Yes this one is ridiculously long, so you can skip what you'd like, but would you risk missing an important detail for a few extra seconds? Guilty as charged.
The time change is now making me realize how much Monday morning in Texas is gunna hurt....
We drove down Hollywood Blvd. and saw crazy actors earning a few bucks by dressing as Superman or Dorothy. There was this one guy dressed only as what I can describe as the drag devil. The 8 inch, not kidding, platform boots gave it away. He was really just scaring people and not making any money. Passed the Chinese Theatre and other landmark buildings standing proudly on top of the many scuffed star’s stars. Michael Jackson’s star was adorned with notes, flowers, lit candles, and a constant rotating crowd taking pictures and praying. What a moment. As we drove closer to Sunset, and one of our biggest appointments of the week. I saw a few empty stars in front of ginormous million dollar homes blocks from the hustle in bustle of a lackluster Times Square Cali. style. Tony Martinez is on the of the top agents in the city. I say that, knowing that there are 4 big playing agencies that run the city. Then there are a handful of huge agencies that have a-list talent but are more low key organizations. Cue Mr. Martinez and our first stop of the day. A little fireball from Manhattan, Martinez showed genuine care for everyone who walked into his office. Martinez is Eva Longoria’s agent and if I hadn’t been so nervous to read for him, I would have remembered that we were separated by only a few “Bacon Degrees” by way of The Koehler Company’s work on the Longoria-Parker San Antonio home. Rats. But I was nervous. I mean, true this guy wasn’t looking to sign any of us day 1 but we were in his office performing and that in itself takes people years to even consider. He sees us today...maybe actually (re)considers after you’ve got a few credits to your name down the road. Guest spot on Desperate Housewives anyone?
My headshots were berated yet again and he told me I was very good with language and quick with words. Take that for what it’s worth and maybe I’ll end up a 5th grade language arts teacher. Yessss. He was the first person on the trip to get my eye color correctly and wanted a second look as we shuffled humbly out of his office. Mission accomplished.
Our next audition was with The Corsa Agency, another big player in the television world on Wilshire Blvd. Margo told me ahead of time that this would be very very brief and similar to an audition not pre-arranged. Double negative but not? Anyone? No one. So! I never mind biting the bullet first and thankfully I did at Corsa because I got to read all 6 sides the agency had asked us to prepare and as the others followed suit, they were cutting people off as they realized how long it would take to get through 4 people reading that many separate scenes. We were in and out of there like the burgers and off to a funky studio that houses many many commercial and television casting directors. The building provides trendy studios for auditions and bigger, trendier studios for callbacks that casting directors can rent out for the duration of a casting. After a quick tour and a glimpse into the life of a casting production, we met Terry Berland who is, and I quote, “one of THE busiest commercial casting directors in the country.” Okay? As a matter of fact, we couldn’t chat long with her because she was casting a voiceover part for the entire Lexus account for 2010. Wowzers. Fun to hear what she was looking/listening for and hear that a secret Madman star had just read for the job over lunch while casting was on a break. We missed him by that much dad! As we were standing in the lobby of the studio, an older lady, headshots in hand, barged in asking where to upload her headshots. We giggled at first because she was so sweet looking but incredibly demanding and irate at the receptionist who couldn’t help her out and “kindly” said, “I can’t help you. We don’t have kiosks to upload headshots anymore. I need to get back to work.” To which she shouted a bit more and turned to our group, “Well, they really should put a sign up. What an awful 94th birthday I am having.” We held the door open for her in utter astonishment and watched her honk her way through the crowed parking lot and onto her 94th fabulous year on this earth. Amazing.
We were set to read for Eric, the casting director for Nip/Tuck and The Mentalist but had to get to the scene study technique class. Preparation was rampant but I was mentally ready. I was initially scared to death of LA actors thinking they were these tanned, better-looking, more experienced gods and goddess’ when in all actuality they’re just tanned, better-looking, more experienced gods and goddess’. But instead of being scared to death of these beasts, I realized (lots of realizing in these blogs huh??) that it doesn’t matter to agents or directors if you’ve had 20 sitcom appearances and a SAG card for 15 years. Yeah, it doesn’t hurt and it can make your audition life run baby’s bottom smoother, but industry people that you are performing for, reading with, and auditioning around want you to succeed. They want me to walk on that stage and knock their socks off; it makes their job easier and more successful. Granted, the problem hides in the fact that there are parts for everyone...they just have to have a part that fits you. Tricky battle I know. BUT our class was at Margie Haber studio (the one we visited earlier) and it was probably the best working relationship class I’ve ever participated in. Eden led the class which consisted of her current classmates presenting a callback scene, which the studio refers to as “a slice of life” NOT a scene. Love it. Eden spoke about how to take the character you are suppose to be “playing” and pull from yourself. So Ivy playing Miss Lovett is partially the information I’ve taken from the writers and the text but more importantly the final character is all the parts of me that can be encompassed into Miss Lovett. She explained how to walk into a callback as the person from the slice of life so it makes the transition from Ivy walking into the audition room and greeting the casting director to starting the scene/slice of life...a much more fluid one. You are the character somewhere in you. Kinda deep and personal but lovely. She would film her students so they could watch how the callback went, compare takes, and allow the person in the slice of life to actually view the thought process that an audience would see onscreen. We got to read and ask questions and it was just wonderful to see how normal these kids were. The studio is apparently pretty expensive but I am so hooked on their methods! huh oh.
peace. love. and bobby flay.
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