My Big Break - My Big Break and American Beauty

My Big Break and American Beauty

When Zierra first began filming his roommate Wes Bentley, the young actor had recently screen tested for the coveted role of Ricky Fitts in American Beauty but hadn't yet heard if he got the part. In My Big Break, Bentley discusses the experience of screen testing and his hope that he will be cast in the movie. Once Bentley landed the part, Zierra filmed him going to the Los Angeles premiere of American Beauty before the actor had any idea how the film or his performance would be received. The filmmaker was given rare access by Dreamworks to film the premiere from the vantage point of the red carpet. Zierra subsequently filmed Bentley attending the film's premiere in Toronto as well as the media frenzy that surrounded Bentley after American Beauty became a critically acclaimed hit. My Big Break then follows Bentley through his fast rise to fame and his misgivings about the pressures of the film industry. The final cut of My Big Break incorporates Bentley's admissions to the press, a decade after American Beauty, that he became a heroin addict after his initial success and how his career is now getting back on track. Coincidentally, Ricky Fitts, the character Bentley played, became an iconic figure in popular culture because of his unusual habit of filming everything and everybody with his digital camera. At the time, the concept of people filming everything around them was strange and new. While Bentley was playing a character that represented the advent of a new digital media generation, his own life was being digitally chronicled by Zierra.