Published 6/25/2013
As much as I enjoy regaling
the four to six of you who read my blog with tales of mediocrity and almost-achievements in
Hollywood, I haven’t written as frequently of late because things have been
going, well, pretty good. Actually I’m pretty much crushing it in life right
now. That may be a bit of an exaggeration,
but things are looking up. In the past week, an AD uttered the words "The
principal is on set,” and he was talking about me! I finally booked a role that
was both paid AND speaking, and I’ve been unabashedly taking advantage of
Hollywood affirmative action in the form of network diversity showcases. Somebody
has to play that sassy friend…
I’m not getting too excited about the latter just yet, as
literally everyone I know who submitted has been invited to audition. Everyone.
And yet, I can’t squelch the growing glimmer of hope that I’m just a lucky
audition and a smarmy “meeting” with a producer away from fame, or at least being a
series regular on a CW show.
In any event, as I’ve been on more and more sets recently,
including an unexpected gig involving the star of a JJ Abrams franchise and my first union
voucher, I’ve noticed a few things about the world of the video village and beyond.
The day before I shot my commercial I was flabbergasted to
learn that my call time wasn’t until 9:30! That might not seem like anything to
get excited about, but when you’ve grown accustomed to reporting to set prior to six, it makes a
huge difference. Not only did I arrive after the sun came up, but I wrapped in
under three hours! What?! In the back of my mind, I suppose I knew that
happens on sets where the director knows
your name and doesn’t refer to you as “background in red,” and proceeds to tell
you to back up and to keep going until you’re out of the frame, but I guess I had
chocked it up to some acting urban
legend.
I’ve also managed to locate the happiest people on set-
craft services, and the absolutely miserable- the people from the ad agency. I
don’t know why, but every group of mad men I’ve come across has been dour at
best, although they’re usually a close tie with the background wrangler. The
most important thing that I learned during my week of glory however( in which I
used the hashtag #feeltherainonyourskin far more than is acceptable), is that I still have a long, long road ahead of
me.
It seems that just as my commercial was ending and people
were actually being nice to me, I found myself relegated to the background
again, this time in a sea of extras with far too much personality for our holding
area. I’m not sure which was worse, inhaling the aroma of downtown for eight
hours or being photographed by tourists who actually ran up to the director and
asked if they could be in the shot. I had no idea that sort of thing actually
happens! Anyway, if the fact that I’m still doing background work wasn’t an
indication, I definitely haven’t made it yet, but it’s almost like “It’s so
close I can almost taste it…” Okay, that was the last Natasha Bedingfield
reference, I promise.
DAILY SCORECARD:
Location: 5
Craft Services: 5
SAG/AFTRA vouchers
procured:1
On set experience: #winning
