Monday, October 03, 2005

I bang the pavement hard with drops this morning. Last week was kind of quiet and I would like this week to be different. I was really hoping to get a callback for “The Unit”, but it looks like they moved on without me. I think I’ll get back in that office before too long.

I had a list, mostly from the Actorsite to go on. About 18 different drops, I knew I wasn’t going to do them all today because they were all over the city and I have be careful of my gas consumption. The Actorsite list usually has many addresses that I haven't heard of and I don't know where they come from. That's cool though, it keeps me busy. The Actorsite is where I found the original listing for “The Terminal” and walked to the casting office, dropped off my photo and booked a role. Speaking of the “The Terminal”, I am still waiting for home video residuals which are MONTHS late…….did I say months? I won’t get into it, it’s sore subject with me right now……

So my first drop is way out in Pasadena and the traffic most of the way there is horrible. Well, at least I got to talk to my brother, Todd, in Virginia. We talk business practically everyday and I love that.

It seemed that almost every drop I did today was at an unfamiliar address. So I was totally feeling like “why am I driving waaaay out here? Traffic sucks. I should just blow these off today and go home and feel sorry for myself.” That’s when my alter-ego in the passenger seat looked at me and said “dude, stop bitching!” There are times when I just don’t feel like doing it. Sometimes I pull out my bag of tricks and sometimes I carry my ass home.

Today I opted to pull out the bag of tricks and see what I could find. It was my alter-ego (also me) telling me to "Keep it moving!", so that is what I did. I get to the first one in Pasadena and hand my photo to the receptionist and totally felt like it was a waste of time. I had to laugh, BUT I followed my own advice of “nothing is a waste of time, because you never know what the future will bring”.

So on to the next; it was in a neighborhood. First, I’m thinking that I’m in the wrong place so I double check the street and lo and behold I AM in the right place. It’s a house with a big ass dog barking in the back behind a fence. The spot was a little “hoodish” and I was like “yo, I’m outta here!” Then I was like “I drove all the way out here, I GOTTA drop this off, who knows what I might be walking away from”. For real though, I was kinda nervous about rolling up to someone’s front door.

I took my own advice and went for it. I walk up to the door looking for a drop box or something so I can “stick and move and be OUT”. NOTHING. I’m thinking somebody is going to come out on the porch and say “HEY get away from my shit!!!!!” At this point I’m laughing inside because I rarely get nervous in the field, but I was sweating bullets.

The front door was one of those heavy, black, metal security doors that you can’t really see into, but they can see out of. I couldn’t tell if anyone was looking at me so I was trying to be cool, but not really and finally I hear this voice. Oh sh*t. I couldn’t see who it was. So I ask “Can I drop this off for the casting?” Finally, I could sorta see who I was talking to; it was an Asian woman in her 60’s who didn’t at all look "Hollywood". She doesn’t know what I’m talking about, so I say “uh, can I leave this for the movie?” she replies “huh, moobie?” I’m ready to apologize and head back to my car and right then she says “KYC ProoooDuctions?” I say “Yeah!” and she opens the door and takes it and even says “thank you”. I thank her and breathe a sigh of relief. I head back to my car, but not before giving the barking dog “da finga, beeeyotch". Peace!

After a couple of wrong turns trying to get out of this very unfamiliar place I head to Sunset Blvd. for my next drop. But even this was an address I had never been to. The attractive receptionist greets me warmly and points around the corner to a woman who was sorting photos.I politely hand her my photo; she glances at it, then sees my name and looks right at me. Her look was so abrupt that it stopped me in my tracks. I was startled, so I said “Ha, have we met before?” she kinda nodded. I honestly didn’t recognize her so I said “ok, well, hey have a great day” and hopefully, gracefully made my exit. What a day.

Next stop was another unfamiliar spot on Las Palmas. The three women were very nice and responsive to me being nice and friendly. Whew, some normalcy.

Even when I got to Sunset-Gower Studios the security guard was a little weird, like I was the first actor to drop off a headshot. Anyway….back to work……………

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Whoah! Like going to a new site...lemme adjust my eyes...;-)

Fun post! I've also been in the situation like you had at Sunset-Gower many times "You're dropping off a what???" I haven't done the "drop-off day" in awhile but they can sometimes really help. Gas is a real issue these days. You know, I'm thinking it would be fun to get a group of guys together on a particular day, to just drive around town and drop off headshots. Everyone could chip in for gas (except the guy with the car) and you could just have a really good time with it...