Surprises and Road Trips :)

This has been a really exciting week for me, and I can’t wait to see what comes of it 🙂 After writing my blog last week, I got an audition for Tuesday afternoon, from one of the projects I had submitted to. It was a really interesting project, with only a few lines, but the audition turned out to be more of a meeting where we discussed our lives, his vision, my experience with acting, as well as my attempts at writing books and screenplays. It was kind of stressful, because it still was an opportunity for employment, but at the same time, it was really nice sharing ideas and I hope that even if this project falls through, we’ll get to work together someday.

After the audition, I headed to class, where my scene partner and I ran our scene a few times. Since it is from Thelma and Louise, I had of course practiced it a couple of times with a southern accent, but had decided I probably wouldn’t need it and went on without one. Well, the joke was on me because my scene partner suggested we try it out, and we ended up doing the scene with accents. Clearly, I need to stop assuming the minimum will be okay, and will work on whatever accent is needed for the part. As it were, I am told it went okay, but I just felt like I sounded ridiculous, and would be put in my head whenever the accent either disappeared, or came out wrong. If I had worked on the accent, that probably wouldn’t have been an issue.

On Wednesday, I helped my grandfather with his autobiography. He has lived such an incredible life, that I truly believe is worth sharing, we just need to find a way to make the rest of the world know that his story is worth reading 😉

I did a lot of planning and administrative stuff (including some more submissions) before driving to Ottawa yesterday with Carolyne for the Casting Call. We had the same scenes as last year, so learning the lines wasn’t an issue, and I got to work more on understanding Jess, her goals, and not just saying the lines, but feeling them. Our audition times were supposed to be an hour apart, but since I was there, they let me go in early. I was trying so hard to take my time and live the moment, which I think I partially succeeded. I believe I did a whole lot better than last year, but there is still room for improvement.

While the audition/casting opportunity was amazing, my favorite part of the trip was probably talking with Carolyne. While driving, we just talk about everything and anything, so any thoughts I am having, fears and ideas, I shared them. Maybe she didn’t enjoy this part so much, but I definitely got home more confident in my prospects than when I left. For one, I have this issue where when nothing is happening in my career, I feel the need to make a big change in the hopes that something will happen. That’s part of what pushed me to go to Los Angeles last year, and why I keep toying with the idea of moving to Toronto or Vancouver or something. Of course you realize that moving won’t solve your problems, that it will create more, and that more opportunities also means more competition, but sometimes it takes someone else to acknowledge your fears, understand them and not exactly tell you everything will be okay, but at least recommend other, not-so-drastic ways of increasing your prospects.

To top off what had been a lovely day, I got a call last night from a short film I was supposed to be an extra on. When he told me I got the part I was pretty confused, since it had already seemed like a sure thing, but then he explained that I had been upgraded to a speaking role. My dad probably didn’t appreciate the interruption to the Superbowl, but I hung up with an overwhelming urge to do a happy dance.  

“I had insecurities and fears like everybody does, and I got over it. But I was interested in the parts of me that struggled with those things.”

-Philip Seymour Hoffman