Life After 'Project Runway': Buffi Bowie

Buffi Bowie*

*If you have not seen Zoolander.. this might not make much sense.

I am hoping David Bowie was not at the BBQ Films screening of Zoolander this past weekend.  It is pretty unlikely, but just in case I really hope he was not there. I don’t claim to be much of an actor, which is the excuse that I am using for pouring myself extremely strong vodkas. The aim was to calm my nerves for that one-liner I was to delivery in front of a couple hundred of Zoolander fans (which were turning into the thousands the more of that damn vodka I continued to drink and was very much seeing a few doubles), who would undoubtedly know whether or not I screwed up my one and only .. line. Glup, glup, guzzle guzzle, went the nervous Buffi.

BBQ Films throws these awesome movie screenings-come-parties-come-awesome-people-movements-come-world-domination… well, that’s how I saw it anyway.  I was invited to play the role of David Bowie in the interrupted intermission of Zoolander, which was caused by a fight we had staged.  The audience was ushered into a space, which we had set up for the Walk-Off: a runway in the middle of the space. Exciting for the audience and other actors, daunting for me as I hit behind some wooden wall, in a room that represented something more appropriate for a chainsaw massacre-esque horror movie.  Filled with electric chain saws and large cutting tools, it was starting to feel like I had walked into another time zone, or onto another set… Where the hell was I? What was I drinking? Was that actually vodka?  The paranoia set in as the room filled, I had Mugato by my side, reassuring me everything was going to “be ok, just follow my lead” – Jesus what does that even mean? Copy him?  I nod, and take a final sip. 

The rest is all but a blissful blur, as I find myself managing my line and strutting down the runway with that awesome drunken sexy swagger, which felt great to me, but on reflection.. I think I actually know what that drunken strut probably looked like. The crowd seems to eating this up! I did it! I actually did it, acting is soo easy!  After Hansel pulls his pants off, I declare the winner.  The audience returns back to the watch the rest of the movie.