Yesterday I got into Harvard's MFA in Acting, and today I did my audition for THE Actors Studio (affiliated with Pace University)...
...AND GOT IN!
Once again, beyond happiness and excitement and disbelief. They told me straight away - minutes after I walked out the room. Said they wanted "something nice for me to fly home with" and offered me a position starting this fall.
Whaaaat!?
So happy. The course co-presidents of the school are Academy Award Winners Al Pacino (Glengarry, The Godfater), Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs, Thelma & Louise), and Ellen Burnstyn (Requiem for a Dream, The Exorcist).
The curriculum is so focused on Acting - without any particular focus on a specific medium (TV, Film or Theatre) - which is what I've been hopelessly searching for in the theatre-crazed city.
AND students take part in the famous James Lipton Series: Inside The Actors Studio, of which, this is one of my all-time favorites:
(Oh, and two Alumnimunimni are nominated at the Oscars this year: Bradley Cooper and Sally Field).
To update you first: I have done 3 out of 6 auditions. All of them have taught me much more than I could've asked for. Especially Juilliard - which I didn't get into. I've since realized (and it's taken me the full week to realize it completely) that it's probably a blessing in disguise. I was bruised and battered and buried under the reality of it my 'failure' and guess what? I'm still here. I'm still alive. And I will win if you bet I haven't learnt one of the most important lessons for an actor to learn:
"Right afterThe Tree of Life(2011) came out, I started hearing about strategies for my career. And I made a decision that I wasn't going to do anything based on a strategy. If I don't continue to challenge myself and risk failure, I have no business being an actor. I'm not an actor to be a personality. I want to see every part I take like a master class. And you know what? I'm going to fail sometimes. And that's OK. Because when you fail, you learn more."
-Jessica Chastain.
Since my Juilliard audition, I've had a lot of ups and downs trying to figure out what I can do to be better. And so many ideas run through my mind but I can't do it all and I have to be clever when it comes to designing my 'practice' because another thing I've learnt up here at the 'centre of the universe' is that there are millions more just like me trying to do what I want to do.
By the way, beautiful brainiac, Jonathan Sierck recommended this book to me and it's brilliant and if you nodded your head even subconsciously while reading that last sentence, you should read it:
So, here I am, left with trying to work out how to do this because I am hell-bent on doing it and doing it properly. I joined Juilliard's mailing list (before the audition... awkward) and a few days ago I got a mail from them advertising an exclusive 'Conversation with Jessica Chastain' at Lincoln Centre, Friday 3pm.
Wow. I went on my own today to experience (because 'listening', 'observing', or 'attending' would not do this justice) Jessica Chastain speaking about everything from going to Juilliard, through her many incredible films, her methods and challenges, to fellow actors and directors, projects, theatre and work ethic. At the end there was a short Q&A and without preparing or deciding to actually ask a question, my hand shot up and they selected me to ask her - best actress nominee - anything I wanted.
And the first question that came to mind (probably because of how much thought I'd given it for the past week) was at 52:30 in this live recording of the conversation. And the answer, so simple and brilliant, has catapulted me psychologically to where I need to be to make it happen for myself.
"Do the work when no one's watching."
And I will thank her to her face on the other side of the work.
On Friday I had my audition for A.C.T. and then got called back for the preliminary round of call backs that night in NYC, and THEN: I watched Tarantino's latest masterpiece, Django Unchained.
So, all-in-all it was a great day. The callback was a lot of fun - we had a very informative chat / Q&A with the lecturers, did a little voice warm up, a cold reading, our monologues (SO nice to audition with a little bit of an audience) and then had to sing a song each. Wow. Singing in America is like apologizing in South Africa - almost everyone is really good at it. And then they let us out and said that if they want to see us at the final callbacks on the 1st of March, we'll find out by then. So, now we wait. And then Django Unchained. Wow. It is Tarantino's most complete movie yet. It is also his most vital. His storytelling talents match the heft of the tale. Also, Jamie, Christoph, Leo, Samuel and Kerry made for an ensemble quite as tight as the Silver Linings Playbook team (which, in my eyes - is close to perfection).
Also, in the scene where DiCaprioconfronts Waltzand Foxx's characters he actually cuts his hand when slamming it into the table. He just kept going with the scene (which Tarantinocalled "mesmerizing"). Reminded me of bloody injuries in Streetcar last year. And, by the way, this is Samuel L Jackson's SIXTH film with Tarantino.
So, Friday was the best day I've had in New York so far. X
I got through round one of the American Conservatory Theatre audition process. Whoop whoop. It was a lot of fun auditioning. Callbacks are this evening so I call on the spirits of their notable alumni to give me the following qualities, respectively:
Denzel Washington: Quiet brilliance.
Annette Bening: Heart and Vigour.
Elizabeth Banks: Colour, an afro and ability to work with J-Law.
My bloggage has been reasonably unreliable lately. So, this post is just to catch up where I'm at:
I graduated, I was in a play ('The View'), I'm following the Oscars like De Niro follows the Eagles in my new favourite film ('Silver Linings Playbook') and I don't care what you say about it, AND I am currently living in New York City.
Just for two months. But like, proper living here. It's crazy. And it's amazing. And clearly. Taking away my. Ability to. Write long sentences.
But jokes aside, I'm loving it.
A lot of people have asked me to keep them updated on what's happening here because I'm auditioning for a bunch of schools which I won't divulge too much about. Basically, my MFA in Acting at The Actors Studio / Juilliard / A.C.T / A.R.T / BrownTrinity.
So here I will post random shit and bizarre NYC things and information about my auditions. Mainly for my family. But if you're not family, that's cool, too. Sort of. Just don't judge. Or do. Whatever. NYC.
In the meantime, I'd like you to meet The Cleaning Woman. She's pretty cranky, but she got me through the 'prescreening' video audition round at Juilliard:
My auditions are all in the next four weeks. Pray for me, please.
Brings a new meaning to serious audition work. We go into castings and we're so concerned about ourselves and our look and our personality - which, granted, is all very important - but I know I've never just clearly worked on straight up this is the story and this is what I want stuff like she does in this video. It may not be perfect. But it's pretty insane for an audition tape. Especially considering she got the script the night before.
I fucking got in. I can't contain myself. I've been jumping around and screaming like a crazy person, which, anyone who knows me would say is very unusual. I'm just not like that. So... I'm pretty damn excited! I just wanna kiss someone!
The agent I saw was a woman named Janet and she was really much sweeter and friendlier than I had imagined her to be but was also super straight with me about things one normally wouldn't want to have been straight to about. Make sense? Like, she told me my big front teeth don't need to be seen so I need to practice smiling in a way that connects the essence of my smile to the viewer of the photograph or footage but without showing my front teeth OR looking like a spaz who's trying to hide her front teeth.
I also had to do some impromptu accent work for her. That was intimidating. Wow.
And then I did my trusty Juno monologue and got a couple laughs but she said the beginning was too fast - a crit I ALWAYS get. It's really a problem for me. Perhaps it's the nerves. Probably. I'll trump that shit. Eventually.
The whole process made me wonder what all the big guys went through at their first meeting with an agent. I wish I could watch the footage... But for now. Some pics of Bonnie Timmermann's actors in their early days:
and a couple more...
(hahah! Look at the similarity between Sandra Bullock and George Clooney!)
...and, last but not least:
... my favourite: Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow and Uma Thurman.
I'm auditioning for an actors agency tomorrow morning. This is my monologue. I love the humour in this script.
JUNO
My dad used to be in the Army. He and my mom got divorced when I was five. She lives on a Havasu reservation in Arizona with her new husband and three replacement kids. Oh, and she inexplicably mails me a cactus every Valentine’s Day. And I’m like, “Thanks a heap, Cayote Ugly. This cactus-gram stings even worse than your abandonment.” My stepmom’s Brenda. She’s obsessed with dogs, owns a nail salon called ‘Bren’s Tens’, and she always smells like methylmethacrylate.
Juno Macguff. That’s my name. And the lady behind the bulletproof glass at the waiting room for Women Now – who allegedly help women now – thinks I’m using a fake name. Like Gene Simmons or Mother Teresa. She tried to give me these weird condoms that looked like grape suckers, and she told me about her boyfriend’s pie balls, and Su-Chin Kuah was there, and she told me the baby had fingernails. Fingernails! So. I’m staying pregnant.
I was thinking maybe I could give the baby to somebody who actually likes that kind of thing. You know, like a woman with a bum ovary or something. Or some nice Lesbos.
But come on. I can’t scope out wannabe parents in the Penny Saver! That’s tacky. That’s like buying clothes at the Pump ‘n Munch. I was thinking more like a graphic designer, mid-thirties, and his cool Asian wife who dresses awesome and plays bass. But I’m trying to not be too particular.
Because, you know, hey, this’ll all be resolved in thirty-odd weeks. And then we can pretend it just never happened. I mean, I’d give it away now, I would. But it probably looks like a Sea Monkey at this point, so I think we should leave it in there for a while until it gets cuter, you know.
