Two and a Half Months

So, without fail, it's been a while since I've posted. The past couple of months have flown by filled with ups and downs, but mostly ups. Since January, my schedule has been filled with QC work, two trips to Oakland and San Francisco (a viewing of "Legally Blonde, the musical," which was GREAT!!!), Baltimore, Arlington, and Richmond. The trip to Baltimore was for Andrew's sister's wedding, which then lead me south to visit friends and family. A much needed trip after having my Christmas vacation cut short. When I returned to L.A., I was swept away into more background acting work on a new show (yet to be picked up) called "The Apostles." They're describing the show to be "Law and Order" (or some other cop show) meets "Desperate Housewives." I worked on the show for three days ~ reason being, uncooperative weather...like HAIL. Yes, hail in Southern California. That, the sudden downpours of rain, and cold 40-degree weather was ridiculous! Especially when we're shooting what's supposed to be pool party on a warm, sunny California day. It was so nice to actually see 20 minutes of sunshine on the third day. Highlights of the week: the production crew was totally nice and remembered every one of the background actors names. On my second day, I saw a background actor that I actually recognized...Mikey ~ the winner of last season's "I Wanna Be a Soap Star." Yyyup. We chatted a bit, and after we had introduced ourselves within the small group, I asked him if he was on "Soap Star." I had to. He was exactly as they portrayed him.

The following week, I was flooded with phone calls. On Wednesday, there was a call asking if I could do background work for another pilot. I couldn't accept the work, though, as I had already lost so much money the week before doing the 3 days on "The Apostles." Thursday, I received a call asking if I would be interested in participating in an industrial commercial on Saturday. However, I already scheduled myself for an audition for "I Wanna Be a Soap Star" ~ they're giving the winner a 13-week role on "Days of Our Lives"! How could I resist?!? When I got home that evening, I had an email in my inbox saying that I have been scheduled to audition for a student film called "Losing the Funny"...for Saturday! Geez! :-) I was starting to feel like an idiot...submitting myself for projects that were all happening on the same day I was auditioning for "Soap Star." But then I realized that none of the ads posted listed when their projects/auditions were happening. I had turn the commercial down, but I was able to make both "Soap Star" and student film auditions.

I WANNA BE A SOAP STAR AUDITIONS:
An interesting experience. The gals I met while standing in line were very sweet, and they kept me laughing. While were waiting in line, the production crew got shots of us being "enthused," screaming/whoo-ing, smiling, waving, etc. None of us felt like being that enthused at 8:30 in the morning.

By 9am, the host of the show, Cameron Mattheson had arrived, and he shot his intro-to-the show bits. They brought all of us into the shot by getting us into a group behind him. He intro-ed the show, and we screamed the last line with him..."I Wanna Be a Soap Star!!! ...whoooooo!!!!" Yeah. Whoooo. We shot this a number of times, as you can imagine by now...and they tried to rotate us, so they'd have different faces in the front. I didn't exactly make it up there. Stuck in the middle, and every once in a while in camera view.

10am/10:30am, they brought us the stage where the auditions were being held. By the way, we were at the same studios where "Grey's Anatomy" is shot. So, when we passed by the "General Hospital" stage, the girls I was chatting with let out huge gasps. When I told them "Grey's Anatomy" is also shot here, they let out more gasps.

As we approached the stage set, a crew member started pairing us to go in. They gave us a scene to improv (just as Mikey had told me a couple of weeks ago). Our scene (I was paired with a guy named Ryan): we were married for 5 years and taking a cruise. It was a long needed vacation; a second honeymoon. BUT the ship was sinking! and he needed to tell me something really important. Aaand go! The important thing he had to tell me...he was married to my sister...but it's over and he loves me, and he'll be with me to the end! My reactions: what?!? I was in shock, trying to catch my breath, tearing up, how could this happen?!? He said she looked so much like me, he thought it was me. How?!? We're not twins!!! She's 15 years older than me!!! Are they divorced??? No. Anyway, this went on, and they finally stopped us.

The next little thing they had us do was make up a new jingle for the show. Ryan went first and did really well! Then I went, and after some thought, I told them that I was going to riff off of Ryan's jingle because it was stuck in my head. It wasn't the greatest, but whatever.

They said "thank you," and that was it. I thought that maybe they would be calling us if they wanted us back fro a call back, but then Ryan pointed out that it looked like the people who got call backs got a couple of papers and had to go to a table to register. One of the girls I talked to found us and asked if we had registered already. We were like "Oh! You got a call back?!" And she said in surprise "Oh! I guess I did!"

So, I was able to make it to the next audition with no worries AND with some time to stop by my apt. for some brunch.

STUDENT FILM AUDITION:
I submitted myself for this film because it looked interesting, and I had read that it's good to do student films because (a) you have a chance to work on your acting skills, (b) you have footage to build your demo reel, (c) if the director applies for a SAG contract agreement, you can get a SAG voucher and/or become SAG elgible if you have lines (gotta find out about that), and (d) the film could be going to festivals, and (e) today's student filmmaker could be tomorrow's Steven Spielberg.

I think it went all right. No way to really tell. I read for two parts ~ Michael/Michelle (they're not sure which way they'll go with the gender yet) and the Waitress, who has one line and will always be in the background, as the main characters use her restaurant as their office. The one thread of hope I have to hang on to is that the director asked if they had my contact info - email address, phone number. If he weren't interested in using me at all, I don't think he would've asked. It just seems to be the way it works. You don't always get a call or email to say "Sorry. We don't need you." -- in acting or the video post production world.