This Actor's Life

As an actor married to a spouse who is able to support me while I pursue my acting career virtually full-time, I realize I am in the minority. I have read that many of the legends in this business, like Katherine Hepburn, were independently wealthy and thus lucky enough to be able to act full-time from day one. But most of the actors I have known over the years are forced to take a full-time job to support themselves, limiting their acting endeavors to nights and weekends, unless they are lucky enough to have a job with flexible hours. Others live in apartments with multiple roommates to keep expenses low so they can work part-time in order to leave as many hours open for auditions as possible, because in this business, if you can't audition, you won't make it past background (also known as extras) roles. As an actor, you've got to be available as much as possible, because if you aren't, there is always someone else who will be.

Availability is one of the reasons I decided to take an apartment in LA. For the first four years of my acting career, I was content to work in San Francisco, doing community theatre, extra work in movies, the occasional commercial, and student films. But the more I worked, the more I wanted to work, and there's just not that much going on in the way of film acting in San Francisco. Plus, theatre work is grueling - two months of rehearsals, usually followed by a six-week run. If it's a musical, you are singing and dancing, which is hard on a young, healthy body. My body is neither young nor healthy, and I was in agony during my last musical, "Merrily We Roll Along," which I did in 2005. So I decided to concentrate on film, and that meant working in LA, which meant being available in LA.

I started out with a three-month trial in 2005, getting a furnished one-bedroom apartment over the Internet on a short-term lease for only $700 a month. First lesson learned: Don't rent an apartment without seeing it first. When I went to move in on a rainy January day, the apartment was fine - a large cozy ground-floor space in a Victorian house in the historic West Adams area of LA. The problem was that the building was almost directly under the I-10/110 interchange, one of the busiest in LA, and traffic helicopters buzzed over at all hours of the day and night. In addition, this was in the notorious South Central section of LA, and although it wasn't so far south as to be really dangerous, I definitely was in the minority as the only white girl in the Victorian where I lived, in a heavily Latino neighborhood. But I came to love it, except for the helicopters. I learned to use earplugs to sleep, but as I started working regularly I realized that West Adams was a long way from the studios were most of my jobs were; it was really only convenient for the many student films that I began to shoot at USC and other film schools in the area.

I had picked up a guide called "Making the Most of Your First Year in LA," which I condensed into making the most of my three months in LA. Fortunately, I already had been to LA several times, so I knew the city reasonably well, and I had a car. I also had a steady income, which meant I could focus on acting without the need for another job. Following the advice of this guide, the first thing I did was register for background work at Central Casting, which still pretty much casts for all the television shows and many of the films shot in the LA area. I also registered with a couple of the top casting agencies listed in the guide, one of whom sent me out on a job the very next day. This job was as a nurse on a pilot of a brand new series, which turned out to be the huge hit "Grey's Anatomy." So within my first full week in Hollywood, I worked with Patrick Dempsey, Sandra Oh, and T.J. McKnight, and even had a close-up, on a major television series. I thought, "this is going to be easy."

And it is relatively easy to become a background actor. While waiting to used on set (and we spend a LOT of time waiting to be used), I talk with other actors about their careers, and we trade tips about what has worked for us. Many of them are career extras, meaning all they do is work in the background on shows like "House" or "Desperate Housewives." Most of them are SAG members (I am a member of AFTRA now, but not yet in SAG; more on that later), so the money is pretty good, about $200 a day, and the work is easy. Plus, we get fed on set, sometimes three meals depending on how long the day is, and many actors can be seen surreptitiously stuffing their pockets with extra rolls and fruit to take home, another way to save money (the term "starving actor" is quite often a literal one). Extras of all ages are needed; I once talked to a man on set who was 84 years old and said he did this "just to get out of the house." Many retirees are background actors, just to make a little extra money and give them something pleasant to do.

But, if you want to be more than an extra, you've got to work, and work hard. I would estimate that 80% of my time goes into finding acting jobs, rather than actually acting. In addition to being registered with casting agencies, I also am registered with several databases which list castings, where I can apply for casting notices suited to me. I pay anywhere from $50 to $240 a year for these databases, and currently I subscribe to six of them. They are a goldmine for actors, especially those who don't have agents, because you can get your headshot and resume in front of casting directors who otherwise might not ever see you. I usually do my submissions first thing in the morning, because posting to them early is important; most CDs will stop looking after about 30 headshots per role or so. I do have an agent now, in both LA and San Francisco, but to this day I have never booked any work through them; all of my work I have booked on my own. They have sent me out on auditions, but usually I am not the right type and haven't gotten the job. I hope that will change this year, as I am working closer with my agents to try to define more clearly what my best types are (mothers, teachers, nurses, but with a comic or dark edge).

So with the new year upon me, I am heading back to Los Angeles. I am booked for my first job on January 7, an "industrial" (the term for a video to be used for internal purposes in business) training video for psychologists. I'll drive down today or tomorrow (it's 360 miles, so it pretty much takes all day), and hopefully get in a day or two of background work this week. When I am there, I usually stay for a week to ten days, just to make the time between trips longer so I can rest up for the return. It's hard on my body, and not the easiest for my marriage, but my husband and I talk every day, and he understands that this life is not forever. But if I am going to give it my all, I've got to be available, and being available for now means being in LA.

Till next time,
Jennie