Just had to look it up - it was December. Boy am I behind.
Well, let's see... since I last posted, I had new headshots taken by Deidra Fahey, who took Megan Fox, Jennifer Lawrence, Mila Kunis, Britt Robertson, Mitchel Musso etc's headshots.
I had some auditions, I did some fun photo shoots with my friend Brianna, who is a photographer.... Of course celebrated Christmas and New Year... and then in January I started working on Boiling Pot, which is an independent film about racism on college campuses - based on true events that happened in 2008. Danielle Fishel (Topanga in Boy Meets World), Davetta Sherwood (The Young and the Restless), Louis Gossett Jr (An Officer and a Gentleman), M. Emmett Walsh (Christmas with the Kranks) were starring in it. I was working for free as background because they said that there was the possibility of a speaking role. Well after about 7 or 8 days on set, I got the line "purple drank" at the "racist" party. That same day I also got some featured time with two of the principal actors and one other female background actor. I feel like I got along really well with the producer and director (brothers - Ashmawey Productions) and think they liked me (they did invite me to the wrap party) and hope that they will want to work with me again in the future in a much larger capacity. :) I loved working on that set - everyone was so nice and everyone knew who I was which I have to admit THRILLED me because they didn't know every "background" actors names - even the other ones who also got lines. lol. I was especially surprised when the big terrifying DP (Director of Photography/camera guy) knew my name (he said something like "Laura move over there" lol) - he was very intimidating to work with. I kind of had an inner competition going with all of the other female background actors that got one-liners - as I'm sure they did too - BUT the DP didn't know one other girl's name which, I'm sad to admit, made me secretly gleeful. :P
Anyway, once that wrapped, I almost fell into signing a contract with a skeezy modeling agency. A friend recommended them, but she's been in the business less time than I have so I shouldn't have trusted her. My manager looked over the contract they sent, which was confusing and raised some red flags, and there was no website or info on the agent. After my manager looked into it some more he basically told me "hell no" and that I should tell them I would "never" be signing with them. Lol. I guess I kind of just got blinders on, and I always try to see the best in people and think positively and that is why I have a manager. To think realistically and keep me grounded. lol. One of my "friends" (more like an acquaintance) signed with that "agency" and is supposedly going to be working for Fredericks of Hollywood. But she also did a lot of promotions which is not what I'm into and worked at a porn convention. So I dunno. lol.
I worked on the set of Bullet one day as well - an indie starring Danny Trejo. I thought that Robert Rodriguez was producing it (he produced Machete, Grindhouse, Spy Kids) but actually Robert Rodriguez was producing it. (Muy confusing, no?) Well, this Robert Rodriguez was very nice, I had a nice conversation with him - he's a former banker - and he told me to send him my "stuff" (reel, headshot, resume, etc). The 1st AD (Assistant Director) also told me to send him my "stuff" and he then invited me to first "crash" the party they were having after wrapping and then invited me to the "official" wrap party. My husband thinks he was just trying to hit on me, but I like to think that he thought I was hardworking and talented and saw potential in me. :P lol.
 |
| From the set of Bullet, taken by the Casting Director. I got to sit next to (and talk to) John Savage (he is center, I am to his left)! |
Well anyways after that near-fiasco with the skeevy agency my manager got me a meeting with Spectrum Talent, whom I met with before Christmas. He wanted me to meet with her on Tuesday, but my husband and I were supposed to have a roommate moving in that day - so it was scheduled for Wednesday. (Then she decided to move in on a different day, but that's a story for another day). Well that meeting took place yesterday. The day did not start off well. I woke up late, so left without eating breakfast. I got french toast sticks at Burger King and proceeded to spill syrup on the crotch of my dress. = o I wiped it up as best (and as safely) as possible driving down the 5 and cringed inwardly knowing that with traffic, I wouldn't have enough time to go to a Starbucks or something to try and clean the stain in the bathroom. My manager called to tell me the meeting had been backed up an hour (from noon to 1:00) so I called my friend Catherine who went to Sweet Briar with me and lives in LA and asked if she was able to get lunch with me. So I arrived in Beverly Hills and drove around for half an hour trying to find parking (either every street with free parking was full or you couldn't park on on Wednesdays because of street cleaning).
I finally found a spot and then found this adorable cafe - Lazy Daisy Cafe - (which reminded me of Sweet Briar, we had a Daisy Cafe too) and unfortunately they didn't have a bathroom in which I could try and clean the now crusted syrup stain on a very unfortunate location. lol. Well I chilled there and ordered a salad and waited for Catherine to arrive. We got to have a nice conversation and I was able to take my mind off of the upcoming meeting. I know that if I had to sit there alone, I would've just thought about the meeting and drove myself crazy with nerves. But I didn't thanks to Catherine. :) Well I was able to scrape most of the crusty syrup off with a knife - lord knows what the other dining patrons thought I was doing down there... And get to the office twenty minutes early. Cheryl - the agent - wasn't there yet so I sat and waited and tried not to make myself nervous. Waiting is the worst. =/ I tried to remember all that the other agent at Allensworth told me to do and all the little tidbits I picked up from watching actresses be interviewed by Jay Leno. Course the only thing I could really remember was a funny story Olivia Munn told about how she made herself better at auditions (also, another story for another time, but I can just say it was not relevant to me or my situation). lol.
Well she arrived and we went into the conference room. After the initial small talk and such: "How are you?" "Good, you?" "I had wrist surgery" "Oh no! Carpal tunnel?" "Yes." "My mom had that." "It was really severe and now because of the surgery I have no feeling in my fingers." "Better be careful in the kitchen." "LOL. *chop*" (she really did LOL. haha.)... well after all that, she told me she really liked me the last time we met and wanted to meet to make sure we reconnected (my manager later told me she also wanted to meet to see how committed I was) - and then said she wanted to give our partnership a try and would email me the contract. I didn't even need to do my other monologue (which I prepared) or give her the whole "about myself" spiel (which I also prepared as per the agent at Allensworth's instructions)! The rest of the meeting was just her telling me what I needed to do - add more headshots to some casting sites and my demo reel - and email some of those sites to add the agency to my profile - etc. So, in case that you are not able to discern from the last few sentences, I'll be blunt. I WAS SIGNED BY A TALENT AGENCY!!! :D YAYYY. lol. She will be submitting me for both Commercial and Theatrical (my goal is theatrical - which is TV and Film, not actually theater lol). So hopefully once I get the signed contract back to her, I will start getting some auditions! And then hopefully I will also book them. lol.
Well, I need to print said contract and sign it and get it in the mail!!
Thanks for reading this muy lengthy post.
I also now have a twitter account:
https://twitter.com/LauraAnnRussell
xoxo
