38 posts tagged “acting”
The roommate's fine.
If you consider a sternum contusion "fine", anyway. She's currently happily sacked out on our couch with Eric on Vicodin and wine watching America's Worst Catastrophe's on The History Channel. Throw in some Prozac and you have a bona fide American cure-all for anything ailin' ya.
I'm basically giving up on my pilot. The latest is that they're aiming towards less 'death' and more 'history', which, in my opinion, makes the show a helluva lot more boring and much less likely for people to watch. Plus, apparently production is getting pushed back to Julyish.
Bah.
weird submission letter #324:
Hello. How are you? My name is Sarah* and I am a professional actress in search of a wonderful management team. I can also cook a great meal!
Thank you in advance,Sarah Smith, actress
Because the key to an Oscar's heart is through its stomach.
Listening to: Deftones - Simple Man
Last night: Go see midnight showing of Romero's latest, Diary of the Dead. Since the 10pm showing had gone on late, didn't end up getting home til 3am or so.
This morning: Woke up at 830am to get to The Agency's anniversary breakfast at 10am which lasted until 1 bloody pm (Coincidence! The waiter who served us was one of the guys I used to work with back at The New Restaurant! Small world....and I'm not going to lie and say I didn't feel a tiny bit of relief/satisfaction that I'm no longer working in the service industry to supplement my creative career), went by Lush to pick up the fabulous face masks that work wonders for my roseacea-prone sensitive babyface, dropped off clothes/shoes at Salvation Army, and am currently debating napping/cleaning or going to the gym before going to a client's ex-boyfriends music label launch party, then driving up to The Mountain for some snowboarding tomorrow as well as watching Giles compete in a boardercross event on Monday.
I'm tired.
Ooh! But I'm on avails for the Cable One spot! Wee!
No callback for the Orbit spot, sadly. Still, it was the first time I'd met that casting associate and hitting it off with him is never a bad thing. Plus! Two things to take my mind off it:
Audition: Cable One @ Megan Foley Casting -- This is a cute little spot with me and my 'new husband' showing off our new home to my 'parents'. The first time I went into the room, they were running a little short on 'husbands', so I took over his lines as best I could. I must've done a decent job, because they asked me to stick around and be part of a group that HAD a husband for me. So I auditioned with two sets of 'parents', and it was interesting because I got a very tiny sliver of what it must be like for the casting directors to see the same lines/scene done over and over by different people doing different takes.
Audition: Anheuser Busch @ Liz Paulson Casting -- Hadn't been into this office in quite some time, and I was supposed to be playing a Bostonian complete with accent since there was dialogue. Since I had no idea what the dialogue was going to be, I worked with a fantastic website my agent set me up with just to brush up. http://www.ku.edu/~idea/index.htm Naturally, the line that I was given to say gave you almost nothing to work with as far as the accent ("India Pale Ale!"), but I did the best I could. And working on accents is always really fun for me, I love picking up different dialects.
Already we're seeing episodic breakdowns coming out! It's going to be SLAMMED next week!
Audition - Verizon @ Dowd/Roman Casting
Hah! Not a day after mutual bitching sessions with Playboy that we hadn't had any auditions yet in the new year, I get one for a National SAG commercial! It's featuring a girl being "interviewed" by one of those sports reporters who interview the players after a big game, talking about how she toughed it out through her sister's baby shower by watching college hoops highlights on her Verizon phone. The CD came out and gave us notes before we went in, basic stuff about how the professional athletes acted during those interviews. This was one of the rare times where I wish LESS information was given to us, because that's how I'd been planning on it anyway! I guess the ad agency's complaint was that they could tell that a lot of the girls going in had no idea how to play it.
Wish they'd kept it that way! Give sporty girls like me more of a shot. I went in with a lot of energy but keeping it toned down, breathing a little hard like I'd just finished a game, slapped the "reporter's" ass (ok, that I did steal from the CD's talk), and did a little point-at-the-ceiling bit. I got only good feedback from the ad agency rep (who was in the room, which is rare for a first audition), and I'm hopeful! Starting out with a SAG National, that'd be a great way to kick off 2008!
Passed on a SAG event to go over to Playboy's and watch Gandhi, one of those films I'd always meant to watch and never got around to it.
What an amazing fucking film. It's over three hours (even has a five minute long "INTERMISSION" message smack dab in the middle of the movie; hee!), but just doesn't seem that long. Ben Kingsley.....wow. Just...wow. The movie's message seems applicable no matter what, but in relation to how things are going in the middle east, it seems especially hard-hitting. The idea that this man actually existed, that these events actually transpired, that it wasn't just some fanciful 'wow-wouldn't-it-be-cool-if-this-happened' idea in someone's idealistic head.....wow.
So. Yeah. See This Movie.
Well, things at The Agency have just started to speed back up. Not quite so much with film or TV, naturally (despite Actorsite's emailed mission statement this morning that "Films and TV Movies are CASTING like CRAZY"....um, really? what breakdowns are YOU reading?), but commercials have been damn busy. Despite that, I haven't had My First Audition of 2008 yet. Naturally I'm hoping it's because the gods know to turn that into My First Booking of 2008, and they want just the right job.
Sidedesk and Middledesk are back in town and in theory, we'll all be back to work this week. I'm still trying to convince The Boss that moving to a system more technologically current than sticking Post-it's to a wall is a better way to keep track of all our clients' auditions. Just a thought.
The Boss, however, being the typical control freak that he is, balks at anything that isn't his idea. This is a typical exchange, that occurred yesterday ( FYI, a "hard copy" is what we refer to when a project comes out that wants actual headshots delivered to them as a submission instead of the far easier electronic submission. So we group together our clients' headshots in an envelope which is usually picked up twice a day by a messenger service to bring to the various casting offices around LA).
I was washing out the remains of my homemade fruit smoothie from my thermos at the office sink when The Boss walked up. "MAW, those hard copy packages were never picked up yesterday because we canceled the messenger service for two weeks," he said, standing at the entrance of the kitchenette.
"Two weeks?" I replied, glancing up at him in surprise. "I only told them to cancel it for the week of Christmas."
"Well, they obviously thought it carried over into this week, didn't they," he said. "Get some stamps on them and bring them to the post office."
"Ok," I replied, rinsing out the thermos and putting it upside-down on the paper towel next to the sink to dry. I glanced at my watch which read 2:34pm. "The mail hasn't come yet today, do you want to leave them outside to go out with the rest of the ----"
"No, I want them going out now. The mail doesn't come until 3 or 4 and I want these out."
"Ok," I said, walking over to the door where the hard copies had been left since yesterday. I duly stamped them, grabbed the rest of the outgoing mail (may as well take care of it all at once), and walked back to The Boss's office to let him know I was leaving.
"I'm heading out to drop these off, see ya in a bit," I said, waving and walking back towards the front lobby. His voice called me back.
"Just go to the post office on Fairfax."
"Oh, there's one there? I was going to the ---"
"No, go to the one on Fairfax," he said, gesturing with his pen. "It's on the east side of the street, go up the alleyway, park in the lot behind the post office."
"Sure," I replied, walking out the door.
"Just go--" I sighed inaudibly and walked backwards into his office. "--up the street, make a right, it's right next to the Subway."
"Ok," I walked towards the lobby again.
"I think ---" I walked back into his office. "--there's a travel agency right next to it also."
"Ok."
"Just go to that one. It's only after 5pm that we need to go to the other one. This one is fine."
"Ok."
"You won't need to stand in line, those stamps should be fine. You should just be able to drop it off."
"Ok."
This happens a lot. The usual modus operandi with him is either to order you to do something and then give you FAR too much detail in exactly how to do it, or to order you to do something and leave you with no earthly idea how to accomplish it.
Is this normal?
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Still haven't heard a definitive answer about The Pilot I shot way back in November. Last I heard the response was extremely favorable, but that we wouldn't know anything until February. Again, I'll be wicked excited if it gets picked up, despite my still (albeit slight) feelings of trepidation that it is a reality show of sorts. My passion is *acting*, is getting to be *someone else* for the day, not worrying about how I'm going to look as my li'l ol' self on the small screen.
Still. TV Show. Me. Not complaining. Promise!
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In other not-me-related news, SAG has deemed that No Actors Will Appear At The Golden Globes. Hoo boy.
This is after the declarations that, in addition, no film clips are being allowed to be shown and no monologues/presentations are allowed to be written.
So....what, exactly is going to happen to the awards show? The networks already said The Show Must Go On, but that was before SAG threw this whammy on them. Enjoy losing more money over this strike, bitches! Because I know I'm enjoying apologizing to my landlord that rent is going to be late. Again.
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Despite the doomsday predictions that California was going to be hit by non stop rains, flooding and the utter chaos that follows such an event, there hasn't been too much actual water falling from the sky. Currently? Cloudy. I'm merely perturbed that it doesn't seem to be cold enough to be converting this lovely precipitation into snow in the mountains. Planning on going snowboarding on Tuesday, regardless. If I'm going to have a boss-mandated day off, I'm going to enjoy it, goddammit.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After my being the last one that they told about shopping for rings (which I was expecting), Mom made it a point to tell me I was the FIRST one they called about it being all official. Yay! :)
Also?? I have an audition for a SAG National Bud Light Commercial tomorrow!! I just have to channel whatever was going on at Goa the other night when I was a downright male magnet and I should be all set!
What ELSE, you ask!?!? Why, going to see WICKED, of course!! Roosevelt texted asking if I still wanted to go, oh and by the way, did I want to do Katsuya before or afterward? Oh, AND, I still need to take him shopping to pick something out for him and for myself, because he just wants to buy me a present for some odd reason.
I feel like such a kept woman.
EEEEEeeeeee..........First I see Kristin Chenowith at a SAG screening of Pushing Daisies, I get hugged by Ellen Greene, and now I'm seeing Wicked!! I'm so ridiculously psyched.
On other matters, that cute UCLA guy that I read with at the T-Mobile commercial asked me out, and Playboy's best friend keeps sending me semi-flirty texts. WTF is going ON?
Audition - T-Mobile @ David Kang Casting
This was one of the few times where working at my own agency has gotten me into a kind of ethical dilemma.
When the last-minute breakdown ("Submit ASAP! Going straight to callbacks TONIGHT!") came out, I didn't really forsee this problem coming. Despite this being a non union job and SAG's threat of roasting your chestnuts over an open fire should you even LOOK at a non union job sideways, it paid well enough that I submitted myself as well as our usual slew of non-union actors.
When the audition notification came back for another of the girls I submitted instead of me, I felt a tiny tiny twinge of disappointment, but it was gone before I could blink as I forwarded the info onto her and called her to let her know of the last minute appointment.
When she told me she couldn't go because she had taken a last minute trip to Washington to be with her father for his first prostrate cancer treatment, I expressed sympathy for his plight and admonishment for not telling us to book her out while my mind went to calling the casting director to cancel the girl and suggest a possible replacement.
When the casting director said to "just pick someone", which I've never, EVER heard a casting director tell me to do before, I finally paused.
I ascertained that there were no requirements or restrictions (did they need brunettes like the girl? Did they need short people like the girl?...No, no and please just send us someone with good comic timing), and then hung up the phone.
Ok. So, in theory, I needed to send another girl. Despite what they had said, I did want to send someone physically similar to the girl, which, despite the height difference, left it down to myself and one other girl out of the 8 or so submitted. I couldn't bring myself to just choose me over her and to just go.
I talked it over briefly with Sidedesk. She agreed we should consult The Boss, as, really, this was again a slight case of covering your ass, and I wasn't really going to take offense if he determined for some reason that the other girl would be a better replacement than myself.
In this business, you don't take things personally. Ever. Or you'll drive yourself completely mad.
In any case, he did agree I should go to the audition, I went and read with the cutest volleyball player from UCLA.
I'm glad I went to the audition, but again I'm grateful for working at The Agency. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have been submitted let alone allowed to go to the audition. Most likely.
On the other hand, I think I should see opportunities like this as the other side of the coin for putting up with the INSANENESS of The Boss. None of the other clients do, so I suppose this could be considered another job perk? Ah well. We'll see if I book it, I can feel all happy then.
Audition: German Death Brochure @ Armstrong Casting
Audition: Ford @ Lien/Cowan Casting
First off, yeah you read that first one right. Apparently (and this is in the words of the casting director), apparently in germany when someone passes away they send out a brochure notice. this is an ad for those brochure notices.
So...I'm auditioning to be someone dead? Or someone who's sad someone else is dead? Or someone who smiles because...being dead ain't so bad!
?
The Ford one was good only because I haven't been into Lien/Cowan Casting in months and months, and they used to be the only office that called me in! So I'm glad I got an opportunity to go back, even if it was only because I'm a San Diego resident :)
(...What? My mom and sister still live there, i can TOTALLY still claim residency in the lovely truth-glossing world that is LA)
The Agency is slow enough (Damn you strike!) that they didn't need me back into the office, so I'm heading to the Arclight for my first cinematic experience there with a new guy whom we shall deem Roosevelt (met him at the Roosevelt Hotel at Halloween), then off to the new Katsuya location in Hollywood. Woo being treated like a princess! I could use some of that.
Still slowly getting over losing the Emerald Nuts commercial. I had the look down so well and was so hopeful at the callback, then to get the news I wasn't one of the ones on avail.....sigh. Really needed another lesson in not letting auditions get to me, because then you have dwelling, especially with my obsessive personality.
OTHER than that, a fabulous day yesterday! Getting paid for the pilot, yay! Getting a yummy lunch bought for me at a diner, yay! (second note: Who knew a diner would have such a yummy spinach salad with grilled shrimp, red onions, avocado tossed in a basil pesto sauce?) going over to my friend Ryan's house (albeit an hour later than I wanted to) to catch the last hour of Fantastic Planet, yay! Playing a new game called Apples to Apples and WINNING the first round, yay!
Ryan's a friend of mine who I always end up seeing about once a year through fate or chance. I met him doing background work a couple years ago when I first moved to LA. He constantly has these movie nights, game nights, etc, and I can never make them for one reason or another. But I couldn't pass up Fantastic Planet. Producer and I had actually seen a trailer for it when we were watching Fido, and he commented it was his favorite film. To be honest, from the trailer, which doesn't really give any hint of the actual plot of the movie and instead looks something like a two hour long Salvador Dali's animated wet dream, I started doubting the good taste of my movie partner, but I was still too enamored of his pretty eyes and thick hair to care at the time.
Today is:
Audition: Qualcomm Industrial (shooting down in San Diego!) @ Allison Buck Casting
I have a conflict this evening. A friend's band is playing at 8pm. This is a band I got to see at the Troubadour a little while ago and they're quite good, but still in that 'we-need-an-audience' phase. Another friend's holiday party (which I was invited to after the concert) starts at 7pm and goes til 10pm or so. Shandra is also planning on going to the holiday party, which pushes points in its favor.
