Jeez Jon

Reason #4,973 To Vote For Obama

Stephen Baldwin promises to leave the country if Obama wins in November.  Check out the full clip from Fox News here:

Oh, Stephen... don't promise us something you can't follow through on.

[Link courtesy of Towleroad]

One Step Forward By Merit, One Step Back By Force

I booked a commercial on Tuesday... and then got unbooked today.  According to my agent, the client realized that all the actors in the spots weren't diverse enough, so they sacked me to bring in more diversity.  I'm all for diversity; I've lost on roles before due to diversity, and I totally understand the sentiment as to why. It's when that bugs me. You'd think between last Thursday (when the callback was) and Tuesday(when I got booked), the brain trust behind the commercial would have figured that out by then.  But no.

As per SAG rules, since I was indeed book to work on Friday, I will indeed get a session fee for the day. So, that's something.  In the meantime, I will drown my sorrows tonight in cheap wine and bad food.  And then I'll bounce back.  It's what I do. But in the meantime?  I'm pretty pissed off.

Scientology Explained in Under 3 Minutes

In its twelve years on the air, South Park continues to be edgy, provocative, and hilarious.  They now have a site (in Beta form) where you can watch and download clips of the show.  One of my favorite episodes is "Trapped in the Closet", combining the craziness of Scientology with the camp disaster of R. Kelly.  Here's their distillation of the hidden core beliefs of Scientology:

The breadth of Scientology's hold on Hollywood is just frightening. I'm all for one using their belief system to help navigate the dicey waters of this industry; it's another thing all together to use one's belief system to take advantage of those starry-eyed naifs who arrive in town as well.  The more people point out the ridiculousness of Scientology, the less scary they become.

[Link: courtesy of Andrew Sullivan]

What's Been Occupying My Time...

You wanna see what's been keeping me away from home for 50 hours a week for the past 3 months, giving me a good paycheck?   TLC's Trading Spaces, and one of the episodes I've worked on debuts this Saturday night, 9pm/8pm CST. All I can say is Saturday's episode deals with rival Vegas celebrity impersonators.  As you can imagine, it's rather fun.  I'm an Assistant Story Producer, which means I scripted the bulk of the episode. I then worked with a writing partner (my Story Producer), a bevy of editors, executives, and network suits to help form the fun program you get to watch.  As you can tell by that progression, I'm a bit low on the totem pole, but I'm having a blast.  It's a lot of work, but oodles of fun.  I've worked on two earlier episodes this season: Episode 2 (Mom Vs. Daughter) and Episode 5 (Feuding Neighbors). The clickable episode guide can be found here.  I also helped out on portions of Episodes 1 & 3.  I also have 2 more episodes coming down the pike, which is why I've been working my little butt off.   

The show's good and fun, and in an added bonus, my name will be in the credits, blinking by at the speed of light. 

Down And Out(Graded) By Beverly Hills

Fortunately, I have a lot of friends who aren't actors.  They give me a nice perspective, and that helps to keep my grounded.  They will ask questions about how auditions went, how casting works, etc.  But, invariably, they will all say the same thing: 

Friend: "Man, I don't know how you do it." 

Me: "Do what?"

Friend:  "Deal with being rejected so much."

Me: "Eh. You get used to it."

You do. You get used to it.  If you are booking  one job out of every 10 auditions you go on, you are doing very, very well. So, in order to deal with that ratio, you have to deal with not getting what you want.  And in a town of 100,000 actors, you more often don't get what you want more often than not. 

I used to be very superstitious about the auditions I go on. I would be cryptic with my co-workers about auditions, and not talk about them.  My twisted take on magical thinking was if I didn't talk about a possible big audition (like, 10 years ago, I auditioned for The Goodman Theater's production of Death of a Salesman with Brian Denehy), I'd keep the energy contained and that would increase the possibility of me landing the job. Weird voodoo stuff like that.  Eventually, I got over it.  An actor's real job is to audition well; everything else after that is gravy.  You have to deliver once you get a job, but you have the get the damn job first.  And even after you get every job, that doesn't mean that your work will always be seen.  Kevin Costner was cut out of most of The Big Chill, except for when he was a corpse.  Lara Flynn Boyle's first big job was Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and she ended up on the cutting room floor.  Do you remember Sigourney Weaver from Annie Hall? She's Alvy's date at the end of the film -- all you see of her is a blur in a wide shot.

So, along those lines, my latest news. I got cut out of the commercial (the official term is "Outgraded").  I got the official word on Valentine's Day.  Romantic!  Obviously, I'm quite disappointed.  But, here's the thing:  I got well compensated for my 2 days of work, so that's good.  Also, my being cut from the commercial had nothing to do with my talent, my work, or my work ethic.  It just happened that way.  And this stuff happens often. 

Quite often when it comes to acting and being up for roles, you lose out due to reasons that have nothing to do with you. I've lost roles because I was too tall, too young, too old, not pale enough, and for one Pepsi commercial, not Dave Chappelle.  So, I'm used to not getting roles for stuff I have no control over.  So, being cut out of a commercial is a bummer, but I'm not going to beat myself up for it.  It happens.  Onto the next one...

Asshole of the Month Award Goes To...

...Fox News Host John Gibson, for making fun of Heath Ledger's death with some derisive references to "Brokeback Mountain".   We can now count off the minutes, now, until he claims his comments were taken out of context.  This jackhole should be boycotted.   

RIP Heath Ledger

The news of Heath Ledger's passing rolled through our office here at the speed of the technology yesterday, as we were barraged with IM's and texts with comments of "Dude, holy crap, Heath Ledger died!"  This was first met with denial, then the rest of the Kubler-Ross stages. 

Very, very sad news.

My Decadent Hollywood Lifestyle

I work long hours.  I come home. I eat dinner, watch TV, check my e-mail, then go to sleep.  In between all of these activities, I'll surf the internet, chat with Tom, IM with friends, play Scrabulous on Facebook, and keep up on the news. 

And this, my friends, consists of my decadent Hollywood lifestyle.  According to many people outside of this inside 'burg, as an actor who (shock! horror!) works behind the scenes in reality television, I should be snorting coke off of the taut and tawny buttocks of some hot 22-year-old Panamanian hustler as I engage in unprotected sex with many, many partners as I alternately piss on the Bible while lecturing commoners about how green they should live.  Well, sorry to disappoint you all, but I don't do any of these things. 

Boring, huh?

See, here's the hidden secret about how Hollywood really operates.  No, I'm not talking about the crap you see on "Entourage" or whatever fucked up trouble La Spears has gotten into today. What really makes the entertainment industry function out here is... well, it's work.  It's people getting up very early in the morning to take a shower, slurp down some coffee and drive to work, just like everyone else.  Except in this case, their office is a commercial set in some run down section of North Hollywood, making sure all the equipment is put into its right place.  Or they go off to their cramped little casting office, looking through headshots on their computer for 12 hours a day, trying to cast a bunch of 2 line roles for a soap opera.  Or, in my case most of the time, driving all the way across town every morning to sit at an IKEA desk, watching footage on my computer, trying to make sense out of random footage and form it into a cohesive story for your amusement.  Or, in my case some of the time, it's me driving across town in order to read a couple of lines for a commercial audition and make them believable and spontaneous and funny... or to read for that aforementioned casting associate for a 5 line role on a quirky dramatic series. 

This is what my life is like... as it is for everyone else here in Los Angeles in the industry.  We work.  It's not glamorous.  It's not pretty.  It's not all together clean.  And yet... it's awesome.  It's amazing. It's everything I've ever wanted and more.  Yes, I'm not a big celebrity with millions of dollars, but every day, I go to my day job, knowing that I'm working on a TV show that will put smiles on millions of people's faces.  Even though I am pulling at least 55 hours at work this week, I know I'd rather be doing this as my day job than anything else.  With the writers' strike showing no foreseeable end in sight, working in a day job in reality TV seems like one of the safest bets in town. 

So, in the meantime, what do I do with my time?  I work.  I watch movies with Tom and friends.  I have the occasional brunch.  I work.  I go to auditions.  I get stuck in traffic.  I work.  I surf the web.  And I work.  Oh, and sleep. 

That is my decadent Hollywood lifestyle. 

Strike While The Iron Is Hot

As you may or may not know, the entertainment industry as been at war with itself for the past couple of weeks due to the WGA strike.  What they are asking for is pretty simple:  a raise in residuals from DVD sales (from a whopping 4 cents per unit sold to 8 cents) and a percentage in sales made in new media (the internet, iTunes, cell phones, etc.).  The WGA is merely asking for what they deserve:  writers bust their collective asses so they can make a show entertaining and in turn, they want to get a bit of cash for their hard-earned success. The demands are very reasonable and expected, considering that's where TV is headed at this point.  And the studios? They said no, hence the strike.  And on a PR level, the studios are losing. 

There are some fantastic sites that are on top of the ever-changing landscape of the strike.  LA Weekly writer Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily is by far the best.  Not only is she pro-union, she is giving out the most consistent and freshest information on all things related to the business, the strike being the big story.  Another site is United Hollywood, the unofficial blog for the WGA strikers.  It is consistently funny, moving, and informative.  Some other personal blogs that are great are Pamie and her husband stee, both writers and WGA members. 

Now, this being said, the WGA is not perfect.  In my opinion, they completely mishandled and dropped the ball on the Top Model strike in 2006.  My neighbor Dan Blau, one of the Top Model story editors, revisits the Top Model strike this week in the LA Times.   It seems like the WGA learned some lessons from the Top Model strike -- they are being far more aggressive this time around, and using some wit as well.  Taking a cue from the peanuts  gambit that brought Jericho back for another season, they are asking people to mail pencils to the studios. 

As a member of two sister unions to the WGA, I hope that the writers get absolutely everything that they ask for.  Why?  They deserve it.  They create product that is making their bosses completely wealthy, and frankly, they are owed a cut of that.  If it weren't for the writers coming up with this great stuff, the studios wouldn't be making their money in the first place. Period. 

Missed It By That Much

I was on hold, on avail for a Big National Commercial for Big Fast Food Chain... and it ended up going to someone else. Grrrrrr. I'm trying to look at the glass as half full ("Hey, got very close, shows my agency that yes, I'm still almost bookable) but I'm rather disappointed, as you can possibly imagine. The callback was on Friday, and went very well. Using several Viewpoints, I nailed my use of Repetition and Architecture, and that got me right into the scene. Sigh.

So, while Big Fast Food Chain has let me down, I have an audition for a commercial for one of their rivals tomorrow. Ahh, revenge...