Different News For Once!!

I hate it when I get so busy that there is a week's time between posts, because they end up getting really long. I'm sure no one wants to sit and read a blog for 20 minutes. Anyways, I have some good, no great news for once. I FINALLY have an AGENT!!!!!! Whew. It took me exactly 5 months and 21 days since I started the search. This is a huge step for a new person in Hollywood. The agency I joined signed me to a commercial contract, so I'm starting in commercials. This is great because commercials are very lucrative and only licensed talent agents have access to these types of jobs. You really can not progress here without an agent. I already thanked God a million times because as you all know I'm under a little more of a time crunch and more pressure than most other actors out here. I have to let Ohio State know in June whether or not I'm comging back or not. Well, I don't want to have to make that decision. I want to be doing so much here that there wouldn't even be a question in my mind as to whether I'd go back or not. Ya know, up until now, the fact that I had this decision to make really stressed me out and depressed me, because I obviously don't want to make the wrong decision. However, I think this is a blessing in disguise. It keeps me working over time to make things happen. It keeps me on my toes. I see so many actors out here who get lazy and they're just floundering. This leads into my next point, and my next bit of good news (there are 3).

I went into one of the background casting agenices last week to ask if they could help me get another SAG voucher. I told them I had 2 (even though it was still technically 1), and that I only needed one more. I told them that I had been doing background for 5 months, i had 2 vouchers and I didn't know why I was having trouble getting my 3rd. The dude in there looked at me like I was crazy! He said that on average, people doing background get one voucher every 1.5 years!!! He said I was waaay ahead of the curve by having 2 already. But see, that's just my frame of mind. When I do something, I HAVE to be first, and I HAVE to be the best. My mother can validate that. The fact that it had been almost 6 months and I didn't have my 3 vouchers was really getting to me. This brings me to my next point!

I GOT THE OTHER SAG VOUCHER 5 days later, and I had to hustle to get it! This is so crazy. So last week they had put out a casting notice about needing people to play protestors for a scene in Rush Hour 3. I submitted for it, and they didn't call me. Two days later they postedd it again saying they still needed people. I'm thinking to myself, "why would they post a 2nd time if they hadn't called everyone from the first notice?" They were shooting, on the weekend, and Friday rolls around and I still hear nothing. January has been such a slow month for work, so my ass CRASHED the set. Haha. People do it all the time apparently. Once the people who were booked finish checking in, then the "set crashers" or SPECS can try to get on. I wasn't the only one; there were like 20 other people who crashed. I had heard that they were possible going to recall people for the next day, but only a few. So, when we finished that day, I made sure I was on the first bus back to where we check out. As I got there, the girls was counting people off. She counted the first 40 people to come back the next day. So, I go back the next day and there are considerably less people. And feature films are requred to use 50 SAG vouchers before they can start using non-union vouchers. If there aren't 50 union people there, then they have to give some SAG vouchers to non-union people. So, I heard the girls say they were going to need to give a few of the vouchers out at the end of the day. Man, I was her best friend ALL day. I flirted like heck with her, and it paid off! They needed to give out 12 SAG vouchers, and she gave one to me. But my friend that was with me both days didn't get one. Sad, but hey, it's a cut-throat business and I got my voucher and that's all I cared about. Now, I'm still waiting for my 3rd one (that's owed to me). Not bad, huh?

Well, this is getting too long, so I'm going to wait until Monday to talk about the rest. Ahhh....don't you hate cliffhangers? Well get over it! This is Hollywood. This past Monday I was on a new pilot called Drive. It's a high school show and I played a high school kid on the baseball team. Yes, that means I got paid to play baseball all day! Nobody recognizable was on this how. Yesterday I was on Without A Trace. I played an FBI agent and we worked from 10 am to 12:15 am!!! That was grueling. I don't know anyone on that show either. Oh I almost forgot, on Rush Hour 3 we only worked with Jackie Chan jumping out of windows. He's cool, and they hired a bunch of Chinese extras for this scene. The Chinese women were all trying to take pictures of Jackie Chan and yelling for him and saying they loved him. It was funny.

Crap!! I just remembered that I met 3 crazies (I think that's a record) on the set of Without A Trace. Oh well, I'm sick of typing. I'll have to tell you about them in my next post. It's really funny.

Quotes of the day:

"Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity." (We knew that, but it fits this blog)

"The essential question is not, "How busy are you?' but 'What are you busy at?' 'Are you doing what fulfills you?'"

--both by Oprah Winfrey