Easy Come....Easy Go.

A few days ago I wrote a rather cryptic blog entry. In it I said "There is indeed work for actors in Seattle after all, and if the actor doesn't go to Hollywood....sometimes Hollywood comes to the actor"

Here now is the story behind that.

Last Monday I auditioned for a role in a vignette. The vignette was four short sketches for an un-named company, charity, organization, whatever (more about that later). The role was choice, the writing was excellent, the audition went well, and two and a half hours after the audition, I received a call from the production company for the project telling me I had been cast in the role. The pay for the role, by Seattle standards, was quite generous

The final script approval had not yet been received and had to come from China, London, and Seattle. To what degree each location had in the script approval, I have no idea. We were not told the name of the organization at the audition.

The production company (which has a lot of good work under its belt) seemed very professional, and very friendly towards actors, and I was looking forward to working with them on the project, which was to have a half day of rehearsal and a full day of shooting next week. "Was looking forward to" is the key phrase, as I received a call this afternoon from the production company telling me that sadly, the shoot had either been postponed or cancelled. The client wasn't sure at this point which it would be. The production company has a long successful history with this client and perhaps the production will live again some day....perhaps not. We'll see.

I have been in this business for awhile and know that things like this happen. It fact it happened to me once before when I was cast in a role and then the plug was pulled on the project before it could start, and another time when the plug was pulled on a film after we had already completed two days of shooting.

As an actor, how do you deal with something like this.? You simply roll with it and move on. In The Office episode I was in, my character had eight lines, all of which were cut (along with the lines of other actors) in post production. Fortunately I still had a good deal of screen time in the episode, just no lines. Again, roll with it and move on. Regardless of the missing lines, I thought my short stint on "The Office" was great fun.

My Point? Actors must be flexible and ready for anything, because in an acting career, "everything" will eventually happen. Best to just enjoy the ride and all the things that ride will bring you. A seasoned actor once told me not to get too high emotionally when things go well, and not too low when they don't. That's good advice.

Auditions in the Seattle area have picked up noticeably in the last six weeks or so, and that is good for everyone in the business in the Northwest.

OK, that takes care of the first half of my cryptic blog entry, but what about the last half about Hollywood coming to the actor.

Before moving to LA, and even more so after moving there, I have been quite fortunate to be a student of acting coach Glenn Haines. Glenn does most of his coaching from his studio in Hollywood, but on rare occasions, still comes to Seattle. He is doing so this weekend and I have a long private lesson scheduled with him. Of course I still make periodic pilgrimages to LA to study with Glenn, and to attend various casting director workshops. Even though I will be seeing Glenn this weekend, I also plan to take my next trip to LA in a few weeks. So, with Glenn, a little bit of Hollywood is coming here. It will be good to work with him again.

Be good to one another and I'll talk with you again as soon as I have something I think is worth saying...........