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A Casting Announcement

2022-05-31 · announcement · John · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing (also: Projects) · mode: Personal update · tags: self promotion, fundraising ask, civic or action cta

Formerly titled A MAJOR Casting Announcement.

John announces, tongue in cheek, that he too has been cast in the Turtles All the Way Down movie, as number 19 on the call sheet, recalling his cut Fault in Our Stars cameo; he then praises Crash Course's reach and promotes the 2022 Crash Course coin.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; the movie's casting news and John's own casting

  • ★★★ John recalls that in March The Hollywood Reporter announced Isabela Merced would play Aza in the movie adaptation of his book Turtles All the Way Down. — 00:00:00 · Turtles All the Way Down
  • ★★ John adds that Deadline Hollywood then reported that Felix Mallard and Cree would also be in the movie. — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ John announces, as the news no major publication covered, that he has also been cast in the Turtles All the Way Down movie. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Turtles All the Way Down

00:00:29 — John's cut TFIOS cameo, rehearsing his line, and Isabela Merced's acting

  • ★★ John says he has never managed a cameo in an adaptation of his books: in The Fault in Our Stars movie he had two lines, but his acting was so bad the scene was cut. (playful) — 00:00:29 · Nerdfighteria, The Fault in Our Stars (film)
  • ★ John says that in the eight years since, he has practised saying words normally while being filmed, then rehearses his line in several deliveries. (playful) — 00:00:29
  • ★ John expects he will probably be cut from this movie too, and says that is okay. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:58
  • ★★★ John says the work of real actors amazes him: Isabela inhabits Aza so completely that during difficult scenes he wants to intervene, and the cameras and lights disappear. — 00:00:58

00:01:40 — The call sheet and John's nickname '19'; more Question Tuesday videos with the cast

  • ★★ On John's first day on set the second assistant director, Tracy, greeted him as '19', since he is 19th on the call sheet, which ranks actors by screen time; the hair and makeup crew gave him a 19 necklace. (playful) — 00:01:40
  • ★★ John says he always wanted a nickname that is loving and humbling: a regular name is chosen when nobody knows you, while a nickname is given when people know something about you. (playful) — 00:02:09
  • ★★ John says he will make more Question Tuesday videos with the movie's cast and with its directors. — 00:02:09 · Question Tuesday
  • ★★ John asks viewers to leave questions for the cast and directors in the comments. — 00:02:09

00:02:38 — Crash Course's reach, the 'Crash Course Guy' nickname and the 2022 Crash Course coin; sign-off

  • ★★ John says almost everyone who recognises him on errands knows him as the Crash Course Guy, his favourite nickname, even more than 19, because he is proud of the people who make Crash Course. — 00:02:38 · Complexly, Crash Course
  • ★★★ John says that in 2021 alone Crash Course helped tens of millions of people learn, about everything from organic chemistry to Black American history. — 00:02:38 · Crash Course
  • ★★★ The 2022 Crash Course coin is on sale for two weeks: a $100 coin sponsors 2,000 learners and a $500 coin 10,000; its design draws on the Lascaux cave paintings. Coin funding helped launch three series last year (2021). — 00:03:07 · Crash Course coin, Crash Course
  • ★★★ John asks viewers who can afford it to get a coin at CrashCourseCoin.com; most can't, which is fine, since Crash Course is free for everyone forever. — 00:03:37 · Crash Course coin, Crash Course

In the description and comments

  • ★ In a comment John says he is off to learn his one line in the movie. — creator comment

Humor (significant)

  • John explains why his Fault in Our Stars cameo never made the film — 00:00:29

    “but my acting was so distractingly bad that they had to cut the scene out of the movie”

  • John rehearses his single line over and over, in ever stranger deliveries — 00:00:58

    “That was an angry version.”

  • After praising how real Isabela makes her scenes feel, John turns to his own performance — 00:01:40

    “which is something no one will say about my performance in Turtles all the way down”

  • John explains why a nickname is better than a given name, using his '19' — 00:02:09

    “You're the 19th most important member of this cast”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Crash Course · Crash Course coin · Turtles All the Way Down (film)

Also: People: Cree Cicchino · Felix Mallard · Isabela Merced

Projects: Complexly

Works: The Fault in Our Stars (film)

Organizations: Deadline Hollywood · The Hollywood Reporter

Rituals: Question Tuesday

Places: Lascaux

Characters: Aza Holmes

Only in the description or credits: Turtles All the Way Down

Also centred on Turtles All the Way Down (film): On the Movies · An Amazing Day · Hello! Meet Daisy! · Hello! Meet Aza! · Director Hannah Marks Is Nervous To Meet You · The Truth of How Books Become Movies

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