Everybody's Gotta Start Somewhere

Sometimes, when I imagine the lives of successful people I forget to imagine their lives before they found success.  I mean, doesn't it just seem like Brad Pitt has had an incredibly charmed life and was always famous?  I always forget that he supported himself in LA by driving strippers around and being a giant dancing chicken for El Pollo Loco.  Or what about Elton John?  Can you imagine him in high school?  I wonder, sometimes, if Elton John even existed in high school.  Sometimes, it seems like entertainers and athletes that live in this echelon of fame and greatness were created in laboratory pods and Model #18 was released to live in the general public after all the imperfections were eliminated?  Like Cindy Crawford Model #1 was sent back because there was no beauty mark?

I was in a casting office this week and was reminded that everybody's gotta start somewhere.  In this casting office there was a catalog of VHS audition tapes with people's names on them everywhere.  I mean, there must have been hundreds.  They were running a little behind, and I was getting a little bored, so I got up and started looking at the names on the tapes.  I figured it couldn't hurt anything.  Then I saw a tape that said AMANDA SEYFRIED and thought, "Wow, how cool!  She must've sat in this very office not too long ago."  Then I walked a little further and saw one that said, "ALEXANDER SKARSGARD" and thought, "He must've been in my shoes even more recently!"  I turned a corner and found the N's and saw "CYNTHIA NIXON, ER"  and just thought, "Whoa.  Cynthia Nixon did this.  Whoa."

Later that day, I saw a billboard of my friend Dane Dehaan (who is currently playing Jesse on HBO's In Treatment) when transferring trains in Times Square.  Dane was a student at UNCSA like me when I met him, and I've witness all the hard work he has put in to find his success.  What a perfect example for me to remember that success is partly blessing and a WHOLE LOTTA hard work.  

So, everyone in this business starts somewhere.  I try to remind myself of that on rough days, and just be thankful that I don't have to wear a chicken suit ala Brad Pitt or a Cookie Monster costume like Edie Falco.

 

 

--Jasmine Anne Osborne

Comments

[Christine]

What an inspiring post!

Thanks, Jasmine for writing this! :-)
I couldn't agree more with you.

[Laura Hunter]

So cool.