Thursday, March 21, 2013

SURVIVING HOLLYWOOD AS A BLACK ACTOR

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES

    While you are trying your damndest to become an entertainer/performer. People, you will need to have something or someone, to lean on. Whether it’s your family, friends, a mythological god, or yourself. (Refer to the chapter on Family and Friends.)
    What I found out is that, believing in god to obtain an acting or modeling job is a long standing joke, but it does keep a certain few in line and out of the audition/casting process. Hey, it worked in the early years with people. Everybody preaching about “Follow me or die”  or  “Preach love, and kill those that don’t believe.” Profound isn’t it?
    Anyway, believing maybe your choice of personal support. It will not help you get the job, your talent, within those precious few seconds will get you that callback or book the job. Talent, or looks. To tell you what I’ve seen and heard; casting directors, directors will state while rehearsing,  “When you are here I am god.” If you have a the or chutzpah  to question that remark, please, feel free. Some of them may even welcome your input about their comment, or your opinions. As long as you have all of you belongings packed, and ready to got home. Because, you are now canned, kicked out the door, terminated, unemployed, or plain ol’ fired. To confront a Director or Casting/Director or Producer will hurt you down the road. Therefore, after listening, hearing, each one who thinks acts like that is fine with me. So I laugh inside, nod my head, then, concentrate solely on the job I was cast for. Nothing else. To be an Actor.
    The worst people I’ve ran into that does all of the aforementioned  are the Married; Director/Actor, Casting Director/Actor, or the Artistic Director/Director. I learned this while working at the Metro Theatre Company  in St. Louis, MO., this theatre was on that level. Bad. The Director/Lead Actor was married to each other, which made it slightly difficult to work there as an effective actor. You never knew who you can trust to talk to if something was bothering you. All of your business went back to one of them. Sometimes, at a theatre, you can find a work companion to confine in. A person to immediately trust and talk about anything, not too deep. At this theatre in St. Louis, you are a total outsider, plain and simple. Only time you feel welcome is when they hire you, only then, you think you made the right choice for a gig. Well, after they fired me, after several beautiful performances, I felt relieved to leave such a non-trusting, negative, and back stabbing environment. It just wasn’t healthy at all. These people are exactly the “never can get work, so they teach” kind of people. it’s a shame that they relay their negativity on new actors. And as seasoned actor, because somewhere down the line they pissed off everybody they worked with.
    As an actor, you will come across the “god freaks’ in acting. These guys are the ones that are so entrenched with believing that god got them their gig, they won’t believe anything else. Not their talent. Not the casting director, nor director. Yet, some invisible force has pushed them through all barriers, bypass every other person to get the part. It’s pretty sad because somewhere down the line if they pull that religious while performing or rehearsing, can get them into trouble which can get them terminated, with no lawyer being able to help them. They all should learn something from all the Atheists, Agnostics, or Scientologists; “Keep your mouth shut.”

MORE LATER. STAY TUNED.