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Here's
an article from the Palm Beach Post on ActTrue client,
Jason Taylor of the Miami Dolphins. And a quote from the
article, "Behind every good player is a coach..." It's the
rule of excellence.....
Thursday,
August 28 http://www.palmbeachpost.com/sports/content/auto/epaper/editions/thursday/sports_f3d4edb9817b901400bf.html
Natural
born thriller By Hal Habib, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 28, 2003 DAVIE --
"I'll
kick your ass." Jason Taylor isn't messing around. You can
see it in his piercing brown eyes, in the smile that suddenly
disappeared. A visitor to Dolphins training camp pushed the
right button -- make that the wrong button -- and Taylor is
drawing the line. He's towering over the other guy, half his
size, for a stare down. A second passes before Taylor busts
out laughing. Too bad no director was around to yell "Cut!"
"If I could be a villain and kick somebody's butt, then I'll
shave the head, get on the screen big as heck and get after
somebody," Taylor says. Just like that, the impromptu screen
test is a print. Shakespeare had it half right: All the world
is a stage, but Taylor is not merely a player. He's a budding
actor, with a role in the soon-to-be released movie The Playmaker.
He's a pitchman, unabashedly taking a shower on your television.
He's Hollywood. Definitely Hollywood, hanging with Puff Daddy,
Tom Hanks, Mariah Carey. The Rock sat in his living room,
but that was no biggie. That's his neighbor. Oh, and he can
speed-dial Michael Jordan on his cellphone. Still rolling
credits? He's a husband and a father. And a Pro Bowl football
player. Don't for a second question that or he'll kick your...
you know. Or maybe he won't. The would-be threat he uttered
came in response to a question of whether he actually could
play the bad guy. It's a totally logical question of someone
who recently visited a hospital unit for premature babies
and found himself fighting back tears. Tough guy? Does this
sound like a tough guy?
Years
ago, back in Pittsburgh, a childhood buddy named Brian needed
a kidney transplant. Taylor went so far as to get tested for
compatibility. "We weren't a match, unfortunately," he says.
(Brian's mother was.) So many roles, so little time. These
days, offensive tackles aren't the only ones wondering how
to stop Jason Taylor. "He's always on the move," says Zach
Thomas, his brother-in-law and the Dolphins' middle linebacker.
"Same way at his house. He can't just sit in the house all
day. He's got to get up and do something. When I'm at the
house, I'm going to relax. He's got to be cleaning the car,
doing whatever." Right, whatever. Pick up Dolphins MVP award.
Hop in limo. Fly overnight to New York. Shoot commercial.
Fly to Los Angeles. Attend AIDS charity function. Quit gawking
at Tom Hanks. Fly home. Kiss wife and child. Go to practice.
That's just a few days' slice of Taylor's fast and furious
off-season as he begins preparing for life as an actor after
football. What's that, you say? He's just 28 years old? Right.
Time's a-wastin'. "It's something we talked about in 1996,
when we first met," says his agent, Gary Wichard. Not only
is Taylor always on the go, he's always going full speed,
which means he's attacking this acting stuff by plunging in.
"Want to feel a new kind of clean?" he asks us in his Neutrogena
commercial. He's pitching something called a "Power Scrub,"
destroying all that dirt and odor on his chest by showering
before our eyes. The guys in the Dolphins' locker room loved
it. With all the smack Taylor throws their way, they finally
had a season's worth of fodder to humble "The Neutrogena Boy."
"I was just happy to see Jason using soap for once," Thomas
says. Defensive end David Bowens: "His armpits were as hairy
as they could be." Defensive end Adewale Ogunleye: "I've seen
it, man, I've seen it. Showers? You know... I don't know....
" Ogunleye was particularly miffed that the players didn't
find Neutrogena goodie bags in their lockers. "He's selfish
with it, I guess." Sure enough, a few days later, the players
found Neutrogena goodie bags in their lockers. "You guys need
all the help you can get," Taylor's note said. "They look
a little rough from training so I figured I'd give them a
couple of products and see if we can rectify some of the ugliness
that's going on here," Taylor says. Will the Dolphins have
the best skin in the NFL? "No," he says, "because they get
one gift bag and this is it. Then they have to go buy it.
I know a lot of these cheap guys ain't going to buy it." Access
Hollywood accomplished.
The bigger
question is whether Hollywood is buying Jason Taylor. So far,
it is. Neutrogena wanted him because he has "a Neutrogena
body," spokesman Lisa Wallender says, adding, "What's good
on the outside is also good on the inside. He is very Neutrogenic."
Energetic, too. As the shoot was about to begin, the director
summoned Taylor with bad news: The hot water was on the fritz.
Taylor would have to spend the next couple of hours showering
with cold water. "I expected to see Jason get a little upset,
but Jason was really diplomatic and said he'd put up with
the cold water," says Edward Landers, marketing manager for
Neutrogena's men's line. "Then he discovered it was a joke
and thought it was very funny." Taylor has made several trips
to Los Angeles, meeting and greeting. Funny how, with one
cross-country flight, the NFL's sack leader with 18 1/2 becomes
another Hollywood free agent hungry for a break. "He's got
a fire and a presence," says Andrew Haas, a producer at Paramount
whose credits include The Italian Job. Haas, a Dolphins fan,
was quite familiar with Taylor before their meeting, vividly
recalling the famous NFL Films clip of Taylor during the "Midnight
Miracle" collapse against the Jets three seasons ago. In their
meeting, "He knew specific movies," Haas says. "He referenced
movies he wanted to participate in. It wasn't as if it was
a joke to him. He was very smart, very articulate and had
a good presence. It wasn't like, 'OK, I came in off an 18
1/2 -sack season and now I want to try my hand in Hollywood.'
" On one flight back from L.A., Seth Levit, a Dolphins publicist
and friend of Taylor's, noticed Taylor was deep into a book.
"Since when do you read?" Levit said. Taylor lifted up the
book. It was on acting. A PR firm represents Taylor. His agent
sends out packets touting his Neutrogenicity. As if that's
a secret. "I have not been able to watch a Dolphin game with
a girlfriend without having them comment on how beautiful
Jason Taylor is," says Norm Golightly, president of Saturn
Films, Nicolas Cage's partner and, luckily enough, another
Dolphins fan. "Having good looks certainly is a step in the
right direction, and he's just incredibly charismatic on television
and in person as well." Tim O'Hair, producer for The Department
of Motion Pictures and a former executive at Universal, even
sent Taylor a script. "It's a movie set in a world he knows
really well," O'Hair says. "It's a movie set in pre-season
football. It would be a natural for him."
Behind
every good player is a coach, and Taylor has hired Marc Durso
as his acting coach. "Jason Taylor knows he's Jason Taylor,"
Durso says. "He's under the microscope every Sunday, of course,
playing football and then those after-game interviews. He
understands when it's time to focus and when it's time to
deliver."
That's
clear to Taylor's wife, Katina, once an aspiring actress herself.
"He puts his whole heart and soul into acting just like he
does football," Katina Taylor says. "It's fun to watch him
read scripts. He asks me to read with him and we both bust
out laughing." Role of choice: action hero Taylor never has
been shy, whether it was acting in school plays, church productions
or simply acting up, says his mother, Georgia. One of Jason's
first gigs was as a puppeteer at the local church. Before
he knew it, he got the hook. "He got too tall," Georgia Taylor
says. "You could see him over the stage." Taylor's role of
choice today would be along the lines of an Arnold Schwarzenegger
(the action hero, not the politician), meaning we could be
watching the next Agent 99. If and when Taylor gets the call,
it's sure to be to the tune of The Godfather theme. That's
the ringing tone on his cellphone. "My favorite movie, man,"
Taylor says. "Best movie made. There are a few movies I really
like, but The Godfather's right up there. Scarface. Gladiator,
with Russell Crowe. The Bad Boys series. I'm ticked off it
was shot here in Miami and I didn't get a chance to be in
it." A pity, but it's not like he doesn't see his share of
high company. When Katina threw a birthday party for Jason
and Thomas (both born on Sept. 1) in a suite at an Eminem
concert, The Rock showed up. Levit remembers the day Taylor
checked his messages and heard, "Hey, Jason, it's Mike. Just
called to see what's up. Give me a call when you get a chance."
Don't you hate it when Michael Jordan bugs you like that?
Says Taylor: "I've always been a fan of not only he but a
lot of the guys I've gotten to know: Puff Daddy and Scottie
Pippen and A-Rod. They're so cool and such nice guys that
you get comfortable around them and you realize you're not
there as a fan. You're a friend with them. You don't sit there
and look at them wide." Taylor is on the receiving end of
plenty of that, of course. He still can't get over how he
has "the power to make somebody's day" simply with a smile,
a handshake, an autograph. That goes back to his days at Akron,
where ex-roommate Bryan Coles remembers a woman who was so
thrilled to see him she jumped out in traffic and kissed Taylor's
truck. "I've been asked to sign all kinds of things,'' Taylor
says. "Babies. I signed somebody's arm one time and the guy
came back and showed me how he got tattooed over that."
Reaching
out to help others With celebrity status comes money. Lots
of it. Taylor signed a six-year, $42 million contract in 2001.
The cash has provided him a comfortable lifestyle, sure, but
also the ability to spread the wealth. He sent a high school
girls soccer team to camp. He and Thomas assist The Miami
Project to Cure Paralysis. Taylor bought his mother a house.
Every Friday at Akron, football players read to hospitalized
children. They're asked to go only once a year. "Jason went
every week -- without fail," says his positional coach, Mike
Williams. "I'd do anything for Jason Taylor." The newest thing
on his plate is a golf tournament to benefit Miami's Jackson
Memorial Hospital. "Just to walk through there and see the
sick children and see the newborn babies that weigh only 2
pounds, and there's 70 of them in the premie unit...," Katina
says. "And just to watch my husband try to fight back tears....
He's really great about that. For Thanksgiving, it's, 'Katina,
we've got to get a couple of families we can give money to,'
or 'We need to come up with this for Christmas.' " Taylor
bought his mom a house. Installed the dishwasher himself.
Ripped out the old carpet. Swept the leaves off the back patio.
"You feel so much better about yourself when you get done,"
Taylor says. "In this life (in the NFL) there's a lot of people
that are selfish and self-centered. You feel on a pedestal
when everyone is catering to you. You get free meals, everyone
hands you things and sometimes it clouds your vision of what
life is really like for most people." 'Let me do my thing'
With all this activity -- and two trips this off-season to
lift the spirits of the troops in Iraq and Germany -- there
are things Jason Taylor wants Dolphins fans to know.
The curtain
fell on Jason Taylor the actor the day camp began, and he
did not miss any workouts before that, either. He is eager
to team with newcomer Junior Seau on wrinkles he thinks could
surprise quarterbacks. His 18 1/2 sacks last season were fine,
but he wants Michael Strahan's NFL season record of 22 1/2
set in 2001. He has no desire to watch the playoffs on television
again. In short, he can't understand the criticism for taking
care of his post-football life. "Fans are fans and they have
their opinion and they want to voice them," he says. "Whatever.
That's fine. Look at some of the great players in this league.
Strahan. You think he sits at home all summer long, that he
can't do anything? Look at Marino, Elway. I'm not saying I'm
a Marino or an Elway, or an Emmitt Smith, or some of the guys
who go out there and do things, but please. We're all professionals
and we all understand what our job is and we have lot more
to lose than they do. "It's frustrating sometimes. Don't hate.
Let me do my thing and we'll be fine. You know what? If I
go out there and God forbid not have a season as good as I
had last year, it's not because of freaking Neutrogena and
it's not because I spent a few days shooting a movie." Want
to argue with him? Go ahead. But be warned. He might kick
your butt. hal_habib@pbpost.com
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