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Getting to Know ... Adam White
by Mark Sweeney
Face Times Staff Writer
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Following in the footsteps of such journalistic luminaries as Mike Wallace, Barbara Walters and Ed Bradley, The Face Times' Mark Sweeney catches up with the big names in the Class of 2005 and poses the questions others have too much professionalism or integrity to ask. Today, Sweeney sits down with the person that Ladies' Home Journal recently called the "next big thing" in Hollywood: Adam White '05.
Mark Sweeney: Adam, after spending much of your life in such cold-weather areas as Hanover, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Canadian Province of Maine, you made the decision to move out to Los Angeles. What have been the biggest changes in your lifestyle since moving out to California?
Adam White: Well, I'm vegan now. Kidding. I'm not vegan. I don't even know what "vegan" means, to be honest. I think it's one of California's more conservative political branches, the one between socialism and communism.
But things were going fine out here until the writers' strike. I'm not part of the union, and the writers' strike actually had nothing to do with my own well-being, but the point is that right around that time I got fired from Mark Cuban's wine bar for eating pizza out of the trash can (this really happened).
Since then I've mostly been stalking the Santa Monica Hills in search of protein. Most people forget that above all the freeways and smog is a chain of mountains just loaded with natural splendor. And when you're down on your luck - a writer with nothing published or optioned - you end up hunting a lot of mountain lions with your bare hands. Also, you end up baking your own meth.
MS: What lessons from your time at Dartmouth have most guided you in your burgeoning professional career?
AW: Oh, definitely the class I took called Getting Published Immediately After College was super helpful in landing a book deal. And then there was Becoming a Millionaire Screenwriter - can't tell you how relevant and instructional that's been. What else... I enrolled in Successfully Applying to Creative Writing Grad School Programs my senior year. That must be why I have a Masters AND a Ph.D. hanging on my wall.
Oh, wait. I didn't take any of those classes because Dartmouth doesn't offer them. Thanks a lot, College on the Hill. You're the reason I have to sleep in my Saab 9-3 under the 405, eating perfectly adequate Whole Foods sushi instead of delicious sushi from Katsuya.
Seriously, I should have majored in bussing tables and correctly entering food orders into a restaurant's Aloha computer system. Then maybe I'd be head waiter.
MS: You have consistently regaled me with thrilling accounts of your brushes with famous actors during your time in L.A. (Strangely, though, 90 percent of those stories involve Carl Weathers.) What has been your most memorable brush-with-fame story? And which celebrity are you most looking forward to meeting?
AW: Funny you should ask -- Just last night I saw Clint Eastwood at Dan Tana's Restaurant. My Girlfriend ('06) was with me and she claimed Clint made eye contact with her and smiled. I told her that Clint could be on her Free Pass list, no questions asked, so long as it went down that night and so long as it went down in Dan Tana's bathroom. Nothing transpired. She claims that the idea is "vomit-inducing." I claim that the only thing "vomit-inducing" about the whole incident is letting a brush with Academy Award-winning greatness slip away like a spectral Native American in a jean jacket who visits you at night and tells you to go into the forest until your spirit animal visits you, and then you try to question him about which forest to go into, but he just nods and walks away, vanishing with each step like dust in the wind.
Other than that, yeah, I pretty much see Carl Weathers everywhere. Peet's Coffee, Gold's Gym, Wilshire Restaurant, Shoop's Deli ... He's such a big fan of Shoop's corn chowder that he orders one cup for now, and one cup to put in the fridge for later. And he wears sunglasses while speed-walking on the Gold's Gym treadmill. It's pretty badass.
MS: You have gained considerable acclaim for your award-winning website, theadamwhite.com, which has become the go-to place on the Interweb for information on Americana, 80's music videos, and Nicole Kidman. You also collaborated on the Our Time film. What else have you been up to lately?
AW: Mostly just reading through the archives of theadamwhite.com. Also I have an unpublished novel that my My Dad ('75) encouraged me not to let other people read, and a 400-page screenplay based on my childhood in Maine. In the screenplay, there's an alien attack, but I basically kill all the aliens because the movie-version of me is very similar to Batman. The script is kind of My Life ('05) meets The Dark Knight meets Independence Day. But funny. Like, I could definitely see Judd Apatow getting involved.
MS: Soon enough, we'll be dusting off our pong paddles and heading back to Hanover for our five-year reunion. By that time, it is socially crucial that all of us either a) have embarked on some sort of impressive career/trip/venture, b) have married someone really successful/hot, or c) have concocted some believable story that you've done either (a) or (b). What do you plan to do over the coming months to ensure that you'll be able to impress all of the '05s at our upcoming reunion?
AW: Have even you been listening? I'm making a movie with Judd freakin' Apatow! Suck on it, fellow Dartmouth grads.
No, honestly, come reunions I'll probably try to cozy up to anyone that still has a job in finance - by then maybe someone will have bought an Applebee's franchise. Maybe they'll give me a job. Maybe I can be head waiter. I'm really good with the Aloha system now. Promise.
Adam White joined Matt Heineman '05, Matt Wiggins, and Ben Grinnell '05 on a journey known as The Young Americans Project,
which saw them travel through all of the lower 48 in an RV to profile interesting peers.
The focus of the project was on the way young people view their world and what their hopes are for America, for their community, and for themselves.
The project spawned the documentary 'Our Time', which was awarded the Grand Jury Prize in the Solstice Film Festival earlier this year. A teaser for the documentary can be seen on their website, tyap.com.
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