Finally, they said, “Look, Madonna is filming Evita at the Casa Rosada (the Executive Mansion of Argentina) in Buenos Aires and if you can sneak on set and get a picture of Madonna, we’ll give you a job.” So I was like, “Okay,” and I had no idea how I would do that because I had my little Nikon FG camera with a 50 mm lens and I had never photographed anything like that before. So I went to the set and there was a perimeter around the Casa Rosada. Fortunately, there were New York bouncers — kind of guys guarding the set. I went up and I said, “Hey, can I come in?” And they were like, “Where’s your press pass?” And I was like, “Look, I don’t have a press pass, but let me explain that my entire future depends on you, and if you let me in, I’m going to be famous. I promise. One day I’m going to be famous.” And the guy just looked at me and he’s like, “Oh my God, you’re so pathetic.” So he let me in. He was like, “Okay, go.”

So I went in and — I think I was 21 — I went in and I got on the press riser, and of course didn’t realize that I needed like a 600 mm lens to see anything. So I stood up and there were all these TV cameras and proper photographers with big lenses.  I got up and I put my camera to my face and I couldn’t see anything. Madonna was like a million miles away.

So this guy just taps me on the shoulder and he’s like, “Hey kid, just give me your camera back.” And I was like, “What’s he talking about?” Because I didn’t even know that you could take my lens off and put a Nikon camera on the back of his lens. So he did it for me. I basically just handed him my camera and he did it. I looked in the viewfinder and there was Madonna in the Casa Rosada and I kind of squealed with happiness and I got a picture and I got a job.