Tag Archives: acting

Ms. In The Biz Anniversary Party (or Having Fun In A Photo Booth)

Posted on May 8, 2015 | Comments Off

Ms. In The Biz is now 2 years old! I’m honored that I’ve been able to be a part of the blog since day 1 (technically before day 1 since I worked on the site before it launched)! I’ve been able to write a lot about my experience as an actress and because of the other writers on the site, I’ve learned so much! It’s also created such a wonderfully supportive community not just for women but for anyone passionate about the entertainment industry.

So of course there had to be a party to celebrate the 2nd anniversary!

The party was held at Fork in West Hollywood, which wasn’t too far of a drive for me. I knew that there wasn’t a red carpet, so I didn’t dress as nice as I have for other events. But I still wanted to look cute. I think I managed to put together a fun outfit for the night.

I wore heels for the first time in a while since I knew I could valet my car right in front of the door and since it was a restaurant there would be places for me to sit down. While it did feel weird to wear heels again, I have to admit that they do make an outfit look better. I just wish they didn’t hurt me as much.

I knew that I was only going to be able to be at the party for a little bit because I had a phone call I had to make at 9pm, so I got to the party on the early side. There weren’t a ton of people there when I got there, but it was ok because the upstairs space (where I hung out) wasn’t huge. So it didn’t feel packed or crowded (I prefer that).

The Headshot Truck was there doing photos. But they were more photo booth style photos with props. Much more relaxing than red carpet photos. I definitely took advantage of that and got some fun photos done.

It was a fun set up and they had a giant computer screen right next to the wall where we posed so we could see the photos right after they were taken (and could check out the photos that everyone else took).

Since Fork is a restaurant so many of the party guests were hanging out at tables and getting dinner and drinks. I had some dinner before going but I hung out with a friend while she had something to eat. It was nice to just spend time catching up with a friend on life, auditions, and other craziness going on in our worlds.

Before I knew it, I had to head out. I didn’t want to be at a loud party or in my car when I had to be on that phone call. I wish I was able to stay later, but I had a great time while I was there.

It’s such a great milestone that Ms. In The Biz has been going for 2 years. I think that the site has been gaining legitimacy since day one and I think that we have become a very trusted site for features about women in the entertainment industry. And I’m so honored that I’ve been allowed to be a part of it for the entire time.

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, anniversary, blogging, Ms In The Biz, party

Skype Audition (or Maybe I Should Have Worn Regular Pants)

Posted on May 7, 2015 | Comments Off

I had my very first Skype audition this week!

I have put myself on tape in the past, but when you do that you can take as many takes as you want and edit it down to just be the best one. When you have a Skype audition, it’s pretty much as close as you can get to a regular audition, just done virtually.

This audition was for a national campaign that I actually auditioned for several months back. But my agent resubmitted me when she saw that they were looking again and the casting team remembered me and had me audition again! So that made me really happy.

The script was pretty short (only about 10 lines), so I didn’t stress about working on it too much. If I practice too much, it sounds canned and not natural.

Because the casting team is based in NYC, my audition was a bit earlier than I’m used to. But it was fine since I get up early most days.

Since I was only going to be seen from the chest up, I dressed nice on top but wore my workout pants (with bare feet) on bottom.

I spent the 15 minutes before the audition time practicing my lines and making my computer screen as empty as possible. I didn’t want any weird distractions (or noises) while the audition was going on.

When the audition time came, I opened up Skype and waited for the audition call to come it. That was more nerve-racking than waiting in an audition room.

I had moved my laptop to be in a place with better lighting and a blank backdrop, and when I saw how I looked on the Skype call I think I made the right choice.

The audition went very much like a regular audition. We chatted at first about some things, they asked me if I had any questions about the material, and then I auditioned. I had to do it twice because the first time I made a mistake, but the second time went well (I think).

The only thing that might have been a bad choice on my part was the bottom half of my outfit. They needed to see as much of a full body shot as possible. Since my house is so small there is only so much room that I could back up into. So they never saw that I was barefoot (unless they are reading this blog is which is always possible), but I wish I wore better pants.

I had my script up on my computer screen instead of printing it out to hold in my hands. I think that was a good choice. And when I was auditioning I made it so I couldn’t see myself on the call. I don’t want to watch myself acting while auditioning. Maybe some people like that, but I don’t. I’m not a fan of watching myself on screen at any time. But by hiding myself on my side of the call, I was able to audition without any additional stress or nervousness.

And within a few minutes, my audition was done and I was able to get ready for my day job.

If I get a callback, it will be in LA, so that will be nice. That would be in a week or two, so hopefully I hear back soon. And it doesn’t shoot for about a month so there is plenty of time before they have to make their decision on this. That’s a bit unusually since most auditions are for projects shooting in a few days.

Either way, I survived my first Skype audition and now feel prepared to do them again in the future if I need to.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, audition, Skype

Is Helpfulness Out Of Style? (or Shocking People)

Posted on May 6, 2015 | Comments Off

Over the past few days, I’ve had several friends say to me how nice it was of me to help them. I’ve helped friends with rides, finding cheap airport parking, reconnecting makeup artists to actors, advice on blogging, and shopping finds. It’s not a big deal to me at all. Someone needs something and I know it. So I help them. It doesn’t hurt that I’ve got a bit of downtime between customers at my day job so I can use that free time to research things for people if they don’t have time themselves.

But the way that some of my friends have thanked me have made it seem like they were shocked that I would go out of my way to do something for someone that I wouldn’t get anything out of. And that shocked reaction has stuck with me because it seemed like a no-brainer to help out.

I’ve always tried to be a helpful person. When I moved to LA, there were so many actors who weren’t willing to share any advice with me and said that I needed to find my own way and learn my own lessons. When I started my blog, I had some bloggers say a similar thing to me. It took me by surprise that people didn’t want to help out someone just starting out.

Now, I need to say that these people are in the minority, but what they said and how they refused to help me have stuck out in my mind. Even more so than all the people who were willing to help. But I think in most things in life, the negativity sticks out in your memory a lot more than any amount of positivity.

So when someone needs help with something that I can help with, I don’t question it for a second. I do what I can and hopefully either I or another person can get them what they need.

Why can’t this be the rule instead of the exception? Why are people not willing to help out like they used to? Why do people need to learn their own lessons instead of learning from other’s mistakes (isn’t that what history classes are pretty much all about)?

I’d love it if being helpful could become more common. I’d love it if the next time I help someone, they can just say “thank you” and not be shocked that I am willing to help.

Why is this so difficult for people? As an actor and blogger I guess I could see that people don’t want to help someone who could be considered competition. I just don’t get that. For acting, if a part is meant for me it’s meant for me. It doesn’t matter if my direct competition is there or not. And as a blogger, I doubt that someone would lose out on an advertiser or sponsored post because of me because every blogger has a slightly different story. So maybe I just don’t view my “competition” as competition. One of them is a good friend of mine.

I don’t know how to make this change in the world except to keep being helpful myself. And hopefully others will pass on the helpfulness to others.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, competition, friends, helpful, positivity

Hearing Some Non-Nonsense Advice (or A Substitute Mentor)

Posted on April 30, 2015 | 2 comments

I had my next Women In Film mentoring circle meeting with my mentors this week. This meeting is different from the potluck dinner last month because our mentors were there to give us advice and help guide us in our careers.

One of the two mentors I have wasn’t able to make it for the meeting, but our mentors arranged to have a substitute mentor on hand so that we would still have 2 mentors at the meeting. I thought that that was a very nice gesture and really appreciated it.

We were missing a couple of fellow mentees at the meeting, but a majority of us were able to make it. And since we had a substitute mentor there, we spent the beginning of the meeting going around and telling her about our careers and the goals that we set 2 months ago and that we have long-term.

I’m very embarrassed to say that I didn’t do so great with my goals I set 2 months ago. One of them was to get through the film festival, so that one I did accomplish. But the one I really wanted to work on was saving money so I could get back into improv classes. I was really hoping to have about a quarter of the money that I need by now (or more), but I was also hoping to have more luck finding a secondary day job.

I know that I can ask for the money for the class for my birthday, so no matter what I will have the money by August. But hopefully I can have enough money together that I can register for the class by my next meeting with my mentors in 2 months.

As we were going around the circle talking about our goals, our guest mentor was pretty tough on us and not accepting any excuses we had about why we didn’t get our goals done. She was encouraging me to attend casting director workshops (I personally don’t believe in the ones that you have to pay for and she respected my opinion on that). She also said that while I love my agents, perhaps I need to find agents that get me out more often. I completely understand where she is coming from with that idea, but I know that I’m pretty much going out as often as my direct competition does. And I doubt that new agents would work with me as much as my current agents do.

But hearing that tough love did motivate me to do more for myself. My agents do work hard for me, but I can make their job easier. Besides getting into the improv class, I really need to update my reel. I also am going to continue working on my networking with casting directors and writers. The more people who know me, the better.

While I did disagree with some of the ideas that the guest mentor had for me, so much of what she was saying was exactly what I needed to hear. Even when she was talking to my fellow mentees about how they need to stop making excuses and being victims of their circumstance, I took that to heart. I can’t force anyone to give me more auditions, but I can make it so I’m a more desirable actress for casting directors to want to bring in. And that’s how I need to focus myself on my career.

While I think that both of my regular mentors are amazing and are so generous with their time and their advice, I’m a little sad that our guest mentor won’t be at the next meeting to check in with all of us. Maybe I’ll run into her at another event in the future and I can have an amazing career update to give to her!

2 Comments

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, mentoring, motivation, Women in Film

Happy Hour Inspiration (or Just Having Fun After Work)

Posted on April 16, 2015 | Comments Off

It’s been a while since I had a happy hour outing with my friend Rayshell, so I’m glad that we got to do one this week. We met at Westside Tavern which is pretty close to my house. The last time I was there was with my parents, so I was happy to go back.

As always, it was fun to catch up with Rayshell. We’ve both had some big things happening in our lives and sometimes just seeing news on social media isn’t enough.

We talked about my grandpa some as well as my workouts and new medication. And she talked about some stuff going on in her life like her acting career.

While we were talking about our acting careers, Rayshell said something to me that really inspired me. There’s something that we are hoping to do. And while I can’t share much now, I think that we are getting some really great people interested in this and hopefully our idea will become a reality soon.

I love that just hanging out with a friend and talking about life can inspire something so big in my head. The rest of the dinner, we just talked about this idea and it kind of revitalized me after a kind of crazy day at my day job (it was a day where all the customers were asking questions that either I didn’t know the answers to or could only be answered by the producers at each location).

It was also nice to have something fun in my day when things have been stressful for about 2 weeks. Besides everything with my grandpa, I’m still worried about my grandma and that hasn’t been resolved yet (and probably won’t be for another month or two). Even though it’s important to focus on family and make sure that everyone is taken care of, I need to remember to take time out for myself so I don’t lose myself in worrying about everyone else.

Dinner itself was nice and relaxing. I had been careful what I ate earlier in the day so I could enjoy my meal. And I did make a decent choice (there were definitely much worse entrees I could have chosen) and I enjoyed what I ate. Having meals like this make my boring meals most of the time totally worth it. And those boring meals are necessary if I want to be able to go out for meals and not worry too much about it (although in my head I was still feeling a little guilty because I could have chosen something healthier).

Since Rayshell had to a farther drive home than I did, we didn’t stay at dinner too long. But it really was a perfect hangout to help get me out of the house and back to feeling more normal than I have been.

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, dinner, friends, happy hour, inspiration, meal planning

Another Native Foods Dinner (or Healthy Food And Awesome Conversation)

Posted on April 3, 2015 | Comments Off

The Inside Acting Podcast dinner at Native Foods was Wednesday night and it went great! This is where our last dinner was (and where I ended my cleanse).

I love that we are doing more gatherings as a team and with our listeners. And the fact that we had 2 hangouts in a week is super awesome!

While Native Foods isn’t where I would usually chose to go out to eat (I don’t eat soy that often and it’s a vegan restaurant so a lot of options have soy in it), but the food there is pretty awesome. And they do have a soy-free menu to look at, so I’m able to find what doesn’t have soy pretty easily.

I ended up getting the same salad I had last time (it’s super filling and the dressing is so good!), but I only ate about half of it. And that was because I was too busy chatting with everyone who was there!

It was a lot of the same people who were at the picnic, but there’s always so much to talk about every time we meet up.

A lot of the discussion was about industry news going on and it’s always great to hear what others feel about news that I have strong options on. And someone at the dinner had recently connected with Billy DaMota so we were talking about how awesome he is and how he does so much for actors.

We also chatting about recent guests that were on the podcast and the new membership program that we just launched. It’s an amazing program that allows our members to share wins, information, and events that would benefit the group. It’s like our own Facebook where we can make sure that the good things we post don’t get lost online in a newsfeed. I think that having our membership program is just going to make our community stronger and more prepared for all the opportunities that come our way.

I didn’t end up staying too late. I’m still feeling like a party pooper when I get exhausted so early. It didn’t help that on that day I got up at 6am instead of 7am (and since I go to bed at the same time every night I pretty much lost an hour of sleep). But I was there for a good couple of hours so I felt like I was able to socialize with everyone.

I’m not exactly sure when our next podcast hangout will be. But I will for sure share it on here. I’d love to have my blog world and podcast world come together!

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Posted in Acting, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, dinner, Inside Acting, podcast

Podcast Picnic (or A Perfect Sunday Afternoon)

Posted on April 1, 2015 | Comments Off

The podcast I work for is doing more and more hangouts with our listeners. I like this! We had a hangout recently at Native Foods (and we actually have one there tonight if you want to join us!) and we have more in the works.

This past weekend was a hiking and picnic hangout at Griffith Park. I had every intention of doing both the hike and picnic, but sadly I had a bad hip day that morning. So hiking was not going to be a good idea.

But I wasn’t going to miss out on the picnic! Since I wasn’t doing the hiking, I let another podcast team member know that I would get there early to save a picnic area for us. The park was a bit crowded (the hazards of being there on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon), but I found parking after a while and a perfect picnic spot!

A couple of listeners of the podcast got there before the hikers were back. And a few minutes later, the hikers had finished their hike (they all looked like they had an awesome time) and we were ready to have our potluck picnic.

I brought some hummus, carrots, and pita chips. And everyone seemed to bring something different so we had an entire table full of food (sadly, I was so busy hanging out with people, I didn’t get a chance to take any other pictures at the picnic).

This picnic was just another awesome couple of hours with like-minded actors. Everyone is motivated and not just sitting around waiting for their “big break”. And everyone there was more than willing to share advice and stories with the rest of the group. That is such a rarity. I’ve encountered so many actors who believed that if they struggled to find the information at one point, everyone should have to do the same struggle.

Because Griffith Park shuts down at sunset (and cars can be towed starting then), the picnic wasn’t as long as I wish it would have been. Time flew by so quickly and there was so much more that we all wanted to talk about. Good thing that we are all pretty much going to be at the event tonight so we can continue our conversations.

If you aren’t a listener of Inside Acting and you work in the entertainment industry in any field, I highly recommend listening to our podcast! We just launched our new website (which is very nice looking) and our new membership program (which lets you be a part of our online community, mastermind group, and courses).

And hopefully I’ll see some of you at Native Foods tonight!

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, hangout, hiking, Inside Acting, picnic, podcast

Going From So Much Excitement To Normal In A Few Hours (or Life As An Actor)

Posted on March 27, 2015 | 1 comment

My day on Tuesday was going to be pretty normal. I knew I had work from 10-3 as usual and then I had the afternoon free (my temp job is done now).

So as I went around doing my after-work errands (which included buying the digital version of “Into The Woods” for my AppleTV), I was pretty much in no-stress mode.

Then, as I’m sitting at home, I get a text from my agents. I had an audition for Wednesday evening! It was for a national commercial and I had lines to prepare.

So I quickly got into actor mode. First, I rescheduled my afternoon workout for Wednesday. I might have been able to both workout and make it to the audition, but I didn’t want to stress about it. So I rescheduled to a super early workout. Since the audition took place late, I didn’t have to worry about dealing with anything at my day job, so that was one less thing to take care of.

I really wanted to watch “Into The Woods”, so I had it up on my tv while I ran the lines for the audition on the Rehearsal 2 app on my iPad.

The script for the audition was more than I’m used to for commercial auditions. There were 4 potential parts that I could be auditioning for (the audition notice didn’t specify the part), so I decided that I would memorize all 4 parts.

So I spent a good chunk of my afternoon/evening working on the script and getting everything else ready for the audition the next day (plus planning on waking up early to get in a before-work workout).

Then, I got another text from my agents.

My audition was canceled.

My agents really didn’t get much information beyond the audition being canceled. So it could be for tons of different reasons. Maybe they didn’t want me to audition. Maybe they already cast the part. Maybe it’s not really canceled but it will be rescheduled and they don’t have a new reschedule date yet. Maybe the commercial isn’t going to happen anymore.

No matter the reason, there was no need for me to prep anymore.

So I did all my prep work in reverse. I put away my iPad and the script. I canceled my early morning workout and rebooked my afternoon workout. And I got to watch “Into The Woods” without having to focus on the script.

This is a way of life for me. I think this is only the first or second audition that was ever canceled on me. Usually, when I get a cancellation text my agents have been told that it will be rescheduled but the casting directors don’t know when. They can’t reschedule without a date through the online submission services so if the new date is unknown, the audition has to be canceled.

I can’t get down about this. I did nothing wrong. And for all I know, in a week or two this audition will come back and it will actually be a reschedule and not a cancellation.

I just have to keep thinking positive and know that eventually, an awesome part will be mine. But for now, I will just be grateful that I was considered for a great job and I got to practice my acting skill with a new script.

1 Comment

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff

Tagged acting, audition, commercials, movies

WIF Mentee Potluck (or How Many People Can I Fit In My House)

Posted on March 19, 2015 | 1 comment

With my new WIF Mentoring Circle, our mentors want us to meet with them every other month. For the in-between months, they want all the mentees to meet on our own. We set up our meeting when we all met for the first time, and I agreed to host.

We decided to make our meeting a potluck so everyone signed up to bring something different. Obviously I would have the plates/cups/silverware for everyone, but I also wanted to have some food. I knew that the days leading up to the meeting would be stressful, so I did some searching online for easy appetizer ideas. I ended up deciding on doing a meat and cheese plate with some crackers. And fortunately, Trader Joes has some pretty incredible things so I was able to make this pretty easily.

I got the tray and bowls at Ross Dress For Less because I realized as I was getting ready that I have no serving platters. That tray was $6 (I’m thinking about going back to get another one) and those bowls were in a set of 4 for $7.

I spent most of my afternoon cleaning my house (doesn’t everyone do that when company comes over?) and my fellow mentees started showing up right on time at 5pm.

With all the food that everyone brought, my dining room table looked pretty full.

We all grabbed some food and then sat in my living room area to chat.

I was pretty shocked that all 8 of us who were able to make it fit into my living room pretty easily. I’ve never had more than 5 people over but with my new couch and the rearrangement of my living room I can fit more people than before!

We all went around the group and shared what we had done since our last meeting last month. We got advice and shared stories and it was really a great evening of women who really are working hard to make it in the entertainment industry.

We ended up meeting for almost 3 hours (we might have to figure out an agenda for our next meeting so we don’t run crazy long). This mentoring circle is such a huge difference compared to my other mentoring circle. I don’t know if anyone in my last mentoring circle really met outside of our group meetings. We definitely weren’t told that we needed to do so (I like that my current mentors really want us to meet during the in-between months).

I’m excited to see how the rest of this year goes with my mentoring circle. I have my next meeting next month (that meeting is with the mentors as well). Hopefully they will have some guidance on how we can run our own meetings to maximize what we get out of it.

In the meantime, I’m just so grateful that my mentors and fellow mentees are just as enthusiastic about getting as much out of this year as I am!

1 Comment

Posted in Acting, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, dinner, meeting, mentoring, Women in Film

Another IAP Hangout (or The Entire Team In One Place)

Posted on February 17, 2015 | 1 comment

I love that the Inside Acting Podcast is doing more and more hangout with our listeners! It was great when we had our Chipotle meetup, but not everyone was able to make that one. So we scheduled another dinner meetup for this past week.

The dinner was at Native Foods, which is a vegan restaurant very close to my house. At first, I wasn’t planning on eating there because it was going to be on the last day of my cleanse. But I did a lot of research on their menu and discovered 2 things that were actually cleanse-friendly (most of their food has soy in it which was not allowed on the cleanse). So I decided that I would celebrate the end of my cleanse with a meal that wasn’t prepared by me (the first meal like that in 28 days!).

I ended up getting a salad which was ginormous and super delicious! I was only able to eat about half of it, so a friend of mine ended up eating the rest. It felt so decadent to eat something that someone else made. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt that way about a restaurant meal before because I used to eat a lot of prepared foods (whether it was delivery or frozen meals from the store).

When I got to Native Foods, a couple of people were there. But before we knew it, we had about 25 people there! We took over a majority of the seating inside (we gave them a heads up about our group and they said “bring it”). It was so great to reconnect with old friends and to meet lots of new people. And everyone is so amazing and awesome!

And within the 25 or so people who were there, the entire team behind the podcast was there! I don’t believe that we have all been in one place at one time, so of course we took a team photo.

I ended up being at Native Foods for almost 5 hours. Time flew by just chatting about random stuff with everyone there.

I’m so happy that the podcast is now becoming a more social thing. And if you are interested in finding out more about our future hangouts (we’ve got a couple of ideas in the works right now), I recommend joining our email list. We send weekly emails and include any podcast events in the emails.

1 Comment

Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, dinner, Inside Acting, podcast, vegan

Tag Archives: acting

Ms. In The Biz Anniversary Party (or Having Fun In A Photo Booth)

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Skype Audition (or Maybe I Should Have Worn Regular Pants)

Like this:

Is Helpfulness Out Of Style? (or Shocking People)

Like this:

Hearing Some Non-Nonsense Advice (or A Substitute Mentor)

Like this:

Happy Hour Inspiration (or Just Having Fun After Work)

Like this:

Another Native Foods Dinner (or Healthy Food And Awesome Conversation)

Like this:

Podcast Picnic (or A Perfect Sunday Afternoon)

Like this:

Going From So Much Excitement To Normal In A Few Hours (or Life As An Actor)

Like this:

WIF Mentee Potluck (or How Many People Can I Fit In My House)

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Another IAP Hangout (or The Entire Team In One Place)

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