Hello everyone out there in cyberland! Today I have a mystery to solve...
The confusion all began last night when I received the dreaded text/email combo. I know that when the two occur simultaneously, it's what's called an "audition notice," from one of the three casting websites used for almost all acting jobs in LA. The websites are (for those of you curious about starting your own west coast career) actorsaccess.com, lacasting.com, and nowcasting.com. All actors are required by their agent to create, pay for, and maintain a profile on all three sites. Agents submit their actor's profile for the various breakdowns that only agents receive. When one receives the text/email combo, it means that the website is letting you know you have an audition. These notifications can happen at anytime, and usually have a way of turning my world upside down. If I lived in LA, I would simply acknowledge the audition notice, knowing that I would need to take an hour off work or that my shopping trip would have to be cut short. Since I live in San Diego, a notice like this means that whatever plans I had made for the rest of the day, or following day are out the window and the entire day will be spent in traffic. It can be a little traumatizing at times.
Most of my auditions come from lacasting, as they host most of the commercial breakdowns. Since I haven't heard from my theatrical agent since we agreed to work together (months and months ago), commercials are pretty much it for me. Last night, however, I received an audition notice for the music video of major recording artist. Now don't get too excited for me. Although music videos can mean a lot of exposure, they pay terribly!!!! Not to mention the fact that there's no way I'm right for this job. The role is that of "the other woman" in a sordid love triangle. Not to say I could never play "the other woman," but the pop star who's boyfriend I'd be trying to steal is like twelve. Maybe they're going with a cougar theme, if so, I'm totally in ;).
The mystery lies in the fact that I have no clue who submitted me for this job. I don't think my commercial agent would have, as it's clearly not a commercial, however, it does have the name of my agency in the audition notice. This leads me to believe that it might be possible that the theatrical agent/head of the agency submitted me. I don't know if you recall, but about a month ago, I met with said agent in an attempt to woo her and make her want to sign me. This, of course, did not happen, although the meeting did go well. Did it go so well that she decided to go ahead and toss my name in the hat? If so, this would be one of the biggest things to have happened for me since I moved to the west coast two and a half years ago. How to find out who submitted me in a causal, non desperate, non-actory kinda way? I'm sure I could shoot my commercial agent an email inquiring as to who, but I've been bugging her a lot lately, and one never wants to be too high maintenance. I guess I'll just let it float for now and continue to wonder. All of you out there, please think good thoughts for me. Maybe I could ask the product of the day for help.
