What would you do

...on camera (or stage, but I'm going to concentrate on camera). First off, for those of you thinking an actor should gratefully accept any role and do whatever the director wants -on set- until reaching A-list status, you are wrong. Well, at least as far as the second part goes. One should always be grateful. And one should never sacrifice their morals.

This goes beyond the standard nudity example which is complex just by itself. If the producers reach as certain dollar amount, do the clothes come off? What about implied nudity? Just your butt? Lot to think about. Highly recommend deciding before the powers that be ask for your decision.

Two off topic comments about nudity.

1. If it is not on camera, it does not need to be exposed. Even if it is your chest and your bare back is on camera.
2. There is no reason to suddenly write your clothes out of the script. So don't be pressured out of them. If you're willing to do it, fine. Just make them renegotiate first. And charge more than you usually would. After all, most places charge extra for rush jobs.

So, besides nudity, what else should an actor consider?

• Would you do a scene wearing just underwear?
• What about underwear designed with the opposite sex in mind?
• How about clothing with intimacy in mind? This includes everything from the lingerie stores at the mall to kinky leather bondage stuff.
• Would you portray a gay character with make out/sex scenes?
• Would you do those scenes if the character was straight?
• Are you willing to smoke? Herbal cigarettes? E-cigarettes?
• Are you willing to alter your appearance? I mean in such a way that your current headshots won't match your appearance for the next six months.

I suppose there might be other things to consider, but you get the idea. Notice how all the bullet points are things that cannot be faked. That's why drinking is not on there. You can take apple juice and call it beer or pee or alien mind control fluid. You can even stretch artistic license to the limit and call it apple juice. But you cannot stick a ballpoint pen in your mouth and call it a cigarette.

Charlie Sheen

Charlie Sheen is merely the latest in the line of actors who have said or done something to make their publicists really earn their money. However, his case is particularly bothersome. Why?

1. He is a series regular on an in production series. A series that has been put on hiatus due to his antics. And those antics must be pretty bad. Perhaps more than we realize. After all, shutting down production is a major decision. Not one that's made simply because the star called a producer "Mr. Poopy Pants".
2. He is completely unrepentant. Sure, a lot of the "repentance" of the others might be PR motivated. But at least they are not going out of their way to claim it is everyone else's fault.
3. He has gone on the biggest ego trip since...well, at least he's not some general who is in a position to command his army to invade a neighboring country. Demanding a doubling of his salary? Being tired of pretending not to be great? Hmm, I'm thinking Exhibit A of drugs do mess with your brain.
4. I doubt he is getting the help he needs. He claims to have been cured of any drug addictions. I suppose that is possible. I am not an expert in this area. But, like I mentioned, I have my doubts. #1 through #3 do not seem like the actions of someone trying to clean up his life.

Is Charlie's acting career over? He is not dead (literally) so a comeback is possible. However, it has been seriously wounded and he has not been taking care of healing. In fact, he has been aggravating the wounds. Charlie might be the greatest actor in the world. He might even be a wonderful person, under better circumstances, to be around. But if I were producing, I would not feel comfortable having him on my set. I would be asking "Is getting Charlie to sign on important enough to risk a breakdown in the middle of shooting?".

Casting Notices

FILMMAKERS:

When putting out casting notices, insulting the talent you hope to attract is probably not the best approach. Seriously, if "thinks showing up two hours late, drunk and unprepared is the standard operating procedure for actors" is the vibe I get from your notice, I'm not even going to consider your project. When I see such notices, I think "I wouldn't want to work with such a jerk".

I have better things to do. Like work with filmmakers that appreciate actors and don't look at them as evil necessities.

Oh, on a side note, consider where and how you are posting your casting notices. If you post on craigslist and your entire notice is "submit to be in an awesome feature film" and a craigslist email address, there probably will not be much experience among the submissions. Those with experience will think it is an outright scam or that you don't know what you're doing.

Level of Dedication

While waiting for my turn to get a haircut, I flipped through Vogue. It was the edition with the Natalie Portman interview about Black Swan. Didn't read the article; when I said flipping through, I meant flipping through. However, I notice a photo caption that stood out. It mentioned that she practiced ballet eight hours a day the two months before shooting started. (Of course, this is not the extent of her ballet training.)

Reading things like that causes me to ponder the level of my dedication. If she had put in the amount of effort, I do...Would Black Swan be one of the must see films? Would her name be popping up in connection with various acting awards? Don't know about the film, but I highly doubt anyone would even remotely think of the performance as reward worthy.

Sure, it would be easy to excuse my level of dedication. I could point out that I have a day job, and it's possible she wasn't footing the bill for the ballet lessons. But that would be a cope out. Without looking at the list of actors, I can safely say that each one being considered for an award put in his or her dues.

I can safely say the actors put in their dues because it is impossible to reach that level of acting without doing so. And the level of dedication I establish now will, by habit, be the level of dedication I will have later.

Therefore, I am going to increase my level of dedication toward my acting career to that which Natalie put in toward her role. Why? Because I want to reach that level.

Six degrees of...

...no, not Kevin Bacon. Although this blog entry is based on the same concept of being interconnected. How networking, auditioning, marketing all work together.

Earlier this year I auditioned for a project - short film, web series pilot, I forget. Tonight I went to a film premiere. Not one I was in, but people I know and have worked with were in it. While there I bumped into the guy who had worked the camera at the project I auditioned for. He said he was surprised the filmmaker didn't cast me because he felt like my audition was one of the best. Turns out the filmmaker had cast his friend. I would probably have done the same thing, so I cannot be too upset about it. At any rate, he said he is working on his own project and there is a role he thinks I would be perfect for. So, we exchanged contact info. (Mental note to self: get business cards.)

Later, at this same film premiere, I bumped into someone else who recognized me from somewhere. I seem to have one of those "if you have seen me, you might not remember where, but you will remember having seen me" faces. Good thing I went with the acting career and not my other choice of undercover, secret agent career. In other words, I get the I know you from somewhere routine quite a bit. Turns out he knew me via my agency. He started to say something about wanting to get in contact with me or his having a project, but we got interrupted before he could finish his sentence. By his, now that I think about it, probable conspirator on the project, who introduced himself. Normally, not a conversation ending interruption, but the first guy had been headed to the business down the street to see if he left his card there. I am assuming he was referring to the card used to make financial transactions. Yes, that's right, he took a break from his find my credit/debit card to introduce himself. Would have been great if we had been able to finish the conversation, but he knows who my agent is and I have my headshot/profile on the site.

While there is no guarantee this will result in work, I would not be considered for the work if I had not taken some steps. In the first case, had I not auditioned for a minor role, he would not be familiar with my work. At least the audition delivery aspect of my work. In the second case, I suspect he had been looking at agency sites looking at actors' headshots and profiles, which I have up on my agent's site as part of my marketing effort. In both cases, had I not gone to the film premiere to be supportive of others in the industry and hopefully get some networking in, the conversations would not have happened.

The Importance of Booking Out

Why do actors have issues with booking out with their agents? Actors that book out are really doing themselves a favor.

Think of it this way. If you were an agent and had several choices of who to call when you needed an actor, all other factors being equal, who would you go to first? The choices that are reliably available or the choices that may or may not be available. By reliably available, I do not mean available 364 days/year no matter what. I mean you know 99% of the time that you are not going to be wasting time contacting unavailable actors. The 1% is to allow for extenuating circumstances such as medical emergencies.

What is the proper way to book out? Depends on your agent, but most likely email, perhaps a phone call. Even without taking a survey, I feel confident in stating that no agent approves of a Twitter post or a Facebook update as a proper way to book out. Too easy to miss, assuming the agent even follows you in the first place.

Remember, consistently being unavailable is not a good thing either. Even if you religiously book out. Of course, if you are consistently unavailable because you are consistently on set that is an entirely different matter. Agents like representing actors who are consistently on set.

Time for New Headshots?

Signs it is time to get new headshots:

1. The role is for the Biblical Sampson. Mr. Clean's fans mistakenly ask you for an autograph.
2. The role is for a college age person. Your family threw you a surprise 50th birthday party four months ago.
3. The role is for a ditsy blond. Your parents are concerned about your involvement in the goth scene.
4. The role is for a horse jockey. Five different NFL teams have been trying to sign you as a linebacker.
5. People who have recently come into your life ask "Who's this?" when looking at your headshot.
6. When committing a crime, you purposely leave your headshot at the scene to throw the investigation off track.
7. When asked to submit a photo of yourself from 30 years ago, you submit your headshot.
8. When hand delivering your headshots to agents, casting directors, whoever, the receptionist asks you why the actor couldn't deliver his headshots himself.
9. Your fan club is holding a fundraiser auction. You donate some autographed headshots. They send them back asking if you have any of known, recognizable actors.
10. Your daughter asks you if you still have the shirt you wore when your headshots were taken because she is going to dress like Donna from the The 70s Show for a costume party.