Posts Tagged ‘Acting Lessons’

Does your face turn red? Does your neck get all splotchy with two-tone running down your chest so you look like you’re splattered with embarrassment? Does your voice go up several octaves and do you sound like you’re on speed or swallowed helium?

Anxiety Alert —

It happens to me at the most INCONVENIENT TIMES — like during a CALLBACK for Producers that I’ve coached on and know backwards-and-forwards till I walk into the room and totally BLOW IT!  Or when I hear Dr. Crush’s voice when I’m volunteering in the ER, and in that moment my entire body is taken over by “NERVOSA” and I act like an insecure idiot standing across the middle-school gym trying to not look nerdy while I wait for the cute shy boy to ask me to dance. Read the rest of this entry »

How do I connect the dots?

You know how you feel after your best friend loses ten pounds? FAT!

I’m sitting at my computer, waiting for my agent Josh to email me audition details, while writing a “thank you” to this casting director who met with me, and trying to figure out how to be more creative with my depressing career when I get this email alert from Deadline Hollywood:

‘Adulting’ Comedy From J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Lands At Fox As Put Pilot – Deadline.com

J.J. Abrams has been a hero of mine ever since he wrote FELICITY (when he was Jeffrey Abrams) so I CLICK on the link and read about this Oregon-based journalist Kelly Williams Brown who’s written a book: Adulting: How to Become a Grown-Up in 387 Easy(ish) Steps – based on her blog with the same name—so I think — Ugh— here comes the next Lena Dunham, who –or is it “whom”? — I LOVE btw— I’m just JEALOUS — and I check out Brown’s adulting blog. (WARNING: don’t Google “adulting” – it’ll take you to places you do not want to go, trust me!) Read the rest of this entry »

Nana Jane is a NIGHTMARE!

Notice lately that we’re laughing more at MEAN?  When did TV comedy go from teasing to sarcastic to caustic to down-and-out-demeaning?

Try finding any famous lines from Phoebe, Chandler, Ross or Rachel that are worse than teasing. I couldn’t.

Fraiser and Niles Crane were sarcastic, but had heart. Alan Harper is uncomplimentary — but he’s talking about himself.

Alex and Hayley Dunphy are sibling-and-age-appropriate-mean-girls, but they usually learn some loving lesson by the end the episode.

Hateful Ha-Ha – Is it the Current TV Trend?

Sue Sylvester may have started the trend, but somehow we don’t cringe when she says —

I’m going to ask you to smell your armpits. That’s the smell of failure, and it’s stinking up my office.” Read the rest of this entry »

finding the right hook

It’s LABOR DAY – the day to honor workers. But if you’re out of a job, it’s a day to think about getting more creative about opportunities.

For Creatives in a glitch —

Here are three out-of-the-box opportunities (one deadline just passed, but it’ll still get you thinking) that could lead to MONEY or a FUN TRIP (who knows the trip could lead you to opportunities that could lead you to a job…)  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s weird how on some days the world looks SUNNY and on other days it feels very DARK. And it has nothing to do with the weather most of the time.

Am I the only one who believes in me?
Will my hopes actually happen?
Am I idealistic?
Unrealistic?
Delusional?

If you’re an Actor; if you’re self-employed; if you free lance;  if you’re in any creative field whatsoever, you can relate, right?

Highs and Lows —

Some days are filled with REJECTION – other days with HOPE. And when you wake up in the morning, you’re never quite sure which one you’re gonna get. Read the rest of this entry »

are you listening?

Just saw RUBY SPARKS – so honest, deep, true and a little tough when you’re not quite ready for it. The show-stopping risky scene toward the end made me go WHOA big time. Not surprisingly, Zoe Kazan wrote her great scene herself.  She wrote and produced this little Fox Searchlight gem with her BF Paul Dano, who starred in it with her. How ROMANTIC! How PROACTIVE! How GENIOUS!

Directing DESTINY –

Actors (especially YOUNG CREATIVE WOMEN Actors-turned-MULTI-HYPHENATES) have started putting their destiny into their own hands. It seems like it’s the only way to keep from being a puppet, waiting for someone to pull strings.

Next weekend Rashinda Jones’ CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER  is being released. Jones co-wrote, produced and (incidentally) is starring in it – destiny in her own hands…

Krysten Ritter did it with LIFE HAPPENS.
Maybe we should all make our own —

• LIVES HAPPEN
• CAREERS HAPPEN
• HAPPINESS HAPPEN.

If this is a trend,
I LIKE it.
I want to LEARN from it.
I want to TRY IT!

Gotta admit, I’m LUCKY to live in L.A.

I can RUN ALONG THE BEACH any time I want —
I can BLAST MY MUSIC whenever I’m in my car —
and the weather is pretty RAD.

But let’s face it —
People tend to come down with “gridlock crabbiness” —
Being an Actor isn’t all it’s cracked up to be —
And there must be something more interesting to talk about than Box Office or who the next American Idol Judges will be.

Things that bug me this week and it’s only Monday —

• Non-stop news alerts about how well the DARK KNIGHT RISES is doing despite the tragedy (WRONG on so many levels!)
• Too many trucks blocking my street (HONK! HONK!)
• Carmageddon – Will it EVER be over? (me no think so!) Read the rest of this entry »