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Show 'Hooray for Hollywood' says local actor Jewkes studios. Jewkes said. Jewkes' work attracted the interest of Wally Nacita, the vice-president of casting at Warners. He asked Jewkes to come out and audition for the Kasdan Western, "Silverado." Jewkes said he tried out for the part of MacKendrick the son of a cattle baron in the story. A . more sensitive type than his father, he is left to run the old man's empire. Jewkes traveled to California last September and read for the part at Warner Brothers. A week later, he said, he was called back to read for Lawrence Kasdan himself. Jewkes is aware he came into the interview with handicaps. Hollywood filmmakers are more confident that actors who have worked in LA. can do the job. he said. "Mv credits were j mainly in local community theater," he said. "Also, I was nervous and I think they detected that." But Kasdan and the casting director were encouraging. "They said Ishould move to LA.," he said. The cast of "Silverado" has since been announced. It includes Kevin Kline (who did "The Big Chill" for Kasdan, along with "Sophie's Choice"), Rosanna Arquette (Nicole Baker in TV's "Executioner's Song"), Scott Glenn (Alan Shepard in "The Right Stuff" ) and newcomer Kevin Costner. Even now, Jewkes doesn't know which actor is playing the role he tried to get. "It was a good part, and I would have loved to do it," he said. His move to California, he said, has meant a big change, and he admitted it's demoralizing. In Utah, he said, he was able to make a living from acting, directing and commercials. commer-cials. "It was nice to do that and feel i I'm something. I could enjoy my life j and go skiing. Now I'm nothing and nobody and I'm broke one of 60,000 actors," he said. Richard Jew kes by Rick Brough Richard Jewkes is familiar to Park City audiences as a director and to Utah audiences as an actor. Last fall, he had the chance to become a familiar face to a national audience. Jewkes tried out for a major role in the new Western being made by writer-director Lawrence Kasdan, writer-director of "The Big Chill." His story bears out the cliche that an actor needs talent, but also luck. Jewkes just happened to work at the Sundance film workshop this summer. sum-mer. And a videotape with his work just happened to be seen by a casting director at Warner Brothers. No, he didn't get the part. But Jewkes has now moved to California to try breaking into the industry. And he already has won a small part in an episode of the "Fall Guy" TV series. (That looks like a baby step, but not when you consider the tremendous competition in Los Angeles. ) On the other hand, he reflected, he has gone about as far as he could as a free-lance performer. It's hard to spring from Salt Lake to major film roles, because industry filmmakers have a stigma about "regional" actors. "They feel that if you're good enough, you'd be in LA." He has always wanted to try the Big Time, he said. Jewkes said he will appear in a February, 1985 episode of "The Fall Guy" as a security guard. He gives the impression that if you turn away to grab a beer, you'll miss him. But getting the role is a good sign. Friends told him, he said, that he was crazy if he didn't stay in L.A. at least a year, and he shouldn't expect to get a job for the first six months. "I feel really lucky to have a job within the first month," he said. He has also auditioned for a TV movie, a soap opera, and episodes of "The Knight Rider" and "Call to Glory." Another good sign is that, between auditions, he is working at jobs related to the industry. He helped build sets on "The Bikini Shop," a "Porky's"-style comedy. He was happy for the work, but was glad he didn't have a chance to audition for it, he said. He can also continue the kinds of projects he did in Utah, such as working in small theater groups and working with prison dramatic productions. pro-ductions. Jewkes plans to return to Utah and Park City periodically. He enjoys the drive over the southwestern desert. "It would be marvelous to put together a show with Hollywood actors and bring it back here," he said. And if he ever makes it big, "I would probably come back and invest." "I'll always want to come back." Jewkes still maintains contacts with Utah. He was in Park City last week to work on the next two runs of "THIS is the Place" at the Egyptian Theatre. Jewkes has been the director of the musical revue from its inception. His story, he told the Record, began with the Sundance Film Institute, Robert Redford's annual June workshop where writers, actors and directors, both unknowns and well-knowns, join together to work on projects at the Sundance Resort. They experiment, rehearse and view the work on videotape. The Institute has attracted interest even from major actors in the industry, Jewkes said, because of its freedom to try new things. "It's like Disneyland," he said. The workshop received 5,000 applications from actors this year, he said. Local actors are almost never involved, except as extras. But Jewkes got his chance when another actor was unable to appear. Jewkes was chosen to work on "The Edwards Boys," a project by writer-director Ken Harrison. The story involved four brothers (one played by Jewkes), who gather after the death of their father. Another actor involved was William Devane (who has a Utah connectiona connec-tiona ranch in Wasatch County.) Jewkes gave an example of Sundance's technique. The four "brothers," he said, gathered around a pool table and improvised dialogue in character. Ken Harrison rewrote one of his scenes, using the dialogue, and brought it back the next day for rehearsal. The result was a half-hour of videotape footage, which was shown to the Warner Brothers studio. Sundance work is often shown to the |