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Actor gives $5,000 to online acquaintance
by Dan Bialek
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Actor Nicholas Fee’s $10,000 smile. Photo courtesy of Nicholas Fee |
Many young actors dream of winning a big talent contest. However, not many dream about giving the half of their prize money to a person they met through the Internet.
Manhattan resident Nicholas Fee did both of these last month.
In November, Fee was a finalist in the Lycos Model Search 2000. Lycos, the well-known Internet search engine, photographed models from all 50 states and placed their pictures on their website, where over 50 million votes were cast to determine the winners.
Fee learned about the contest last Memorial Day while biking on the Strand in Hermosa Beach. When heard about the prize money being offered, he got 60 of his actor and model friends to sign up as well. Fee came up with the idea that whoever won out of their group would donate half of the prize money to their friend, Barry Carver, who was trying to begin filming his first independent movie, "Romeo and Juliet Revisited."
Fee met Carver online in a chat room for aspiring actors and filmmakers. They and are now part of a group of young theatre and film denizens who promote themselves using the Internet to display their work and talents.
"When I heard about the contest, I thought that it would be the perfect way to help Barry get his project off the ground," Fee said.
Lycos users selected Fee as a finalist out of over 12,000 entries. Fee said that couldn’t believe that he won out of field of so many.
"I had no idea I was going to win. It was totally unexpected," he said.
Although Laura Carter, a Texas native, went on to win the $50,000 first prize, Lycos awarded Fee $10,000 for his top-five finish. Fee said it wasn’t hard to follow through with donating half of the cash to Carver, since it was his idea in the first place.
"Besides, if I didn’t my friends would have killed me," he said jokingly.
As part of his prize, Lycos flew Fee to Boston in November to shoot test photos, do interviews, and participate in a runway fashion show. However, Fee said that he plans to stick with acting rather than pursue a modeling career.
"You get money out of modeling, and that's about it," Fee said. "Acting is different. It gives you the chance to touch people everyday when you go to work."
Fee said that in addition to beginning classes at UCLA in January to complete his degree in theatre and communications, he will also be acting in an independent film, "Living Beyond Dreams," a remake of the "Alice in Wonderland" story. Fee will also start working at a production company next year to get a better feel for the business side of acting and to gain experience for his future.
"My goal is to have successful acting career, but if that doesn’t work out I’ll probably go into casting and producing," he said. "That way, I’ll still be working in the industry that I love."
Fee said that being an actor in Hollywood can be tough work, but he that help from his parents have made the road to stardom an easier path to tread.
"My parents have been really supportive," he said. "My mom’s been practically the backbone of my career."
Besides thanking his parents, Fee also said that he owed a debt to the Internet as well. He said that he loved living in the South Bay and wouldn’t like having to move to Hollywood to further his career.
"I wouldn’t live anywhere else," he said. "I don’t know how people do it, not living by the beach."
He said that the Internet enabled him to make important contacts and share ideas with other artists, and that this tool was opening up acting careers to more and more people.
"I think the Internet is giving opportunities to a lot of people who want to be actors, but who don't necessarily want to live in Hollywood," he said. "You don't have to leave home to try and make it anymore."
Fee encouraged fans and fellow actors to visit his website at www.geocities.com/julybabie4. ER