Unscripted - A Blog for Actors - Backstage

Wanted: Smiling Faces

I've been floating among a sea of cubicles, hanging onto the Internet for support while sustaining myself on cups of free coffee and drowning my sorrows in diet coke...

Things have been a little bonkers in Brittany Land. (Bonkers in Brittanyland....will you please write that musical for me? Ok, thanks.) I had to pick up a two-week temping gig and take a break from the manic auditioning. No matter how much I'd like to sustain myself on oatmeal, I needed a some cash and more vitamins in my diet. 

But you know what? Its okay. Temping is wonderful because its flexible, easy, and you get to leave. No matter how much you like your temporary position or don't like it, you are finished at the end of your contract, which is usually one week. 

There are so many unhappy people here in OfficeVille. They don't like to say good morning. They rarely make eye contact in the hallways. I feel compelled to count down the hours until I can go home. Its very obvious who loves their job, and who is here because it is a job. The ones who are content shine out from the crowd. They are generous with their smiles. 

Morning (SAG-AFTRA) Merger Wake Up Call

Wednesday morning. Leap day. No appointment hopping today. Just the usual writing sessions, networking, and gym ratting.

Yes, I am a gym rat again. Yay. But this morning, this Wednesday morning, I can sleep in for a change, right?

WRONG!

8:02AM the phone rings. Ugh. Why?! Please, God! It better be someone on the West Coast with important news.

No. It's an 855 area code. I don't know this area code. Oh, dear. Trouble with the law. Joking.

I answer just to stop the phone ringing. I manage a faint, "Hello?".

I hear a loud female voice on the other end, "Is this Ann Hu?"

I answer, "Yes..?", in my froggy, half-brained, still have earplugs in my ears, morning voice.

When Auditions Get Cancelled...

Last Thursday I got a call to check my availability for a pilot audition today, Tuesday. I was thankful to have the whole weekend to prepare. Pilots cast fairly quickly and getting four whole days to prepare is rare. I even got to read the whole script which is even more rare. In the past year, I've consciously worked towards stopping myself from getting attached to roles. I commit to the character for the process of audition preparation but I don't get my hopes up the way I used to. 

That's why when the audition got rescheduled for a new time twice, I didn't think much of it. There are sometimes half a dozen roles being cast at any time on a show. I continued to work on the sides and booked an appointment with my coach. In short, I was extremely excited to read for the role. I felt prepared, confident about the choices I had made, and looking forward to giving it a shot. 

Never Say You're Sorry

I am going to go out on a limb here and say something that could shock some of you. You may not even agree with me...but I am going to say it anyway:

I am of the opinion one should NEVER apologize for their acting.

So often I hear actors apologize for their work. They are at the audition and before the casting director can even hit the "stop" button on the camera, the actor is stuttering about how they lost their place or how they *just* got the script or blah, blah, blah. No excuse is needed (or wanted). Or I am in a voiceover gig and my fellow talent will stop right in the middle of a perfectly good take to say "Sorry, I flubbed that line." Just pick it up, we all know you flubbed the line. We can hear you. Often the apology comes right at the same moment the director or client is trying to say "Great job!". Don't interrupt the praise! Or, the critique. Let the person that hired you make the call of awesome or not. Your job is to just do the work. Not judge the work.

Now, that isn't to say that you can't ask for another take if you feel you can do better or just "didn't feel that one". But ask for it politely without apology.

Sure, say you are sorry if you step on the dog's tail while in the waiting room. Or, heaven forbid, pass gas right as you are trying to slate. (And, in that case, just say "Excuse me!) But never say you are sorry for your acting. Just smile and say thank you.

--Mercedes Rose

Fixing the Oscars

This week in entertainment news is typically reserved for dozens and dozens of articles about how long the Oscar broadcast was, and how the host could have been better, and oh my god what was that Best Actress nominee thinking when she chose that dress.

I don't really care what she was thinking, but I do fear that Angelina Jolie's leg has achieved sentience.  I used to think Google would lead the robot revolution that would enslave humanity, but nope.  It's Jolie's leg.

Anyway...I'd love to throw my two cents in the bank regarding how the broadcast could be improved.  Here are some ideas:

Oscar Night

I was incredibly lucky to get to experience the Academy Awards in a new way this year...  I was selected as a part of a small group of up-and-coming actresses to attend some of the post-awards festivities.

Where my typical Oscar evenings have involved sweatpants, this night included: black tie attire, lots of very kind and gracious celebrities, and a ton of interviews.

I felt so lucky to be around so many wonderful people, but even luckier to be getting to truly appreciate and take advantage of some of the most positive moments that living in LA has to offer. I felt like I was right where I was supposed to be, which was incredibly fulfilling, especially on the night of the Oscars.

What did you think of the awards this year?

--Laura Hunter

Practice Kindness

"My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness."

I recently saw this quote from the Dalai Lama on a friend's Facebook wall and it stuck with me. It sounds so easy, yet so few practice it.

I strive very hard to be kind. Like most, I fail at this often. I focus on myself, get lost in self-pity, fret about where my next gig will come from, worry about money. It's hard to be kind to others when all your attention is on yourself. I've never been happy when being self-centered.

Living in LA, a notoriously self-indulgent town, makes for a great case study on the relationship between kindness and happiness. Self-absorption is the rule in Hollywood. It's a very competitive town and people give off this vibe that they're constantly measuring themselves against those around them. Not since being a lawyer in a large firm have I witnessed so many unhappy people with so much to be happy about. 

Auditions For Dummies

Lest ye be misled by the title, this blog unfortunately isn't about how to succeed in auditions. This post is geared to Unscripted's non-actor readers and is an attempt to open a small window into what auditioning is like. It's a blog about auditioning for people who haven't experienced it and wonder why people who have hate it so much.

In short, auditioning is like a job interview. 

Even if you've never acted a day in your life, you've probably been on plenty of job interviews. If you're like 95 percent of people, job interviews make you want to throw up. There's lots of pressure, your career is at stake, you don't know what to expect, you wonder if you dressed appropriately, you are paranoid that you don't look the part, you don't know the people you're meeting, and you have no idea what they're looking for. It's the same with auditions.

Where I've Been

In short: treading water in a sea of negativity.  It's known to happen from time to time among actors and other creative types.

In...long: It's been a slow year, though things have been more interesting for the last week or two.  But as many of you probably know firsthand, when things get slow your mind starts working overtime.  Self-doubt can creep in, bitterness, all those fun things we do our best to avoid.  I was properly mired in it, and anything I wrote here would probably reflect that.  I didn't want to add to the millions upon millions of words actors have wasted lamenting their lots in life, so I stayed silent.  At one point I thought "well, I should write what's happening with me right now, shouldn't I?  Won't the truth have value to someone out there?"  I tried, I really did, but I just couldn't pull myself above the negativity.

What finally worked, you're surely dying to ask me?  I made a couple of decisions that have led or will lead to me being more proactive, and not necessarily as dependent on others to make something happen.  I've also gotten a few more responses to submissions I've made on my own, and had a decent meeting with an industry pro.  Unfortunately, we do have to rely on others from time to time.  To cap it all off, I just saw a trailer for the web pilot I shot at the end of last year and it looks absolutely great.  They're preparing a launch for next month, so don't worry.  I'll certainly bug you all then about it.

Comparision is the Thief of Joy

There seems to be an anxiety of comparison in audition rooms. It's that moment when you're sitting there, headphones in, sides in hand, and your peripheral catches someone observing you. It's those elevator eyes that bring me back to middle school as I feel someone quietly looking over me, my outfit, whatever it is that leads them to watch. It's just like in a bar when you feel someone checking you out but the end prize is not witty banter over a Blue Moon. Instead, it brings me back to my 13-year old self that self-consciously feels the need to pull out a compact to double check that something isn't hanging off my face.

After the Reading

I've gone through post show feelings before. But never this fast.

All that happened tonight was a one night staged reading. It was on a Tuesday. We had a fullish but smallish house. It came out great. My friend, Ryan, told me it was the best thing he thought he'd seen me do. 

Mostly I'd been worried about the length. It was a full length play. Even whittled down through the rehearsal and workshop process, it clocked at least two and a half hours with intermission. I thought it was too long.

The surprise reversal was that, when we finished, we had a quick Q and A... and that was it. We were done. People started putting on their jackets and heading home. We said our goodbyes. There was some talk of a cast something or other to celebrate later, but nobody knew when, really. So. That was it.

There's something really strange about building up this team up and up towards this one performance, doing it, and then just turning to each other and essentially saying "Awesome... see you!" The end. Team dismissed.

So while I was busy worrying about it going on for too long, I found out what really got me was that it was just all over too soon.

There are worse feelings to end something on. I guess that just means it was good.

~Joel R. Putnam

"Redheads ARE a Minority"

I try to never miss a fellow Unscripted actor blog.

Oh, the things we learn from each other! A recent hilarious blog from Dominique Toney titled The Funniest/Ruddest Audition not only cracked me up but reminded me of my own "interesting" audition experience early on in my career...

The audition was basically a "go-see" for a training video and had a very straightforward breakdown: "Women 25-35, typical soccer mom, all ethnicity". There were no lines and my agent specifically said "newbies" were welcome. Score!

I arrived and saw a lovely rainbow of actresses already in the waiting room. Asian, African American, Hispanic, Caucasian and everything in between. And every hair color was represented: blondes, brunettes, even a gal with pink streaks in her hair. 

The client came out to the waiting room and called in about 30 of us. Two assistants lined us all up along the far wall. Then the client stepped forward and said "We need all minorities to step to this wall." The gorgeous Asian standing next to me sharply sucked in her breath. But she reluctantly stepped to where he was pointing. Now there were about 20 of us on the original wall. The client whispered to his assistant and once again stepped forward to deliver the next request:

"Can we have all the redheads step over here with the minorities please?" 

There were 3 of us redheads in the room. The statuesque auburn haired beauty at the end of the line was obviously way braver than me because she immediately laughed and said (loudly) "What?! Redheads are a minority now?"

The client didn't even blink.

"Redheads ARE a Minority." 

Needless to say, the client booked a blonde haired, blue eyed, 20 year old 5'9 model. My husband looked more like a "soccer mom" than that gal did. 

-- Mercedes Rose, redhead

Best Practices in Acting Biz

There is no handbook on how to create a fulfilling, active career in the performing arts. Sometimes I find myself jealous of my lawyer and doctor friends. They know if they achieve this much schooling, its a safe bet that they will establish a successful career. Its not like that in the acting business. You could go to school, put in the hours, invest the money in head shots, go to auditions, and still see no tangible progress. 

That's because there is no one path to success in an artist's career. For example: how do you find an agent? Some people are recommended, some are found through shows, some through showcases, some through submitting, some through paid one-on-one classes. As someone looking for an agent, I find this all terribly exhausting. There are so many different ways that other people have found agents, so what can I do to find one for myself? Do I need to go through all of these avenues until someone wants to be on my team? What is the most efficient way?

Lately I've been getting to know other working actors. Meeting over lunch, coffee, sending emails; what I want to know is how they got from their move into New York City, to where they are now, as busy professionals? 

The Funniest/Ruddest Audition Notice

I was online submitting myself for a short film. The character was well developed, complex, and multi-layered. Lovely.

The casting notice said they were looking for all races: African American, Native American, Asian American, etc. Lovely.

AND THEN, underneath that they had a picture of a beautiful white woman with the caption reading something like this: "We'd really like the actress to look like this." 

She had creamy olive skin, a white blouse on, and long brown hair. I look nothing like her. So I submitted myself and in the "notes" section I put the following: "You're not really looking for all types of actresses, are you?"

I pressed SEND, and never felt better.

It's one thing to say you're looking for a specific race for your character. TOTALLY FINE. It's another to say you're fine with all races auditioning and then put up a photo of what you really want. I was rather upset.

Would you be?

Post Holidays - Hit the Ground Running

No more forced baijiu drinking or bug eating (yes, that also happened in Yunnan)! The Spring Festival has finished!

So my holiday dry-spell is over and I'm up to my neck again in delicious, sweet work! It started at the beginning of this month when I did my first day as Smith the Thief in a spy thriller shot down in a southern Chinese city called Wuxi (nicknamed Little Shanghai for its style of development). Then it was back to Beijing to film a WW2 era "dramedy" movie, in which the Japanese and Chinese play a "shell game" with 3 US pilots who have crash landed near the Great Wall. Two entirely different shows make for good fun, except for that the delay of the war movie caused some near fatal collisions in scheduling. Read on, dear reader, and you shall now how I ran the gauntlet without (almost) any bruises.

Why Acting School Is Important

I have a very simple thought to share today.

One of the first things I learned in acting school was about creation, and what it means to create something with others.

I remember wanting to bang my head against the wall when in my very first college movement class, the teacher told us we were going to be "exploring the space"

"Oh great", I thought. "I came to college to re-enact my least favorite part of high school drama."

"Exploring the space" in my former drama classes always made me feel like an asshole.  Why?  Probably because high schoolers are assholes.  Or, to be more specific (and nicer), self conscious.  Particularly when it comes to bodies.  And of course, most kids in high school drama don't necessarily want to be actors.  Just getting on a stage is a big step for them, never mind pretending to be an animal.

Everyone's a Critic...Of Our Profession

Artists. Hippies. Divas. Egomaniacs. Sensitive souls. Flakes.  Seems that to much of the general public, we actors fall in to one of these categories.   The more people I meet the funnier the perceptions of actors I encounter.  But it makes me wonder, am I changing form constantly, igniting these clichés myself?  I certainly don’t feel like the same person from day to day.  I’m constantly changing form to figure out what I need to be, when.  Fake it til you make it, I certainly live by that, and I’ll strut down the street like and walk into a room with an “I’m obviously the best, don’t you want me” attitude when I feel more like an insecure child.

You Never Know...

Wow.... I had the most illuminating audition this week.

A few posts ago I wrote about a busy week of auditions I'd had, and the rejection and successes therein. (Read that post here.) In particular, there was one audition that week that left me feeling particularly cranky and self-critical.  

It was a commercial spot that required a sexy vibe.  My brand isn't overtly sexy, but the spot was classy and tasteful.  I was curious to see if I could amp up the sexy a bit, so I submitted.  

Diva Roller

I don’t know about you ladies out there tramping in Audition Wonderland, but I need a lot of stuff to get ready. I've literally been schlepping my old highschool backpack around town, stuffing it to the gills with my audition dress, shoes, my book, makeup, a curling iron, and snacks. Depending on how long I’d be away from my apartment, I might also have a book to read, a computer, and a change of clothes if I want to go to the gym afterwards.

I was breaking my back! My poor bookbag was busting at the seams, and I had already sewn the left strap back on after it ripped from the constant sling-on, sling-off. I needed an upgrade.

LIN - FEVER!!!

I am not a sports fan. I am not. I have great respect for the journey of the athlete, respect for the game, and the discipline needed in sports, which often mirrors the discipline needed in the performing arts.

Occassionally I watch ice hockey, gymnastics, and soccer. But I have never found an emotional hook towards any sports game or team.

I did have a crush on Joe Montana, of the San Francisco 49ers when I was around 9, but that's because the guy on my cereal box was hot.

Recently, however, I have caught...LIN-FEVER!!!!

I'VE GOT LIN FEVER BABY, YEAH!!! AND IT FEELS...LIN-MAZING!!!

Finally! Jeremy Lin has arrived! A superb athlete, who is jaw-dropping, who is Asian American (Taiwan-Chinese) and who is as tall as all of my cousins!

Finally! People will stop calling me a liar, just because they're too small-minded to entertain anything but stereotypes, when I tell them my cousins are 6', 6'3", and 6'7" respectively. Really?!

As if Yao Ming wasn't enough proof! And do you really think we could have built the Great Wall at only 5' tall?

I jest. But. Finally! The attention of the sports world is whiplashed by an athlete of Asian descent born and raised in America. Not that it really matters, but let me explain why I differentiate.