Category Archives: Acting

Sharing My Union With A Friend (or Continuing To Be Inspired And Involved)

Posted on May 3, 2019 | Comments Off on Sharing My Union With A Friend (or Continuing To Be Inspired And Involved)

I’ve been a proud member of my union for over 7 years now. I have worked hard to educate myself about union issues and trying to be involved in different aspects of it. I cannot control when I get to work, but I can control what I understand about the union and staying involved. It has given me a sense of control in an out-of-control career path.

I have felt very lucky to be involved with the union the ways that I am and a big part of that was how I started my union involvement. The first event I attended was before I actually joined SAG-AFTRA. I was invited to an event that was supporting the merger of SAG and AFTRA (which were different unions until the merger). I felt a little out of place when I went to the event, but I was so grateful that I went. I met amazing people and learned so much. It was overwhelming, but it helped me learn that being a union actor isn’t just a job title, it is being a part of a bigger movement. And I have tried to keep that idea in my head ever since.

I have always appreciated my friend who brought me to that event before I joined the union and I have wanted to pay it forward ever since. I have tried to bring friends of mine who are eligible to join to the events that are open to non-members when I can. Some of them appreciate learning about the union like I did and some just get bombarded with so much information that they aren’t able to take it in. But I always love when actors who haven’t joined yet come to check things out because that is a big step and it can feel scary.

I was lucky enough to get to bring one of my workout friends to a union related event recently. We are getting ready for election season again and there will be more opportunities to bring new people in to events like this one. I warned my friend that there would be a lot of things said that she wouldn’t get and that she should be prepared to be overwhelmed, but she would also get to meet a lot of amazing people and hopefully she would be inspired a bit by what has been happening within the union lately.

And that’s exactly what happened. She told me after that she was definitely confused at points and I tried to clarify things when I could so she could understand them. But she also got to hear amazing accomplishments that we’ve had in the past year or two and how it will benefit her when she does join (which hopefully will be soon!). And she also did get to meet some of the most incredible people. I hope that I will always have these little “pinch me” moments where I’m shocked that these actors are my peers and that they know me. I had a lot of those moments at this event and my friend really enjoyed getting to meet actors that she knows from film and tv.

And it wasn’t just great watching my friend experience her first union event like how I did so many years ago. I got a lot out of it too. Every time I get to meet with actors who want to be involved in the union and to continue to strengthen it I leave on a high. I feel inspired to do more and a push to make sure other actors understand what is going on with the union. Sometimes it feels like the union is a different entity than the actors who are a part of it, but the union is us and we need to remember that. If we want there to be a change, we are in charge of that.

And of course, I love getting to see people who I don’t always get to see. There are other actors that I only get to see around election season and it’s like a big family reunion. Everyone is so kind and generous. I could go on and on about how I feel so lucky to be a part of a group like this, but it’s going to sound mushy and like I’m under some sort of spell. But that’s honestly how I feel getting to be around these other members. There’s just something magical when you get to be around the people who want to see our union be the best it can be and they really work hard for everyone else.

I will have more and more union events coming up soon because of election season. I will be running with my slate again and I know that there will be events to get the slate together so we can all make sure we know each other and we can coordinate different campaign events. We also still have general union meetings coming up regarding the various contact negotiations (one just ended and another will be starting up soon). I am trying to make it a priority to attend a variety of events so I can be knowledgeable about different issues, but I also don’t want to risk burnout if I do too much. And I know with election season starting that the risk of burnout is high. I just have to find the balance with it just like everything else.

But even with the risk of burnout, I will keep going to events and bringing new people in. And I think getting to see someone else be inspired the same way that I am inspired will also help me not get too overwhelmed and burned out with all the events happening. Getting to watch a friend have the same excitement about things as me really does make me feel even more encouraged to keep doing what I’ve been doing.

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Default ThumbnailA Fun Union Hangout (or Hopefully This Is The Start Of A New Regular Thing) Default ThumbnailUnion Working (or Connecting With My Fellow Actors) Default ThumbnailFinal Union Working Meeting For 2017 (or A Commercial Roundtable) Default ThumbnailStaying Educated With Union Things (or A Meeting Of The Minds) Default ThumbnailContinuing To Be Inspired By Podcasts (or Turning A Passion Into A Paycheck) Default ThumbnailA MOVE Mixer (or Learning More About What I Can Be Involved In This Year)

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Getting Informed About A Contract (or A Union Meeting Before A Vote)

Posted on April 26, 2019 | 1 comment

The new commercial contract has been something that my union has been working towards for a long time. It’s been a big part of what Union Working has been working on and making sure that we have a great contract. I know that this isn’t important to a lot of people who aren’t actors or in the entertainment industry, but I feel like it does have a much bigger impact than just how actors are paid for commercials. This is about being a strong union and making sure that other recognize the strength of unions.

I wasn’t able to be as involved in things prior to the official negotiations as I would have liked, but I tried my best to do what I could. Even when I couldn’t attend various events, I stayed educated on what was happening and made my best efforts to find out what I could. Many of the meetings I couldn’t attend were confidential events so I couldn’t find out what was discussed. But there were still things that I could learn from others and make sure any concerns I was having could be addressed.

The negotiations for this commercial contract was last month and some of my friends were a part of the negotiation team. They worked really hard in meetings with our negotiation partners making sure they created a contract that was mutually beneficial for all sides. I know the idea of a negotiation might bring up the idea of sides fighting and not working together. But from what I heard it seems like this negotiation was not like that and all sides were working together and making sure everyone was happy before creating a contract that could be made public for everyone to see.

Our contract was officially announced recently (if you would like to see it, the changes to the contract are posted online). It can be a bit overwhelming to read the changes and what everything means, so SAG-AFTRA is having different events around the country so members could learn what everything means and ask questions they may have about what was negotiated. The meeting in Los Angeles was this week and I was so glad I could make it to learn about the new contract.

The meeting was held at the Universal Sheraton, where the convention has been held. It was a bit weird being there again because I was hit with a sense of deja vu. The meeting room we were in was one of the side rooms where breakout sessions were held during the convention and it felt just like I was going to one of those sessions again.

I felt like there was a very good turnout for this meeting. I still wish more members could have made it or wanted to make it, but it was still a full room. I wanted to sit in the back because I had been sitting down all day and wanted to have the option to get up and stretch when I needed to without disturbing other members. But I ended up staying in my seat almost the entire time because I was just so fascinated by all the new and exciting things in our contract.

A big issue for my union has been commercials going non-union, so we have new things in our contract that allow things to be a bit easier for productions to have a union project. We still will have our old options and traditional ways to be paid for work, but now there are also options for buyouts with a lump sum. I know some members were concerned about that idea, but one of the buyouts is such a large buyout that members would hit the minimum income required to be eligible for health insurance with a single commercial! That’s so awesome and I love that I can be 1 commercial away from that eligibility (which I have never made it to). There are other buyout options that are not as much money, but they have limited use of those commercials unless they pay the actors more.

Having these buyout options allow productions to plan for their budgets with fewer variables. Before, they might have had to worry about residuals and hold fees along with the regular pay. Now they have a way to pay a lump sum (which is more than the actors would have made with residuals and hold fees) so they know exactly how much it would cost them. It really is beneficial to both sides as production can have a simple formula for how much it will cost to hire an actor and the actor will make more money!

There are also new options for commercials that are only seen on social media or other online options like YouTube. Those commercials are becoming more common so to have a plan for those is important and necessary. Many of the other changes are protections for the actors like how things can be renegotiated if they want to use the commercial more or to make sure that stunt coordinators are required to be hired on projects that have stunts. All of these changes seem to be great things for us and I feel like they really are moving forward with this contract in a great direction.

After getting the overview of the changes to the contract, it was time for the Q&A. Many members got up asking questions about things that weren’t discussed or to get clarifications about the changes. Because this is a big (but positive) change, it can be confusing. But as things were explained they made more sense to us all. And everyone who was getting up to ask questions seemed very positive about the new contract. I was expecting people to ask questions that implied they were not happy about the changes, but it was nice to see how enthusiastic everyone was. Someone mentioned to me after the meeting that they showed up expecting to be upset and fight about the changes because they had heard rumors about some of the new payment options, but once they heard what they really were they were so excited about it. I loved hearing how positive everyone was feeling about it since that is not always the case.

If you are a member of SAG-AFTRA, please educate yourself about the new commercial contract before voting. There are some people saying things that aren’t accurate and are trying to scare people into thinking some things that aren’t true. I will be voting yes on this contract and do encourage others to do so as I love the changes that have been made. I think this contract really reflects where commercials are now and where they are going in the future. And it is making huge steps into recapturing commercial work into the union.

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Finding More Ways To Help Via Social Media (or Continuing To Share Good Things)

Posted on April 17, 2019 | Comments Off on Finding More Ways To Help Via Social Media (or Continuing To Share Good Things)

One of my monthly challenges a while ago was to share entertainment industry or union related things on social media every day. I’ve been able to keep that up every day and I feel like it has been a very good thing. Not only am I sharing news with the people who follow me on social media, it makes me more aware of what news is happening as well. When I’m going through the various tweets to see which ones I want to share, I have to go through the news as well. I’ve been a big fan of making sure I’m staying educated with my union and this has been a great way to continue that.

My activity on social media hasn’t gone unnoticed. Some groups I’m a part of have used me as an example to others about how you can make a daily habit of sharing news online. I get a bit embarrassed when that happens, but I’m also proud that I am able to set a good example. I never did this to make others do it as well, but the more people who can educated themselves and others about what is going on the better.

It was also noticed by the slate that I am a part of for the SAG-AFTRA elections. They have had different people running their social media from time to time, but they needed a new person and asked me if I’d like to do it. I was so honored that they asked me and of course I said yes! It’s been a bit of a learning curve to find exactly how we want to represent the slate on social media, but everyone is going through the same thing so the expectations are similar among us all. I hope that as we get closer to election season that it will be easier to know what are the right things to post and be able to have a unified message.

I want to make our slate’s social media feed a great resource for other actors. I have so many Twitter accounts that I follow to use when I share news every day. I want the same for our account. I do try to repost things on that account that I would use on my own and then retweet it from the slate’s account. And I post original content as well too. Everyone with the slate knows that this isn’t a paid or regular job so they don’t expect me to be posting all the time. But I try to do is when major news happens so we can share what is current.

And through being active myself as well as doing work for my slate, I’ve had people come to me asking for help with their social media. I’m in no way an expert (and there are experts as a part of my slate) but I’m always happy to help however I can. Usually it’s pretty simple work like showing how to use Twitter or Instagram and I’m able to keep it very basic. That’s all they need and I don’t want to overwhelm them with all the amazing things you can do besides just posting. Hopefully they all find it easy enough to do and eventually they can start doing more advanced things because I know how much they will benefit from them. But when I’m helping someone start out, I have to remember that if they get overwhelmed that they aren’t likely to use the basic things.

I know that social media isn’t everything and educating myself and other about union issues should also be done in person, but it’s a big part of the picture. Our union and industry are all over the world and social media is a great way to connect myself to others and visa versa. It’s a very quick way to spread the news when big things happen and to make sure that other people are aware of things that might affect their career. And the good thing about doing all this union/industry related social media work is that it about sharing good things. Not all news is good news like when there are strikes or things that affect the industry. But being aware of even the negative things is a good thing.

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Default ThumbnailThe Official Start To Election Season (or I Can Finally Share Some Things I’ve Been Working On) Default ThumbnailBeing An Active And Interactive Viewer (or SAG Awards Live-Tweeting) Default ThumbnailAnother Union Holiday Celebration (or Being Social And Working Social Media) Default ThumbnailFinding My Strength (or Continuing To Find New Ways To Push Myself) Default ThumbnailFinding New Ways To Be Creative (or Almost As Good As Acting) Default ThumbnailA Social Media Monthly Challenge (or Wanting To Put Some Positivity Into The World)

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Forgetting To Document Some Things (or Focusing On Being In The Now)

Posted on March 21, 2019 | Comments Off on Forgetting To Document Some Things (or Focusing On Being In The Now)

With all the technology we have available to us, it’s so easy to document things that we experience. We can take photos and videos of everything we see to share or remember them by. And since we aren’t restricted by using up film we can take photos of things that we don’t care about that much or take dozens of photos to make sure we get the right image. And of course, there are endless ways we can share those photos too.

I’m totally someone who can be obsessed with getting the right photos. My friends know when we go to Wood & Vine that they can’t take a bite until I get the perfect picture to share on here. They know that sometimes I’ll ask them to move their cup or something else on the table so I get the perfect shot. I think they find it a bit funny, but I’m grateful they indulge me in doing it. And I take photos of so much in my life. Sometimes it’s for adding to a post on here and sometimes it’s just for me. I like having something to refer to when I want to remember something. If I don’t have the photo, it’s easy for me to forget the details.

But there are more and more articles coming out lately about how we are living our lives through our phones or cameras. We aren’t experiencing what’s in front of us because we want to have the perfect Instagram photo to share later. I know I’ve done this with a few things in the past and I’m embarrassed how my memories are about me watching through my phone while getting a photo and not just experience what happened. While I love the photos to refer to later, they aren’t the most important thing for me.

I haven’t necessarily been making an effort to take fewer photos or to not experience things through my phone, but this week I had 2 things that I usually would document with lots of photos that I actually have no photos for at all.

First, I had my hair done this week. Getting my hair done isn’t a huge experience, but it had been too long since the last time. If I had the money, I would get my hair done every 6-8 weeks. Because of my financial situation now, I have to keep stretching it out longer and longer. This time wasn’t as bad as it was just under 4 months since the last time I had my hair done, but it was definitely needed. My hair was looking scraggily and my color was looking faded and my grays were taking over. I usually love taking a before and after photo to see how much of a difference a fresh haircut and color could make.

I didn’t think at all about doing a before photo. I actually didn’t realize I didn’t take one until the day after my hair was done when I was thinking about if I took an after photo. That’s when I thought about how I didn’t have a before photo so there’s no need for an after one to show off the difference. I like sharing the before and after photos and I know my friend who does my hair likes to share them to promote her business, but I just didn’t think about doing it this time. I’m sure I’ll do it next time, but it was nice to see that I didn’t even consider doing one this time.

I also went to a NextGen Performers mixer earlier this week. The mixers are so much fun because they are just a time to gather and hang out. They always have food for us and people are just talking and not worried about too much. It’s basically like a party with my friends. I have noticed that lately I’m not recognizing as many people at these mixers, but I still have a lot of friends there and I always try to spend time with them catching up.

I don’t always take photos of those events (I take more photos at the informative events since I take photos of the slides to save the information I want to have), but I do get photos with my friends from time to time there. Since sometimes it’s the only time I get to see certain friends for a while, it’s nice to have a photo together. This mixer was just like many of the others that I had attended, except I never thought about taking photos of the event or with my friends. I wasn’t always focused on the mixer, but documenting it wasn’t something that came to me. Even with knowing I’d want to probably blog about it, I didn’t have the thought I should get a photo for the post.

I’m sure there will still be so many times in my life that I live through a phone or a camera, but it is something I will probably be more conscious about. I need to remember that I don’t have to have proof of everything I have done and that sometimes it’s better to not have those photos but to instead have memories of things that might not be able to be captured in a photo or video.

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Default ThumbnailA NextGen Mixer (or Just Having Fun With My Friends) Default ThumbnailTime For New Headshots (or Adding Some Personality Into My Photos) Default ThumbnailI Wish I Was 4 Again (or Where Did My Confidence Go?) Default ThumbnailGiving Wen Another Go (or Maybe Second Time’s The Charm) Default ThumbnailGetting A New Look (or Two Attempts To Dye My Hair) Default ThumbnailA Mini Photo Shoot (or Enjoying A Voter Freebie)

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A Low Key Union Working Meeting (or Getting To Fully Focus On What’s Being Said)

Posted on March 5, 2019 | Comments Off on A Low Key Union Working Meeting (or Getting To Fully Focus On What’s Being Said)

This past Monday there was a Union Working meeting. I knew it was going to be a bit different from other meetings that we’ve had because it was going to be a bit more of an interactive meeting and not people sitting and listening to what is happening. But even with the differences, I was told I would still be running the live stream so I came to the meeting prepared to do just that. It’s not a lot of effort for me to do it, but I still make sure I have everything ready to go when I leave for the meeting and get there early to do some setup.

It ended up being not as crowded as a meeting as we usually have. We figured that some people might have been recovering from being out late the night before if they had Oscar events that they went to. We also knew that some of the regular attendees were in New York because they are on the commercials contract negotiating committee and they were already starting their work in New York where everything happens. But it was nice to have a smaller group because it had a different feeling from the normal meetings and it really felt like a collaboration session.

I started doing the live stream when the meeting started and the first person who spoke was a representative from SAG-AFTRA who was updating us on multiple things that are happening regarding the commercial contract. After a little bit of them talking, we realized that the information that was being shared needed to stay with those in the meeting and we couldn’t have it public information. So I stopped the live stream and deleted the video that posts on our Facebook group when I do the live streams. I apologized to everyone in the group that I had to remove it because of confidentiality issues, and I think that most people understood.

Since I wasn’t worried about the live stream and making sure things are in frame or seeing what questions people were posting to have asked, I was able to put all my focus and attention on the meeting and what was happening. I was able to really take in all the information that was being shared and the ideas that others were asking about. We have several different things that we are taking action on right now. Most of them that are in person are things I cannot participate in because I work when they are happening. But I like to know what’s going on in case I can attend or to be able to share with others who I know work different times than I do.

A good amount of the time in the meeting was with the SAG-AFTRA representative sharing different things and answering questions we had about them. Some of the people in the meeting had ideas of things they wanted to do and they didn’t understand why the union couldn’t do the same. We get that the union has to follow certain regulations and they have more restrictions acting as a union compared to us acting as individuals. But it’s nice to know the reasons why they can’t do things or for us to know what we might want to focus on because we know the union won’t be able to do it.

The last part of the meeting was about the different videos that Union Working has been putting out. We’ve had some amazing celebrities share their stories about why working union is important to them and sharing their support for all actors who are fighting to keep work union. There was some discussion about sharing the videos and what some of the upcoming things will be, but that was pretty quick. People did share their ideas of what we can do to continue to share what is happening since many actors aren’t aware of all the issues, and it did give me some ideas of things I might start trying to do. It was nice to be able to hear what others have been doing that has worked or hasn’t so I can think about how I want to focus on sharing things.

While the meeting wasn’t as information packed as it always is, there was still a lot of information shared. And I do wish that more people had been there, but there also was something special about having a small group. I think it made people feel more free to talk (especially if they don’t love speaking in front of a lot of people) and more people had the chance to talk. It was a nice change from the standard meetings and hopefully we can do more of these smaller groups from time to time between our larger meetings in the future.

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A Night Of Oscars (or Last Minute Costumes and Enjoying The Show)

Posted on February 27, 2019 | Comments Off on A Night Of Oscars (or Last Minute Costumes and Enjoying The Show)

This past Sunday was the Oscars and as always I went to the party that my friends Marie and Chris have. It’s one of their parties that I look forward to every year and it’s one of the best ones that I think they do. I love seeing people in costume and I love being around amazing people as we watch the awards. The party is the perfect mix of both of those things and that’s what makes it so special to me.

There are some years that I think of my costume for the party way in advance and there are some times that it comes together the week of the party. It just depends if something inspires me. And as soon as I saw “Incredibles 2”, I thought I’d go to the party as Edna. I did that the year the first “Incredibles” came out and I got second place in the costume contest! It was the only time I placed in the costume contest so I thought it would be the perfect repeat costume.

But someone went as Edna to the Halloween party and I decided that I wanted to do something different. I wasn’t sure what I’d do, but I figured I’d think of something. But time flew by and it was the night before the party and I still had no idea on what I wanted to go as. I had an easy idea that night and figured I could easily do it (it mainly involved wearing stickers) and I knew it wouldn’t be anything spectacular.

Then, on Oscar Sunday morning, I was doing my laundry and saw my Disney dog leggings I got a few months ago in my dresser. I remembered that “Isle of Dogs” came out in 2018 (which is the only rule for the costumes) and thought that would be so much better than my original idea. So I was going to wear the leggings and make stickers of pet store aisles to wear on my shirt. The stickers didn’t want to stick on my shirt, so I only put one on and used the others as backups for when that one fell off. It wasn’t my best costume, but it was comfortable and fun and that’s the best combination.

The decorations for the party were all about Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and they had an amazing puppet backdrop to use and they made puppets to go along with it!

There are a couple of different spaces to watch the Oscars, but I always sit in the quiet room. We talk during the commercials, but during the show we are quiet. There is sometimes something said quickly while someone is walking up to the stage, but the point of the quiet room is to be able to watch (the other spaces to watch has people talking throughout the show and the focus is being more social). We usually have the same people each year in the quiet room and we are all good at following the quiet room rules. But we also know each other well enough to be ok with the little whispers and talk that may happen.

And one thing we kept discussing was the show. There was so much in the press about how this show was the first one without a host in a long time and there were people wondering how it was going to go. And we all kept saying how much we were enjoying it without a host. I feel like the presenters had more opportunities to be funny and have little bits and the show still seemed to move quickly. It only ended about 15 minutes late, which isn’t bad compared to other years.

And we also were discussing how happy we were that they didn’t give any of the Oscars during the commercial breaks. Originally, 4 of the awards were going to be done during the commercials so we wouldn’t be seeing them while watching the show. They were going to have them online, but that’s not the same. The Academy reversed their decision and I’m so glad that they did it. I thought it was a bad decision to not air all the awards because everyone equally deserves to be honored the same way when they win.

And honestly, I felt more inspired watching the speeches for some of the awards that were going to be during the commercials than I did for some of the bigger awards. I love seeing people who are truly passionate about what they do be recognized for their hard work. I especially love seeing the winners of the short animated film, short live action, short documentary, and feature length documentary because I know that many times those films are passion projects. They don’t necessarily create these films to try to win an award. They do it because they had a story they wanted to tell and they went out and did it. And when they win you can see the pure joy and excitement on their faces. It’s really amazing to watch and I’m so glad I didn’t have to watch it online later to experience that.

Overall, I felt like the show was a really good one. Going without a host worked well, the winners for the most part were who I wanted and the speeches they gave were good, and I had a great time with my friends. I did get a few votes in the costume contest, but I knew I wasn’t going to win. The winners had really incredible costumes and I can’t compete with those. I was in the top 5 for guessing the winners of all the awards which was better than I expected to do. So many of my guesses were random so it was just lucky I did that well.

I realized while watching the Oscars that there have been a lot of films I missed. I’m trying to find ways to catch up on some of them now, and I’ve already been able to watch the winner of the short documentary on Netflix. There’s no rush for me to catch up on them, but I do want to make an effort to try just so I can see what made all of those projects awesome. It will be some good entertainment between customers when it gets slower at my job later this year.

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Default ThumbnailOscar Party Time (or Feeling Inspired) Default ThumbnailMaking Some Good Guesses (or I Am Not A Cat) Default ThumbnailBeing “Wild” (or Not Guessing A Lot Of Winners Right This Year) Default ThumbnailEnjoying Movie Nights (or Watching My Screeners) Default ThumbnailWatching The Oscars (or Costumes and Twitter) Default ThumbnailOscars Time! (or Inside Out vs. Star Wars)

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4 Years Of My Mentoring Circle (or Celebrating With Brunch)

Posted on February 12, 2019 | Comments Off on 4 Years Of My Mentoring Circle (or Celebrating With Brunch)

It’s so crazy to believe, but my current mentoring circle from Women In Film has been meeting for 4 years now! I knew that this group of women was special when we were actually able to meet between our meetings with our mentors, but I had no clue that we’d be able to continue the group after that first year ended. But it turned out that we bonded together as a group a bit more than we bonded with our mentors so it makes sense that we have kept things up.

While we have been meeting for 4 years, things have changed a few times. When we started, we technically met every month since we met with our mentors every other month and then on our own for the alternate months. And when we started meeting on our own after that first year, we continued to meet every other month since that was the routine that we got used to. But as time has gone one, most of us have gotten busier (which is a good thing) and it’s been harder to meet up. So at the end of last year, we decided to change things up so that we now meet every 3 months so we see each other 4 times a year.

Our first meeting of 2019 was this past weekend and we had our traditional brunch at Rush St. which has been our brunch place for a while now. We almost always get one of the booths, and that works perfectly for our group to feel like we have our own little meeting space and not in the middle of a busy restaurant.

When our mentoring group started, we had a few more members than we currently have. But I understand that continuing with the group wasn’t for everyone and that’s pretty much what happened with my first group that never met outside of our few meetings with our mentors. But we still have almost everyone in the group and we work hard to try to make the meetings we have. This time, we were missing 2 people, but I know they tried hard to make it and there were just circumstances that prevented them from being able to be there.

I’ve said in the past few recaps of my brunches with my group that I haven’t had a ton of news to share but I loved hearing what everyone else has been up to. This brunch was the same. My biggest news was about how it is going to be election season soon for SAG-AFTRA and that I’m more involved in my slate than I have in the past. Nothing about that is too exciting, but I know they are important things and something that not everyone is doing. I wish I could tell them amazing news about booking jobs or amazing auditions, but those just aren’t happening for me right now. I’ve had auditions, but they are nothing spectacular or unusual so I don’t really feel like sharing about those.

But as always, everyone else had amazing updates and hearing about them was the highlight of brunch for me. I’ve never really been the type of person to compare my journey to someone else’s, so I can just get joy out of seeing the steps that everyone else has been taking. And they have been doing some really amazing things that have been getting closer to reality. And one of the benefits of being a part of this group for so long is that I have been able to see the long game with everyone’s journey. One member of our group is getting close to the play she has written being on Broadway. And when we started as a group she had just produced a reading in LA and we have been getting updates about readings in NY, finding a producer and director, and now finding investors. It’s so amazing and I couldn’t be happier for her.

Because this play has been in the works for so long and the finish line seems so close, I think everyone in the group can’t wait to find out that it will be premiering on Broadway. We’ve been joking that we will all have to have a meeting in NY when that happens because of course we all want to be there. And maybe if it happens in a year we can celebrate the start of our 5th year together as a group by seeing the show premiere. But even if that doesn’t happen, it’s so fun to dream about doing that together.

While I would love to have more and better updates when the group meets again in May, I’m not going to worry about it too much. I just have to keep working hard and I know the results will happen eventually. And when they do happen, I don’t doubt that the group will be just as happy for me as I have always been for them with their amazing news!

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Default ThumbnailA Casual Brunch (or More Hangout And Less Catchup) Default ThumbnailAnother Business Brunch (or A Delayed Mentoring Circle Meeting) Default ThumbnailFinally Seeing My Mentoring Group Again (or Our First Brunch Of 2020) Default ThumbnailMentoring Circle (or Women Who Support Each Other) Default ThumbnailLast Mentoring Group Brunch For The Year (or Switching Things Up For Next Year) Default ThumbnailMeeting My Mentoring Circle (or Being In The Minority)

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A Donation Drop-Off (or Grateful I Can Help A Little)

Posted on January 31, 2019 | Comments Off on A Donation Drop-Off (or Grateful I Can Help A Little)

I’ve personally donated to My Friend’s Place whenever I have something to donate. I also have encouraged friends of mine to donate there as well since it is such an incredible organization. I know a lot of people don’t really think about where they donate items and what may be done with them, that idea never sat right with me. So once I learned about My Friend’s Place I knew it would be where I would be doing my donating from that moment on.

I don’t always have a lot of things to donate and I always wish I could help out more. But I know that one thing I can do to help out is to share information and make sure other people know about the charity. And that’s exactly what I was able to do at the SAG-AFTRA Convention when I went for the first time in 2015. Another member mentioned donating hotel toiletries to charity and that they would be finding a place to donate them to later. I was able to suggest My Friend’s Place and that’s where we have done our donations for the past 2 conventions.

I assumed the next time I would be going over there with a SAG-AFTRA donation would be after the convention in the fall. I might have been there sooner with donations on my own, but I didn’t think there would be anything from the union. But fortunately I was wrong.

When the National Board members meet, many members have to travel for the meetings. The suggestion about donations came up at the meeting and my friend Ellen (who is on the board) collected these items and asked me if I wanted to go with her to drop off the donation. Of course I said I would love too because I want to help in any way that I can. I didn’t help with the collection, but assisting is good enough for me.

Before we met to do the drop-off, I went around my house to see if there was anything I had that I could donate. I did find some random toiletries that I got in different swag bags that I knew I wouldn’t be using. I also had some food I got in a Secret Santa exchange that I didn’t need. I would rather donate them to a place that needs them if I don’t feel like I had to have them. I filled a paper bag with the items I had and drove to Hollywood to meet up with Ellen.

She had a box full of amazing things to donate. Besides the regular toiletries that I knew she had collected, she had health items that were leftover from the union health fair. I know that My Friend’s Place always needs a variety of items and if they can’t use them they know so many other places that could. And since they provide services for free to the youth that come in, I am happy to give them whatever we can since I know they won’t be sold or wasted.

I wish that I had been more involved in helping with these donations this time, but I know that I have limited involvement right now with the union. I don’t attend board meetings so I can’t make the suggestion to collect items. But I am so grateful that Ellen is as passionate about this as I am and she makes sure that people know what we want to do.

Election season for the union is about to begin and I’m hoping I’ll be elected as a delegate again. Of course, I want to be at the convention so I can vote on the issues and represent my fellow actors. But I also want to see what I can do to encourage other members to donate what they can so we have a huge collection to drop off at the end of the year.

One day, I’d love to have the money to buy all the things I know they need because many of them are things that aren’t as easily donated as toiletries (like new socks and undergarments). Right now, that’s not an option for me but it is a dream of mine. But for now, I help out in whatever way I can and whenever I have the opportunity to do so. And I know that doing that is better than doing nothing.

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A Night Of SAG Awards (or Watching Union Unity)

Posted on January 29, 2019 | Comments Off on A Night Of SAG Awards (or Watching Union Unity)

Every year I look forward to watching the SAG Awards. I love all award shows, but ever since I became a member of SAG-AFTRA I feel so connected to the SAG Awards. I know a part of feeling connected is because it is the one award show that I currently get to vote for. My vote helps to decide the winners and that’s something that most people don’t get to experience.

I also think that I feel so connected because I feel like the people on my screen are truly my colleagues. I know that’s technically true for any award show where there are actors, but there’s something different with the SAG Awards. It seems so much more obtainable and closer to me and it really is a unique experience.

Even though the SAG Awards feel different for me, they are pretty standard award shows. The awards are only for actors and they categories are a bit different, but they are still about someone winning and giving a speech thanking the voting body and the people they worked with and in their life. It’s nothing too crazy compared to other award shows and this time of year there are so many of them!

But this year, the SAG Awards really felt different. I heard this from several of my friends and we all had a similar reaction. In the speeches this year from the winners, there was so much pro-union and union inclusive language. There were winners that thanked all actors that work on their show and specifically named background actors. Background actors are almost never thanked, so to see them get acknowledgement was very cool. And it also seemed like most speeches were talking about how important being a union actor is and how we all need to stick together.

Some of the things being said reminded me of what is said in the Union Working videos. They talked about making sure all actors on set are being paid what they earned and not missing out on different things like a meal penalty if a meal period is skipped. There may be some lead actors not aware that those little bonuses are being skipped, but if they are looking out on their contracts they can see if they are skipped and make sure that everyone working is getting paid what they are promised by our contracts.

One of the best moments of union unity was during the lifetime achievement speech by Alan Alda. He had a very nice speech talking about his career and what it has meant for him. And he ended his speech urging everyone watching to honor our union contract. This is such an important thing to hear as we are currently on strike with an ad agency over them deciding to not honor the contract that they previously signed with us. And with the contact negations about to start, it’s important that we have a united front saying that we want a fair contract. It was such an awesome moment watching him add that to his speech because we do need everyone to hear about it. While I have been working hard at educating myself with union issues, I know not everyone is doing that and maybe hearing someone in their speech emphasize how important it is to honor our contract will be a reminder to them or push them to learn more.

And it wasn’t just in the speeches that we saw moments of union unity. When SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris spoke, that was the theme of her speech. She reminded all of us that the union is us and we need to make sure we are working together to make the union strong for all current and future members. And Megan Mullally even got to share a moment of why our union is important while she was being the host of the show. She shared about how her dad, who has passed away, is still receiving residual checks for work that he did decades ago. Residuals are an important part of our union contracts and it was awesome seeing someone share that to the audience so those who aren’t in the union yet have an idea about what we are fighting for as a benefit for all actors.

I don’t know if any other award shows this season will have the same vibe of union unity or strength, but to see it happen in any award show is so special. While I know that it won’t change the minds of the people we are in negotiations with or people who have nothing to do with our industry, it is important for all of our union members to hear. I know there are some people in the union who don’t do much with the union but enjoy the benefits and the screeners we get for the SAG Awards. If they watched the show, they would have seen so many examples of people sharing why the union is important to them and maybe that will inspire them to support the union in whatever way they feel is best.

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Seeing Actors Supporting Actors (or An Awesome Union Working Project)

Posted on January 17, 2019 | 1 comment

For almost the entire time I’ve been a part of Union Working, our big goal was to work on the next commercial contract negotiation. It’s a very important issue for actors right now as we want to see our commercials remain union. Working under a union contract guarantees so many things for actors and we want those guarantees and protections. And while there is still work do to before the negotiations start soon, we are seeing the results of some of that work now.

While most of us in Union Working are middle class actors (or just starting out), we have been so lucky to have some A-list celebrities who are just as concerned as we are about things happening in our industry. Many of them wanted to make sure they could voice their concern for the issue as well as their support for their fellow union members. Some of the leaders of Union Working have been filming these actors so they could help the cause and the first video was just posted on our YouTube channel.

I know that some people who aren’t in the entertainment industry aren’t as familiar with the issues of the working actor, but I can give a good example of why working union is important.

I did a non-union commercial in 2007 for a hair care product. I don’t exactly remember how much I made, but it was about $1,000 which seemed amazing for a day of work. I was so excited about it and didn’t think too much about it being non-union. When you do a commercial, you can’t do another commercial that conflicts with it (so you can’t have a Coke and Pepsi commercial running at the same time). When you work union, there is a length of time they are allowed to run your commercial and if they want to extend it they have to pay you to do so. That’s not the case for non-union work. My $1,000 seemed amazing when I made it in 2007. It’s not as amazing when that commercial is still airing today and I haven’t made another penny from it. If this was a union project and they wanted to air it for over 10 years, I would be getting paid continuously for it in holding fees and residuals. I know that many non-union commercials are not ones that can run in perpetuity like mine is, but it’s still a possibility.

I have shared this story about my non-union commercial many times with actor friends. I feel like it’s important for actors to know what risks they are taking if they want to work non-union. I wish someone had explained it to me because I would have been smarter about things. I probably would have still done the project, but I might have asked about adding a line in my contract to change it from being able to run forever to having an end date. There’s no guarantee I could have gotten that change made, but I would have liked to have been educated about what I was getting myself into.

This is not to say that non-union work is bad. Everyone starts out somewhere and the experiences I’ve had when I was a non-union actor have been invaluable. But I also understand the benefit of working union and I am proud of what our union has gotten us as actors. I also have become much more aware of what all unions have done for their members. So I want to support union work as much as I can. And when commercials are only going non-union sometimes to save the corporations making them a little bit of money, that doesn’t seem right. I understand that companies have to save money on some things, but I don’t think it should be at the expense of working class people trying to make a living. I think most people agree that when companies don’t give their employees a raise but will give their executives raises that it’s not right. Or it’s not right for companies to encourage their full time employees to go on food stamps or other subsidies to help them afford the cost of living. Employees deserve a fair wage and that is exactly what actors are asking for.

I know some people probably roll their eyes at us and think that we don’t have a right to complain, but there are working class actors just like there are working class employees in other industries. When you don’t know when you are going to work again, it’s important to make sure you are making what you deserve. Working class actors aren’t making millions of dollars a year. Some of us make $5,000 a year from actors. Many of us make less than that. And we do supplement our acting income from our day jobs, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t deserve what we make when we do get to act.

I am so proud of the video that Union Working made and the actors that have been participating in the project. I love seeing actors helping each other out at all levels of success and I am so grateful that we have some incredible talent on our side looking out for us.

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