Distractions called life

I'm very aware that I haven’t posted since November 7th. It has been an incredibly busy month. I think that's typical for November, but somehow it feels unusual to me this year.

I've had auditions and a callback including 6 new casting directors, continued my class with Jeremiah, and done things like sending a few postcards to CDs that I know. In the meantime, I was doing the day jobs that keep the bills paid. Like many actors, I look forward to the day when acting pays the bills.

Then the distractions of the past 9 days set in (even had an audition two days before Thanksgiving...and I'm grateful!). I was given time off from my jobs and thought I would rest, workout, recuperate, pick up some sides and work out scenes with friends, go to the movies and I even thought I’d carve out time to write.

Then the phone started ringing. A family member had fallen ill and had gone to the hospital. After that there were lots of calls, searches for plane tickets and packing....then unpacking as the surgery was moved to later this week. As it turns out, it may be next week. In the meantime, everyone is keeping up with everyone and there are lots of calls and plenty of concern and emotion flying around.

And when someone's death is pending, sometimes for me previous experiences with family members dying come flooding back. My mom died a few years ago and I've been really sad from time to time, but recently, I'm more aware that she's gone, and I can't pick up the phone and call her. She held our family together and she had good advice at times like these. I miss her. I miss her especially when something really bad or really good happens in the family or in my acting career. She was my biggest fan.

Anyway, all these calls and emotional rides took their toll on me. I find when there's drama in my life, there's less of me in my acting. We're professionals right? Well, I was the tired professional the last few days. I didn’t work out daily as planned, but I did get in 6 cardio workouts and 4 lifting sessions in 9 days. And last night's class was an effort. That was the most I was able to do. Everything else I tried just didn't work out or fell to the wayside amidst the foray of my life.

So, I didn't get to do most of the things I'd planned for the holiday, but my days are emotionally rich and active with family and distractions called my life. The deeper and more fully I live, the deeper and more full my acting will be. Think about it. This is true for you, too.

Caffeine - to quit or not to quit

Ok. So, I’ve been drinking at least one cup of coffee a day for years, and in the past year, I have moved to Espresso, and two, sometimes three a day. I totally love it! I’ve tried to quit a couple times this year, but it didn’t work.

Two weeks ago, I decided that on Friday, November 4th I would quit caffeine. That really meant I was giving up coffee that I have loved and enjoyed for a long, long time. When I take meetings or get together to read scripts with friends, we meet at coffee places. My days almost always started with some kind of coffee. And when I have days that start before 5am and end the next morning, I’m inclined to have a couple throughout the day.

I chose Friday the 4th because it was close to the new moon and close to the weekend. I figured if I stopped drinking coffee Thursday afternoon and just didn’t buy any on Friday, I could get through my day-job and then sleep through the weekend if necessary.

And that’s exactly what happened. I slept much of the weekend. My head ached off and on too, but mostly I slept.

I woke up long enough to join friends in seeing In Her Shoes. I enjoyed it thoroughly and loved the cast. I knew Toni Colette was going to be very, very good! When I saw About a Boy I knew she was very much on the rise. Shirley MacLaine was terrific as the grandmother, and Cameron Diaz had some very nice moments in her role as Maggie Feller. I enjoyed the movie thoroughly and then had to go home and take another nap. LOL!

I have admired Shirley MacLaine for her books as well as her acting. I read all of her books. My two favorites are "Out on a Limb" and "The Camino, A Journey of the Spirit.” The Camino was a wonderful story of her journey and her experiences in the famous walk across Spain. The stories are almost surreal, but you know they are her truth. I love the “other lives” and “other realities” of this life and have studied them in many ways along the way. The existence of other realities is one of the many reasons that I love acting.

"A Hollywood Agent Tells All"

A Hollywood Agent Tells All was given to me by my friend, Marie Del Marco . It’s an excellent overview for new and experienced actors. I read it this weekend and remembered how lucky I am in this business. In the book, Tony Martinez suggests getting a reference to get an agent from several sources, one of those sources worked for me. He said, ”Have your teacher pick up the phone and call me.” Tony takes all references from clients, friends and family. He said,”…I can’t say no to mom.” It’s a good read. I recommend it!

My teacher and still great friend, Grant James, called my first agent while I was standing there and told him that he needed to interview me. Bruce Henney was just starting his agency at the time and he was taking inexperienced talent. To this day, I am grateful for that phone call because it launched my career. Under Bruce, I received some non-union experience and even got extra work and a couple of SAG commercials. I was “Taft-Hartlied” for the Apple Bees commercial, but did not find out until I moved to LA almost 4 years later. Lesson learned: keep track of everything, not that your agent will do anything wrong intentionally, but you just don’t know. By the time I found out I’d been a principle, my former agent had left from the industry. Nonetheless, I had gotten my SAG eligibility.

A year and a few months after joining Bruce Henney’s agency, I moved to Marquis and auditioned for Michael, the owner and head agent at the time. My audition went terribly. It was awful. After I left the audition, I called him. He took my call.

"Michael," I said, "I was awful. I could have done a much better job, but I choked. I wouldn't want to represent me with an audition like that, and I wouldn't expect you to either. Thank you for the audition any way." He said,"Sarah Jean, come back in tomorrow and we'll talk." I was blown away! Upon auditioning me again, Michael took me as one of his talent and said that he respected people who knew they were awful. "So many actors do not know when they are terrible. You knew."

I thought being at Marquis was wonderful, but two weeks later the agency was sold to Tommy and his wife. The day the deal closed, Tommy called all the talent in (about 70 of us) and explained that he and his wife were the new agents at Marquis Talent. Tommy would represent the adults and his wife would represent children and teens. Tommy was great for me. I worked often, booking industrials frequently and commercials occasionally. I appreciated these jobs, because this is bread money in the Dallas market. I also booked my first film and a small part on Walker, Texas Ranger.

One day Tommy asked me if I wanted to go to Los Angeles for week. He was taking his top ten talent, and I was on the list. I said yes without having a clue how I would pay for it. At the time I was a personal trainer and an actor, but I kept my clientele to a minimum so that I could go to auditions, classes, and shoots.

I told one of the other trainers about Tommy's offer. There were three of us at the time in a small gym personal one-to-one gym. The two other trainers told everyone. They told my clients and their clients even some of the shop keepers nearby. Everyone pitched in to raise the $1500 dollars to send me to Los Angeles. Tears of gratitude are welling up in my eyes as I write this.

In Los Angeles, I only auditioned for two agents. At the Jana Luker Agency, Jana, Kathy and I did well together. Kathy agreed to represent me commercially and in print. And a year later, Jana began representing me theatrically. I've been with them ever since. When I moved to Los Angeles and found out that I was SAG eligible, I paid my fees and joined SAG. I was absolutely thrilled!

Meanwhile, Tommy stayed in Texas and promised to continue to represent me there. However, it didn't last.

I was doing a lot of research and discovered that Dr. T and the Women would be shot in Texas and I asked Tommy to submit me. He promised he would submit me and he never did. So, I fired him and met with Linda McAlister at Linda McAlister Talent. She had been a great support to me for years even when I hadn't signed with her. She’s an excellent agent and she is an amazingly supportive agent who truly cares about her talent. She works hard for her talent. To this day, I'm still with her agency in Texas. Timing is everything. And my time has come. I am ready, my craft is ready, and I’m beginning the marketing efforts I know it takes to get noticed. It will be interesting to see the process.

Getting Started and catching you up

Thanks to gurustu, I am able to write in my blog today. I know very little so cannot link you directly to anything. However, you can see gurustu at blogger and at gurustu.com, too. Thank you, gurustu.

I basically am blogging to record my thoughts, feelings, experiences, etc as my acting career moves forward in hopes of propelling myself forward, sharing with friends and inspiring other artists. I live and work in Los Angeles, am a SAG member, and am represented across the board by the Jana Luker Agency.

I've been acting for over 10 years. They say it takes 10 years to make a good actor. I've done plenty of industrials, my fare share of commercials, and a few theatrical pieces including: One Bad Mice; Walker, Texas Ranger; and other things including plays, show cases, and directed scenes. I've taken tons of classes, too, so many that I do not write them all on my resume or any where. From time to time, I will mention my teachers. They have all played a tremendous role in my life. Two have died in recent years, one a very dear friend - Jeff Alexander, who I miss dearly many days, and Zina Provendie, who I studied with for only a short while but influenced me deeply. She was a powerful woman and a wonderful teacher.

Early last calendar year I got stuck and couldn't seem to move my craft forward. I knew I really wasn't that castable yet and that my acting needed to be more open. I was holding back but did not know why and have spent years trying to get past myself. I had flashes of terrific work but could not consistently repeat it. So, I took a whole year off from May 2004-May 2005. I wanted to see if I could live without acting and see if a break could help me create a breakthrough. I didn't take any classes, didn't send one postcard, didn't submit myself for a single thing. The only thing I did was go to auditions for which my agents called me. Oh, someone suggested I attend events. So, I lucked out and met Jennifer Beals, whom I admire and respect, and Jamie Foxx.

I spent the year reflecting, going to weddings, and spending time with family and friends. I even went to NYC and saw "Wicked" and "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels." I loved Wicked, and John Lithgow was wonderful in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. In the late 90's, I was a reporter for a local Dallas cable show called "StageDallas." My beat was the Dallas Summer Musicals, so I saw everything that eventually went to Broadway and interviewed some terrific actors including: Phyllis Diller and Ronnie Claire Edwards among others. Until this summer, my favorite musical was "Jekyll and Hyde" by Andrew Lloyd Weber, which I'd seen in Dallas and had interviewed the starring cast. It seems many people missed that one. My new favorite is "Wicked," and I'm looking forward to Andrew Lloyd Weber's "Women in White" that opens on Broadway in November.

I was inspired by the Broadway shows and came back to LA to prep myself for better days in acting. During the year off, I learned that I was free to leave acting and that my life wouldn't be ruined if I didn't act. In essence, I was free to go, and therefore, I was free to stay. I decided to stay and became more committed than ever.

I started eating better - mostly organic foods, working out a little more, and took a couple of casting director classes that lasted 4 weeks each. The two casting directors were Joe D'Agosta and Holly Powell - both through Nowcasting. Both CDs had helpful information. Holly had some tips that could have saved me from mistakes. I wish I'd taken her class before I went to producers for 90210 and before I went into a producer's session with John Wells for Presidio Med. Neither one went well. I had more to learn.

After the casting director workshops, Danielle Eskinazi brought me in for an audition for a Sutter Health commercial. The audition went well and the callback went even better. At the callback, I didn't quite understand the cameraman when he gave a direction. One of the 10 people in my peripheral vision spoke up and impressed me. She directed a question to the cameraman and in doing so gave me the information I needed. I thought she was excellent. By directing her question to him, she had respected him while indirectly giving me the information that I needed. It turned out later that she was the director who hired me. Her name is Carolyn Chin.

After the callback, I was called in for another first audition for a new scene that they had created. They auditioned another woman and me to see if we could pass as sisters. My name is Sarah Jean Fry, the woman who auditioned us was Sarah, and the woman who would play my sister was Sarah Jane Hale. There were three women and all of us were named Sarah! And get this, my friends call me SJ...and Sarah Jane's friends call her SJ, too. I knew it was destiny. And so it was.

They cast us and we shot one afternoon in a swimming pool. It was great fun! 4 hours of nearly non-stop swimming and diving. Since there was a lot of diving, I was given a stunt bump, meaning I was paid as an actress and a stuntwoman that day. I loved that day. I was back in the acting game and thrilled to be there! It wasn't all acting since we didn't have lines per se, but we had to show a connection with each other and develop a relationship. So, acting was required.

For the first time in years, I sent out postcards and told CDs that I had booked a commercial. I've had a few auditions since and also started back to my acting class. I've had tons of classes over the years with all different kinds of focus. Saving more information on that for another time. In late August, I just needed the final class to help me break through and I knew just where to go. So, I called The Art of Film Acting: A Guide For Actors and Directors" (well, the first 8 chapters anyway, lol) and upon his advice in the book coupled with his reminder in two classes in a row, I began sight reading on a daily basis. I've often procrastinated this effort, but this time it stuck. I've missed a day here and there but for the most part I read every day and sometimes twice in addition to auditions, Jerry's class and CD workshops.

Since then my work has moved to a new level. I feel like I've finally become fluent in acting. Jeremiah's class and his book were the things I needed to make my final breakthrough. Now I consistently work well in audition and cold readings.

Last night, Tony and I worked on a scene from "Whose Life is It Anyway." Remember we only read the script once and then we go. It was a powerful scene and we were very connected. I cried and completely let go. It's some of the best work I've ever done. And I'll be doing a lot more of it from now on. I am free.

The other big milestone I just crossed isn't big to a lot of people, but I found myself in the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB - free & IMDBpro - membership) yesterday. I've been trying for years, off and on, to be added for my part in "One Bad Mice" (1997) to no avail. However, this summer, I read the credits again and it turns out I was "Help" not waitress. Evidently someone else at IMDB looked up a copy, too and found the same thing. So, I've finally been added. My goal is to add all the other info including representation and biographical information this week. And I'll also be creating a reel that is long over due and a website, too.

More tomorrow.