By Joy A. Kennelly
I still love to write and do marketing for businesses and individuals and hope to pick up more freelance gigs in that realm to fund my acting career because like Eric Matheny of The Acting Center said, and I paraphrase, your day job is your investor and supporting you in your dream/goals. Kinda fun way to look at it.
Plus, I enjoy doing both!
So, the update on the acting front is that I've started taking On-Camera classes from Casting Director James LeVine of Action Casting to learn from a veteran what to do and not to do when auditioning. He's written a book called, Bring It! Answers to the 100 Questions You Don't Get To Ask At Your Audition, which I also enjoyed reading because it's a great reference guide to what I'm learning in his class.
His personal coaching has been very helpful too. I learn from my fellow classmates also because they all bring their own experience and talent. Some have been doing this forever and some are just starting out.
It's nice to see yourself on camera and have the advice and guidance of someone who has been casting for 25 years too. He has a Tuesday night class beginning next week and you can register here.
Learning a bunch! And having a blast. It's nice to be around like-minded people who are pursuing their dreams/goals too. Spurs you on. Aren't they fun? And that's not even the whole class!
I also signed up for the Casting Frontier weekend workshop last weekend with Actor/Coach Eric Matheny of The Acting Center. That was a very interesting seminar because he and two other friends did a deep dive into analyzing what makes an actor rise to the top and came across 87 key traits which he teaches now at his school. He's a self-proclaimed nerd and when he said, you can probably tell, I couldn't help myself and said, yes, we can. LOL
That was also very informative and what I'm beginning to see is if you keep hearing the same things over and over again it will begin to sink in. I'm going to research his school a little more and then decide if this is a path I want to pursue, although I'm believing it is already.
The next day I attended Actress Valorie Hubbard's Fast Track Summer Games event and bumped into a friend I met during another seminar. Hardly recognized her because she was dressed like the badass strong female characters she wants to play and it was fun to catch up, compare notes and see what we both have going on.
We spent the first part of the day creating a brand statement and initially I really liked it, but then I got an audition to play a swinger Mom and realized that's maybe just a little too sexy (skanky) of a brand for me. LOL
Years ago I worked in the sales department of the Wyndham Bel Age Hotel where The London is now and my boss was a lesbian. I had to work the Pride Festival, listen to her talk sexually to her lover, book numerous swingers conferences, and also all the gay events she could find. I kept warning the publicist that if he was trying to only go after the gay population it was only 4% of society and wouldn't sustain the hotel overall. He got so offended I almost lost my job over stating that simple marketing truth. I still see him around town and now he doesn't say anything because I was right.
Needless to say, they went out of business not much longer. You have to be diverse in your offering, but also specific to your brand which is why I don't think branding myself as a sexual MILF is really how I want to act, especially after meeting some of the swingers back then!:)
This dichotomy is prevalent in Hollywood though in casting. I notice there's tons of jobs for Moms and then on the flip side, the slut. But where's the roles for the multi-dimensional women I know? We're not all Moms, badass women on the run, nor sluts. We're business women, Aunts, Sisters, Friends, Creatives, and so much more complex as humans! I keep meeting other actresses who feel the same way which is why they're writing scripts, producing their own projects and working with enlightened people.
And for those who are negating Quentin Tarantino for the role Margot Robbie played, a sweet, beautiful actress in love with her husband and lots of friends, but more of an object than a real woman, if you were alive when she was popular you would realize that's truly who she was and how that era played out for women Vulture journalist. I thought Margot and Quentin did a great job with her character. Very fun. And the Steve McQueen character? A riot.
Don't get me started on Leonardo DiCaprio and his little lisp, insecurities and acting throughout all the Hollywood homage scenes (BRILLIANT!), or Brad Pitt taking off his shirt on the roof, or kicking butt every which way he looks. Excellent acting and it was nice to finally be able to watch a Tarantino film that wasn't glorifying violence like so many in the past have done.
But due to the fact I was familiar with the Manson story, my friend and I left the movie early because we thought it was going to turn into another Helter Skelter, but according to her teenage kids, it was more satisfying the way Tarantino played it out. Hopefully, I haven't given away too many spoilers because I hate that. We were still glad we left because just hearing about the violence was making us sick.
I deliberately tried to avoid anything Hobbs and Shaw spoiler related, but then some journalist snuck in the key cameos and I was so bummed! Now that film is a whole other creature and if you want to read my review on that, you'll have to read my Twitter feed because I kinda vomited all over Twitter after I was so excited and happy it was so good! Watch the trailer here if you haven't seen it yet!
Totally takes Fast & Furious to a whole other level and even though I normally hate these kinds of films, I was completely enamored with watching the battle between Idris Alba and The Rock and that British dude who needed subtitles. LOL Clever way to set them up as so different by showing their routines, what they drive and how they handle their bidness before getting into it. And the cameos? Delightful. I didn't think they'd work, but boy do they ever! Make sure to stay to the very, very end! You'll be glad you did. I always do and love reading all the credits to see all the people involved, where it was shot, and the music credits. That is one amazing soundtrack too.
i think it's important to support female filmmakers, but I'm not a lesbian, nor interested in that content so please don't invite me to see those kinds of films. I have to say that because every time I like Ellen's Instagram I get invited to join some lesbian sex groups and finally got so fed up I wrote Ellen to ask her to ask them to stop. You know she's the Queen of all Lesbians, right? I AM KIDDING! LOL
I am very interested to see The Kitchen and The Hustlers now, even though they're the same kinds of roles typical of what Hollywood puts out, but it's the women playing them that make it interesting and the stories they tell. I love that Melissa McCarthy isn't playing a fat character, she's playing a mob boss who happens to also be a wife and a mother who is heavy. Her weight doesn't define her character and that's the way it should be. And the 70's? C'Mon, you can't go wrong in that era!
And Hustlers? Constance Wu isn't recognizable! See what I mean?
Maybe that's why she was bummed Fresh off the Boat got picked up again. Now she's back playing the empty headed Mom when she just played a badass stripper.
Do you blame her? I get bored just thinking of what life must be like as a housewife or mother, but I know, there's a lot of sacrifices, and also a lot of love...however, still not what i wanted to be when I grew up. Especially a single Mom. No offense to the women who live that life, but it's just way too hard and I wasn't built for it.
Happy for you if that's your dream or life, just not for me. It's why I'm happy being an aunt and loving and supporting children from afar. That's why being asked to play Moms? Not really sure how to do that.:)
Wasn't that entertaining? And Jennifer Lopez? Still hot as ever and brings a classiness to stripping I didn't think was possible. Who wouldn't want to run with these ladies in a film? But that's not my brand so I'm going to stay in my lane, figure out what my lane is, and be the lane.:) But stick it to the man ladies. It's time we got ours.:)
So, now that you've heard a little of my opinions, tell me some of yours. What classes, seminars, teachers or movies do you enjoy? Recommend?