartment in Brooklyn”).

Her final question was the one Lipton usually closes with: “If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?”

Fitzgerald paused for a moment before answering.

“That, you know, you didn’t do as bad as you think you did.”