Shawn Ryan

And it was...

It felt so close, yet at the same time, it was light years out of reach, you know?

Yeah, no, I got a little bit of a warm-up.

I'd done a couple films that nobody really cared about.

I was just trying to get a SAG card, just trying to be a consistently employed actor and just kind of go from one job to the next and hopefully leave some good work behind.

And...

And then just, you know, I guess stuff happens when it's supposed to or at times how it's supposed to.

And, you know, this cameo just falls out of the sky into my lap.

And that was the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

What do you care if your brother ditches school?

You could ditch.

gosh, I'm only on film, like probably less than three minutes.

And even having done a couple of lead roles in forgettable films before that, and then that thing hits.

And it's that thing I talk about in the book where the day before in the grocery store, the girls thought I worked there, you know, and then Bueller hits and I'm no longer wearing that imaginary Vons vest.

You know, well, I love the story behind that.

I thought he would continue the drubbing that she had initiated.

But with him, it came to a Flintstones halt.

And he just, like I say in the doc and in the book, when he just took one look at me and he literally just said, oh, good, you're here.

Let's get started.

And just what that did for just calming my nerves and my confidence and just knowing that I was in the presence of a man that didn't care about anything that led up to the moment that he needed to...