Actor Growth

I met with the stylist today as per recommendation of my acting coach. It was kind of funny at first as I arrived there and wasn’t exactly sure what she looked like. The only thing she told me was that she was going to be carrying a red bag. Since I arrived there first I actually did see a lady with a red bag. Except the person looked like she was in her late 40’s and was wearing very baggy clothes.

I was like “Nah….couldn’t be” since the coach told me that she was super fashionable and all. Sure enough, that wasn’t her as she arrived eventually. So, we began to talk just by introducing ourselves. For the most part, she wanted to learn a bit about my personal background and tastes as essentially she says that whatever one wears has to match their persona as well otherwise it doesn’t work. Example, one guy wearing all this tough gear yet he is like a feather. It just won’t work.

One thing that kept crossing my mind was “How much is this going to cost?” Sure enough, it sounded like an expensive process. Example, not including her personal hourly fee, her intent was to bring me to places such as hair styling businesses where you could expect to pay about $65 per visit. That is pretty high price in a high maintenance type of way I thought.

So while a lot of the things she told me sounded good, the price factor is an issue at this point as I could literally spend thousands if I don’t manage this appropriately. So, in the meantime I said that my budget was between $500 to $600 as like most people I work within a budget. To put that in perspective, that is almost three whole months of acting class fees. For the most part, I would think the big change would come in terms of wearing different clothing items. When you add in the fees and all, a good 30 to 40 percent of the budget would already be used on consultation fees alone.

She seemed understanding though and seemed to genuinely want to help and said that she could work with me on the price. What I proposed was a barter. Basically, one of my background is in web publishing and I mentioned that I wouldn’t mind trading services if she needed something that I could offer in return. While I don’t know for sure if she was seriously contemplating it, she told me that she would be interested in seeing if we could work something out like that. In the meantime, she told me to send her some photos for her to get a better idea of her proposed plan and we are to meet next week.

Afterwards I was heading home and my brother phoned me asking if I wanted to go to lunch with some of the family. So, I decided to tag along and of course we talked about my meeting. Interesting thing is everyone started to say that it all comes down to buying more expensive stuff and then people were anxious in wanting to help me. It’s like everyone was gung ho to want to be my fashion adviser now or something. lol.

I would prefer to use her assistance, but let’s see how this breaks down cost wise. If worst comes to worst at this point I will voluntarily pay for the time she has spent with me thus far even though it was a free consultation as a form of gratitude and then try to do everything on my own to save money.

Today we did an audition side for the upcoming film 30 Days of Night: Dark Days. As usual, we got the script the day before and today we acted it. Before we presented the scene the coach asked if we practiced the scene with a partner beforehand. Most people including myself said no. Therefore, he mentioned that we should quickly go over the scene with a partner as it helps a lot.

It was interesting as the first scene partner I did it with thought my take on the scene was good. I then did it with another person and she was saying how it was good but thought that I didn’t need to try and play up certain parts of the scene too much. That actually helped a lot for my preparation.

So, I did the scene after all that. I felt that I did a good job. Now we do perform this in an audition style setting where once we do the scene we are sent back out. The coach’s remark before I left was “That was tight”. Afterwards, we all went in and got our deliberation and feedback.

I was a bit blown away by the feedbacks. Essentially, the coach said that this is the best work he had ever seen from me and that I nailed it. He said beat for beat I hit the mark and parts such as where I was referencing about the character’s memory of his young daughter getting kidnapped was so believable that it was scary.

It was neat too as he commented at first how look wise there is no way I looked like a dad with a young daughter, since I look so young myself, as it just isn’t believable and there is nothing I could really do about that. However, he said he believed every moment of it when I was reflecting about losing a loved one and all.

He then continued on saying to the class how everyone can see where, if we were the casting directors, when someone really nails it you really take notice as it stands out. He then said he was going to show this to a person. I won’t mention who as I was a bit stunned when he said that.

What this day taught me was how having a scene partner really can help a lot. I know some actors do things such as recording their voices of the other characters to try and play out the scene for practice, but it just isn’t the same as reading it with another actor. I guess the drawback is you don’t always have a person that you can call right away to help you with an audition.

At the end, my coach continued to tell me how he was excited that I was going to meet the stylist tomorrow. I swear I am like a human guinea pig at this point. lol.

Today I received a phone call from an instructor from a film school saying that they wanted to cast me for this student film project that should only last about a day. I actually auditioned for them quite a few months back as a potential talent that would be interested in volunteering for projects that they may be creating. So, I agreed to it.

Schedule wise it works out okay as I won’t be needed for the feature film that week and so I see this as an opportunity to do more during my downtime. The interesting thing is I accepted it without even knowing what the whole script is about yet. lol. I just figured since the instructor asked me that it would be a good quality film to work on.

I was reading this article about a protest in regards to a recent movie called “The goods: live hard, sell hard” where apparently there is a huge scene that caused a lot of anger amongst the Asian community due to what seemed like a discriminating scene. For the record, I have never seen it before. However, the article was more about how protesting is kind of useless and what the author feels is the real way to create change for Asians in the film business. You can read it here at http://youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com/hollywood-and-asians-why-protests-alone-won’t-change-anything/

I am naturally interested in these topics as mentioned before as it is interesting both from an artist and business perspective. From reading this the underlying message seemed to be that the real answer to create change and opportunities is that these Asian filmmakers need to create better films that bring in money. Bottom line.

In my mind, why do people protest so much when they could be focusing more in creating better productions and promoting talent by giving them opportunities to work on projects that will showcase more? Cause in the end, the film business is mostly about entertaining and captivating an audience. Maybe this is not the best way to say it, but for me I strive in competing with the best and not necessarily limiting myself to just working with Asian oriented production. Example, when I go to an audition it’s one of those ”Okay, here is a room full of people that look like 18 to 23 year olds. I need to be my best”.

Can you imagine if as a growing actor I constantly blamed the fact that I am a minority where it is unfair that say a Caucasian person is getting all the parts that are non ethnic specific? Even for me I would be inclined to say to myself “Well get better stupid”.

I mean, bottom line in my mind from a business perspective is as an actor let’s say I am competing against two other people. One is Caucasian and the other is say African. This is a part for a lead in some college oriented soap opera. Regardless of my ethnicity, if I was easier to work with, more skilled in portraying the character, had the best look, can definitely attract more of the target audience which brings in sales and viewership, I have a larger fan base, etc…… what are the odds that I won’t get the part?

Yes, I do realize there are less opportunities for Asians in general in North America. The reason is pretty simple as overall people aren’t willing to spend their money to support it too much because quite frankly there hasn’t been really anything compelling enough to prove it is commercially viable in the big picture. I personally grew up in North America and my mentality is just as “western” as everyone else.

Even when I think about, when it comes to Asians in film here the only thing that stands out to me mostly still are martial arts oriented films. Even for myself, you ask me…..name a famous living Asian actor……my first reaction is a person like Jackie Chan. You ask me who this Ken Jeong guy is normally and I would probably say “who?”. To me it seems like he is just more famous in the Asian community as a person to blast for playing stereotypical roles.

Ironically, the community is giving him more attention than say talent that would play roles that compete with the bigger stars. Even with things like small film festivals here, why is it that so many Asian filmmakers make films that are always say a comedy where the character is so weak and demeaning or a martial arts flick that is just about beating people up? Why not produce say more serious or dramatic roles that are dialogue driven for diversity? I’m inclined to say even the Asian community itself overall here is afraid or unsure if there is a commercially viable talent that even exists to play those types of roles. So like every other executive producer, they stick with what seems to already work in the market which is understandable.

So from this small growing Asian actor in Vancouver, I am doing my part to create more opportunities by competing against the best and auditioning for opportunities that are available to me even if they are roles that seem like no one in the right mind would cast an Asian for here in North America. I guess my personal challenge to any say Asian director or writer who complains that there is say no funding for Asian oriented projects is to start creating films that are first and foremost compelling in a non stereotypical fashion. Then, challenge an actor like myself to bring it to life in a captivating way. Less complaining and protest…..more action.