Audition: "Yellowtown Monster"

I had an audition last Saturday afternoon for a short film called "The Yellowtown Monster".  The sides were hilarious and I assume the rest of the script is as well.  I went out for the main character, the Monster.  He is 5,000 years old and is good friends with Bigfoot and Loch Ness etc.  He sees how they are getting all of the fame and subsequent success in life and has become very jealous. He decides to take a stab at Hollywood from what I can tell. 

The audition felt really great.  There were a lot of people in the room and I got a lot of laughs from the people on the other side of the table - which is always nice.  I would say a line/monologue one way and I'd receive positive feedback and then receive an adjustment.  "Excellent Phillip!  Now for this next take, instead of saying it like that....try it like..."  And that's what I did. 

I heard about this audition from a friend that I had cast in a previous production I was in.  It's always good to have friends like that! 

I read on someones facebook wall the other day that when you stop focusing on getting auditions and start focusing on building relationships, that is when your career gets a lift.  I'd have to agree with that idea.  Instead of having a mindset of "what have you done for me lately?", it is a lot better for you/friends/the world if you think more along the lines of "I'm going to do this for you and not expect anything in return".  I suppose many of the world's great philosophers, religious icons and leaders of industry have been saying and thinking the same thing all along.  Act because you want to act.  Audition because you love to audition.  Create because you need to create in order to survive. 

Hey, Chris Cooper. You are really good at acting.

Hey....Hey Chris Cooper. I just wanted you to know that I think you are a really really (really) good actor.  I first saw you act in "American Beauty" where you portrayed that really hard line father of the protagonist.  The ex-Marine who collected Nazi memorabilia and turned out to be a closeted homosexual.  I thought that....well (uh oh, I'm blushing a bit) when you were so defeated in the scene with John Doman in "The Company Men" and you made yourself allllllmost cry but your character was so quietly and unassumingly masculine that you gulped it down.  Wow.  That was also really really great.  Mr. Cooper, I just wanted you to know....that....well, if I came across a magic genie, and the genie was all like "Hey, I will grant you a wish...just one."  I would probably be like "Well, let me think about this one."  And I'd think about it for a while, a few minutes probably, in silence.  I would emerge from said think tank of solace and say..."Hey, Genie.  I want an acting career where I am respected by my peers, work regularly and get to play awesome roles and am not swarmed by crazy fans*.  I am wishing for an acting career like Chris Cooper's."

Poof!  I'd get it, and it would be really fun, there would be much rejoicing.

Thanks.  I guess.  Now if you would please let me finish my meal, I would appreciate it.  Best of luck to you, by the way.

Ok....Thanks for that, BYE CHRIS COOPER!!!

Bye.










*totally assuming this.

"You love me, you really love me!"

This feels good. Really good, actually. "Persakis Towers" was chosen in the "Top 10 of 2010" for Vimeo.com  I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. 

Vimeo as I've mentioned before, is a video hosting and sharing website of the utmost quality.  Gut Punch's fearless director, Crandall Miller says that it "looks how directors want things to look."  I'd have to agree with the experts on that one.  They have a great business model as the quality of the productions tend to be higher than what you'd see on say....youtube.  This is due to the fact that it costs money to be on vimeo (above a certain data usage).  It separates the wheat from the chaff.

It feel great to be one of the wheatiest bits of wheat.

Boxing has made me a better actor

I believe that boxing has made me a better person, a more well rounded person and in doing so, it has made me a better actor.

In the world of professional acting, you'll see a lot of ups and downs.  Also, I have noticed that the "downs" can last a long time, months even in between jobs etc.  Hey man, it happens.   I've found that when I focus on the negative things, like say not getting work, it all begins to spiral out of control.  I become my own worst enemy.  First comes the doubt, then confusion, then anger towards everyone else and then the anger turns on yourself.  It's a nasty nasty cycle that helps nothing and hurts everything and everyone.

But when you focus on something else and are happy about your position in life, things just seem to fall into place.  I wasn't able to focus like that on my real estate job, I wasn't able to focus like that on weight loss, but I was able to focus that much on boxing.  Maybe because I come from an athletic background (football and competitive powerlifting) I am able to lose myself in boxing.  Who knows.  All I know is I am hooked and it has made me a better actor.

Just because you are getting better at boxing doesn't mean that you can beat someone in a bout.  Just because you are getting more technically sound as an actor, doesn't mean that you will land that day player role.  You either match the producers needs or you don't.  You either react properly to the jab, execute a proper slip and counter with a right hook to the jaw or you dont see the jab coming and your nose is bloody.  On the one hand the execution is up to you, but on the other hand the opportunity is Lord given.

And I am surprised that boxing taught me that lesson about acting and finding success.  Another thing that actors need to posses is a feeling of confidence but also the knowledge that if you don't match the producers needs, you simply won't get the job.  It doesn't matter how talented you are.  Boxing has given me a similar mind set.  I feel a heightened sense of virility for sure.  I know that I can beat up most people in a street fight, and I'd be remiss to say it isn't a manly and comforting thought.  But I also feel way more humble. I am humble because if I fight someone who is 135 lbs, they could theoretically destroy me in the ring.  They could have been training for 10 years and have found amateur success and are about to embark on a professional career.  Me and my 8 or so months can not compete with that

You just never know.  Sometimes you just don't have the goods, sometimes you just can't match up; sometimes you aren't what the producers are looking for.   All you can do is your personal best - and in a perfect world that is all that matters.

I really like this art work

As an actor I am constantly at battle with my brain and ego about things that I can not control.  I hate not being able to control things, but you just have to......I don't know, "let go"?  This art work really hit me.  It made me feel relieved in a weird way.  I suppose I felt relieved that someone else feels the way that I hope to about hopes/dreams/success/failures. I saw it on Gizmodo, here is the original piece. It's available for purchase too, I might just get it. 

Reflection

When I was a college chap (read: my younger and more vulnerable years) I told myself that I would pursue acting for 5 years and if I didn't "make it" I would get a Doctorate in Acting/Theatre and be a professor, because I just loved acting that much that I wanted to be surrounded by it and I didn't care about the capacity.

It has now been 5 years to the date of my college graduation.  And I gotta level with you, there's no effing way I'm packing it in.   Although I have accomplished a lot and had a heck of a lot of close calls. Let's try to recap:

Immediately after graduation I was cast in a pilot, "College Daze" and was cast in an off-off broadway Shakespeare show, "The Merchant of Venice."  The play paid a small honorarium, I met some cool people (am still friends with two of them).  The pilot was a great experience, it didn't go anywhere but I learned from it and it was a good ego boost to get that much work early on.

I joined SAG and AEA. 

I starred in numerous one act plays in downtown Manhattan, they won awards and were well received.

I took a shit load of improv classes at the UCB.  One of the guys I met in class, the aforementioned Mark is still a great friend and was in my groom party.  I made a lot of connections at the UCB and even had a show that ran for a while. 

My father and I started an outdoor Shakespeare company on Fire Island NY.  It lasted 3 seasons and we managed to pay the actors and give them free room and board.  We had great reviews and I myself had three excellent reviews.  I was compared to a "young Orson Welles."  Hot damn!

I was in a JVC Everio commercial where I danced shirtless and collapsed and died.  It was on ESPN's homepage for two weeks.  I knew this, because my e-mail box blew up from fraternity brothers that I hadn't heard from in years.

I was a day player in "Lipstick Jungle."  Sweaterboy.  I was Lorraine Braccho's assistant. It was supposed to be a day of featured background, they gave me a line and then cut it.  But the paycheck was nice and meeting Mrs. Braccho and Kim Raver was really cool.  Mrs. Raver is exceptionally kind and warm.

I did a lot of stand-in work for John Goodman.  I spilled my guts to him one night on the set of "Confessions of a Shopaholic".  and told him that he was, in essence, my hero and my inspiration to pursue acting after college as a big guy.  I learned SO much from Goodman and he is hands down one of the kindest people on Earth.  I get a special tingly feeling just thinking about his work and his warmth.  

A short list of close calls: I lost a role to Tony Hale (from arrested development and the informant, among may other things) for the movie "Arlen Farber", it went to Sundance.  I repeat: this film went to Sundance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I would been opposite Jeff Daniels for 5 scenes.  I repeat: I would have been opposite Jeff Daniels for five scenes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The casting director told me that I was "thiiiiiiiiiis close" to getting it.  Supposedly the producer wanted a name and not a new guy.  I had call  backs for numerous movies including "Law Abiding Citizen", "How Do You Know..." (directed by James L Brooks) and M Night Shylamans "The Last Airbender".    For LAC, I was supposedly on the table to get cast as "Mitch" a young ADA who gets blown up and whose untimely demise Jamie Foxx cries over.  They rewrote the script and "Mitch" hit the cutting room floor.  For "How Do You Know" I lost the role to the actor who played "Herc" on "The Wire and cousin Dominic from Entourage.  Two national commercial call backs: Carnival Cruise lines and Kraft mayonnaise.

I don't want to talk more about the near misses, the heartbreak and the tears - because I don't want to feel like that again.  

I was raised by my father so attack each day and task with vigor and enthusiasm; there's no way I'm going away quietly.