The Working Actor

BRAILLE EDITIONS OF NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC AND PLAYBOY:

WATCH RYAN TALK ABOUT GETTING CUT FROM A DE NIRO FILM:

Age: 33

Ryan is originally from Portland, ME but has lived in LA for 10 years. He has worked at The Braille Institute of America for 2 years.

YOU MAY HAVE SEEN HIM IN: “Alias,” “Cold Case,” “General Hospital,” “NCIS,” “Star Trek Enterprise,” a Bud Light Commercial, and a EA Sports Commercial.

UPCOMING: An episode of “Days of Our Lives” that airs VERY soon.

DREAM ROLE: “The Burt Lancaster role in a movie I just wrote.”

BEST AUDITION STORY: “I was called into audition for a movie opposite Ryan Goseling. After a few call backs I got to read with Ryan. He was playing a mentally handicapped man and I was one of his friends. We were full grown men with the minds of children. It was a fairly physical scene, so I asked Ryan ‘Are you gonna go for this? How far should we take it?’ He was like, ‘yeah let’s just go for it.’ We ended up trashing this entire room. Tables were cleared, chairs were turned over, things were off the wall. We had a great time, but the casting director just looked at us in shock. The movie never got made, but it was pretty funny. You have to just go in and enjoy it, you never know if that’s gonna be your last chance.”

BEST MOMENT IN LA: “A little over a year ago, my daughter was born. That changes your actor ego dramatically. You go from ‘me me me I want to get this part’ to ‘her her her.’ I think it has made me a better actor. The ego is out of it now. I just go in and have fun on auditions. I’ve booked more since I’ve changed my approach.”

WORST MOMENT IN LA: “I just found out I didn’t book this part that I really wanted. I was on the 405 driving to do a kid’s birthday party bubble show for $60. My car basically blew up. I pulled off the 405, called my parents and broke down in tears. I was like, ‘why am I an actor? I’m gonna go make $60 eating birthday cake. I don’t even want to eat the cake and my car broke down.’ It was one of those moments of weakness as an actor where you wonder what you’re doing. A few weeks later I booked a job on a soap, and that led to more work. Things turned around, I think this town has a way of testing you before it rewards you. That moment was one of my greatest tests.”

Click here to find out more about The Braille Institute

Can you imagine having to get stitches as a result of your audition?? It happened to Ryan Honey.

Watch him tell the story…..

Check back tomorrow to find out what he does for a living. Oh yeah, and a great story about getting cut out of a De Niro film…Every actor’s dream.

Listen to the excuse an agent used to explain why he wasn’t interested in Gabriel…..

CAN YOU BELIEVE THE AGENT SAID THAT???????????

Age: 30

Gabriel is originally from Austin, TX, but he has lived in LA for 2 ½ years. He has worked at The Pleasure Chest for 2 ½ years.

FAVORITE CELEBRITY SIGHTING AT WORK: “It was a big action star. He scared the shit out of everyone in the store. I went up to him and said ‘what up, you need help?’ He said no at first, but a few minutes later he came over and asked me about double-penetration. I said you can’t really hit both angles that way, but let me show you what you can do. After a while he kept buying more and more stuff. He would just say ‘Is this good?’ and toss it in his basket if I said yes, or I would tell him it was a piece of shit and recommend something else. It was just funny to see, everyone is just a person who has no idea what they are doing when they come in here.”

MOVED TO LA BECAUSE: “I wanted to continue acting without a glass ceiling.”

BEST MOMENT IN LA: “I had this audition for a pretty major, indie production. A friend had recommended me from a previous film. It felt like it was real high steaks, everyone was nervous. I got to meet the director who was really nice, and I got to meet the writer who was someone I admire. I felt very good and confident about the audition. It was very much like, this is why I moved here. This is why I deal with LA, this is why I do this. I knew I wasn’t going to get the part. I didn’t, and that’s ok.”

WORST MOMENT IN LA: “My first day here. I was staying in a motel downtown with my mom. I had no idea how I could live or get a job. I couldn’t even do that back home. It was just so bright, ugly and dirty here.”

YOU MIGHT HAVE SEEN HIM IN: RSO and some short films on youtube like Softshoe.

THIS JOB HELPS ME AS AN ACTOR: “It lets me be myself. I also have to listen to hardcore stuff and maintain my control while figuring things out. I think that’s what acting is about. It’s about being in the moment, it’s about having that control.”

DREAM ROLE: “To play weird messed up characters, to have some range. The type of roles Gary Oldman gets. He plays these people who are perceived to be quirky or crazy, but there is always something more to them.”

ADVICE FOR ACTORS MOVING TO LA: “Be ok with not acting. Setup your life, and have your foundations. You need to eat, you need to have a job, you need to have stability, you need to have relationships. People who try to pursue it like a gambling career, they just leave.”

WATCH FIONA TALK ABOUT HER AUDITION FOR LADY GAGA:

Age: “Younger than Glenn Close, older than Dakota Fanning.”

Fiona is originally from Hawaii, but has lived in LA for 14 years. She has been a Hair Extension Specialist for 8 years.

MOVED TO LA: “Because I wanted to be famous.”

BEST MOMENT IN LA: “I was working all these random part-time jobs but wouldn’t commit to anything because I’m an artist. I’m an actor. Finally, I realized I was tired of being a struggling artist and decided to find a way to get money while I worked on my craft. I’m getting more opportunities to do my art now, and it feels much better. I used to have this idea that if I was struggling I would be a better artist. That was screwed up. It’s way more fun now.”

WORST MOMENT IN LA: “I used to teach acting classes to children. I was really hung over one day and almost vomited on a child.”

YOU MAY HAVE SEEN HER IN: An original play, I’m The Man Inside Your Wife’s Vagina. A student film Run Over My Heart.

UPCOMING: Point Break Live

DREAM ROLE: “Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge!”

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BE AN ACTOR: “I don’t think I had a choice. I always had a burning desire to be an actor.”

I WOULD QUIT THIS JOB IF: “I got paid more as an actor.”

WATCH CHARLIE DRIVE THE BUS AND TELL HIS WORST AUDITION STORY:

Age: 32

Charlie has lived in LA for 7 years, but is originally from Chicago. He has worked at Amazing LA Tours for 2 years.

FAVORITE CELEBRITY SIGHTING AT WORK: “David Beckham on Rodeo Drive. 9 times out of 10 when I see a celebrity the people don’t know who it is. I’ve even had celebrities come up to the bus and pound on the windows. People get excited that they are seeing a celebrity, but they don’t always know who they are seeing. David Beckham was different, every single person on the bus knew who he was. Every day I get asked if we are going to bump into David Beckham. Where does he live? How can we find him? So for me, it was personally rewarding to be able to show a bus David Beckham.”

WORST MOMENT IN LA: “My dad died in December, being away from it all. My mom was back home by herself. It felt so difficult; I couldn’t just be there for my mom. I had to jump through all these hoops that felt like nonsense — flights, LAX and all that stuff.”

BEST AUDITION STORY: “It was when I got Point Break LIVE. I just showed up relaxed and the people made me feel at ease. It was an improv audition where I had to pretend I was Johnny Utah. They started to mess with me, I rolled with it and got the gig.”

YOU MAY HAVE SEEN HIM IN: Point Break Live, A GSN Commercial for “The Newlywed Game.” “It was the largest premier for a GSN show.”

UPCOMING: A web series “Dating Weakly”

THIS JOB HELPS AS AN ACTOR: “It doesn’t create a skill set like ‘Hey, I’m up in front of people everyday.’ It helps because it’s super flexible. The owner has allowed me to take the bus, drop people off and continue with the bus to an audition. They are over the top with being accommodating and making sure I get to auditions.”

DREAM ROLE: “War Movie, I don’t care what era. I just want to do a good war movie. I want them to tell me I have to shave my head. Something like ‘Band of Brothers’ or  ’The Pacific’ would be great.”

ADVICE FOR PEOPLE MOVING TO LA: “Stick around as long as you can. The older you get, the more opportunities come your way. Most people just come out and say ‘I’m gonna give it 5 years and give up if nothing happens.’ Out of college, when you’re 22-27 your peers aren’t in a position to help you out. I was just talking to a friend  of a friend and he said ‘I’m second a.d. on this project, do you want to come down and get your SAG card?’ I worked three days as a union extra and got my card like that. ”

Coming soon….Charlie Farrell

Watch John recall his worst moment in LA:

Age: “30′s”

John has lived in LA “off and on for about 10 years,” but is originally from Austin, TX. He has worked at Hands on 3rd for 1 year.

MOVED TO LA BECAUSE: “I wanted to do acting and fashion. I knew I had to be here to do both.”

BEST MOMENT IN LA: “A few months ago I had the opportunity to be in a play at the Odyssey Theater, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. The play was received so well and we got such great reviews. It was a really positive experience for me. It added fuel to my fire wanting to be a successful actor.”

BEST AUDITION STORY: “ I got to the audition, which was for a musical, and didn’t have time to warm up. I sang my 16 bars in the regular key of the song and the woman who was conducting the audition looked at the piano player and said ‘take it up another level.’ So the piano player took it up a half step and I did my 16 bars again. To make a long story short she had the piano player go up 7 notes and then told the piano player to stop. She said, ‘I can tell you can continue to go.” It went from me being scared to a fun audition. I didn’t get cast for the part, which is part of the story in LA, you can think you did well but still don’t get it.

YOU MIGHT HAVE SEEN HIM IN: The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at the Odyssey Theater, Permanent Collection at Company of Angels. Background work on “The West Wing.”

UPCOMING: “Going out and auditioning.”

THIS JOB HELPS ME AS AN ACTOR: “The technical side of designing helps with my focus and my attention to detail. Those are the two things that make an actor really good. It helps me to work and then go and act. It helps me speed up my attention.”

DREAM ROLE: “I would like to play a detective on a crime drama, or a solider in a war film.”

ADVICE FOR ACTORS MOVING TO LA: “Don’t….No, I’m just kidding. Get as much training as you can before you go out and audition. You’re gonna go on an audition and there are gonna be 25 people who look exactly like you. What you’re able to do in that audition is what will separate you. Will you be able to use an accent? What are your improv skills like? If they throw a curveball at you, how well will you adjust? Those types of things you can only acquire skill in them through training.”

WATCH JOHN PAUL KARLIAK TALK ABOUT HIS BEST MOMENT IN LA:

Age: “Between 20 and death.”

John has lived in LA for 8 years, but is originally from Scranton, PA. He has worked at USC for 4 years.

FAVORITE CELEBRITY SIGHTING AT WORK: “Well you see George Lucas every once in a while, but I haven’t actually bumped into him and said hello. Ok, so it wasn’t this job. I used to work grocery delivery before I did this. My favorite person to deliver to was Kevin Smith. He would just reach into his wallet, take however many bills he had and just give them to you. My last delivery he gave me a $90 tip, I bought a bottle of champagne.”

WORST MOMENT IN LA: “When my car exploded. I was driving to a temp job downtown. I had this 1st edition PT Cruiser that used to be my dad’s company car, which became a graduation present. My dad knows nothing about cars, but felt that he could take the engine apart and add a supercharger to it. I’m not saying that’s what caused it to explode, but draw your own conclusions. Anyway, it started to smoke while I was driving to work. I pulled over to the side of the road and called for help. While dialing, the car exploded. Fireball out of the engine, the hood popped off, the tires melted. I wasn’t pulled all the way off the road, so people were swerving out of the way. Luckily, my CD’s didn’t melt. They stank, but they still played.”

WORST AUDITION STORY: “It was for McDonalds and was the first audition my agent sent me on in a year and a half. I walked into the room and everybody was a Latin type. So I picked up the copy and it was entirely in Spanish. I asked the casting director if I was in the right place and she said ‘can you speak Spanish?’ When I told her I couldn’t she said, ‘just futz your way through it.’ The girl next to me instructed me to shout out ‘Big Mac por favor, Quarter Pounder Por Favor.’ Once the audition ended I called my agent and asked what happened. He just laughed and said ‘my bad.’ So I fired him.”

YOU MAY HAVE HEARD HIM IN: Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic, A Red Bull Commercial, Tom Clancy’s Endwar (VG), H&R Block radio commercial.

UPCOMING: An AFI short called Little Black Dress

ADVICE FOR PEOPLE MOVING TO LA: “Keep in touch with everyone and thank them. So many people you do random things with move on and do bigger things. It’s about building professional friendships. Also, focus. It’s not enough to just say ‘I want to be an actor.’ What do you want to be on? Do you do Comedy? Drama? Voiceover? Get specific, I spent the first 3 years out here unsure.”

This week we’re meeting up with the incredible voice behind this memorable commercial….

Read the rest of this entry »

Click here to read our post about Christopher Dennis

Watch Lisa recall  when she saw Richard Pryor before his return to the stage:

Age: “Ageless and Evergreen” 

Lisa is originally from Minnesota, but has lived in Los Angeles “long enough to know that nothing happens overnight.” Lisa has worked at Milena’s Boutique for 1 year. 

FAVORITE CELEBRITY SIGHTING AT WORK: Maria Shriver 

MOVED TO LA BECAUSE: “I was a theater junkie. I came out here to do theater.” 

BEST MOMENT IN LA: “Surviving colon cancer.” 

WORST MOMENT IN LA: “The earthquake.” 

BEST AUDITION STORY: “Lee Strasberg accepting me on my first audition when I was 22 years old.” 

WORST AUDITION STORY: “Meeting Robert Dinero and Cis Corman for Raging Bull and being told I looked too young to play a girl carding people in Jake LaMotta’s bar…that was a bummer.” 

YOU MIGHT HAVE SEEN HER IN: Deep Cover, “E! Mysteries & Scandals” playing Lana Turner, a Peugeot commercial, Tanzi 

UPCOMING: Baby O 

THIS JOB HELPS ME AS AN ACTOR: “It helps me be centered and focused. It doesn’t take as much from me as other jobs have.” 

DREAM ROLE: “Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” 

ADVICE FOR ANYONE MOVING TO LA TO BE AN ACTOR: “Make sure it’s something you desperately want to do, not because of fame.  Make sure you have a passion for it. Acting is a craft, take it seriously and train for it. Expect to pay your dues, and have a lot of rejection. Actors are a dime a dozen out here…there is a lot of disappointment and heartache.” 

WATCH TYLER DISCUSS WHY HE WORKS AT KINGS ROAD CAFE:

Age: 29

Tyler is originally from Syracuse, NY, but has lived in LA for 6 years. He has worked at Kings Road Cafe for 3 months.

FAVORITE CELEBRITY SIGHTING AT WORK: “Terri Hatcher. I used to love ‘Lois and Clark.’ I haven’t seen Dean Cain yet, so I’m a little bummed out about that.”

YOU MAY HAVE SEEN HIM IN: “I did extra work on ‘The O.C.,’ ‘Las Vegas’ and ‘CSI.’ I hope I don’t have to do that again. It didn’t make me feel good about this industry. It’s a weird vibe when you are an extra.” A commercial for a Glendale gym.  A web series “On Empty.”

UPCOMING: A Warm Wind

DREAM ROLE: “A role that will catapult me into a field of actors that are constantly working. I want to be a working actor. If I’m famous…I don’t really care for that. I understand fame is a byproduct of what I’m doing, but basically I want to work.”

MY ADVICE FOR ANYONE MOVING TO LA TO BE AN ACTOR: “Good Luck! If you want to do it, just do it.  Don’t talk about doing it, don’t wait to get headshots. Just do it. Jump in and get your feet wet. I could tell you everything I know about this town, but until you are here experiencing it you don’t have a clue. You really have to go through the wringer to lose the green in your soul.”

KATE TALKS ABOUT HER EXPERIENCE WITH THE HURT LOCKER:

Age: “25”

Kate is from Maryland, but has lived in LA for 4 ½ years. She has worked at Heimberg Law Group for 4 years.

WORST AUDITION STORY: “I came in to audition for a manager and she asked me to do a monologue. I did this really emotional monologue, I was crying at the end. It was powerful. After I finished we just stared each other down, neither of us said anything, for 6 or 7 minutes. Finally, she said, “is it over?” I replied “yeah.” She told me, “You should have said scene. I’ve just been staring at you unsure if you had finished.”

YOU MAY HAVE SEEN HER IN: “Grey’s Anatomy,” Tween.

UPCOMING: The Hurt Locker – Directors Cut, W.M.D.

THIS JOB HELPS AS AN ACTOR: “It would help me with any role on a CSI type, or medical show. We’re a medical malpractice law firm so I already know all the jargon. I hear about things that happen to people all day. I have a broad spectrum of characters to draw from.”

DREAM ROLE: “Ellen’s Page’s character from Juno.”

DOES YOUR DAY JOB MAKE YOU HAPPY: “This is a good gig. I don’t want to wait tables. I like the people here. I’m proud of what we do. We help poor people who were wronged. But, I do think on a daily basis that I didn’t move to LA  to work in a law firm.”

WATCH CHRISTOPHER TELL HIS WORST AUDITION STORY:

Age: 42

Christopher has lived in Los Angeles his entire life. He has been working on the street for “a little over 18 years.”

BEST MOMENT IN LA: “Working on set…it’s my desire in life. Being on Jimmy Kimmel….was pretty awesome.”

YOU MAY HAVE SEEN HIM IN: Coyote Ugly, Bedazzled, Little Nicky, Mohammad Ali, The Italian Job, Hollywood Homicide, Confessions of a Superhero, “I’m also featured on ‘Jimmy Kimmel’ quite a bit.”

UPCOMING: “I’m going to Barcelona, Spain to work on a film over there. The film is called
La Curiosa Conexion de Juanentonce y Krypton.

THIS JOB HELPS AS AN ACTOR BECAUSE: “I’m my own boss. I can take off to an audition at any time. I’m also in a prime location…how many producers and directors travel down Hollywood boulevard looking for new faces?”

FAVORITE SUPERMAN MOVIE: Superman II

Christopher’s first day out on Hollywood Boulevard was 6/10/91 and there were no other characters at the time. He originally worked as a waiter at Hamburger Hamlet, and started to dress in character on his days off. He works 8-13 hours a day, seven days a week. His longest day was 7am-3am.