What Do You Do for Fun?

Today I want to talk about something very inspiring I saw over the weekend.  Jim Nieb put together a super fun "Coffeeshop" show at Playhouse West.  This show was an opportunity for actors from my acting school to show off some of their other talents.  These actors showed off great skills like tap dancing, singing, comedy and some of the bravest souls even got up for their first try at stand up.

It got me thinking, what do you have other than acting?  If this is your career, do you have any hobbies?

Between classes, interning, writing, rehearsing scenes and plays it's really difficult to find time to do anything else.  In my last blog I asked if you were doing enough for your career and I told you it's important to find the right balance and to not beat yourself up if you are not currently working at an acting job.  I also mentioned the importance of having a personal life. 

Watching these performers, I was amazed by the super talented ones who clearly had been doing this for years, but I was most moved by the ones who were trying something new.  It's inspiring to see actors reaching past their comfort zone and get up on stage to tell some jokes or read a poem they've written.

So, what are your hobbies?  What makes you feel good or uncomfortable or just plain happy?  Make sure you give yourself time to do that!

Are You Doing Enough?

Last weekend at the Playhouse West Film Festival, Scott Caan did a Q&A about his career.  One thing he said really struck me: he always feels like he should be doing more for his acting and for his career.  Here is a guy who is a regular on two television shows, writes and directs his own films, and is starting his own production company and he doesn't feel like he is doing enough.

If this guy doesn't feel like he is doing enough, how can any actor feel like they are doing enough?  Well, maybe James Franco does, but I assume he has Hermione's Time-Turner in order to do everything.

At the acting school I attend, I've seen some newbie-super-gung-ho actors come through who want to do everything right away.  They'll audit every class they can and want to constantly rehearse.  It is commendable, but what often happens with these actors is that they burn out quickly and end up leaving LA.

The trick is finding the right balance.  Of course you should work on your acting and your career, but there are more ways to do that than just going to class.  For me, I help out at my agency once a week, read at casting offices, go to class, write, and produce my own stuff.  But, don't forget that there is more to life than just your career, so don't beat yourself up when you are tending to your personal life as well.

As actors we chose a career that is more like a vocation or calling.  We don't have office hours, so our work is constantly with us.  When we aren't in the middle of working on something it is easy to feel bad about ourselves.  The hard thing is that this chosen career tends to have more downtime than working time. 

Here Michael Ian Black on SadSadConversation talks about the panic he feels when he is not working on something (around the 50 second mark):

Oscar winner, Michael Caine says he would always say yes to any role offered to him because he never knew if it would be the last role he was offered.  That's why he agreed to do Jaws: The Revenge.  He wanted to work and was afraid that could be his last chance.

Is the lesson here that no matter how many Oscars you've won, how many shows you've been a regular on, or how long you've been in the business you'll always feel that you aren't doing enough? 

No, it's more about acceptance. 

If you know you are doing as much as you can: if you are going to class, rehearsing, writing, reading, actively making new contacts, then accept yourself and don't beat yourself up every time you are without an acting job.

Some Film Festival Inspiration

I spent a very inspiring weekend at the Playhouse West Film Festival.  Three days of films, mostly shorts and every film involved Playhouse West students.  I have worked at this festival for the past 6 years and I am particularly proud of this year's film selections.  We had so many well made films with tight writing and good acting. 

I am a little disappointed in myself for not having a film in the festival this year.  I helped out on a few projects as a PA and such, but nothing more.

So, I want to take this opportunity to make a promise to myself and to all of you that I WILL HAVE A FILM IN THE FESTIVAL NEXT YEAR!!!

Congratulations to all the filmmakers who got off their tush this year and produced such wonderful work.  Throughout the festival, the advice most of the filmmakers give is to just go out there and do it.  That's exactly what I plan on doing as soon as I take a nap since working the festival is not just very inspiring but also extremely exhausting.

So, you want to be Rich and Famous?

If you chose to become an actor because you want to be rich and famous, I should tell you there are easier ways with a much better return to achieve both of those goals.  Your average work-a-day actor may never be able to quit the day job.

I spend many weekends working one of my survival jobs, sampling stuff at Costco.  It's not a bad job: short day, good money, and sometimes I get to take samples home.  This weekend a couple aisles down from my moisturizer demo, a guy had a fancy demo of those super cool blenders that can blend anything.  I call it fancy because they gave him a microphone and he was standing on a small stage with lots of equipment, all I had a small table with a black tablecloth.

The most interesting thing about the blender demo is that the guy running it is a well-known character actor.  He has a large recurring role on a series that has already gotten picked up for the fall.  This actor has a career that spans two decades and has included other large recurring roles, guest stars, movies, and a long running commercial campaign.  By all accounts a very successful career and one most of us actors are striving for.

And here I am working basically the same survival job as him.  Now, I am not pretending to know him or why he was there.  Maybe he has large gambling debts or he was doing it as a favor to a friend, but I suspect he was doing it because if you aren't working an acting job, doing promotions is a respectable way to get some extra income.

This is why you have to truly have a passion for acting, because if it's money you want there are more tried and true ways to get it like going to med school or becoming a stripper.


And if it's fame you're after, well I had an acting teacher once tell me that if I wanted to be a famous I chose my parents poorly.  Navigating Hollywood certainly would be easier with a name like Coppola or Arquette.

But, if you really want to be famous may I suggest reality television.