Actor Growth

Yesterday I was doing some simple background work for a TV show and I noticed something interesting. Now this isn’t exactly an acting gig, but in this line of work many times the production people would just choose people on the spot to perform certain actions on the scene. When I was there, it looked like I was the only young Asian guy on set.

That made me stood out it seems as every time they tried to make some kind of group such as a family, friends, colleagues and so fourth I was constantly chosen either because I was young or Asian. Eventually, you had the production people specifically trying to find me too it seemed. I am just reminded how people say it is so hard to break into the industry as an Asian performer yet times like these it’s almost like it’s to your advantage since there are more odds that there will be less people of your look type and category.

It also made me think about the youth aspect in general. There were these two scenes that required some running and the majority of us were carrying luggage. I guess a big factor was my youth as they figured odds are I was still physically able to run while holding large items.

As a side note, this turned out to be hilarious as the guy told me to run and sure enough I did. I guess they under estimated how fast I could run and as a result in the background you would see me as this guy sprinting with this luggage when the focus should have been on the main actors. It was like some guy that was missing his flight or something and was determined to make it. Everybody cracked up at that and if being a young minority didn’t help me to stand out I guess this sure did as so many crew members kept approaching me about it afterwards. lol.

This scenario isn’t too far fetched when it comes to say trying to get an audition for a role. It could be that they are looking for young people and in an effort to get a diverse group of people in the room you can easily stand out since there are generally less ethnic people available. Afterwards, if you do a really great audition, regardless if you get the role you will stick in the back of their heads as someone to call when they need a person of your type.