What are you working on now?

Yep, that is one of the most dreaded questions for actors.  Right up there with, Have you been in anything I would've seen?

Jobs for actors tend to be few and far between.  A good year for an average working actor would be about four jobs.  Unless one of those jobs is as a regular on a TV show, there is a lot of down time.

Of course, you are doing things like going to classes or on auditions.  But, answering the question with a list of auditions or a description of how you were really close getting this one role, but at the last minute they decided to cast the director's girlfriend, leads to blank stares and polite nods.

Let me tell you how I would answer this question:  We are in post-production on a five minute short that I wrote and shot last weekend.  I am in pre-production on a film that I've been working on for about 6 months.  We are going to shoot in two weeks.  Plus, I am in a play that has been running once a month for over a year.

That sounds pretty impressive, right?  It's all because I am being proactive by creating my own work.  It's easy in this town to sit back and wait for your agent to call but if you do that you may be sitting around a long time.

You don't have to look like a deer in headlights the next time someone asks you what you are working on.  Start creating on your own.  If you don't know where to begin, then find people to work with who do.  Form your own group of creative types and start working on something.