Al Kyte's Life Take-Aways

                 

I spent a few years in the military, a few years teaching high school, and 37 years on the University of California faculty.  Then my work culminated in a one-week “movie career”.  I was hired and flown to Canada to teach fly casting to two actors for the movie, Dotson’s Journey.  One was David James Elliott, best known as Commander Harmon Rabb in the TV series, J.A.G.. The other was Alicia Morton, star of Disney’s Annie.  In this film, Alicia was cast as David’s daughter, bonding over a love of fly fishing during her parents’ difficult divorce.

Meeting David felt a little strange as his speech and mannerisms were the same as his TV character.  It felt as if we were somehow talking in one of his TV shows.  At first he looked at me intently, perhaps trying to envision how it would be having to learn a key element of his role from me.  Thankfully, both actors were enjoyable to work with and comfortable in what they learned.  

We spent the first three days in a movie studio in Vancouver.  The actors had a variety of commitments, so I was limited to an hour a day to teach them.  I also had meetings with prop and wardrobe people who wanted input as to what fishing equipment and apparel to obtain for the actors.  I was put up at a Hotel there, where an updated script was delivered to my room each night.  The flowers and fruit basket there indicated they thought I must be someone important.

The movie’s filming started on the fourth day at a country estate about an hour away.  Much of the studio, including the actors’ wardrobe and rooms, were now on site housed in huge trucks.  The estate had a pond where I continued my instruction.  During my down time, I had the opportunity to watch the filming process.  Fascinating!  Even the movie’s dog had a double.

At one point the director called me over, “Al, we need to know how to hold this fish.  We want Alicia to catch a big fish, and do the Hemmingway thing—kiss and release it.”  The fish was a three-pound trout in a water-filled ice chest.  As I reached in and touched it, that fish bolted upward, almost leaving the ice chest.  I realized I was accustomed to holding fish that had been exhausted from being caught.  This fish had all its energy.  I said, “Let me try something different”, which was simply to hold and move that fish ever so gently back and forth, slowly lifting it out of the water.  Although now forced to breathe without water and surely uncomfortable, that fish remained calm as Alicia reached over to touch it.  Lowering it to the water again I thought to myself, “I was fortunate.  When the time comes, they won’t be able to do that.  There won’t be a scene like that in the movie.”  I was right.  The movie had no such scene.  I’ve wondered if, after some failed attempts, they had come to regard me as some sort of “fish whisperer”.

The next day, noticing that the filming was aimed away from the pond, I went there to set up for my instruction.  Soon I heard the director calling out and waving to me.  I heard him say, “Al, you’re in the scene.”  Had they decided to include a scene with me, an experienced fly fisherman, doing some fishing in the background?  When I ran over to him, the director said, “We turned the camera around to film in the opposite direction and you were in the scene.  We needed you out of the scene.”  I was in the background all right, but not in the movie, just in the way.  Embarrassing.  My glimpse of stardom came crashing back down to reality.  My name did appear in the credits, however—just not as an actor.  Oh well, ‘That’s show biz,’ I guess.