Kathryn Morris UK

Stand-ins – Credit Where Credit Is Due

Sometimes you don’t get the credit you deserve. Sometimes someone takes credit for your work. And then there’s the film business, where you get the credit but somehow it is still not you.

All of which fits in so very well with the topic of the film we are going to talk about here.

Stand-ins is a 1997 film starring Jordan Ladd (Death Proof), Daphne Zuniga (Spaceballs), and Katherine Heigl (Grey’s Anatomy). It is very play-like with just a small number of characters mostly in a single setting. Our leading ladies are in fact not leading ladies. They are movie stand-ins, look-alikes that take the place of the real stars for parts that don’t clearly identify the person, such as an over the shoulder camera shot. Think stunt performer but less dangerous.

The story is set in the 1930s in what is often called the Golden Age of Cinema. It centres around a meeting of a group of these stand-ins at a birthday celebration for one of them. Each of them had dreams of making it big in Hollywood but has found themselves in this anonymous profession standing-in for the likes of Greta Garbo, Rita Hayworth, Bette Davis, Jean Harlow, and Marlene Detrich. The audiences sees them all the time but doesn’t know them at all.

Kathryn, mis-credited as Katherine Morris (perhaps they just copied Ms. Heigl’s spelling), is only in the very first couple of minutes of this one. She doesn’t have any lines as such, just some grunting and crying. Kathryn plays a ‘legitimate actress’, unlike our leads. I’m not sure what the implications of stating the actor or the films they star in are ‘legit’. The mind boggles. A shown news article (typo-ridden headline and all) says that her character, Lillian ‘Peg’ Entwhistle, killed herself by jumping off the Hollywood sign. I think Kathryn could legitimately claim a stunt acting credit as well for climbing a frame structure in uncomfortable and inappropriate shoes, and a skirt.

I feel like we’ve finally been able to give Kathryn the credit for this one, as it has passed largely unnoticed for so many years.

On KM UK we definitely do our best to give credit where it is due. We very much stand on the shoulders of giants and benefit from other’s generosity. In this case the credit goes to Mel Smith. Recently, Mel very kindly reached out to me about Kathryn being in this film. I was sceptical but checked it out and was happy to find out it was true. Over the years I’d stumbled across places suggesting Kathryn was in this film but have been burnt too often. The name was spelt differently and by the projects 1997 release, Kathryn’s career was reasonably well established, even allowing for a year or so ahead of then for the filming to have actually taken place. Only one site I’ve found has linked the mis-credit to Kathryn. I’ve submitted a correction to IMDb about this, though they have yet to correct the obvious error over Malibu Hot Summer (aka Sizzle Beach USA) so I’m not holding my breath on this one.

Stand-ins is available on various video platforms including Amazon Prime, and DVD in some territories. The Amazon US page with a video of the opening sequence, and a link to Prime version, is HERE.

There are a small collection of screencaps and a short video clip from Stand-ins now in the Gallery.

Ink

This was looking like it might be one that got away. One of the very few items of Kathryn’s work that I never got to see.

The mid-1990s was an important time in Kathryn’s career. She took lots of small roles in films and TV shows. Most actors do the same thing. They are learning their trade and making connections that could stand them in good stead for the future. Pensacola: Wings Of Gold, Kathryn’s first as a series regular in a leading role, was still a year away.

By that period Ted Danson was already very established in the industry after a number of films and a long run in the show Cheers. Ted had gone through his apprenticeship more than a decade earlier. He was looking for a new vehicle for himself, and no doubt the networks were too. The year before the comedy Becker came along, Ted tried another comedy called Ink. This time he got to work with his wife, the wonderful Mary Steenburgen (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist).

Ink is based in a newspaper (ask your parents if you’re not sure what that is, it’s sort of the Internet without reception or battery worries). Ted and Mary play journalists who have recently divorced but find themselves working together, despite attempts not to. Hilarity ensues. It lasted just the one season.

For ages the credit has been sitting in Kathryn’s filmography as ‘woman’ in the pilot episode (season 1, episode 1) of Ink. It is very much correct but really tells us nothing. Well, I can finally expand on that description. The more accurate version is…. ready for this? Taken directly from the show itself. ‘Woman on the street’. Yes. That’s it. That is Kathryn’s full credit in this.

Sadly it is another blink and you’ll miss it appearance of Kathryn in something. Look at the picture above for 10 seconds and you’ve gone too long. To be fair, if they ran the credits in order of appearance, she’d practically be the headline act. Less than 1 minute into the show is all she gets. I hoped for a funny call back to that opening scene but it was not to be. It’s a bright, shining moment, but a moment none the less.

As you’ve come to expect of this site there are some screencaps from the scene and a short video of it now in the Gallery. Despite the small size and not great quality of the images and video, it is unmistakably Kathryn.

Many thanks to the person who made this available. You brought to an end a very long search.

The Protocol Clip – Now With Added Kathryn

Finally, a clip from The Protocol with Kathryn really in it.

This follows on from the previously found video as Xen Sams (as Agent Chase) goes into the interrogation room to talk to Kathryn (brilliantly playing very pregnant woman).

No longer is she just a lady, sat alone in a room watched on a TV screen. She’s actually a living, breathing, talking lady.

Kathryn’s character appears to be seeking asylum from an outer realm to this apparently wonderful place. Wonderful if you like all your citizens drugged up to the eyeballs to prevent anything as horrible as feelings. The snowflakes can’t handle, snowflakes. It also prevents violence etc. too. The drugs giveth, the drugs taketh away.

A copy of this new video has been added to the KM UK Gallery as well a small set of screencaps taken from it

The Protocol ‘Trailer’

Kathryn’s The Protocol co-star Xen Sams has been doing some promotional work following the screening of the piece at the recent New York Short Film Festival.

It has consisted mostly of interviews on various small YouTube channels and Facebook groups. Xen’s main focus has been to talk about mental health issues the film was created to highlight. The specific details of The Protocol; the plot, the cast, etc.; were largely glossed over during the chats. However, one of them did start with a clip from the film. Xen also started to say the project was being developed as a “network…” but was cut off before she could finish. There has been talk from the beginning of looking at The Protocol as a possible TV series. That must still be being tried.

The clip also emerged on Xen’s on YouTube channel and has been described separately as a trailer and a teaser. To me a teaser is very brief and just gives a hint of the project in question. A trailer should be a longer video containing more information about the story, with a few of the highlights shown. Ideally it should be spoiler free but all to often these days major film trailers show too much. This is more of a clip. As it happens it dovetails into the clip KM UK previously found over 2 years ago. It fits into the middle of it.

Kathryn only features in the background on a screen, sat in the interrogation room, as we’ve seen previously.

Watch the new clip of The Protocol courtesy of Xen Sams on HERE on YouTube. A small copy has been added to the KM UK Gallery as well.

The video description from YouTube gives a lot more information about the film:

In a dystopian future, after decades of war, the leadership of a new government, called The Federation, was formed to provide a safe haven for those that wanted to rid themselves of the raw human emotions that devastated an entire generation. On the verge of collapse, the government directed the nation’s scientists to develop a drug therapy that inhibits all emotional imbalance. No longer would race, religion, crime, or violence impact these citizens. In the few remaining city-states, the drug therapy is mandated for all citizens… because of the Protocol, a modern-day Utopia was born. But just outside of the gates in the Exclusion Zone… a new enemy was born. One that resisted the drugs. Their sole purpose of destroying everything that the Federation had built. Welcome to Paradise.

Kathryn’s Start Story

Sit down children, and then I’ll begin…

Remember the surprise selfies (selfi?) posted by Tracie back in March? Well in case you don’t you can view that post HERE. It was clear the photos had something to do with the new female-centric US television network Start TV, currently broadcasting Cold Case daily, and I hoped we would hear about it later. That time has finally arrived.

Start TV has published Kathryn’s My Start Story article. It details Kathryn’s early life performing in her family’s gospel group, The Morris Code, through her introduction to movies and getting the role of Lilly Rush in Cold Case. There are quotes from Kathryn throughout and a couple of short video clips as companion items.

I urge you to read the full article HERE on the Start TV website.

Of course Tracie was there too and you can read her My Start Story HERE.

It wouldn’t be KM UK without some images and in this case we have some nice HD (720p) screencaps from the two video clips in the Gallery, and we have small versions of the videos for completeness.

Have a good weekend.