Randy Simpkins

From my book, JUSTIFY THIS, in the chapter about GOSNELL: "We were filming the movie in Oklahoma, and there was one role that we still had not cast. I just had not seen anyone that struck me as right for the role. On a Sunday after the second week of shooting, I went to a Waffle House (my favorite restaurant chain by the way) in Oklahoma City. The place was very busy, and the manager was going around apologizing to everybody for their meals being late. I kept looking at her. There was something about her. She was very attractive, and she had a tattoo on her neck. There was a certain toughness about her, and she way she carried herself was so poised and competent. There was a strength and a wisdom to her that I thought would really read on camera. I felt moved to go and talk to her. I waited until she had a free moment, and I said, “Look, I know this sounds like a crazy pickup line, but…um, have you ever done any acting?” Obviously having never been asked that question, she predictably responded, “Um, no.” I said, “Look, I know this might sound like a cliche pick-up line, but…I really am a director from Hollywood and I really am shooting a movie here in town, and there’s a part in it that you would be right for. Would you mind if I got the script and let you read it with me to see if it’s something you want to do?” “Um, okay.” I drove home and got the script and went back to the Waffle House and sat down with her in a booth to read the script together. I explained that the character only had three or four lines, but they were very important to the story. I said, “I think you could do this. Would you be willing?” She was understandably skeptical of this guy who suddenly showed up at her job claiming to be a Hollywood director and offering her a role in a movie. “I don’t know. How much would it pay?” she asked. I said, “Well, it’ll probably be at least two or three days of work—and it’ll pay about eight hundred and thirty dollars a day.” She said, “Okay.” Probably a little better than Waffle House. The first day she came to work, she practically brought her entire family with her to make sure I wasn’t some sort of crazy serial killer. We shot with her a couple of days, and she did very well. She was a natural. I kept telling her, “Tessya, don’t try to be interesting. You’re interesting enough. Just tell the truth. Let the words do the work for you.” And she was terrific. On the third day, one of the producers, Ann, came over to me and said, “You’re not going to believe this.” I replied, “Oh no. What now?” I was sure someone had quit, or some location had fallen out, or some other low-budget-movie disaster had occurred. She said, “The thing that happened to her character in the movie happened to her in real life.” I said, “What are you talking about?” “Tessya, in her real life, went to have an abortion, and when they let her listen to the heartbeat of the baby, she decided not to go through with the abortion. She had her baby, just like her character in the movie.” I was floored. I felt the hand of God was at play here. I believe God led me to that Waffle House to find her. That something inside me, telling me, when I first saw her, “She can do it! She can do it!”—was Him. She is now the proud mother of three boys, including her firstborn, whose heartbeat changed her life. @sagesteele @WaffleHouse