Sunday, May 21, 2017

This actually happened

I've been behind the camera since I've been in my early 20s now. But the love of immersing myself into a character's role has been there since I was a teenager.

I'm an actor if it's the right role for me. As a 20s male of middle eastern roots, I was offered every villainous role out there. But these were not villains with memorable lines or anything; they were typical one dimensional roles full of stereotypes that a beardy guy with thick eyebrows was perfect for in a racially charged America. 

Early in my career I agreed to it because the pay was substantial. And it wasn't a bad day's work either. But eventually I had to tell myself the truth: I'm a hero. I need heroic roles to portray. So I decided I wouldn't accept bad guy roles anymore unless the villain shows that their point of view is seen and they are relatable. Darth Vader redeemed himself. So would I. None of the phony bad guy that is bad for the sake of being bad.

So I have a friend who is a talent agent. She tries her hardest to get me in front of a camera once a year. At least it seems that way because I only hear from her a few times a year with an offer to audition for a support role for a good chunk of cash. These are the SLACKER, the SMART ASS types. They are the walk-on roles but tons of fun work and life of the party characters. 

I'm a director. I study acting and actors. I include myself with up and coming or established talent. It's my love and my job. I continue to  take part in the study of acting and recently voice-acting. Performance is just as important as sound design, cinematography, production design, and editing. As a quick note: I never let on that I'm a director inside the audition. My job is as an actor here and it's a job I gladly want to do and want to do only for them.

So I showed up for the audition and this is what happened. I showed up to the audition for some dating contestant sketch. I was Contestant #2. The one that never gets picked. (Why?) The contestant's character was much of a "don't care one way or another" kind of guy. I did my audition, shook hands with the casting people, and was picking up my belongings to leave when a woman walks in, very freaked out. She speaks in very loud pitches. She says, "I'm so sorry I'm late! I was just rear-ended when getting off the freeway!" All eyes were on her. I stuck around to hear what happened. She told exactly what happened. A brown car made in the 1980s hit her, making her car squeal off to the off-ramp wall. She was visibly shaking. Someone brought her a cup of water and she sat down to cool off. The producers nodded, said to her everything was going to be OK, and of course she was able to audition.

I decided I needed to head out. I stopped by the cafe and got myself an iced tea. As I made my way to my car parked on the street, I saw the woman that came into the audition. I went over to her and introduced myself, and asked her about the damage done to her car. She unashamedly told me she had made all of it up. I was damn impressed.

There was no way I wasn't going to get her contact information. Her performance was stellar. I believed her with all my heart that she had been a victim of hit-and-run. I felt so sorry for her at the time but later when I saw the truth, I knew that she understood acting. It's a truth as if 'what would I be like if this happened to me'? and using that to make a performance.

I did end up getting that audition. And I've kept in contact with my friend, the Scream Queen. She's a full-time audition attender - even if she's a little late because she's driving from audition to audition. Her paychecks only come if she goes to auditions, markets herself, and books the job. And she's very good at the job of being an actor.

1 comment:

Chris Abbott said...

Classic! Professional actor using her acting skills to squeeze her way into an audition she basically missed.