Donna in Hollywoodland

The blog from Los Angeles and Hollywood by Donna Grayson

Tuesday, March 29, 2005


Chaos, Classes, and Call-backs

So I had a Learning Annex class on Monday night. It was called "Associating With People Out of Your League". I kid you not. That was the name of the class.
The teacher is one of the Producers of the Master Storytellers Series at the Arclight Cinema.
The only thing was that I had to drive from Hollywood all the way out to the
Holiday Inn near LAX. So basically I had to leave the office at 4:30. To get there by 6:30.

In the middle of the afternoon, the lady from the Spec Commercial called me and asked me to come in for a Call-back.
I was so excited. I got a Call-back ! Even if it doesn't pay.
The Call-back is tomorrow afternoon. One hitch, they want me to bring something sexy to wear - lingerie, silky night gown type of thing.
I kind of panicked and said "I don't think I have anything like that". She was saying they wanted to see if I was comfortable wearing lingerie in the commercial. Well.... I wasn't sure I'd comfortable wearing lingerie in the commercial myself - but, oh well.

So this means I have to high-tail it out of there at 4:30, and stop at a store on my way and run in and grab a silky pj thing.
So as I am going down Sunset, turning left in the left lane, traffic behind me - what happens ? A police car with sirens needs to get through. Over the loud speaker we hear "Pull to the Right". But I am in the left turn lane. Doesn't matter..... I have to go all the way to the right. This now means when the Police pass me, I have to go all the way around a huge city block to get back into my left turn lane.
I was like "Am I even going to make it out of Hollywood?"

Well, I did - and I stopped off at TJ Maxx in Culver City on my way. Ran in. Grabbed a silky satin pajama, and a silky satin robe. Hey, and the total only came to $30. Such a deal. And I made sure it was something I would want to wear, because there is no reason to buy something for an audition if you can't use it again.

All that - and I manage to make it to class on time. An Angel must have been pushing my car along.

The cool thing about the class was that there was another actor sitting in front of me. He is in Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous . He plays an FBI Agent. He was addressing post cards to mail out announcing his role in the movie to other casting directors. I though of all the times I have done that exact same thing, sitting at home watching TV. It takes a long time to address 300 postcards.




The class went really late. And I woke up the next morning, on Tuesday, it was painful. Not enough sleep. On top of that, I work in accounting and Tuesday was our end-of-month. Oh, boy - what a day it will be.

I run out of the office at 11:30. I get there with the other Call-back actors at 12:00 noon. And guess what, the Casting People aren't ready for us. They are still setting up the cameras. We all just sat there waiting. And I hated to tell the Casting Assistant that I was on my lunch break from the office, but I had to. I felt bad about scooting ahead of the other actors auditioning, but I had to - we were already there One Hour and 15 minutes.

Then it turns out that I didn't need to change into my sexy silky pajamas. They just wanted to see what I owned for wardrobe.
And they changed my audition. For the first audition they had me read the lines really mean and nasty and obnoxious. Now, they wanted me to do the same scene - but all sexy and hot. I'm like 'huh?"

I welcome the challenge to improvise on the spot. It makes me feel like I am really "working". Almost like an acting class, when they change things up and try different things. But I know the reason they called me back was because my obnoxious act is really good. My sexy act, not so good. So I don't expect my Call-back to go as well.

On top of it, in the confusion as we are leaving - the actor who was in the scene with me starts to leave and starts to shake all the Casting Directors hands. I got confused. You are never ever supposed to shake the Casting Directors hands because it spreads germs. It is really a BIG rule of auditioning. But I get confused because the actor I am with is shaking hands - so I start to shake hands,
not realizing what I am doing.

I rode down the elevator with the actor who played my husband in the scene. He was a "Jerry Seinfeld" type. As we talked I mentioned that I really could not be extremely late getting back to my job, especially for an audition for something that did not pay any money.
He was shocked "This isn't paying ?!?!". Oh, I felt bad I said anything. But he should have read the Casting notice more closely.

On the drive home, I think about the $30 worth of lingerie that I bought but didn't get to wear. And I start to think of the whole audition.
All of a sudden it hits me "Oh, no - I shook their hands! You are never supposed to do that !" Oh, bummer.

I run to Vons to pay my phone bill because it is on the verge of being disconnected. Try to run into El Pollo Loco ,
but the drive through line is way to long. I end up driving through Burger King . Only to discover when I get back to the office that we got free pizza for lunch because today was month-end closing. No one saved me any. I got some of the left-overs that were sitting out on the table in the employee lunchroom and heated them in the microwave.

The Casting Assistant was nice enough to leave me a message (very unusual in this business) telling me that they were going to cast someone else, and maybe they would be able to use me in the future. I just think "$30 of lingerie that I didn't wear".

Then I ended up staying at the office until around 7:30 to make up for my 2 hour lunch break. I ate my cold Burger King food for dinner while I was working away on the office computer.

And I bet you thought being an Actress was glamorous ?


posted by Donna Grayson  # 11:27 PM
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