Wasted Glam: Spokane Series

 Spokane Auditions
Really just too comical to not write about.

Woke early Sunday morning after an evening of burning ovens and some light cider drinking. If something spills in your oven do yourself a favor and clean it right away.  Otherwise, there is a good chance you'll be smoked out of your house the next time you decide to cook a tapioca crusted mound of glory: pizza.  

Today was supposed to be an audition for Cutco knives.  The reason why I decided to go was because I definitely thought I had a shot at getting this role.  The script has some quirkiness to it that exudes Becky and the final filming uses a teleprompter!  Using a teleprompter means absolutely no memorization of lines.  Sign a sista up!  My Lyme disease brain can do without the memorization.

I get up, make some breakfast, get glammed and head out the door.  My version of glam is putting makeup on and a bright lip.  I really don't know how to do glam or put makeup on, but this role didn't call for it.  All the more reason for me going to the audition.

 Finding auditions is my weakness.  Probably one of my biggest weaknesses of all time, along with a few others... So, it's no surprise that this audition ended in wasted glam and abandoned buildings.   

I sent a quick e-mail to my agent stating, " Maybe it's the wrong day?"  I think it's safe to say, I did not get this job.

Happy Sunday!

Thanks for reading, Becky 

Passionate Project

Not only was I bitten by the acting bug....I was also bitten by a TICK, that carried the Lyme disease bacteria.  I have struggled with Lyme disease for 5 years.  I was diagnosed and began treatment about 7 months ago. To read my story about Lyme go here:  http://brewlifewithlyme.blogspot.com/2014/12/open-letter-to-friends-family.html

I've had to cut back on acting, while going through treatment.  It's incredibly hard on my body and the long hours drain me physically and mentally.  This is something that upsets me greatly, right when the water started flowing, the drain got plugged!  So when a friend who worked with me several years back contacted me, in hopes of working together again, I could not refuse!  My energy level has been increasing and my mental fog has lessened some.  I'd like to say I'm over the "bad hump" of treatment, but I'm no longer naive about this illness, and I'm fully aware of the ups and downs.

Stela & Syd are mindful of my condition, and I'd worked with them in the past, so it seemed safe and stress-less.

This project is about Lyme Disease and I could not be more happy to be a part of it! I'm very excited to announce, I'm back at it...kind of.  I'd have to say this is my most passionate project to date!

We only had 30 seconds!!  It was really hard to try to even touch my story in 30 seconds, but it was a job well done.  Please watch below.


https://genero.tv/watch-video/39744

Thanks for reading
Becky

Billboards and Buses, Oh My!

I finally got to work with Bellingham's own, Hand Crank Films!  I'm in their data base of actors and received an e-mail from them wanting to know if I'd be interested in playing a mother to a young boy for an upcoming commercial shoot.

My first thought was A MOTHER!  Shit, I'm looking my age, my second thought was, "hells yes!"

The shoot was two days, one day in Olympia, WA and the other in Bellingham, WA.  How could I say no? So yes, I made myself available and luckily got the part!

When I first moved to Bellingham, 7 freakin years ago, I pretty much convinced myself that there was no acting here.  I mean really though, what kind of acting goes down in Bellingham, WA?  So I worked in restaurants and retail stores, and dreamed of one day being on a billboard...

It wasn't long ago actually, I found myself siting at a red light on N. State Street, staring up at a billboard.  I clearly remember looking up at the girl and wondering,  How the hell did she get on that billboard?  I want to be on a billboard. 

About five years back one night while working my hellish restaurant job, my manager, who must have at some point, caught me reminiscing about my days of being a NYC actor,  casually mentioned that the man sitting over at the bar, works for a film company right here in Bellingham.  Wha!?  Next came his contact information in my apron.

So, what does a girl do?  She runs off and gets headshots taken from a  kid named Kevin, who was just starting out in photography.  Here's a sample of Kevin's work, I actually don't think anybody but mom has seen these photos!

I was 27 & look soo young here!

Chubby cheeks galore (and bigger boobs)!

I think, throughout the following 6 years I maybe e-mailed Hand Crank Films, twice. Once, to inform them that an actor lives in Bellingham, if they wanted to hire me, and again about wanting to intern for their company, or something.

Anyway, can I just say how pleasant it was to work with Hand Crank Films. First off, they put us up in a hotel, in Olympia, the evening before we were needed.  Which means that we all had the opportunity for a good nights rest, and a less chaotic morning.

On day one, when it was my turn to shoot, we were artfully guided through an improvised scene between my son and the Dr.  Improvised scenes are the way to go, in my opinion. Here is a photo below of myself and the doc.

She totally pulled off a Dr. and my hair is darker than it's been in a while!

Day 1:  No drama
I happily drove back to Bellingham and anticipated the following film day, which again, consisted of, no drama.

Now, I know that actors have the reputation of being the dramatic type and this is usually true, but I have to admit, I've seen my fair share of dramatic situations revolving around the crew, but not this crew, they were super chill!

The director, Chris Koser, was great.  He communicates really well, and has a very calm presence while directing.  I actually hugged him goodbye, I don't think I ever really hug directors goodbye at the end of the shoot. Sometimes the relationship between director and actor can be awkward, but I didn't get that at all from him!

Which leaves me to this!

I'm on a billboard...and I can't be more excited about that!!

And buses!

I haven't actually seen them in person, but I'm thinking I might make the drive.

It was only a week or two ago that I was questioning whether or not I should pursue acting with everything I've got, and pulled a, "Show me a sign!"  Like the actual movie Signs, ya know, aliens and half full glasses of water.  I sometimes ask my grandma those kinds of questions, she died too young.

I THINK I GOT MY SIGN on a gigantic billboard.  :)  Here is the commercial.  Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC63EQmEYPk

10 Reasons Why I Love Acting

I talk a lot of shit about acting, but here is why I love doing it...

1.  It takes you to some really cool places.  Everybody knows that NY and LA are where you want to be for any major roles.  I'm really glad I was able to take the leap and live in both of those places, but I really love how now, I'm able to actually get work in Seattle and Bellingham.  There is much less crazy, actor competition and it's great for the resume.  Will I ever move back to NY or LA?  It's crossed my mind.

2.  You get to pretend to be somebody else for a while.  Honestly, it's great to get out of your skin and crawl into somebody else for a while.

3.  You can use your past experiences to help create a character and trigger emotions like crying.  Free therapy is how I look at it. 

4.  People who see you acting somewhere, get really, really excited and happy that they know a "famous" person.  It's cool and embarrassing, but you also know just how not famous you are.

5.  The moment when you see yourself on screen, or wherever, and you realize that you had actually done well.  Especially when you trusted your gut instinct.  When you knew the directors were looking for something else, or somebody else, and you pulled it off!  It's a really rare occurrence, for me at least, to acknowledge that I had done a good job.  In fact, I only just recently started watching my performances!

6.  After a play is done and people are coming up to you asking questions about your character like, "Are you supposed to be pregnant?" It's crazy!  It's like they think you're the character.  That makes me feel as though I have not only made people in the audience feel something, but that I took some words on some paper and gave my character some life and a little mystery.

7.  Analyzing!  When you go to the type of acting schools I went to, you learn to ask questions about the character you're playing.  You ask things like, "Who am I?" "Where am I from?" You build a world around your character that allows you to make precise choices and gives the character you are playing a purpose, an action, and a sense of mystery. 

8.  Anytime you get an award or recognition for your efforts.  Which is rare.  Here is the link to a film I was in, that was entered in the Tacoma 72 Hour Film Competition.  Our team took home Best Film and Best Use of Dialogue!  Just copy and paste it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dI3Vc1ToT04

                                 

Happy, happy evening of winning!

9.  When you don't even remember what just happened.  "Off" days in the theatre suck, but when you have an "on" day during a show, you don't even remember it.   You might remember hearing something that dropped, or the audience making noise, or have an occasional moment when you realize, you are standing on a stage. That's also the day you wish all of your friends and family had made it.

10.   Being able to leave an artful footprint in the world.  Even if nobody ever sees any of it.


Thanks for reading!

Why? Why Acting?!

 

My last post got me thinking, that doesn't happen very often.  Why do people choose to pursue an acting career?

Seriously, it usually leaves actors poor and working 5 jobs just to get by. So, really though, why?  Deep down inside what went wrong with these people, including myself.  Let's explore.

 I'm going back to high school, because that's when I knew that I was going to pursue an acting career.  Back then, I had this atrocious urge to make sure that I was liked by everybody!  All of the groups of people that you find in your typical, large high school.  I made sure my friends liked me, the most popular kids, the athletes, the total dorks, and my most favorite, the skater boys.  Had to be liked by everyone, EVERYONE! I personally think that I was pretty successful at that  :)  Here's me being liked by everyone.

I glued eyeballs all over my dress!

I'm the one with the crazy face again...

Are you seeing a pattern here?  Most pictures of me from high school looked like that, me making a crazy face...

One thing I knew, was that I was never going to be the pretty girl, or the most athletic, or the skinny girl, or the smartest girl, or the fucking tallest girl, so I went for the the fun, carefree funny girl.  I must have pulled that off pretty well because you know how they have those awards that they pass out at the end of your senior year, not the honor role, I'm talking, the other kinds.

 Well, I took home.....

 Best Personality

 Best Sense of Humor

 Funniest

 Most Likely to Become Famous

 and a few others.

Those awards seem to have mysteriously disappeared not shortly after I brought them home.  Personally, I always thought my sister flushed them.  She disliked me back then.

 NOW, let's get this straight, I'm not bragging.  This is what we have so far:

1)  Felt the need to be liked by everyone.

2)  Outgoing personality.  Unless I get around other super loud and obnoxious actors, then I shut down, but that's another post!

3)  Attention!  Attention from others feels pretty damn good.  When you're telling a story that you think is pretty funny and you look over and see that you have an audience that is responding to what it is you're doing, in a good way, feels pretty great.   It feeds the fuel inside of an actor, it's like a drug that makes you keep wanting to get more and more of it.

I think if you add those things together with the fact that my mother hadn't told me she loved me until I was 19 years old, pretty much sums it up.   It took me being dropped off by my parents in Brooklyn, NY, all by my lonesome, to have the "L" word slip out.  Boy am I glad that my dad told me he loved me, or I'd be a stripper right now.

Don't start feeling all bad for me, "Oh my god, you poor thing, your mother never told you she loved you."   Mom (I call her Silvia, even though that's not her name)  showed me in different ways, like screaming at me, and being really overprotective.  No, really though, she was a great mom, she did her best, but seemed to have been dealing with some issues of her own.

 By the way, I turned out fantastic, LOVE is a word I use freely.

 My conclusion is that I think actors pursue acting  because they have a deep seeded need to be loved.  I think that it also goes hand in hand with actors having some serious insecurities about themselves.  We, the actors think acceptance, love, and constant reassurance from others can solve, or fix our little insecurities.   But in turn, it's most likely not helping and quite possibly making them worse because we put ourselves out there to be fully exposed and criticized by others. 

 I guess I can't speak for all actors, I don't even know if it's true for myself, but maybe now is the one good time for other actors to chime in.  If your reading, why the hell did you pursue acting?!  Because I know you didn't do it for the money, honey.

Thanks for listening!

Becky in the Beginning

For my first post, I'm going to tell you a little bit about how I began this whole film career called acting, (I think I can actually call it a career now, because I finally made some cash)!
 I actually have no clue how it happened.

 I know I started at my very first school in my hometown of Lakewood, Ohio.  What, did I wake up one morning and decide right then and there that I to can be a Kelly Kapowski?   It had to be around the era of Saved by the Bell.  The school that I was talking about a second ago is called The Beck Center, Tom Hanks once frequented The Beck Center.  I only remember 3 things from that school.

1.  They wanted us to choose an animal, then go into the middle of the circle, (created by all the Kelly Kapowskis and Zack Morris' of the world) and act like the animal you chose, for probably something like 3 minutes.  I chose a dog. 

2.  Mime stuff!  Weird I know, I hated the mime stuff.  We felt around imaginary walls and crap.  That's really all I can say about that.

3.  Something about a huge NKOTB pin.  If you're unsure what NKOTB stands for it's New Kids On The Block, duh.  I remember bringing in a huge pin with Jordan Knight on it.  Don't ask me what I did with that pin...It looked something like this.  In fact, it was this pin.  The diameter on this sucker is 15cm/6 inches.  IT'S HUGE!

What is he even doing with his hand right now?

This question may have crossed your mind while reading this post, "Um, do people spend money to go to that kind of school?"  AND  the answer to that question, my friends is YES, they do!  Just wait until I tell you the amount of money I spent at AADA,  (that's The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NY)  to do a bunch of weird shit. 

If you don't know this about me yet, I'm not like other actors.  I actually dislike most actors and I don't pretend to love all things acting, like the theatre, Comic-Con and dressing up for Halloween.   Oh no, wait, actors love to play dress up everyday.

Thanks for reading!  Check back soon, next time I might write about  the time I forgot all my lines on stage, during a play...