Tag Archives: awards

Enjoying Movie Nights (or Watching My Screeners)

Posted on January 19, 2017 | Comments Off on Enjoying Movie Nights (or Watching My Screeners)

It’s almost time for the SAG Awards which means I’m getting ready to vote on who I think should win in the various categories. It’s still so much fun that I get to vote on the awards and it fees so special to me. I know that all union members get to do this, but it’s still relatively new to me and feels like a novelty. And I do take it seriously and want to make sure I vote for who I feel deserves to win and not just who is my favorite. I know that no everyone does that, but I look at it as if I might be nominated one day. I might not be a name actor by that point, but I would want as much consideration as an a-list actor might get. So I take each nomination just as seriously as the others.

Usually, I’ve been able to see more of the films before the nominations come out. I get to go to screenings through SAG-AFTRA and the film society as well as thought Women In Film and usually toward the end of the year those end up being the films that are the ones that get nominated. But this year, for some reason I really didn’t get to make it to many of the screenings of the films that were nominated. In fact, I didn’t get to see anything other than shows that were on Netflix this time. It’s just the way that the screening season went. A lot of screenings were times that I couldn’t go, and during the holidays a lot of screenings were the blockbusters and not necessarily the films that get award nominations.

So when we started to get our screeners, I was excited because I knew I needed to watch a bunch of movies. But somehow time was going by and I wasn’t watching the screeners I had. And over the weekend, I realized that I needed to start catching up in order to have time to watch everything before I had to vote. So I have been trying to watch one movie a day if possible to make it through my movies. I haven’t been able to do that every day, but I’ve been able to do it for many of them and I’m finally about halfway through watching all of them.

It’s been a fun routine at night (or sometimes before I start work in the morning) to pick out a movie that I want to watch. It’s a luxury to be able to watch these movies at my house where I can be comfortable on the couch (and pause the movies if I need to get something to drink or run to the bathroom). And when my hips have been hurting, it’s nice that I can stretch out on the couch or floor and get my body to feel ok. That’s not something that I can do in a theater, even though I do have to stretch out in my seat when I’m out at a movie or a show. Each time I watch a screener, I feel so lucky that I get to have this privilege and hope that I never get so jaded that I start to expect this treatment.

Most of the movies I’ve watched have been very good. I’m actually sad that some of my favorites are only available on the screener website because I know I’ll lose access to watching it soon. And there are some other films that I’ve struggled to get through and haven’t understood why my friends have thought it was the greatest movie ever or that it was better than all the rest. But whether or not I like the movie, I totally agree that the performances in the films have all been the best of the best and all the actors have been very worthy of their nominations.

There totally are some front-runners in my mind for who I want to vote for already. I won’t vote until I finish watching the movies because that’s only fair. I don’t feel like there is a lot of campaigning by actors and producers to get their films or performers to win. I do get flyers and things in the mail (and I guess you could say getting a DVD screener versus having to watch it on a website is a way to campaign), so I don’t feel pressured to vote any certain way like some other awards shows might have. I get to be an actor watching actors and deciding who is inspiring me the most with their performance.

I’ve got less than 2 more weeks to work on this and I think I’ll be fine getting through all the movies. I do need to set aside time to work on it (which seems like a funny concept to me), but as long as I make it a priority in my off time, I will watch everything before needing to vote. And right after voting, I’ll get to see how the rest of my union actors feel about the performances when the winners are announced. I can’t wait to see what happens!

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Oscars Time! (or Inside Out vs. Star Wars)

Posted on March 4, 2016 | 2 comments

After seeing my sister-in-law on Friday night and spending Saturday day/night and Sunday morning in San Diego, I was ready to lay low on Sunday and relax. But that was not in the plans for the day. This past Sunday was the Oscars, and as always I had an awesome party to get to!

I had planned out my costume carefully for the party. I knew that I would be coming back from San Diego that morning and wanted to make sure that even if we got caught in horrible traffic I’d have time to get ready. So I decided to make something that was easy to put on in case I only had minutes before I had to get out the door.

There were a couple of ideas that I had going for my costume, but the one I went with was actually the original idea I had.

Inside Out

I was Riley from “Inside Out” and had all the emotions coming out my head. I accomplished this by attaching each character to a zip tie that I had tied around a headband. It took a couple of tries to figure out something that would work (glue wasn’t helping to keep the characters upright), but I think it looked pretty cool in the end!

I was super excited to see how Marie and Chris would decorate their house. They definitely go all out and over the top, and I love it! And this year didn’t disappoint!

Star Wars Yard

That X-Wing plane was made out of cardboard and PVC pipe and took up a good chuck on the backyard. And they made the BB8 and R2D2 out of various things they bought (the bottom of BB8 was a yoga ball). This was so impressive and amazing and we all took tons of pictures of it.

Before the Oscars started, I saved my seat in the quiet viewing room and got some food. I got there early enough that I had time to hang out with my friends before my focus went to the show.

Overall, I enjoyed the Oscars this year. I know there is a ton of controversy surrounding the show and the lack of diversity, but I think the Academy is taking some really great measures to make sure that this does not happen again. And of course the lack of diversity was mentioned a lot on the show so they weren’t trying to cover up for anything.

Normally I’m pretty good at guessing the winners, but this year was pretty bad for me! I got a couple of random ones right and best actor/actress correct. But there were plenty of surprises this year. While I enjoyed seeing “Mad Max”, I wasn’t expecting them to win as many Oscars as they did. They were all deserving wins, but not how I thought the Academy would vote. I also think that so many people were surprised by the supporting actor category as well as the best song (we were all crying watching Lady Gaga perform). And we were all pretty split on what would win best picture, and even though I really liked “Spotlight” it was not what most of us had picked to win.

Even though I was in the quiet viewing room, we were a bit louder than usual. Nobody seemed to mind so it worked out really well. There were a couple of people who were new to the Oscar party so we kept them informed on what the plan was for the night. I helped to let people know that after the In Memoriam segment several of us would gather to do a shot in memory of those we had lost in the past year. This year there was a special twist to it. At the New Years Eve party I had brought some of my grandpa’s vodka. The entire handle wasn’t consumed so we used that for the shot. And I had also brought the last jar of my grandpa’s blue cheese olives so many of us ate an olive (or added it to our shot like I did and made it like a martini).

For Grandpa

After the show ended, we all gathered in the backyard for the costume contest. While there was some variety in the costumes, it seemed like a majority of the costumes were either “Inside Out” themed or “Star Wars” themed. It was pretty crazy to see how many of us had the same idea (or the same costume like Dani and Marie had).

The Reys

Even though I liked my costume, I knew I didn’t stand a chance in the costume contest. I just like getting to participate and see what else everyone comes up with. I was the only person who had all the “Inside Out” characters on their head, so I was proud that I was at least a little bit original.

After the winners of the costume contest and award guessing were announced, most of us started to head home. I had an early morning the next morning and was still pretty exhausted from my weekend.

As I do every year, I had the best time at this party! It’s so much fun getting to watch the awards with friends who are just as excited about them as I am. And seeing how creative all my friends are with their costumes truly inspires me. Thank you Marie and Chris for being the most amazing hosts and creating such a fabulous party!

With Chris With Marie

I can’t wait to see what you come up with next year!

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SAG Awards (or Watching After Knowing The Winners)

Posted on February 3, 2016 | 2 comments

I really love the SAG Awards. All awards shows are amazing and I love watching them, but this one is so special. Part of it is that it is the only awards show that I get to vote for (at least, the only one I can vote for so far). And part of it is because these are my peers being nominated and one day I could be too. I take my voting seriously and work as hard as I can to see everything nominated (I don’t always succeed, but I make a big effort to see them all).

I usually watch the show live on TV and try to live-tweet my excitement over the winners. It’s fun to live tweet those sort of events and see what everyone else has to say about things. Even if I can’t watch with my friends, I still get to be connected with them while watching.

But when the show happened this past Saturday, I was babysitting. So I didn’t get to watch live this time. I don’t mind babysitting, but I was a bit sad that I wouldn’t get to watch the show when it happened. But I needed to babysit and I had my DVR set to record the show (plus an extra hour in case they ran late). So it wasn’t that horrible that I didn’t get to watch live.

Fortunately for me, twitter and various news sites online kept me posted on who the winners were throughout the evening. I was finally able to see who all the winners were when the kids were asleep at the babysitting job and was pretty happy with who won (a majority of the people/shows I voted for won) and I was anxious to hear all the speeches.

I got home from babysitting super late, so I didn’t get a chance to watch the awards until Sunday morning. Since I knew who all the winners were, I was able to fast forward a bit on my DVR. I watched all the introductions and speeches, but I skipped when they announced the nominees and the moment the announced the winner. But even with skipping those parts, there was so much good stuff to watch.

I loved all the speeches. Everyone seemed so grateful and gracious when they won. I knew that some of the winners were people who had almost given up on acting or had been trying to make it for years and seeing them win gave me hope that I will be there one day. And of course there were some random funny moments and I loved those as well.

Plus, I loved getting to see my friend Woody’s name in the credits at the end.

SAG Awards

All in all, it was a really great show. It did feel a bit weird not watching it live and not being interactive with people while watching. It was almost like it was my own awards show viewing and not something that everyone else watched. But even without being online and tweeting with people while it was happening, it still made me have so much pride to be a union member.

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Watching Musicals At Home (or Getting Antsy To Get Back To NYC)

Posted on June 9, 2015 | Comments Off on Watching Musicals At Home (or Getting Antsy To Get Back To NYC)

This past Sunday was the Tony Awards. While I’ve dreamed of winning pretty much every type of acting award, I’ve never dreamed of winning a Tony. I know that they have acting awards for plays, but in my head the Tonys are for musicals. And since I’m tone-deaf, I’m never going to win an award that involves singing.

But I love watching the Tony Awards. Prior to my NYC trip last year and getting this season’s tickets for Pantages, the Tonys were almost my only exposure to musicals. I love watching the presentations that each of the best musical nominees do on the show. And I’d always chose which shows I’d want to see when they came to LA (even though I never went to see them).

This year, I watched the Tonys at home alone. There were some funny moments (like this matchy-matchy dress moment).

2015 Tonys

And with any awards show, I loved watching the speeches. Especially from people who won for the very first time (some of whom won on their Broadway debut).

And of course, I watched (and re-watched) the performances several times.

I texted my sister-in-law to joke that I was watching the Tonys to pick out what musicals we should see when we get back to New York. But even though I said that as a joke, now I’m really hoping that we can make that a reality soon.

My brother and sister-in-law are moving soon. And my sister-in-law hasn’t really been able to job hunt from a different city. So she has no idea what her job situation will be like in the near future. We really can’t trip plan without knowing that.

And with my jobs now, I’m not too sure about my availability to go out of town. For my newest job, I’m sure it would be fine. I could probably even get work done on vacation without too many issues. But for my box office job, I have no idea how I can take a trip. I’d probably just have to take time off without pay (and hope that my boss is ok with that). I never asked about that when I interviewed for the job since my focus was on getting a job more than anything. But they have been flexible with me taking occasional time off for auditions as well as having time off for spending time with my family after my grandpa’s death. So I’m sure I could figure out how to take a trip.

I haven’t really thought about how I’d take a trip with my jobs, but now that I’ve watched the Tonys and have seen performances from several musicals that I really want to see; I really want to get back to New York at some point this year.

Hopefully I can figure out how to save up the money and get the time off (without losing too much of my paycheck) in the near future so my sister-in-law and I can start planning this! We said that we wanted to make our NYC trip an annual tradition and we’ve got until December to make that a reality.

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Inspiration On TV (or I Voted For Her)

Posted on January 27, 2015 | 1 comment

With this cleanse, it would be so easy to put my life on hold while I’m doing it. It would be so easy to turn down dinner invites and other social events. But I’m working really hard to not do that.

For the SAG Awards, I invited friends over. Only one friend, Robert, was able to come. But he and I had an awesome time! I love the SAG Awards. I mean, who wouldn’t love an award show that they get to vote for?

While watching the show, Robert and I shared who we had each voted for (sometimes we didn’t remember until they showed all the nominees for a category). A lot of people who I voted for won, which was awesome!

I think one of my favorite moments of the entire show was at the beginning. The first award was for female actor in a comedy series. And Uzo Aduba won for “Orange Is The New Black”. First of all, if you aren’t watching that show, go onto Netflix and watch the first 2 seasons! It’s incredible!

I voted for Uzo Aduba, and while I was happy that she won, that’s not what made it my favorite part. Right before she won, at the start of the show, they did the “I am an actor” introduction. She was one of the actors selected to participate in that segment. And she shared that she got her SAG-AFTRA card on “Orange Is The New Black”.

So her first major project was not only an awesome one, it’s an award-winning project for her (she also won for best cast ensemble for a comedy series).

That gives me so much hope. I know that her story is rare and there is usually a lot more career building before an award-winning performance, but it is possible to book something amazing without having to do a few co-star and guest star roles first.

Whenever I go in for a series regular role during pilot season, I hope more than anything that I will book it. I know a job like that can change my life and my career. But when I see who was cast in the part after pilot season is done, it’s usually someone with an established career. And yes, I am trying to get an established career, it just isn’t easy.

But it is possible for someone with so few credits as me to book one of these series regulars. If I am exactly who they want, the casting directors and producers won’t care what’s on my resume. I have to remind myself this if I get any pilot season auditions this year.

And on a silly note, I also have to share my second favorite part of the SAG Awards. I love getting to see my friend Woody’s name in the credits at the end as one of the producers of the show.

IMG_4530

We are coming up on the end of the awards season and with the Oscars coming up soon, I have to hurry up and think about what my costume will be for the party!

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Learning From My Screeners (or Maybe My Pain Isn’t So Bad)

Posted on January 14, 2015 | 1 comment

I’ve been spending a bunch of time lately watching my screeners for the SAG Awards. A majority of them have been digital screeners so I’m watching them either on my Apple TV or on my iPad.

I’ve been lucky that my day job has a lot of downtime. There are a bunch of days where my work setup looks like this:

10917083_10152998263147748_3069083085239640374_n

I’ve got my computer running all my work websites and my iPad next to it playing my screener. I have to pause the movie whenever a customer calls or starts a chat, but I’ve been watching a movie a day the last few days.

Obviously, all the movies are amazing otherwise they wouldn’t be nominated for the SAG Awards. And some of them are hitting me a little harder than others.

I watched “Cake” with Jennifer Aniston yesterday. Without getting too much into the story, it’s about a woman who is living with chronic pain.

I have always considered myself someone who deals with more pain than the average person. I don’t think I would ever say that I have chronic pain, but a majority of the time I have to take at least one painkiller to get through the day. Before my hip surgery, I was maxing out on two different types of painkillers every day and I was still in very intense pain.

Even though I know that the actors were pretending to have this sort of pain, it really made me realize how lucky I am that my pain isn’t worse. I hurt a lot, but I can still walk around pretty much every day (there are a few rare days where it’s difficult for me to get out of bed or off the couch). I’m able to work out even though on the treadmill I have to take breaks every so often to take a break from the pain.

Watching the movie has also motivated me to be a bit more proactive in seeing what other things I can do to put off the next few surgeries that I need. I’ve already done well by not doing activities that make my situation worse and have gone well past my surgeon’s guess that I would have needed my next surgery by 2009. I also haven’t shown signs of arthritis yet which my surgeon thought I would have by now.

I haven’t scheduled my appointments to meet with new surgeons yet, but I will be doing that in the next week or two. And when I spoke to my dad about this, he advised me to go in with an open mind. The original plan for me was created in 2006. A lot has changed medically in that time and while I will still most likely need a hip replacement on my right side one day (being bone on bone will cause that to be an issue eventually), maybe there are new things I can try to prevent me from needing the same surgeries on my left side.

Seriously, all this motivation and new perspective came from watching a movie.

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The SAG Awards (or I Am An Actor)

Posted on January 28, 2013 | 1 comment

We are in the middle of awards season. The Golden Globes already happened and the Academy Awards are coming up.

And in the middle are the SAG Awards.

As I’ve mentioned before, this is my first year getting to vote since I only joined the union prior to the merger last year. I loved getting to have the opportunity to see pretty much all the nominated films (I still haven’t finished all my iTunes rentals and have about a week left to try to see them).

It was very exciting to see the winners, and I was very happy when the people/projects I voted for won. Also, my friend Woody was one of the producers this year and I got to see his name in the credits at the end.

IMG_1292

Besides enjoying watching the winners and all the fun fashion (I’m looking forward to “Fashion Police” tonight), my favorite part of the SAG Awards is at the very beginning.

A couple of actors are chosen to share their story a bit. Some of them are silly and a bit made up, but others are serious. I loved how Hal Holbrook shared that he took a drama class because there was no homework.

What was really nice this year is that during the acceptance speeches, several actors talked about how they got into the union.

Jennifer Lawrence said how she got in after doing a commercial for MTV’s “My Super Sweet Sixteen”. Ben Affleck mentioned that he got his card in 1986 (I learned at one of the screenings I went to that he got it doing an afterschool special).

It’s always nice to be reminded that the Jennifer Lawrence’s and Ben Affleck’s of the world started somewhere.

It reminds me of a quote I once saw on Pinterest: Don’t compare your page 1 to someone else’s page 20.

This is great advice for all parts of my life! I might only be on page 1 now, but I’m excited to turn the pages of my life and make it to page 20!

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Awards Season (or I Have No Idea How I Can Watch All The Movies)

Posted on January 14, 2013 | 2 comments

This is my first awards season as a SAG-AFTRA actor. This means I get to vote for the SAG Awards this year.

And since I get to vote, I have to see all the movies in order to make an educated vote. SAG-AFTRA actors are invited to screenings (like I went to for “Lincoln”), get free iTunes movie rentals, have free movies passes, and my favorite is getting DVD screeners.

This year, I got these three movies as DVDs:IMG_1257 IMG_1262 IMG_1249

Since I had seen “Les Miserables” in theaters, I don’t have to watch it again, but I definitely want to. I watched my “Silver Linings Playbook” DVD when I was babysitting over the weekend. And I went to a SAG Foundation screening of “Argo” on Sunday morning which had a Q&A with Ben Affleck, Alan Arkin, and Bryan Cranston before the screening.

But I still have a bunch of other movies to watch, mainly my iTunes rentals. I have at least 5 that I feel I need to watch in order to be able to vote fairly.

But with only 1 day off a week (which is now Monday, but that’s a blog post for another day), I don’t know when I’ll have time to watch them. I’m planning on trying to watch at least 2 movies tomorrow.

I know that this is a total first world problem and I sound like a spoiled kid (too many free movies to watch, poor me), but it just bring back my issues with creating a work/life balance.

It is a reminder to me that I need to figure out a new way to get through this time in my life where my work is not my career yet.

But when I was watching the Golden Globes last night, I was reminded that it can be possible to make acting my work and career. I need to stick it out and not give up yet.

Who knows, this struggling time could be the perfect thing to say in my award acceptance speech one day?

😉

 

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