[BLOG] Two-stepping Hollywood…
My experience in Los Angeles has been short. Been here for 3 months and have been getting an idea of how the acting scene works around here. Unlike any town or industry, in Hollywood you can go from zero to hero in a fucking second. You can be crashing your friends couch on Monday, and on Friday you can be meeting with bigwigs from top production companies listening to what you have to say and checking out your work! And when it rains it pours. Weeks following you might be getting an audition for the next huge franchise from Lionsgate, and getting a script of Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu’s next film. It may sound unreal but it takes ONE person to believe in you as an artist, but more important as a person. ONE person to fall in love with you artistically. So ok Andrew, you ask, you’re telling me I need only ONE person to believe in it and I can start working with all the people I’ve always dreamed about and actually make a very good living off my art? In Hollywood, you bet your fucking ass. That’s all you need. By continuously creating, showing people and most importantly not letting your ego grow on you.
The catch is, of course, where do you find that person to believe in you. But get this, you will never know, and if you desperately search, you’ll probably never find them. More often than not, it comes from someone you never expected it from. A referral to one person, that leads to another, that leads to you sitting down with a VP of Paramount on their fucking lot. In the mix, people may like you, think your shit is tight and follow your career. But if you work hard and put it out there, and find your zone, that ONE person will find you.
Then boom mothafucka. That one person tells another, who tells another, who tells their wife about it, who tells their yoga teacher about it, who tells a friend of theirs, and then you begin to build something. And doors start to open…
In this town, you got to be careful with that though, because if you are lucky enough to get these opportunities (which by they way are LOADS of here waiting to be grabbed up) you gotta be careful what stuff they send you out for and what gigs you take. It’s easy to be a flavor of the week it’s hard to have a career out of what you love. You got to play it smart, stay patient, stay open while also selling yourself fairly and making circumstances favor you.