Thursday, August 21, 2008

Allow Me To Introduce My Friends.

One of the best benefits of blogging about being an actor is that I get to debunk all the myths about my business. That, and occasionally logging on to a clean website helps me throw the FBI off the trail.

Today’s falsehood: the selfishness of actors.

LA is a funny town. People who’ve never even been here form strong, delusional opinions about it. And the entertainment business. So I will say with full candor: I love being an actor– almost as much as I love my fellow actors.

Every Wednesday night, I hear my friend Dave’s great, big laugh as I’m performing a comedy scene in our casting workshop, as he does his best to make me look very good.

Tim, the zombie above, barely knew me when he helped me wrap my head around a very tricky scene in a horror film. He wasn’t even in that scene. Like Dave, he just wanted me to look good.

When one of my dozens of actor friends is in a play or movie, no matter how small the role, we go and support. If someone is producing a short film on his own dime, we volunteer to not only act in it gratis, but work as crew. We wouldn't have it any other way.

I read that one of Jennifer Anniston’s fondest memories is the period in her life when she hadn’t hit it yet. She had a close-knit group of broke, actor friends who would get together, scrape up enough money to order some pizza, and bond with each other, knowing that the struggle was all the more bearable with a strong support system.

Hey, get me – I’m living that future memory right now.