Fleshed-Out Characters

It's student film season. Backstage and Casting Networks are brimming with roles in films for NYFA, SVA, and NYU students.

I have my usual gripes. Broken single mothers, girlfriend to protagonist. Women are so frequently lead-adjacent. Women can be people and have characteristics of their own! However many first projects are just loving imitations of existing culture, and female characters are still having a difficult time at the box-office (action figures of Rey, anyone?). Students have yet to hear of the Bechdel test. Fine.

Ah yes, here we are. Stripper.  I would like to sit down each of these students and ask them how many strippers they know, and what they based the characters on. Are all of them really parroting what they learned from watching The Wire, and Law and Order: SVU?

I am not a sex worker. I have had friends who are. I do not think I can speak authentically to their varied experiences. Am I supposed to believe that every 19-year-old student can?

Devil's advocate: maybe the student has never run a company, organized a heist, or had a serious relationship, and we make movies about those things all the time. I say to you this may not be entirely different, but it is the least grounded, the least three-dimensional, the most repetitive trope.

I, as an adult female actor, have so few roles available to me. An alarming number of the roles in my inbox  sadly read Broken Sex Object. A stripper with a heart of gold who is conflicted about leaving her lifestyle for the One Man who can take her away from All Of This.

Dear students: please write something else. Maybe you haven't had your heart properly broken yet, you are afraid to write romance. Maybe you don't have the budget for car chases and explosions.

You are capable of so much more. Write me a role that's not a stripper. Try.

No More Christmas Carols...

The worst part of my current job is easily the incessant christmas carols being pumped into every store. No one can escape Mariah Carey. Speaking of, I need to figure out when exactly this current job ends, so I can apply for every last scrap of other work available.

I received word that one of my student films ("Nighthawks") is nearly done, and will be screened and printed to DVD this coming week. One step closer to that elusive demo reel...

I've made plans to do a photoshoot with the DP from "That Late Thursday Night". A new headshot would be lovely, but if I walk away with a good casual 3/4 body shot I'll be happy.

I've registered for a few higher-end promo companies based in NYC. My search for a sublet is premature, as anything listed now will be irrelvant/gone by the time I'm able to relocate.

I'm finding myself increasingly frustrated with my unavailability. I think the real killer right now is my lack of weekends--it nearly eliminates my chances of working on most student films and indies. Nearly all the projects listed on Actors Access seem to be posted about a week in advance, though I submit myself for the rare few listed for January and after. I find myself anxiously re-checking the prices of the online Backstage subscription, only to realize I'd be wasting a month of my expensive membership.

Lastly: outside of the professional and/or Equity calls, I've decided not to audition for more theater in the Boston area. Yes, I do need to keep working, but I'd rather not make long term commitments based on a $200 stipend and a bit role in a musical revival. New goal: land underpaid theater in New York, and start networking the crap out of it. Soon as I'm available, at least...