I think I was illiterate?

One of the schools I teach in has a media college division. The students are done with high school, but are doing these classes before going on to film school or other media-related programs. Last week, a few of them asked me if I would be willing to act in a commercial they’re making for a class project. They will then be submitting it to some contest where, if they win, it will play throughout Austria. I took a film class in my senior year of college that required me to get a lot of friends to act in my projects, so I empathized (the students are really nice) and said yes.

During three hours of filming, I just did what I was told. I didn’t, and still don’t know what the ad is for. All I did was lay on a bed, leaning on this girl, my girlfriend, who was reading a book aloud to me.

I think I was illiterate? I had these alphabet-shaped cookies and was looking at the book like I couldn't understand it. But if it's a campaign promoting literacy, shouldn't they have used kids? Or even if it's for an adult illiteracy campaign, I don't know if they're going to win the contest. What a weird concept. Like, "Learn to read like this 23 year-old who is lying on his girlfriend eating cookies." And I wonder if there is a big foundation funding these contests to fight illiteracy. I have a hard time imagining that as one of Austria's biggest concerns…

My part went like this: I picked out an ‘S’ cookie, looked at the book cluelessly like, "Where is this letter?" Then the girlfriend points to a word and slowly reads, "Schönheit" (“beauty”) and I smile, satisfied. This went on for almost three hours of filming, doing the same damn thing over and over so they could get close-ups, etc, from different angles. Eat a cookie, dip it in chocolate sauce, make sure it’s an ‘S,’ make sure you pick it up the same way…

I don’t think it was supposed to be funny, but I was laughing at its ridiculousness, and they complimented me because it "really looked like I was in love."