One Less Bitter Actor's Blog

Book talk #1-Rutgers

2009-11-12T21:19:29-08:00

As Neighborhood Playhouse Graduate I'd always heard about the program at Rutgers because it was run by William Esper a Neighborhood teacher and because my dad went there so he touted it as a great school. Mr. Esper has left so one might wonder how strong the teaching is now that he's gone. I can tell a lot about a program by how they respond to my emails. You'd be shocked at how many schools don't see the need for this kind of discussion for their students. One school told me straight out they don't teach Theatre as a career and their students have no aspirations to work in Theatre. They simply teach the theory of Theatre and that's it. That school costs $45k a year. Funny, huh?

Beth Wicke invited me quickly and kept up with me about the date and a few things that had to be ironed out. She was very diligent. It makes one feel wanted and lets you know that she's taking care of her students. She made the book mandatory reading for the talk. The class, both BFA and MFA acting students contacted me and had me send them a box of books. These guys were cracker jack!

I was met at the train by David and Jerry, and on the drive to campus they told me about their year in London studying Shakespeare and how solid they felt their training was. I was flat out jealous. A year in London?!

I entered the room to applause. 26 smiling, excited, artists welcomed me with an attitude of gratefulness. It was such a different feeling. Usually talks start with a melting of skepticism, but this...this was full support for simply traversing of the door's threshold!

I spoke, they asked questions, Beth reinforced things being said to make them extra clear, they asked more questions. It was time to go, they asked me to stay a bit longer. For three hours these very eager students got the most from their time with me. There was never a time when they were looking for the exits.

They'd read the book. They were prepared. It's one of the things I harp on as an absolute for a career. Preparedness. Beth made sure they were that. She's relentless with them about creating good habits early that will keep their careers moving. They didn't waste time with questions that were answered in the book, they went into personal things and applying the books ideas to their fears about certain situations that might crop up. All those nagging, scary, things you grind about when you're about to embark on something that feels enormous and you feel unprepared. There was relief in the room by the time I left.

For the next three days I received emails from that class. Then today I received a thank you note and gifts!

Flattery aside, this class is learning IN COLLEGE how to engage, follow up with, and thank the people who will aide them in their career. Which is really everyone you meet in this biz. I never learned that until years later and...the hard way. Beth Wicke worked in casting. She's aware of how casting likes to be treated. My book reinforced her views so she brought me in. The students at Rutgers have such a head start on making their lives easier in "the biz" and they have no idea. They'll just see it as normal. Good.

Thank you Rutgers and thank you Beth for caring enough about the artists that you're entrusted with. You are not the exception, but you are also unfortunately not the rule. I am meeting those schools that want to prepare their students and I'll talk about them in days to come.

But as far as a way to start a lecture tour...you guys were absolutely top notch. When I need that little pick-me-up in my day I think back to walking in to your class and that emotional hug you all gave me.

Artists offer it up like no one else.

Jeez, time flies...

2009-11-04T23:32:00-08:00

Shocked to see I haven't written for a month. I was busy but still I should be writing more often. I am now back from two weeks of doing talks for the book in NY, NJ and Philly. I usually talk with an acting class of 20ish at a time. 50 students is big class. Circle in the Square was probably 50-60 students, Rider U was about 100, but Temple took the cake at 200 in their big theatre. I will write about that later because I want to tell you about working on a film recently.

I auditioned for the great John Papsidera, and I say great because he makes you feel great when you read for him (he also went in on a fun restaurant in Hollywood that is a good eatery), and got the job. 2 scenes, one days' work, in Atlanta, on a feature film. So I had to fly there, work for a day, and fly home. Tidy.

We are lucky to be working, but actors always find a reason to complain the second after they get over the flattery of getting the job, don't we? "All the way to Atlanta?! For one day!?" Oh yeah, I've heard things like that from actor friends. Not me of course, but other actors....(ha!)

The scene was with Josh Lucas and Kathryn Heigl. They were great, the director was great, the first AD allowed me to invite my two young cousins who were taken out of school as a surprise to visit me on the set. Josh and Kathryn were great with the kids. About 4 hours into the day I was looking at the call sheet as saw that she was listed as an exec producer. I went to her and kidded her about being my boss saying, "I should have spent all my time here making you my best friend, laughing at all your jokes and telling you how pretty you are!" She waved me off saying it was nothing more than a vanity title. But you know...a few years ago I would have been doing that, for real, thinking it would make a difference in my career.

Now, I'm much more interested in enjoying the day I could have with my little cousins who are 9 and 7 and on their first film set. They were given full access to the set and watched us film all day. When I was leaving I asked Kathryn for a picture with the boys and she happily obliged. Then she hugged me goodbye and said in my ear, "Thanks so much for traveling all the way from LA to come in for one day and be awesome in the scenes with us."

That's not common folks. Usually the stars of the film are very good about letting you know how good you should feel about being part of their film, and spending time with them. We fellow actors contribute and we make the whole thing better, but it's often reduced nothing more than the opportunity to be close to something that could make us bigger and better. So as I joked with her earlier about being my boss, that feeling is very true and common. Buddy up to the big star and your career could change!

It's a piece of bad information we've been fed for years.

If you do your work and you're good, and you're respectful, you don't have to buddy up to the stars to gain their favor. Big stars won't really ever decide to make you their best friend and share their stardom with you based on doing a movie with them. of course if people like you and you're a good actor and you make their life better and their projects better, you could make a strategic friend of anyone, but that has to happen on it's own. Every celeb ever knows what everyone around them wants from them. You don't have to plant the seed that you'd like to do every KH film from here on. She knows. You're an actor.

I was happy for the entire experience, the best part was spending the rest of the day with my cousins and having them show off their picture with KH to their friends and all the plans for it at school the next day.

I don't know the hype on Katherine, but I know she has great habits where fellow actors are concerned.

This is the greatest blog of all time...

2009-09-30T21:26:45-07:00

A tip of the hat to Kanye for handing me that blog title.

You have to wonder how someone who professes he wants to use his celebrity for "good," ends up grandstanding through someone else's moment. Or maybe you don't have to wonder at all...

Sure this is way after the fact, everyone has had their say but as usual I ponder things for a bit and then I see how it can used as a lesson for, well, good.

Celebrity is just odd. Anyone who can make themselves a spectacle can become a celebrity and "capture the imagination" (see Sarah Palin) of America. Anyone.

Kanye is a talented musician. But what makes one stand in the wings at an awards show (which is truly the top of celebrity events) and become so outraged by the selection of a winner that they feel compelled to set the record straight for the poor soul who was robbed. As if Beyonce could ever be seen as an underdog that needs fighting for.

my first thought...really...? strategy. Beyonce is married to one of the most powerful musicians in the biz. I don't know the record label politics but I do know that it's good to have Jay-Z on your side. Wanna show him you'd take a bullet for him or his wife...? Stop an awards show to tell the world that Beyonce's work is the best of all time.

That's massive guts and a massive claim.

But what did it get him?

Scorn.

This tells me Kanye's world is so small and so insular that he's lost touch with the planet and knows only his needs. If you ever find yourself thinking that it would be okay to insult someone because recognition is being given to someone for their effort that you see as not only wrong but wrong on an "all time" scale...know that you've left the world of reality and know live in your own world. It might be nice to live there for a while but reality is a bigger place and it will find you.

Like it found a tongue tied and lost looking Kanye on Leno.

2009-09-20T14:44:15-07:00

I received this email from a friend in NYC. He went to The Neighborhood Playhouse with me after getting an degree in English from Stanford, now he’s a commercial producer. He points out how accepted the concept of form over function. For me it started with MTV and Madonna. Even when the world around me was hailing this new artist and new medium, I kept thinking that she was no more than a pop singer whose one trick would soon wear off. Which it did. She really isn’t much of a singer ( by her own admission) or dancer but she is a marketing wonder. Form over function. She introduced me to the idea of marketing yourself like a product-- not a person, not an artist, not a musician. This is what has kept Madonna, the person, “on top” for so many years. It was my feeling that before Madonna the world actually demanded their artists have some art to offer, if even briefly, or they were rightly discarded.

This is my friend’s email...

Was depressed as hell watching the video premiere for "Fame" 2009 last night. Why? It's not because I despise hip hop as the death of authentic musicianship, which I do, (fast forward to 2049, and see if anyone will be remastering Kanye's songs for throngs of new fans -- see BEATLES) but here's the reason:

The original, Irene Cara version of the song was sung with such passion, vulnerability and hope that you really hoped she'd make it -- against incredible odds. There is bluster in that vocal, just on the cusp of overcoming an inferiority complex, making you feel that if she believes enough, trains, works at it, it will happen. It was sung to a driving, pop/rock beat that syncopated, instruments weaving in and out, giving you the feeling that nothing is certain, the world can turn, for good or bad, on a dime, and the best you can do is hold on for the ride and make the best of it -- live forever. I always had the feeling that I was being invited into her world, where impossible things could happen, with tons of hard work, luck, and mantras of "I can do it."

This song was the best thing about the movie, which was mostly pretty damn hokey (by design - tip of the hat to old-time Hollywood musicals).

Fascinating how the same lyrics can take on a different meaning when the beat changes. The 2009 version is talk/sung to a steady, measured, medium/fast beat that never deviates. It merely drives forward like metronome clockwork -- like time. In the vocal and arrangement, success is a foregone conclusion, and vulnerability does not exist. Passion is replaced with inevitability. Luck doesn't exist. Eat or be eaten - move forward, relentlessly - swing from award to award no matter what the cost. This version is ALL bluster and no humility.

And this is the disease of fame in our current time. Bowie nailed it in '74, as he did most things, way before it mainlined its way into the Zeitgeist, but at least you knew, being Bowie, that there was some irony in it (hammered home with Lennon's backing vocal and guitar). No irony now, it's just depressing. It's the kids doing stuff at 12 that I couldn't, or wouldn't imagine doing at 23. It's a business that dresses little girls like whores and screws us all on her way up and back down. The 2009 Fame-er won't merely strip for the audition, she'll blow the guy before he starts the camera. The gay kid will only try to off himself once enough people watch on YouTube. Apply years of technique and training to be on a reality show.

Congratulations. You've made it.

Celebrity is the disease that keeps growing, feeding on need for fame. Its shallowness will consume us all. It's the ultimate distraction from the Evils Men Do in boardrooms and Congressional halls.

Those of you who aspire to get on a reality show that can launch your career don’t need to train in an acting class. Hone your business and marketing skills, they willl give you the “market mindset” you need to succeed.

If you want to offer your art to the world don’t mistake the bright lights of celebrity, for really having something to offer humanity. I’m not saying artists shouldn't know how to market themselves, they absolutely should.
What I'm offering is the idea that the world is now full of people that have nothing but their marketing skills to market, their actual content is Twitter long and just as deep. Make your self uncommon to this practice. Offer your art and make people seek you out among the noise of distraction that has replaced meaning and content and real function.

Killing your own Mojo

2009-09-06T13:03:34-07:00

I saw this on a friend's Facebook page...

"I have an audition next week for a teen comedy with ----- -----....omg thats a train wreck of a film waiting to happen....I can't wait till I can audition for some quality films."

I bet this sounds like something you've said in the past. We've all read bad writing and thought "Why are they wasting the money?!" I just want you to consider the consequences of walking into an audition with a mind full of arrogance about the "trainwreck" this is going to be.

First; why even go? Easy answer, right? Because we need to work, we need the money, it's a film credit nonetheless, you never know what it could lead to...etc.

Okay then, why judge it? Well I warned this younger friend against doing that and this was the response I got back, "generally I'm pretty happy about all my auditions...but I'm human and have real emotions and there are times when I'm not gonna lie to people and tell them I'm excited about something when I'm not."

Defensive? Feeling...Judged?
Must you LOVE everything you audition for? No. I'm as critical as anyone about writing.

The thing I cautioned this person about was creating a habit where you judge the audition harshly and fool yourself into thinking you're really doing your best work in there with a head full of "train wreck."

So then you might ask, "yes, but if you hate it, can you really do your best work?" and the answer is, of course! NEVER judge your character. Do the same work you'd do on Mamet or Shakespeare as a teen comedy. Why not? It might feel like over kill but altering your process because you leapt to a decision about the quality of the material, will alter the course of your creative process. The part may not require the same depth of research, but that will become apparent as you go. Don't start with the idea that the words are beneath your talent and you're doing that movie a favor but when a quality film comes along, that's when you'll be able to show off all that talent.

Starting your process with, "what a waste of time" clouds your thoughts and it clogs your artist up with value judgements. If it's really beneath you, then don't go. See if staying home felt better. or, see if you were just scared of some part of the audition and that made you judge it.

I read a script years ago that I thought was okay but way too simple and cliche'd for the star power attached and the budget. I couldn't understand why it was being made. When it came out I absolutely loved it. When I first read it I couldn't see in the words what other actors did, and it taught me that even after 15 years of doing this I had more to learn.

I judged it pretty fast but I auditioned for it and I thought I did a solid job. I didn't get the part, but the film won a deserving Best Picture that year. It was a good lesson. Maybe there is magic in the words you don't see at first, but reading the words through a "trainwreck" lens won't ever get you there. Your mind won't allow it.

If it is another senseless teen comedy that doesn't deserve your brilliance, your brilliance will tell you, just don't mistake your arrogance for your brilliance .

Twittergate...good lesson

2009-08-22T14:03:13-07:00

NY actors are buzzing about the unprofesssionalism of a casting person who tweeted during an recent casting session. Real time tweets about actors being auditioned were sent out for the twit world to see.

First, let's all try to get over the shock of finding out that casting people are human, and at times unprofessional. That someone would take the time to secretly tweet about what was happening in front of them as artists were trying their best to perform the text/song at hand is surely disrespectful. But really...is this a shock? Casting directors and assistants get just as jaded as actors and they too disrespect the process at times. Actors..have you ever stepped in an audition and took your discomfort for the process out on the people watching you? I have.

So, let's be sure we don't lose the great lesson in this "scandal." there is much to learn from the content of the tweets. The few I read were about things that actors can control. It wasn't like it was an all out assault on tall girls or guys who wear blue, it was things about the artists in the room that can, and should, be avoided.

In my book I talk about the things in an audition that you can control. One tweet was- “If we want to see it another way, we’ll ask you, now get out” or something to that effect. Hear the lesson, not the insult. It's good advice. Do your work and leave. The people in the audition are looking for a solution to a problem. If they see an inkling of opportunity in you toward that solution, they will investigate. They know you’re an actor and capable of doing more than one thing with a piece of text. Can you see how pointing out the obvious might feel like an insult to them?

More importantly, ask yourself why you would do that? What makes you offer more than your reading, at the end of your reading? Could it be you think you left something out? Or are you just being a full service actor complete with the helpful information that they should know you‘re capable of much, much, more? Maybe you think increasing your time in the room will increase your chances of being loved for the part?

Then there was this tweet- “who is in this picture? because it isn’t the girl in front of me” another controllable embarrassment.

Yes, you’ve been told over and over “get in the door!” but I say it’s better to get BACK in the door after you’ve been there the first time than it is to get in on a premise that makes your return a long shot. Have a headhsot that looks like you when you walk through the door. That’s a choice you make. Why are you sending in a picture that would make someone secretly tweet “Who is this person…?”

You may be saying right now, "I get a lot of calls with this picture, and not so many with this one, so I go with the one that opens doors and I don't care if it looks like me or not." Okay. How's that working for you? Are you making it back into places that were looking for your type after they saw that your picture was the right type but your real life appearance isn't? Do they still call you in based on your reading, regardless of the mislead of your picture? If so, then I'm wrong in your case, but I bet you I'm right more than I'm wrong about this. In fact I know I am.

This scandal isn’t that big a deal, but gosh what insight this casting person gave us. We can make better choices about how we effect that casting world and our careers. Our talent should be the thing we don’t control, let that fly every which way to grow and deepen. The mechanics of auditioning however are controllable. Take advantage of the few things you have influence over, and let your influence be the thing you leave behind.

End of the journeyman?

2009-08-03T10:00:34-07:00

In a recent NPR article, Beth Broderick puts out an interesting idea...actors helping actors financially. You see, capitalists have no regard for anything but profit. Movie and TV studios are capitalists. Agents are capitalists, and artists eventually become capitalists out of necessity, but it isn't our nature.
She brings up the idea that since only the big name who gets the movie green lighted gets a salary and the rest of the players are paid at scale, what about that big star taking just a million of their dollars and sinking it into the salaries of the next 10 cast members so that they can earn a living. Doesn't it behoove that actor to have great people around them making the movie better? It's an interesting idea and one that will make many people sound off as to it's socialist nature, but I think it's a good discussion. Why?

We are facing the extinction of the journeyman actor. The guy or girl who is that second, third, fourth or fifth lead who has is always great, always funny, always solid, and can make a nice life out doing those roles. If you look at any huge movie, it's never the big star alone that makes it great, it's always the performances of the whole cast and usually a smaller role by some unknown that knocks scenes out of the park.

With the "it pays scale, take it or leave it" attitude of many films now, it seems you will either have to take a day job to support your acting job, or you will have to make it into the millionaires club. There will be no middle class. Producers aren't interested in making it easy on actors. They believe we steal all their money with our residuals, they're happy to steal it back up front by paying less for the same talent, so we'll receive no help there.

But what if the actors themselves actually stopped fighting about who was in charge and thought about the future. Not just sounded off about the contract they were able to chisel out of the AMPTP, but really thought about how the future could be shaped no matter how "they" treated our salaries.

It's a wild thought right now, but I fear it will become a necessary thought in the very near future. The question is, will we band together or will "they" win and keep us focused on the symptom and not the disease.

A sweet job

2009-07-16T14:03:48-07:00

So in this odd realm of the biz we find ourselves in where work is scare and the medium of how our work will be presented is evolving, Casting Director Karen Rea (who hired me out of the blue last year for a Soap Opera) again found me a job. I have a nice role on a terrific feature film being shot here in LA with a dynamite cast of actors. Her loyalty to me is astounding really.
When I say "she found me a role," I mean she had me in mind for the film and a submission wasn't necessary. She just called my agent and said, "I want Markus for this, get his reel to me asap" and then set about making it happen with the Director and Producer. Which she did.
It's a lesson in faith and trusting that things are happening for your benefit even if you don't know about it. Everyday people make decisions that, directly or indirectly, affect your career. We try to control everything so we can chart our progress, but calls like the ones I've gotten from Karen are evidence that if you put your best work out, and remain a positive influence on the people you meet along the way, things will get working for your benefit even if you don"t know they're happening.
As I've said before the size of the role and paycheck don't matter, the lesson is what matters. I'm on a set with really fun and really dedicated actors making a movie that is very clever and simple and funny. What more could an actor ask for? An exotic location? A huge payday? Sure, and nothing gets work like working.
There are always negative forces coming at you, they are to be ignored especially when they feel like the only forces coming at you. Trusting in the unseen efforts of others to benefit your career will help you ignore the negative dialog that seems to be much more prevalent.

Jon and Kate and Hulk and Jessica and...yikes

2009-06-27T14:57:39-07:00

So far as I can tell anyone vain enough to put their life on display in a reality series gets a divorce and ruins their family. I know there are exceptions because I can't think of every reality show about a married couple, but there seems to be 2 categories, those that got divorced and those who will in the future. These "happy couples" go in for the money and fun and fame of a reality show, and find they have to deal with the extra pressure of the fans, the media attention and their every move being dissected, judged and lambasted, and gosh, suddenly it's more than their bond can handle.
Who puts their life in this line of fire? What is the thought behind it?

I'm just questioning the mental makeup of anyone trying to depict their real life on a TV show. Are that many people really that interesting? I'd like to follow Sean Penn or Christopher Walken around for a day or two to see how they engage their surroundings, but two days would about do it. Does the average celeb/wanna-be-celeb really need that many people to know how much they love to shop and cook and gossip about the people in their lives? Apparently so.

Actors and artists in general hate these shows because they take away opportunities for us. Less scripted shows, less roles, less work. As an artist if the show added to the overall health of the planet I'd concede some of my jealousy because the show contributed to the overall good of the world. But it seems that even the people involved in the shows are poisoned by the format and end up without the family they had when the romantic vision of what the show would be, started. A reality show ended 24 years of marriage for Hulk Hogan, 3 years for Jessica & Nick (no kids) , 2 for Shanna and the tattooed guy from that band (2 kids), and of course 10 years for J&K (8 kids), and mere minutes for the many Bachelor guys.

What price to pay for fame, eh?

Actors, be careful what you ask for. Try to learn the lesson these shows provide. What thing in your life did you go after and have it be exactly what you thought it would be when you got there? What relationship, what job, what sport, what vacation...? It's never what you think and if you have put yourself in a position to have to sort it out on camera, doesn't it stand to reason you might not really get the lesson you need? Might you divorce your career early if you find a million bloggers denouncing your performance? Might you divorce your training if you get kudos from Perez? We rehearse for a reason. We learn about ourselves for a reason. We dig in and keep looking, and rewrite, and do another take for a reason. The art is the thing. The art is the focus. Celebrity looks like a path to glory and better roles but again, at what price? When we make everything about us, it's way too corrupting to recover from. Haven't you worked with someone who thought they were more important than the play? How did they treat the art, the stage, their fellow actors, the stage hands, the director and ultimately themselves?

The only people I've seen really enjoy and make the most of their careers are the one who go about it with an understanding that you cannot compromise your values for the short term gain. There is always a learning curve, and there is always a chance to "sell out." Grow relationships with veterans you trust, ask for advice. Name a celebrity who hasn't sued, fought for or demanded privacy after years of lunging in front of any camera they saw. It's a two way street once you get on that highway.

Let your art speak for you. Do the work it takes to get better, be dignified in your press appearances and be sure to be grateful. There is too much loneliness in the world and way too much in Hollywood, don't make your career your significant other, that spot is meant for a person, not a camera.

A contract and a reality show

2009-06-10T07:59:28-07:00

I received my late night SAG and other news bulletin emails stating that we have a contract with the AMPTP by 70% vote of the 35% of SAG members that took the time to vote. 110,000 ballots sent, 38,500 votes cast.
Mr. Rosenberg is quoted as already starting to circle the wagons for the 2011 contract negotiations. He wants to enlist the leaders of all the other unions and set a course for 2011. Bravo. Enlist the other unions first and make a plan. If that opening salvo can be had before you leave office that will be a gift you leave your successor. Your comment, "the terms of this contract that many of us, who have been involved in these negotiations from the beginning, believe to be devastatingly unsatisfactory" shows you have learned very little. 70% of your fellow actors who voted, voted for this. Do you hear anything in that? Mr. Meisner taught me to listen and then answer.

So this should make some summer work shake out and have the Fall be full of new starts right? We should all be getting more auditions and more meaningful auditions. Are you prepared? Are you going to be on the set moaning about how your fellow actors let you down in voting for this lousy new contract?

Don't let your politics sour your art. Go to work and be sure you show them that scripted series and scripted actors make better shows and reality TV needs to stop infecting the airwaves. Go to work and make sure the ratings for your shows go so high there will be no choice but to negotiate with us in 2011.

Reality crap is your enemy, a faction within SAG is not. Union means a group that's united for a cause. We are artists that create in collaboration, why does that stop when business gets in the way? Reality shows are very hard to compete with budget wise and they have created a whole new culture of celebrity. Producers don't care who it is they promote, they promote who sells best. There is no shortage of people willing to expose their stupidity or pettiness or neurosis for a shot at a walk down the carpet. Even if that carpet is just the carpet in front of Musso and Franks. Why not be better than them? Create and collaborate better than them?

Reality stars are and will remain a subset in entertainment. Their goal is to be us. To get on to "real" shows and get real credibility. The infighting at SAG is like a crappy reality show where the intelligence leaves the room for scandal and gossip. So, so, silly. Everything starts at the top. You walk on a set and in a minute you can know how the show runner feels about his job by the way the people on the set treat you. It always starts at the top.

If this continues in the halls of SAG, we SAG actors will become a reality show. Maybe the ultimate reality show. Real actors, actual trained artists, fighting with each other, building alliances with certain members in the house that can be trusted to vote others out of the house so we can gain strength and win the prize of running a union of artists who get to negotiate the contracts for shows and movies that prove once and for all that trained actors using scripts by real writers is better entertainment than a reality show.

Is it happening already? Are we just missing the cameras and the editor? Honestly folks let's get back to work on being gracious and kind to each other. We have a much bigger enemy than one another.