Back to Acting

I should be studying for the GMAT right now. I have all day...

Instead, I made muffins. Made some coffee. And read the NYTimes.

Kind of like a normal Sunday morning?

Came across a fantastic article, all about Hugh Laurie. Apparently, he's releasing an album.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/magazine/hugh-laurie-sings-the-blues.html

There are only so many film actors I truly admire for their work (though let it be noted that most of these great film actors got their start/have also had significant roles in the theatre). Marlon Brando (duh.) Bill Nighy. Emma Thompson. Meryl Streep (again, duh). Phyllip Seymour Hoffman. Of course there are more. And of course there are plenty of stage actors I also have deep respect for. But let's deal with the big names...

Hugh Laurie is also one of those actors, as he seems to be able to do what he wants when he wants, and pull it off rather gracefully. That was the kind of actor I always wanted to be. Smart. Competent. Consistent. I never really aspired to be the actor with moments of brilliance, but just one who could always be relied upon to deliver a solid performance. That seemed to be more in my skill set. And I suppose if I go back to it and continue to work my butt off, I could achieve that. But with that comes so many other obstacles, and so many other challenges...

Image, for one. I'm a little too tall, I have this crazy birthmark (more than once I've been told by the costume director, "We'll probably have to cover that. But let's see how it plays in the light." A respected Cleveland actor told me about my headshots, "I'm glad you're confident enough to show your birthmark here. But you probably can't use these.")

I for one, appreciate Laurie's comment: “I think good-looking people seldom make good television,” he said. “And American television studios almost concede before they start: ‘Well, it won’t be good, but at least it’ll be good-looking. We’ll have nice-looking girls in tight shirts with F.B.I. badges and fit-looking guys with lots of hair gel vaulting over things. So at least we’ll have achieved that base standard of entertainment.’ ” Now, I think there are some pretty competent, pretty attractive actors out there (Natalie Portman comes to mind...yes boys, I appreciate her talent, not just her looks). But the idea that you have to be pretty to be successful is just downright offensive.

I encountered a similar bias in one of my auditions for college. I walked into the audition, and the director of the Musical Theatre program looked at my application, looked at my GPA and SAT scores (enough to get me to NYU and to graduate to 10 in my high school class...) and he said to me, "Why do you want to be an actress?" Implying that I was somehow too smart to be an actor. Thank you sir, I officially hate your program.

I suppose like any business, there is plenty of crap out there, and plenty of foolish people who give a bad name to what I still believe is a truly special, and truly necessary craft. But in Hollywood, when someone casts a movie, nowadays they aren't casting a part, they're casting a celebrity. I don't want to go to a movie and see Julia Roberts fall in love with Richard Gere. I want to see characters, I want to see real people I can relate to. I can't relate to Julia Roberts. Her legs are too long and her mouth is too big. And she makes way too much money.

That's part of the beauty of acting, and the beauty of the theater. It's a space to watch other people play out our biggest hopes and our biggest fears. We let them make the mistakes, we let them speak the words that we ourselves are too afraid to say to each other. But when they are up on that stage, right in front of us, we can't help but live through it a little bit too...

That's why, this is for you Sarah Palin (ahem!), organizations like the NEA are important. Probably even more so now, when families are dealing with a bigger crisis than they've known before. How many of the great American Theater pieces are about financial instability, economic hardship, and family strife?

I don't know when this turned into a manifesto on the need for theater in an economic crisis. I just wanted to talk about how cool Hugh Laurie is.

I suppose it's on my mind, as I hear about theaters losing money, and thinking about my own future, attempting to jump onto a sinking ship and try and see what I can save. (Man, I am melodramatic.)

But, to bring it back full circle, I have a huge respect for these actors, who are intelligent, humble, talented, and can remain somewhat normal in the face of an unstable career, that puts limitless demands on you. You chose a lifestyle that I just don't want for myself. But you do wonderful things with it.

I'm going to go take a 3hour practice test. Hopefully I'll score high enough to get into a program that'll help me get a job, and give you a place to work your magic.