Wilma Acts As If

Act As If: Stumbling Though Hollywood With Headshot in Hand is my book of essays about the life of a journeyman actor in Hollywood, a life I lived for twenty years. It's not easy work, but it's hilarious if you bring your attitude.

The book comes out in August. In celebration, Wilma shows us how to Act As If. 

Here's Wilma with John, acting as if she's dangerous.

Here's Wilma with her bunny, acting as if she's a big time squirrel hunter. (I'm sorry, Bunny.)

Here's Wilma, acting like she owns everything in the house. She doesn't.
(Photo by John Sandel. Raised bowls thanks to Bellis.)

Here's Wilma with John again, acting like—actually, she's not acting here. She's being herself.

I discuss these techniques and more in Act As If, and I give each topic all the gravitas or hilarity (or both) it deserves. Wilma is a very good actor.

Best of 2013

It's customary for daily photo bloggers around the world to do a "best of" retrospective on January 1st. I'm not a daily photo blogger anymore but I have some 2013 favorites I'd like to share. Being the unpredictable nonconformist you know me to be, I'm sharing them a day late.

Also a reminder: PasadenaDailyPhoto.com will no longer lead you here after January 7th. You can still arrive via LivingVicuriously.net or PasadenaDailyPhoto.blogspot.com. Please change your bookmark because I would hate to lose you!

And remember, January 6th (Monday) is the deadline for public comment on the County Department of Public Works' plan to demolish Hahamongna. Susan Campisi has set up a Facebook page with helpful letters and links.

And now, my faves:

Do they really have these in Venice?

I don't know why, but I love this.

Here's a series I took in Hollywood. Lucky.

At home, on the back porch:

And finally, walking in the neighborhood at night.

Light, its behavior and the lack of it. That makes me want to take a picture.

Zen Monday #272

Hello, and welcome to Zen Monday. This is the day when you tell us what the photo's about, rather than me telling you.

Ah, December in southern California.

Act As If

Readers of Living Vicuriously will hear it first: my new book is almost finished.

This is a bit of a lie, it's not like I wrote the whole thing this summer. That wouldn't be a good book, not from me, because it takes me time to get it right. If I tell you I wrote something last week and I'd like you to read it, just smile and say, "Sorry, I have some emergency knitting to do."

But this book took time. It's based on a series of columns I wrote from 2004-2008, called "Act As If." "Act As If" appeared (and still does, occasionally), in the ActorsInk enewsletter from NowCasting.com. It's directed at actors, as if you haven't figured that out yet.

Comedy and tragedy are closely linked. Really, you can take the same situation and look at it from either angle and be right. "Act As If" was a humor column, and I've put the best columns in the book, edited them and brought them up to date. It's short, light reading, but don't read it while you're waiting for an audition.

I wrote mostly funny stories about my acting career, which wasn't exactly tragic but wasn't exactly triumphant either. The same things happen to all actors - bad auditions, forgotten lines, museum-quality parking ticket collections -  and we'd better learn to laugh about them or waiters and baristas everywhere will be sobbing into your iced latte. The last time I saw a statistic, only 2% of the actors in Hollywood were actually making a living. That doesn't mean they were stars. And that was only union members, back when the economy was good.

I hope to have the book ready later this fall. We're working on a cover. Plus I'll need some blurbs. Do you have Jim Carrey's number? How about David Mamet? Harrison Ford? Jennifer Aniston?

I know. You have some knitting to do.

Commute, Hollywood

Afternoon Light in Studio D

Boz got to go with me to Hollywood yesterday. He doesn't much like voice-overs, but he gets a lot of attention at the studio so he tolerates "going to work."

Afternoon light in studio D is only one of the many pleasures of my weekly visit to Bell Sound Studios. There's also an espresso maker, a fully-stocked fridge, and the nicest, most talented staff you could ever want to work with.

Commute, 11

You can't take the freeway all the way from Pasadena to Hollywood. You've got to take surface streets a good part of the time.

Sometimes I take Santa Monica Blvd. instead of Beverly Blvd. Santa Monica is not all like this. It has interesting stretches, though Beverly is more lively more of the time.

I'm told Santa Monica is faster than Beverly, but I prefer Beverly. Go figure.

Commute, 6

This alley in Hollywood runs north and south, between and parallel to Highland and Citrus Avenues. I've just turned north from Willoughby. I believe the address of the big, white building in the background is 1025 N. Highland, at the corner of Highland and Romaine. It houses film industry-type of businesses, including a film archive company.

Surrounding us in the alley are the backsides of recording studios, dubbing companies, photo labs and such. Some of the buildings, like the big one in the background, date to the 1920's. Filmmakers and recording artists have been coming through here since Hollywood's beginnings, getting the work done.

I like these buildings and their day-to-day workings of Hollywood. There's not much glamour here (though it passes through from time to time), but there is history.

Commute, 1

Last week folks reacted positively to the Anawalt elephant. I see a lot of interesting things on my Wednesday commute to Hollywood. I don't get to photograph all of them because I'm driving, but if and when traffic stops (and it does, oh yes it does), I pass my wait time taking pictures of the good stuff. So perhaps Thursday is a good time to post the shots I get on the Wednesday drive.

I took this one on Santa Monica Blvd. somewhere around the junction of Hollywood and Silverlake (the areas, not the boulevards). I haven't been down Santa Monica Blvd. lately so I'm not sure if it's still there. I'm glad I got it when I did.

I had this photo for a while before I noticed what was extra special about this artwork.

Drive-By Elephant

I think I've mentioned before that I take an excursion (I excurse) to Hollywood once a week for a voice-over job. It is a delight, a great job. I'm fortunate to have it.

Around the corner from where I record at Bell Sound Studios is the Hollywood location of Anawalt Lumber at 1001 N. Highland Avenue. I've long wanted to take a picture of their elephant. I haven't had the opportunity, though, because I always forget the elephant until I'm in the car, and traffic doesn't stop long enough at this corner (this is the Romaine St. side of the building). Yesterday, though, lucky me! The guy in front of me just couldn't get a break to turn onto Highland Avenue, so I got to take a quick pic.

I believe the elephant is the Anawalt logo. This one's nicely done, though I'm worried about the future of his tusks.

He Make Movies

Along about the time I started this blog (1/1/08) I was transitioning from an acting career into writing. I didn't know at the time why I lost interest in acting, though it's clearer to me now. I'd been working in Hollywood, in small parts on television. At first it was exciting--let's face it, it's fun to be on TV and it's an honor, too, because there's a lot of competition. But I found myself playing the same parts over and over again.

When you work in the Hollywood entertainment industry, unless you're a mogul you're always working for one--serving someone else's vision, supporting someone else's story, making someone else's dream come true. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you've ever wondered why even famous actors sometimes perform live theater for free, perhaps this makes it clear. Hollywood's not about art, it's about money. That's why you see remakes, why "blockbuster" films feel formulaic. They are.

Not so independent films. Their makers don't hold the big purse strings, but like self-publishing authors they are finding ways to make movies. Smaller movies. Different movies. Often better movies.

Which brings me to my husband, John. He's an independent filmmaker--a self-published filmmaker, if you will, "independent" isn't exactly the word. John's part of a collective called We Make Movies. I told you about We Make Movies when John and I went to a screening a few months ago. WMM was formed by indie filmmakers to help each other make their movies by sharing resources and working together. It started out as a couple of people. Now they have more than 500 members: actors, writers, producers and other film artists.

John produced a video for WMM's Kickstarter spring funding effort (other members shot, edited and participated, as you'll see). You could watch this video. You could even kick in a buck or two if you are so inclined. (It won't make you a mogul, but there are no moguls here, which is kind of the idea.) In the video, John explains (in fewer words than I've used here) why independent filmmaking is important. You get to see him in action! Sort of! (Well, he sits and talks, and he's wearing the same t-shirt in the video as in this photo!)

And if WMM reaches their fundraising goal you'll get to see John's short film, because his script was selected for funding this time around.

Zen Monday: #175

photo by John Sandel

Zen Monday's the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what I think the picture's about. There's no competition, no right or wrong. We're here to have fun.

John took this one in Hollywood. It's a bit of a cheat, maybe, but too good not to share.

Zen Monday: #151

Zen Monday is the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what the photo's about.

I took today's Zen Monday photo in Hollywood. Okay, so I'm cheating. At least I'm an honest cheat.

I Might be Able to Get You its Fax Number

Kevin over at East of West L.A. photographed a courtyard not long ago. (Go! Peruse his noir!) It reminded me of my reaction to Los Angeles upon moving to the area: nostalgia. Yet I hadn't been here before.

Why did roaming the streets of a new city make me long for -- what? home? youth? Yes, but not my home, not my youth.

I'd been watching Los Angeles on television all my life. I thought I knew the place and I did, but I didn't know it as itself. I knew it as the place where cowboys rode herd, where Samantha cast spells on Darin, where ET landed and made his phone call home. Seeing it in person was like seeing a movie star and feeling like you know them personally. You don't. You only know the role they play.

Most interiors are shot on a soundstage where lighting and sound can be controlled, but exteriors are usually shot in real places. When an actor steps out of a doorway and kisses his wife the doorway's often real, even if the wife isn't. When the heroine drives down the street it's a real street. The kids play softball on a real ball field and the lovers stroll in a real park, whether it's a movie, a TV show or a commercial.

Show business is still a major industry in Los Angeles County. You can see production trailers in Pasadena, South Pasadena and Altadena every day, especially in areas where no palm trees give southern California away. But it's soCal all the same. Always was, even before I came to know it personally.

Zen Monday: #131

photo by John Sandel

Students of Zen are taught through experience.

Please experience the photo and tell us, in the comments, what you have learned.

(Your first Zen Monday? Just have fun.)