So Vin Diesel just retweeted me on twitter…wicked.
In other news, lots of casting over the past few weeks, more coming up. Good stuff. Doing a music video with Rob Savage and a wonderful selection of many of the actors I have been working with over the past few years.
Have also joined a gym so will look like Vin or Gwyneth Paltrow imminently….obviously x
So its been two-ish weeks since I moved house and life has improved dramatically.
I am closer to work commute wise, only 15/20 minutes by one tube line - my new housemates are generous and friendly - I have been visiting lots of friends - I have been working hard over the past few days on improving my casting profiles and applying for jobs. I have two great auditions coming up, for a very good script and a piece that will be performed at RADA.
I feel content, I feel happy. I feel like I am in control of what I am doing and that I have a tremendous amount to offer.
I have been toying with the idea of changing jobs. I have applied for a job at apple part time. The interview process is going well - but I can’t ignore the fact that my current job gives me 4 days off.
I don’t know. I feel like being in an artistic field makes you split your life in two - one side to express what it is you feel you can by being an actor half the time - and then doing a job that only exists to pay the bills the other half of the time. Half lives.
Not for long.
x
So I moved house into my beautiful new split level mezzanine bedroom in my beautiful new flat. In heaven. Love it. I have been feeling rather wonderful over the last few days, emotionally, but physically totally bedraggled as I have a savage cold. Keeping me up at night, drowning in….well anyway. We are filming my scenes in Shadow tonight, finally! I have to wonder around the flat in my pants (not sure whether I should buy a new pair of black pants especially?) - do male actors think about this stuff? I dunno! Should be a good laugh as ling ad the lighting doesn’t pick up on cellulite…which I obviously don’t have…haha. I wonder at what point as an actress I’m going to drop to 6 stone, become superhuman, wake up looking perfect, marry the hottest man on earth and be totally competent at life? Is there a test?
X
This week has been a bit of a let-down. I was supposed to be doing three straight days of filming on Shadow Industry and I was really looking forward to it. Acting is a vocation - when I’m doing it I feel complete and I was dying to get back on set after my weekend of waitressing.
Unfortunately, turns out that our locations all fell through so I was uneeded.
I have been mooching around. Feeling a bit depressed. Spending far too much money. Upside is that I have seen lots of my friends and I have bought a sketchbook so I have been doing some drawing. I was drawing yesterday and I actually completely lost track of time - which is something that hasnt happened for a while so that was a good feeling.
I love acting and I love drawing and both give me a massive buzz if I think I have got a good likeness to life in either. I think acting wins but drawing is enough to get me through the slow patches.
I have done some agent nudging so lets see what happens….
x
Time for another update.
Shadow is going really really well. I have found pinning the character down on this one quite tricky, but at the same time its funny because I know exactly who she is.
Have been going back into all my training bits and notes and character construction ideas etc…in the hope of being able to somehow fabricate the criteria and character to consciously seep out of my pores when I’m on camera. I have done months and weeks of research, thinking about Fey and who she is and how she is and discovering with the director what he hopes to see etc…
Have realised what I already knew - in order to make her real I have to stay present in the moment in camera. Block out all the distractions. Try to feel as much as I can and hope that when it plays out on screen all the information will be there. I just want to make her real.
I read an article with a young actor recently but I forget who exactly. She was talking about becoming a great actress like Meryl Streep - she was saying how when you watch meryl you know its meryl - you don’t forget its her but you also appreciate the layers of character laid on top. It’s like, I imagine, seeing a great painting but seeing patches of bare canvas everywhere. I suppose that is actually acting - as in masterful pretending.
I think my rather untrained heart led style (if I even have one) is about trying to assimilate myself and the character in that moment on camera. Thinks get blurred. I think really great acting is the art of seperating urself and ur work completely.
X
Yesterday was the second shooting day on Shadow Industry. The location was the Ministry of Sound. It was Brilliant!!!
We got there at 20:30, did all the makeup, ate a few cookies, had some cups of coffee and then we headed into the club. I have never been there before and it did seem smaller than I imagined it would. My only real experience of Ministry of Sound has been from the compilation albums they sell and footage of ibiza and thousands of people dancing. Saying that, even empty it had such an amazing atmosphere and then when it packed up with people later in the evening it was even better.
We did the lines first with a few extras in the background, and then the club opened and we started shooting with all the real people who were coming in that night to have a dance. So we were drinking, dancing, performing together in character in front of the camera and about 100 people who had come in early when the club opened. It was such good fun! My character was trying to get Usman’s character to loosen up a bit and stop being such a square - so that was fun, being flirty and dancing to some really loud, really good dance music.
Had a drink with the guys afterwards as well. I love my job.
x
In my experience working in the game (by game I mean acting just to clarify) I have concluded that the main part of the job is taken up by waiting.
Waiting for work to come in, waiting for emails from my agent, waiting to start filming, waiting on set, waiting back-stage, waiting for lunch, waiting for films to be finished, waiting for films to come out, waiting to be paid - and in the meantime waiting on tables.
In this sense I believe that acting is very suited to the British as we are known for our love of waiting in line.
Tea and coffee and the internet, friends and books make the waiting part more enjoyable.
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Today was the first day of shooting on Shadow Industry. It went very well, got loads of shots into the day given that we only had 5 hours to do 7 shots and of a very long and important conversation piece. Boom!
It was lovely to be back on set but it was an EARLY start at 7am for call time.
I have no idea what the shots look like yet but I hear good things and I can’t wait to shoot more.
Feels brilliant to be back on set again. Nowhere else that I would rather be.
x
Currently in Costa near Archway waiting to sign the agreement on my flat. I am falling asleep on the table while drinking a latte. You know when you are tired when you can fall asleep whilst drinking stimulants.
Seeing mark, eben and Paula tonight so that will be good. Get the Red Heart team.back together again over a pint.
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