Unscripted - A Blog for Actors - Backstage

Low Points

Hit one of those low points yesterday. It's been kinda building all week and yesterday it let loose. It all started with an agent meeting at the beginning of this week; it came to a head yesterday with a sad complication with someone dear to me.

The agent meeting. I knew it was coming. Everyone told me it would happen (and happen repeatedly) but I'd somehow avoided it until now. Recently I had that agent meeting where they tell you (either directly or in so many words) that you're nothing special; that this town will eat you alive and make you cynical, bitter, and jaded; that you don't know any of the right people so you won't get far; and that any credits you've accumulated don't mean squat because the industry has shrunk and even "name" actors are scrambling for work.

Hello, Backstage Unscripted Readers!

It took me a while to decide whether I should write a blog for backstage-- what would be worth sharing and why? There are already several honest and engaging actors on unscripted whose blogs provide tons of information and camaraderie for other artists.

Ultimately the decision to blog comes from the point in my career in which I'm growing and learning at a particularly rapid and intense pace, both as a person and as an actor (and MFA candidate).

Non-Smoker

I just booked the lead role in student film. After my audition, and an enthusiastic response from the director, he sent me a draft of the script (it's still being revised). That's when I found out the character I was reading for is a smoker. I don't smoke.

Now I have friends who smoke, which I don't mind. But a couple things happened to some friends of mine when I was a kid that makes the idea of me smoking anything psychologially repulsive. I feel kinda ill thinking about it. Anyway I'm trying to get a start on a serious voiceover career, and I don't think inhaling any kind of smoke in my lungs would help that.

I think normally that if smoking is called for in a role, it's listed in the breakdown. Naturally this kind of thing can fall between the cracks in something like student production, and we worked things out for this movie. Basically there are only a couple shots involving cigarettes, and me holding a lit one and stubbing it out should apparently be sufficient.

The Day Job Blues

The writing is on the wall ya'll, I gotta get a day job.  

That isn't to say that I don't work already.  Oh no, no, no.  In addition to being an actor, I am the primary caregiver to my 17-month old son.  I would say "stay-at-home-mom", but that has different connotations for different people, and I don't want to confuse anyone.  

I love my son so immensely that it physically hurts me at times, and I am so blessed to be able to stay home with him.  (Here comes the "but".)  But being with a kid all day, as fun as it can be, is also W-O-R-K!  (All the moms, dads and actor/nannies out there know exactly what I'm talking about.) 

I also do transcriptions from home when the babe sleeps and I don't have acting related business to attend to, but the typing hasn't turned out to be nearly as lucrative as I'd hoped.  And my snarky boss is a blog post all her own.  I've never met her in person.  Our only contact is via phone and email which is probably the reason she feels that she can be so rude sometimes.  I feel our relationship is soon to come to an end, which is ok.  I have no problem telling her that I won't accept her abuse, but for as bold as I've been in that realm, she still doesn't know that I'm an actor.  If she did she would probably fire me on the spot.  

When I Feel Blue...and diet coke just isn't enough

If there is one thing I am "known for", it is my positive nature. Well, that and my love affair with Diet Coke. But that is another story...

Yes, I am generally very upbeat and optimistic.

In fact, I even did an entire vlog post about my attitude a few months back. People who know me understand that it is just part of who I am. Much like my red hair or sarcasm.

But even I sometimes waver in my "lets do this!" attitude about my career. I even, on very rare occasions, forget why I love acting. Usually it is when it is my time of the month or I am out of Diet Coke...but whatever.