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please, when we get there, give me
some guidance. Help me to solve this
mess that we’re going to have when
we get to California. Because I have
this secret that I haven’t shared with
Ron. I probably should have shared it
with him, but I just can’t.
I’d gotten in touch with Chad
Everett’s agent before we went on the
trip, and I’d asked if we could set up
a meeting between these two people.
I knew it was going to be a fantastic
moment on film.
But his agent made me understand
that Chad Everett was a very busy
man, and that he wasn’t going to have
time for something like that. In fact,
he didn’t really wanna encourage his
obsessive fans.I probably should have told Ronnie
that, but he didn’t take disappoint-
ment very well.
I’d helped Ronnie write letters to
numerous celebrities over the years.
Ronnie was so excited, ’cause he got
this head shot in the mail. It was a
smiling picture of Chad Everett. Ron-
nie memorized every word that Chad
Everett had signed on this picture.
It said, “To Ron, Life’s not meant toget them to do skits. He had this real
ability to bring people out.
These films that we made devel-
oped this underground popularity.
Eventually I was able to get some
funding to make a film where we
would drive across the country with
five people with disabilities from this
summer camp.
We were going to go from their
houses in New England all the way to
Los Angeles. Everyone on the trip had
their own hopes and dreams for go-
ing to California, a place they’d never
been. But Ronnie’s dreams overshad-
owed everybody else’s.
To him, California was the Holy
Land. It was the place where he was
destined to meet Mr. Chad Everett,
his spiritual brother. It was his big-
gest dream.
(He told everybody, “It’s my biggest
dream.”)
He took this biggest-dream mission
very, very seriously. It kind of stressed
him out. I felt like this whole situation
was mainly my responsibility as the
director of this ridiculous film, and I
decided I would be Ronnie’s room-
mate across the country.
And that’s how I ended up in this
hotel room in Tennessee, praying with
Ronnie Simonsen.
As Ronnie prays, I say my own little
prayer. I’m not a very religious person.
I had never really prayed much before.
I’m 29 years old, but this is the first
time I pray in earnest. I say, Please,
help us get to California safely. AndTHERE WAS ONE MAN
WHOM HE HELD AS
SORT OF LIKE A GOD:
CHAD EVERETT.rd.com 89My Most Unforgettable Character