NEW BLOG FOR THE NEW YEAR!

***CLICK HERE!!! NEW BLOG!!! CLICK HERE!!!***

If you're interested in more casting antics, please follow my new blog HERE! I will no longer be posting on this page.

Let's face it, I've kind of dropped the ball on this whole blog thing. The thing is, I haven't felt like I had anything worth saying lately. (Depression is fun! Weee!) But I forsee 2013 being a bit more inspiring. So, if you haven't completely lost patience with me, I would love to share more stories about casting as well as other (hopefully) entertaining musings with you. 

I will be posting once a week, most likely on Fridays, starting this week. So stay tuned!


Always, 

Michelle (she of the lack of consistent blogging no more!)

Sometimes life is punchy

I have sat in front of my computer screen staring at a blank "new post" page many, many times over the last few months. And then I would type a few things and then I delete them. And then type, and delete, over and over and over again until I contemplated deleting the entire blog altogether. The thing is, it's hard to be inspirational when you yourself are feeling uninspired.

I know most of the people who read my posts - if you haven't abandoned ship (and thank you for that, BTW) - are actors or other creative-types. And most of you will probably relate to my recent frustrations. You see, sometimes casting directors struggle as much as actors do in between jobs. I know we're supposed to be these big, scary people who hold your dreams in our hands, but we are just human. We have bills to pay. We have crazy family members and friends to deal with. We have old pets with health problems. We suffer from depression and/or anxiety. We have car troubles. We have families of birds nesting in our backyards that we obsessively observe and occasionally photograph. Just me? Okay, well anyway, the point is, we are just like you! 

And each time a job finishes, I tend to get a little down. Okay, a LOT down. And then I panic because I don't know when the next job will start and what the next job will be and if I will lose my insurance and on and on and on, as all us freelance creative-types tend to do between projects. And it totally sucks.

Sometimes it just feels like life is punching you in the face from the moment you wake up until you finally fall unconscious at night, only to do it all over again the next day. And the next. And the next. But we must remember that eventually life's arm will get tired from all the punching, and the blows will become lighter and lighter until we become immune to them.

But you guys, these things only destroy us if we let them.

And I have been letting it destroy me for the last month or so. But no mas! I say, enough with the violence already, life! Surely, a punching bag would be far better target on which to practice your fighting skills. From this moment on, I vow to learn how to bob and weave and block life's punches more effectively. Sure, there will be times I let my guard down and wallow in self-pity, and end up with a figurative swollen lip, and I might even need those times, but then I will pick myself back up, brush myself off, and put in my mouth guard. And I will be ready for you, life. I will be ready.


Now, please to enjoy photos of my happy little bird family. If anyone knows what kind of birds these are, I would love it if you would let me know in the comments! Shall I name them?

Also, I'm back. Sorry about abandoning you for so long. It won't happen again. But if I run out of things to say, be prepared for bird family updates. Which will, of course, include photos. Because, eeee! Bird family in my back yard!

Ego < Experience

I have an actor friend who works all the time. She’s one of those people you see and go, “Oh, look it’s ... her ... from that ... thing.” In fact, she works so much that there are even times where I’ll be watching a show and she’ll unexpectedly pop up and I’m like, “Well hello, Amazing Actor Friend. What are you doing on there?” It’s a thing of beauty, I tell ya.

And I want explain to all of you lovely people why she works all the time – aside from being generally awesome and amazingly talented, though as her friend, I might be a tad biased.

She works consistently because she doesn’t ever think she’s too good for ANYTHING.

She was recently submitted for a one-line role on a project I was casting, and at first I was like, “oh, but you’re better than that.” But then I was like, “I admire that you value any job, any size, and don’t want to pass up any opportunity.” Smart actor, this one.

She knows that each and every opportunity can lead to something else.

She knows that experience breeds confidence.

She knows that a job is a freaking job!

I can’t tell you how many actors think they are better than small one-line roles. (see example HERE) But the thing is, those actors are usually the ones not working consistently.

What these actors don’t understand is that you need those smaller credits to build up your resume. I’m not saying that you should go be an extra. No. I’m simply saying don’t poo-poo the small roles. Do those co-star roles on TV shows and those one line roles in indie movies. Because guess what? Even the one line roles in bigger blockbuster films are usually reserved for actors with more credits. So build those credits, people!

Experience means everything in this business. We all have to pay our dues. Hell, I had to intern for nine months before getting a paying casting job. NINE months! Of working for FREE! But I did it.

Everyone has to start somewhere. Don’t let your ego stop you from gaining valuable experience.

Does this post make me look fat?

I overheard the most disturbing conversation last week at Starbucks. These two women were talking about Adele with this “good for her being so recognized despite being the size she is” attitude, which I found extremely condescending. Apparently only very thin women can be recognized without question. Each of these ladies then tried to convince the other (and themselves) that Adele is beautiful even if she doesn’t fit the standard definition of “beauty.” My question is: whose standard? Because I think she’s a pretty damn beautiful woman. I mean, you can’t argue with that bone structure! One of these two ladies even said that it shouldn’t matter what she looks like with a voice like hers, but if you have to go out of your way to say this, doesn’t that sort of make your point? If it doesn’t matter why bring it up at all?

Now I would like to talk about the Oscars. Octavia Spencer, in particular. Pretty much every recap I read referred to her as “full-figured” and “curvy.” Are these the only adjectives you could come up with, people? Does it matter? Does it make her brilliant performance any more or less brilliant? Also, why is “curvy” a bad thing?

When we as a society put the likes of Angelina Jolie on a pedestal, do we think we’re sending our young girls the right message? You guys! Did you see her at the Oscars? YIKES, right? Remember when she was athletic and sexy? Bring that Angie back! #AngelinaJolie was trending on Twitter right after the awards, so for fun, I read through a bunch of the posts. About half were making fun of that ridiculous leg pose, and the other half were saying she needs to eat something. And, of course, there were a few that defended her waifish (can we call her that? Is there one step beyond waifish that might be more appropriate?) figure. They said that all the haters were probably just jealous, fat women. Interestingly, most of those “eat a cookie” comments were from MEN!

Oh, you guys, I’m not sure what the answer is here, and I know things probably won’t change in my lifetime, but, seriously, something’s got to give.

Touché, Taylor Swift. Touché.

I want to begin by saying that I firmly stand by my position that Taylor Swift was completely wrong for Eponine in the upcoming feature of Les Miserables and I’m still beyond happy about the casting. That being said, I couldn’t help but feel like she was singing right to me at the Grammys last night when she performed her very apropos song “Mean.” Sample lyrics: “You have pointed out my flaws again as if I don't already see them … Why you gotta be so mean?” Yeah…  *hangs head in shame*

Before I get back to that, I’d like to give my two cents on the show itself.  First of all Whitney Houston was one of my first cassette tapes as a kid. I listened to it over and over belting “How Will I Know” at the top of my lungs (badly) while dreaming of one day being as amazing as she was. Her passing is so tragic yet, unfortunately, not entirely surprising. Addiction is an extremely heartbreaking disease that needlessly hurts so many, many people. I felt that the Grammys handled her passing quite elegantly and Jennifer Hudson did her proud. The tribute to Etta James was pretty damn amazing as well.

Next, I want to ask why the hell is the world so forgiving of Chris Brown? What is wrong with everyone? Did you guys see the tweets where young girls are begging him to beat them? Seriously? WTF? It literally made me nauseous. If we continue to glorify people like him, our society is doomed. Doomed, I tell you!

On a lighter note: I WANT TO BE ADELE WHEN I GROW UP! Yeah, so I have a little over a decade on her, but I still totally want to be her when I grow up. She’s such a positive role model in this day and age of frighteningly thin women (and men). But the next person who dares to say that she is even remotely overweight, I swear I will jump through the interwebs and gouge your eyeballs out! She’s gorgeous! I would give my left nut to look like her and I’m betting you would too! Then there’s that voice! And she’s humble and awkward and so cute. Serious girl crush going on over here if you haven't noticed. Oh, yeah, and she won ALL THE AWARDS!  Rightfully so. (sorry about all the exclamation points but she really is just that awesome!)

Now, back to my nemesis Taylor. You guys, I LOVED her last night! Like, love loved her. Like, I-watched-her-performance-four-times-in-a-row loved her. The artistic direction of that performance and the performance itself, were spot on. And she sounded AMAZING! Seriously, the best I’ve ever heard her. My hat’s off to you Taylor. You win. And you have proved a worthy adversary. (Though still not right for Eponine.)

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

You guys!!! Taylor Swift is not going to be in Les Miserables!!!

If you only want to be an actor because you want to be famous, try YouTube.

“I just, like, really want to be famous and stuff.” 

- Every wannabe actor ever.

Okay I might have dramatized that a bit, but I really do hear versions of this. A LOT. When I meet people and they first learn what I do for a living (especially when they don’t live in L.A. and have never acted in their life), they simply must tell me that I should cast them in something because they just have to be famous! Honestly, as they talk about their dreams of fame and fortune, I just really want to punch them in the face. Acting is not as easy as they think it is. And there are REAL actors out there who take it seriously!

Recently, I had a conversation with a guy who knew about entertainment and still said, emphatically, I might add (though in all fairness that might have been the alcohol talking), that he could do what any of these A-list actors could do any day of the week. And better than them as well. It took everything in me not to haul off and thrust an elbow into his sternum, but, alas, I resisted.

I don’t like to talk about it, but before I got into casting, I attended an acting conservatory. All I learned from it was that A) I absolutely did not have thick enough skin to be an actor (I was really more of a musical theater dancer/actor anyway). And B) most people move to LA to be actors because they just want to be famous.

If you really just want to be famous, try going on The Bachelor or film yourself doing something stupid and post it on YouTube. Seriously. Leave the acting to the experts. And by experts I mean Taylor Swift. * le sigh* (what can I say? I just can’t get over it!)