Don't Forget Your Headshots

I left something out of my last post, and it's kind of important, if any acting hopefuls are reading this...

Getting ready for the workshop on Tuesday, I stapled a copy of my resume to a headshot.

Then I took a shower, got dressed, grabbed my headshot folder and the book I'm currently reading (The End Of Faith), and headed out to the Metro station.

It wasn't till I got to the ACG space in Studio City, and went to put my headshot on the table, that I realized something had gone terribly wrong - I'd never actually gotten my headshot into my headshot folder; it was still at home, lying on my bedside table, where it wasn't going to do anyone any good.

I was horrified.

Not having a headshot for the casting person is so amateur-hour (As an actor, your headshot is a combination business card and job application), I was tempted to just eat the money and go home, rather than start out making such a bad impression (the casting person hadn't gotten there yet).

But Molly convinced me it wasn't that big a deal (even though it really was), so I stayed.

And I did scrounge up a postcard with my picture and agency info on it, the textbook definition of "better than nothing" (And my scene with Tammy D. went so well that I was glad I hung around; at the beginning of the evening, the casting person might have thought, "Who's this loser that doesn't even have a headshot...?", but by the end, she was thinking, "That loser who didn't even have a headshot is a pretty good actor").

So the lesson here is - always make sure you have your headshots before you head off to your audition or workshop (Actually, you should always have a number of headshots with you, to cover any possible contingencies). Because you don't want a casting person's first impression of you to be as someone who doesn't have their act together.

Anyway...

Yesterday's audition (for "Orbitz", the online travel service, not "Orbit", the gum) went quite well, I thought.

It was a funny spot, and I like funny (And the deadpan, slightly depressed, weary character they seemed to want is something I can do very well).

So we'll see.

Whether or not anything comes of Tuesday's workshop, or this commercial audition, they were both fun, and I left each feeling I'd done my best.

It's important that the effort to get where you're going is fun. Otherwise, why bother?

Particularly as an actor - You're going to spend much more time trying to act than actually acting, so you'd better be up for that, and figure out how to enjoy the chase.

Or else, you better just go home and forget about it.

It's something, in mid-life, that's becoming increasingly important to me, that I figure out how to enjoy the life I have, as it's happening, and not wait until some magical day when I'm a successful actor before I allow myself to be happy.