It was like they were thinking, "Well, they signed this putz, they should sign me for chrissakes -- I've been doing this since I was a kid." Or perhaps more likely it was something along the lines of, in typical actorish self-flagellation mode, "Crap. I suck. Why don't I have an agent? I should have an agent. But I never submitted because I never got around to it, and it's so much work and I'm so busy, but maybe it's not that big a deal after all. Maybe I just need to get off my ass and do it. After all, this putz did -- how hard could it be?"
One of them did go in and get signed. Another one did not, but I think his headshot was a xerox of a polaroid of a cocktail-napkin sketch. So that probably had something to do with it.
2 comments:
Yup. Personally I hate getting out there and self-promoting all the time -- I'd suck hard vacuum at your "other" job! -- but I know it has to be done.
That "too busy" thing is the handiest excuse in the book. 'Swhy I finally laid down the law to myself at the turn of this year: No theatre auditions until I get my website and representation ducks in a row. The former is accomplished (although technically in my head I included editing my reel, which will be a darn sight more fun having just received an actual honest-to-god copy of a student film in a timely manner!). The latter should be the easy one, and yet it keeps not getting done.
This weekend, because I just know there's theatre out there I want to do...
And a lot of actors don't realize that just getting an agent doesn't mean you're getting cast in anything, or even an audition. Back in the Dark Ages when I was still an actor, I was repped by 7 different agencies at one point, and I only got 5 auditions and 1 booking in two years. It got to the point that I was spending more on duplicating/mailing out my headshots to each agent every month than I'd ever hope to earn back in bookings. Plus, my agents all told me that since I was a character actress in my 20s, there were no parts for me (most character work is for women in their 40s and older).
So, I quit. Maybe I'll try again in my 40s.
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