I must find a way to get into foreign films!

I must find a way to get into foreign films and soon. I am continually blown away by the wonderful quality of films coming out of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, non-Bollywood India, Spain, Argentina, and elsewhere.  I’ve been searching on the Internet for information on  how one would go about looking for foreign productions.  Lots of study-abroad programs for acting students, but that isn’t really what I’m looking for.  I know working abroad often sets you up for double income tax, but I wonder what are the other obstacles?   A fellow actor suggested I submit the idea to the editor at AFTRA’s magazine and see if they might have someone look into it and do an article.  Sounds like a plan.  It’s obviously easy for foreign actors to appear in American films and TV - just look at how many Brits and Aussies we have - but as with many things it isn’t a two-way street.  Foreign countries make it difficult for non-citizens to work.  Anyone with information on acting in foreign films, please write!

What prompted all this is that my husband and I saw Sarah’s Key last weekend.  The casting and performances in the WWII part of the story are just excellent.  Again I’m impressed by a child with little experience or training – Mélusine Mayance, in the title role - who gets it so right.  How do kids do that?!   The overall look of that part of the film is beautiful.  Foreign filmmakers have a knack for telling a simple tale and making it compelling. (sigh) I was going to make some crack about how awful the present day part of the film was, how miscast, how badly acted, but I learned this week that Aaron Schneider, who directed and edited the perfectly wonderful film Get Low, was second unit director of photography on the 1997 Winset/DiCaprio Titanic, which I think means he shot the part with the insufferable Granny and her insufferable family.  As such, I'll shut up and allow that everyone grows in their profession, hopefully even me.

Here at home I’m running to get all that needs to be done done and even the earthquake on Tuesday allowed only a brief pause while my life flashed before my eyes.  The acting demo reel is finished at last and can be seen at lower right along with an interview I had edited down as a promotional piece.  I very much took to heart what Geoffrey Soffer said about reels - that they're less about wowing them with my version of Lady Macbeth than about conveying a type.  I think it does convey a type.

A big thanks to my friend and editor Austin Smokowicz for pulling these together for me.  I haven’t promoted the demo yet – that takes place next week when (so an actor friend tells me) Mercury is no longer retrograde and the New Moon will portend good growth (I think that last bit is from the Farmer's Almanac) – but I’m very happy with the format.  I think it has a crisp look that not only accommodates different-sized video files without distortion (films shot 4x3 and 16x9, for example) but is also easy to update without having to redo the whole reel.  I expect several new clips to come in over the next few months so I’ll be bumping off the least of these and replacing them with more recent work.  So glad that my clips are finally arriving with some regularity.

Speaking of which I just wrapped on The Louder the Better, Michael Toscano’s SAG Master’s Degree thesis for Columbia University, where I had the pleasure of working with the very talented actor Regen Wilson.  (Nice job, Regen!)  It’s always a good sign when the director shows up with a ton of crew and equipment because you can rest assured that as long as you turn in a worthy performance you’re going to look great on camera.   Toscano had a sure hand though the long (and late!) days shooting.  I’m very much looking forward to seeing the finished film, which will screen in New York next spring.  With any luck I will be there with bells on.