I'm Not Lazy I'm Sick

Recovering from the worst case of flu ever.  I think I've fallen victim to federal biological warfare. I've been sick for two weeks and only slowly coming back.  Rats!  Had to cancel two auditions.  Barely made it to my photo session with Joe Henson a week ago (illness gives you high color) and now trying to regroup.  

I liked the photos.  Some of the un-retouched proofs are at right.  One executive, one casual Mom, one 3/4 shot for print work.  Still planning a blitz to the agencies when I get all my materials in hand.

But for now all I want to do is sleep.

Busy Week

Busy week: Started Brenna McDonough's Master Class (which is wonderful!)  Brenna coauthored the book at left with her husband. This is the second class I've had with her - largely auditioning for commercials and industrials, but a lucrative sideline for the dramatic actor.  Also updating my resume and reposting it to IMDb, Actors Access, the Actor’s Center in DC, Casting Frontier, NY Castings, and Dragonuk Connects.  Rewrote my 45-second bio (should I be asked to "say something" about myself at an audition.) Signed up for a teleprompter class in May, submitted a headshot and resume for a wonderful play in Philadelphia that would use a bit 'o me Irish (longshot, there are loads of terrific actresses in Philly), found a comedy monologue for a film audition on the 16th, signed up for a peer practice session on the 17th at the Actors Center.  Getting new headshots taken by Joe Henson on Sunday and creating labels and drafting a cover letter for sending the headshots out to agencies as soon as I get prints.  Whew!

Oh, yeah! And doing my taxes!  (bang head, bang head)

Interchangeable in Hollywood

By the way, I saw this poster for the television series "Pretty Little Liars" yesterday when I was out at the salon getting my hair cut.  Can anyone tell these sweet young things apart?  Aside from one being a blonde, their faces are almost identical.  Before I posted this, I actually checked the series to make sure they weren't digitally animated!

I've remarked before on the lovely sameness settling in on television, but what is the business thinking behind this?  And what must it be like to be one of these interchangeables?  

4/6/11 p.s.  My husband the novelist-budding screenwriter ventures that on low-budget series aimed at certain demographics - teens, for example - producers go with actors who look very similar so that if one leaves to go do something more interesting or lucrative they can be easily replaced and the series continues without missing a beat.

I think he's got it!

Persistence

In addition to studying film I often watch documentaries in the evening as there’s no better way to observe human behavior than…well…to observe human behavior.  I was watching Kings of Pastry last night, a terribly interesting 2009 film on the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF - Best Craftsman in France) competition for pastry chefs.

As the IMDb description puts it: “The collar awarded to the winners of the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF - Best Craftsman in France) is more than the ultimate recognition for every pastry chef - it is a dream and an obsession. The three-day competition includes everything from delicate chocolates to precarious six-foot sugar sculptures and requires that the chefs have extraordinary skill, nerves of steel and luck…The filmmakers were given first time/exclusive access to this high-stakes drama of passion, sacrifice, disappointment and joy in the quest to have President Sarkozy declare them one of the best in France.”

The description hardly captures the unbelievable pressure on the 16 finalists (out of 70.) The candidates compete not against each other but against an exacting standard of excellence.  All through the competition the judges – themselves MOFs - are watching everything the chefs are doing, peering over their shoulders, scribbling notes, even judging their tidiness and clean up.  Add to that the fact that there’s a film crew in the room recording every triumph and tragedy.  Each day is timed; one begins before dawn.  At night their wives and girlfriends are there to lend moral support.  Only a few will be awarded the coveted tricolor collar.

One chef – Philippe  Rigollot - had done extremely well through the first two days (even my husband said, “Man, he is good!”).  The third day each of the 16 is assigned a table to arrange all of their dozen or so creations for the final judging and public display.  They are exhausted mentally and physically.   Philippe is carefully moving his centerpiece – a fanciful 3 ft. tall man with a top hat, mustache, and monocle, all made of chocolate and sugar.  As he sets it on the table, the centerpiece shatters into a hundred pieces and everyone gasps. It is a catastrophe.  It has taken him the three days to make the parts and assemble it.  There is no time to make it again.  The other chefs and the judges put their arms around his shoulders and urge him to take the sugar base (all that is left) and create something to turn in.  His shoulders sag, his faces reddens and he starts to cry.

There’s something particularly heart-rending about a man in tears, and understand this is a big guy!  In the end Philippe pulls himself together and picks up the sugar base, determined to follow it through to the end.  He creates a pulled sugar bird and a flower and a few decorations to attach to the base in time to turn something in, but it is nothing like his original creation.  No matter.  He finished, he didn’t just walk out.

And, like a Hollywood drama, in the end Philippe is one of only 4 of the chefs to be awarded the MOF collar, despite the loss of his masterpiece.  As the judges explained, he turned in a centerpiece and received a grade – not a good grade, but a grade.  And his scores for all of his other creations were so high, they decided he had earned the MOF just the same.  (Since they saw him create his original centerpiece – and it really was unique – I have to think that played a role as well.)

So what does all this have to do with acting?  Well it illustrates a maxim for auditions, and for life: that it isn’t the error that matters, it’s the recovery.  Success is not perfection, it’s persistence.

I have a film audition coming up on the 16th.  I will be thinking of Philippe Rigollot, and his smiling face.

Finding That Uncommon Brand

A lot of talk this week about developing a personal “brand” – that certain look and personality that sets you apart from other actors and leads you to be cast in certain stock roles.  Almost all actors have a recognizable brand, especially if they are very big stars. If you go to see a film starring Tommy Lee Jones or George Clooney or Angelina Jolie or Drew Barrymore, you pretty much know what you’re getting before they ever appear on screen.

I think the term “brand” is getting confused with “niche,” however, and while I do think they are similar and that one affects the other I don’t think they are quite identical. 

Niche has to do with the roles you are initially cast to fill based upon your age, height, weight, body type, facial features, hair, voice, etc.  You can change your niche by changing your brand.  One example: someone once asked Cary Grant how – given his dicey childhood and lack of formal education – he became the model of smooth sophistication.  He reportedly said that he pretended to be the kind of person he wanted to be and after awhile he became that person.  In other words, he changed his “brand.”  

The goal of perfecting a personal brand, or changing a brand, is to become uncommon, to stand out from the scores – perhaps hundreds – of other actors being considered for a role.

Los Angeles acting coach Ben Hopkin has an interesting blog on branding and marketing that I recently came across and have now added to my Resources List on the right.  I hope to study it thoroughly this weekend and perhaps pick up a tip or two on how to develop a better sense of the kind of person I project – or want to project – on screen.

Clear and Sunny Skies Interview

Last night I attended what I hope is the first of many screenings of the short film Clear and Sunny Skies, written by the very talented filmmaker Anthony Greene.  I play Beverly Porter opposite Tamieka Chavis' Beverly Jones in a story about two women that meet on a bench at the beach, with life-changing consequences.  Here's the interview Tamieka and I did about the film. 

Why TV Characters are Getting Older

Oh gee, here's a shocker: television audiences are getting older.  Yesterday's 3/9/11 Wall Street Journal called it "Television's Senior Moment," noting that "as audiences get older, so do the characters - and the ads cost more."  Hmm, costlier ads?  That is news.

As reporter Amy Chosick puts it: "For decades the TV industry has operated on a currency of youth, creating shows that appeal to 18-49 year olds, the age group advertisers traditionally consider most likely to buy new products, switch brands and spend on everything from cars to soft drinks."  But boomers themselves planted that idea back in the 1960s when they flocked to shows like Charlie's Angels and Hawaii 5-0.

And boomers, it turns out, are not following the behavior patterns of their parents (have they ever?) who were winding down their spending at 55.  Boomers are buying IPads and second homes, splurging on vacations and postponing retirement.  What is more, boomers grew up on television and watch it 5-6 hours a day, compared to an average of 4 hours and 49 minutes for TV audiences as a whole. They make up the majority of viewers for shows like NCIS and The Good Wife.

So now the word is that producers and advertisers are falling all over themselves to put more older characters into TV shows and commercials.  We have 66-year-old Tom Selleck leading Blue Bloods, 62-year-old Kathy Bates being tapped for Harry's Law and 89-year-old Betty White starring in Hot in Cleveland on MTV's TV Land.  It's being called a "Tsunami."

Oh, how delicious.

Now maybe local producers will stop looking at me aghast that I'm not wearing sneakers and a baggy sweater, and I don't have my gray hair in a bun!

Anyway, an article worth reading.