Archive for the ‘Teacher’ tag
Jon Hamm worked in porn?
Check out what Jon Hamm had to say about his struggles before he made it big:
up to my 40th birthday, and I don’t let myself forget that for 15 years after I left school I struggled to make a living. So what’s happening to me now is very nice.
I’ve been a barman, a waiter, a teacher, and I even helped out on a soft porn movie — as a set dresser, not a performer, I hasten to add — because I’d do everything I could to make enough money to pay the rent.
‘Thank goodness I had some understanding landladies. There are certain dark nights of the soul, when you say: “Good god, I’ve got to get a job”. But there has to be some kind of confidence in every actor that makes them get up in the morning, because it’s an incredibly difficult life to choose, if you don’t have success early.
‘I came out to Hollywood from St Louis when I was 25, which was already late. I found myself immersed in a huge city where thousands of people looked like me. I hoped I would be picked out of this group and I would do what I could to make money. My attitude was that I didn’t want to be this person that just keeps striving for years.
It was a scramble, though. At that time, the cool look for guys on TV was to look like a teenager. I have never looked like a teenager. So at 26, I was auditioning to play the father of one!
‘I decided that if nothing much was happening by the time I was 30, then I’d go and do something else.
‘In the end, I was 28 when the work started coming in regularly. I waited on my last table when I was 29.
John Christopher – Hands on 3rd: Teacher – Patternmaking/Sewing
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.”
Drew Droege – The Groundlings Theater:
Improv and Comedy Teacher
Watch Drew tell his worst audition story:
Age: 32
Drew has lived in LA for over 10 years, but is originally from North Carolina. He has worked at The Groundlings for 3 ½ years.
FAVORITE CELEBRITY SIGHTING AT WORK: “LL Cool J, they were filming his show here the other day and it was really cool to see him in person.”
WORST MOMENT IN LA: “I was hit by a car in traffic about 7 years ago. I was in a crosswalk on Santa Monica Blvd. and a car hit my foot. There were no witnesses so I was found ‘partly responsible for my own accident.’ The cop said, I ‘failed to use due caution when crossing the street’ even though one car stopped for me. The car that did stop just drove away after I was hit so there was nothing I could do.”
BEST AUDITION STORY: “It was for ‘Reno 911!’ it was a fun vibe in the room. The audition was with the cast, and they were ready to laugh. They made me feel so comfortable. So many times you walk into an audition and the people have mean faces, are in a bad mood, or they are eating. With good improv I never remember what was said, it just feels good. But I remember every single line of a bad improv. This just felt good. I could tell when I walked in these guys wanted it to be good, and they wanted us to do well. I got to do the show a few months later. From day one I felt like part of the group.
YOU MIGHT HAVE SEEN HIM IN: A lot of theater with The Groundlings and Upright Citizens Brigade.“Reno 911!” “Halfway Home” a commercial for American Airlines – “Team Building.”
UPCOMING: “The Sarah Silverman Program” and a feature called Freak Dance “it’s a break dancing musical.”
THIS JOB HELPS AS AN ACTOR BECAUSE: “It’s the most creative job I can think of asn an actor. For 3 ½ hours I have to be focused, I have to listen. I watch actors work, I’m constantly seeing new choices, new ways of saying or delivering things. It also forces me to verbalize what I do as an actor. I have to communicate it to other people so I’m learning on a whole other level.”
ADVICE FOR ACTORS MOVING TO LA: “Study. Make sure you’re always in a class. Take every opportunity you can to perform and work with as many people as you can. Take your time, your’re not in a race to get famous.”
