Actor Growth

I was watching the SAG awards today and the most interesting part for myself wasn’t the awards itself, but the part that I thought was interesting was the beginning. Basically, at the start they had a bunch of actors talk about their life before getting their big break and people talked about things such as their jobs at the time.

While the format of it did kind of make it look like one of the alcohol anonymous groups, what was good to take away from that was how essentially everyone’s journey up until they landed those roles has helped them a lot. For example, there was one story about a person working at an office environment for about 8 years and not getting anything acting wise. Then low and behold the role she lands actually dealt with an office environment theme.

In many ways acting is just re-enacting real life experience and so in that sense you should value the things you do each day as you are continually training yourself to better understand various personalities and situations. Everyone has a different path and will play different roles, so you shouldn’t get discouraged if it looks like one person is accelerating faster in terms of landing roles.

Watching this show made me realize one of my goals too as an actor. There was this montage that showed clips of older movies that kind of molded the path for other actors. For the Asians, it seemed like the two main movies that were shown was The Game of Death which Bruce Lee and I think it was either Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or Hero with Jet Li. Either way, they were both martial art flicks.

I guess we have yet to see any North American Asian actors be taken seriously in roles that would be award worthy when it comes to acting other than typical ones like these. It’s a hard stereotype to break that’s for sure in order to expand your opportunities, but that’s what makes this journey fun too.

Today I went into this supermarket and to my surprise I bumped into a person who I met on set. This person has no aspirations in being say an actor, but he got into background work as it was something different and from what I remember he wouldn’t mind just doing that as an income source. Apparently, he hasn’t been called out since way back during that Farwell Atlantis movie and so understandably he had to find a regular job in order to make a living.

This made me think too as a lot of people don’t realize how hard it can be to work in this industry in any form. You often hear those phrases such as the “starving artist” and based on what I have seen that’s no exaggeration when it comes to film work. A lot of people that I know when it comes to acting is that they actually don’t work too much, but rather they just got paid a lot for a certain type of work.

When it comes to background work, I only met one person who actually does it full time too and in some ways it surprises me as he must be in his mid 50’s or so and only makes the minimum as he is not a part of the Union. I personally always view background work as a stepping stone or filler for other things that you are aspiring to do as oppose to a career.

But if you intend to work full time in this industry, I think it is wise to always have some kind of backup or support system that will enable you to survive while you are striving to meet that goal. In many ways, you are like an entrepreneur as it is up to you ultimately to find work and opportunities to make things happen for yourself.

Today I was reading this article that talked about how some people absolutely detest talent agents who don’t bother to send you a reply in regards to your inquiry about seeking representation. In general, they take it as an egotistical/pompous attitude of an agent to not have the courtesy to reply to the talent.

To make it more interesting, some people felt it was even worst for agencies that accept e-mail submissions and don’t have the courtesy to take say 1 minute of their time to reply to the sender on whether or not they are interested in signing them. I was reading agent responses to it too and some mentioned the reason they never reply is that they either get too many inquiries or replying leaves room for the sender to push the conversation further if the agent had no room for the talent in question.

One reason why I like online submissions a lot is that I can immediately see if the agency viewed my material or not. I must admit, I tend to have a bias thought where if they don’t take the time to reply after viewing my material I tend to think they just feel that they are too good to bother with me. Hence, the very stereotypical agent that thinks they are all that. On the flip side, if they do respond even though they have no room for me that at least shows that they sincerely appreciate everyone who submits to them and are keeping the bridge open as you never know what will happen in the future.

Just for the record, I feel the same about actors who think they are too big to talk/respond to others when it comes to things like this. The experience has been mixed for me personally and I can honestly say there are agencies I will avoid in the future too largely based on the fact that they did see my material but did not bother to reply.

In my view it just feels like one of those situations where the person was not willing to give you the time of day early in your career and so when you become successful why would you want to hang around with a “phoney” so to speak? Granted that is a bit harsh, but it’s how I feel personally as I’m sure in this industry you will get a ton of people who come out of the woodwork once you have made it. That’s why it is good from an actor point of view to know your fans and supporters early too I’d say.

So I met with the agency today and overall it seemed alright. They seemed to have a solid business in general. The one thing that I noticed is that it seems like they definitely focus more on background work rather than principal work based on my visit. I say this too because I was told if I join them I can be represented for background work only but not just for principal work only.

I talked to both agents though and they took the time to answer all of my questions to satisfaction. With that in mind, obviously If I was to go with them at this point that would mean I would have all of my representation under the same roof. This can be good or bad.

The good thing is that by having the same company represent you for both it will be a lot easier to handle any scheduling conflicts. Example, it could be that I was booked for a background role but then all of a sudden there is this awesome audition for a lead role. Therefore, it would be easier to organize a way to get me out of the background work to go to the audition instead since I am more focused on the acting side.

The bad thing is that usually agencies that do both background and principal work usually don’t focus too much on getting people to audition for principal roles. Like with this agency, I actually have no doubt that I would be doing background work a whole lot more, though how much they would help to get me seen for principal work is another question. Many background agencies are usually upfront with this fact too. Though for this one they seemed pretty confident for both.

Some tricky choices I must say. I think what I am going to do is send a package to one or two dedicated principal agencies and see if I get a response first of all and make my decision from there.

In an unexpected turn of events, tomorrow I will be meeting with an agency as upon inquiring about it apparently they are super interested in signing me. This one came from a recommendation as well which I guess is a big reason for that.

The good thing too was that they mentioned they would give me the contract and all to think about which is usually a good sign and they said they would be glad to answer the questions I have about it. As well, I was talking to another agency on the phone and although they represented principle talent as well, it was great that they were very open on how they didn’t focus too much on it and therefore it may not be the best choice for me.

Honestly at this point, I think any agency is better than the one I am currently with for my principal representation. I’ll be sure to ask a lot of questions too as this agency seems like it has been around for awhile too.

Today was an interesting milestone for myself while working on Wolverine. The day in general was pretty relaxed and everyone was very well treated. There were some of the cast that I didn’t recognize personally. One thing that was interesting is that there was a TV display showing the US inauguration as a lot of people wanted to see it.

Later in the day I was then called by a production staff to talk about something. At first I thought it was just a special request to go to set. However, as it would appear one union member did not show up for whatever reason and so the production had to fill in this void. To my surprise, they mentioned that they wanted to give me the upgrade. For those who don’t know, an upgrade for this particular line of work just simply means more pay (About double the pay I’d say).

I was literally like “Wow, what’s the catch?” The lady then explained to me that since they had to fill in this void they wanted to give me the spot as she has seen me work many times where I have always arrived on time and have a good work ethic. Therefore, she was happy to do it as they are always looking to call in people who treat their work professionally and giving these types of upgrades is like a way of showing that gratitude too.

So of course, I accepted it. What a great gesture too I thought and I hope the hard work will continue to pay off as hopefully this success will trickle to other people too as if I can maintain a good reputation that will mean more opportunities for me to grow in the film industry.