Dry, But A Few Drops

Well, the writer's strike is over. Actors are still on strike. Work is still very dried up. But that pilot I was in is planning to shoot the second episode, and my role involves no lines, but three goons and looks that cause discomfort to their recipient. So I did what any actor would do in my situation; I asked if I could name the goons, and the director obliged.

That same director had also written a superhero cartoon comedy script years ago and I told him that I had written one too. So we exchanged scripts. I gave him notes on his (which was very dated in its references and had some glaring character and plot issues, but had built a whole world), which he said were good notes. And he sounded open to collaborating on it. And he had previously pitched it to Disney, but his partner, who was better at articulating the narrative aspect, had dropped out on him at the last minute. And I thought, "Well I can do that part of the pitch." And the voice acting as well.

I had a friend in med school on the island, one of the few other white people and a Texan, and his wife had done video production and music. They are now divorced, but I made sure to like all of her social media posts promoting her own music, and she was kind enough to recommend me to be the face for a social media campaign. It is street interviews, and they wanted zany answers from people. I told them that I could not just force people to have and share good stories, but I could write some bizarre questions. I pitched a couple options and they loved them, and said that this could be a recurring gig. I had fortunately already been thinking of doing something similar on my own, so this was easy to get my mind around. And I discovered that writing these questions felt like writing one-liners, but a little easier. Start the question in one place, end in a very different place as a punchline, and then the tag is the genuinely curious look on my face combined with holding the mic to them. So we should be shooting that soon. Oh, and it pays well! $500 for a half day, which is well above SAG minimum.

Today, I texted the guy who directs my foreign film dubs to ask him to introduce me to his voice actors who had found representation, or directly to that representation. I am trying to write my own opportunities to act, but it would obviously be so much easier if I could find some representation.