Cool Times

“You try to help all the people you care about as much as you can, definitely. But at the same time you gotta be careful that you don’t burn out the connections for yourself.”

Unfortunately, everyone is not always understanding. “Especially in a place like Oakwood, especially new stage moms,” admits Luke, “they are gonna be asking, ‘Who is your manager?’ ‘Who is your agent?’ ‘What audition do you have?’ ‘What time is it?’ Just trying to ride your coattails any way they possibly can.

“Obviously, when I first got here, I didn’t have any friends, so I would go with the different activities, Sunday brunch, you know?, looking for friends. And then you sort of start to realize how fake that world is. Of course, my mom and I would never hound someone with questions like that. We feel like it would almost be rude. It puts us in a real weird position.”

Auditions and friends won and lost, endless conversations and screenplay ideas, for the most part life around the Oakwood is good, clean kid-actor fun; and, now that pilot season’s over, there’s a little more time to focus on other stuff. Hallee, who starts filming an independent this August based on the popular teen novel Speak, will also take some UCLA Extension classes this summer, go to Hawaii and hopefully learn how to drive. Caitlyn’s gotta find an agent and finish her three scripts. Luke has To the Raccoon — “sort of in pre-production” — which he needs to raise money for and cast, as well as edit his newest short, a “suburban comedy” called Fellowship. Along the way, if any one of them happens to score the role of a lifetime, they can be sure that their friends back at the Oakwood will be rooting them on.

As Hallee says, “Cool times.”