New York has a minute of time to make an impression. L.A. has a single second.
By Casting Director Carmen Aiello
Being passionate and constantly inspired is mandatory as an Artist. Because that is all that we are driven to do and feel is passion and inspiration in every moment.
YOUR STORY MATTERS
Let’s take it back to our foundation. Whether it’s seeing your first movie that made you want to act or your first elementary school play or seeing your first tour of Les Miserables. Pick a situation where you remember when you were first inspired to become an Actor/Artist. Maybe it was a family member who brought it to your attention or maybe it was in a dream or maybe you have just felt this your whole life. Some people were working corporate jobs as lawyers or in school to be a doctor and then one day it just hit them: This is not my life I am meant to ACT.
IT’S OBTAINABLE
Everyday this feeling is obtainable because it lives in you and breathes through you everyday in everything you do. So many people don’t know how to communicate with an Artist. They just don’t…get it. You can sit there and explain it to them for hours taking all of your energy and just get back a blank stare. There is no need for reciprocation in being passionate and inspired. It is something that you feel and that no one else can feel because no one else has the same story as you.
THEATRE VS FILM ACTORS
I notice there is sometimes a difference between theatre actors and film actors. The theatre actors are all about the art. The film actors are all about the recognition. There is a life after you act in a movie as it gets distribution and your credit is marked in history for everyone to see. In theatre many times the moment only lives in that moment and therefore, theatre actors live for those moments because when it’s over, it’s over and then available through memory and stories. The stories that live on screen can be revisited and seen over and over.
I appreciate both sides as I came from theatre and moved to TV/FILM. But the foundation of starving to work on artistic stage projects was a hunger that I wanted more than life or love itself. Anything I could sacrifice would fall to the floor as I pursued my theatre career in Chicago. Successfully driven but starved of a personal life. When I moved to L.A. I utilized the same energy to jumpstart my career and found a job in three days in the middle of the writer’s strike. I just knew it was the time and a calling to move here.
BROADWAY VS HOLLYWOOD
Broadway. The lights. The music. The plays. The musicals. Actors working towards any opportunity to be in the ensemble of a Broadway show. Walking around New York doing absolutely everything they can to be on the stage while maintaining their finances, dance
classes, singing classes and performing in underground venues hoping they will be discovered. But when you meet these Actors – there is a light in their eyes looking to the back of the theatre hoping to be under the stage lights pouring their hearts into a show eight times a week.
L.A. has all that momentum but executives fail to immediately dig to the core of the artist. We are constantly worried about what car we drive, where we dine, shop, wear and what we say on social media at every single moment of the day. We always have to be on the move here and know everyone making impressions from how we look to how we feel. Everyone wants to be rich and famous.
My personal saying is that New York has the famous “minute” of time to make an impression. L.A. has a single second. This city moves so fast that one day can feel like an entire year. By the time you get home at the end of the day you can sometimes forget how you started it off.
For many actors and from many conversation I have had with actors, L.A. is about fame and percentages. Broadway is about artistic passage and freedom.
FIND THE BALANCE
You have to find a balance but there is no balance for what drives you. It’s a constant motion of being inspired and passionate every day for what you do. And if you are misunderstood or not appreciated by your loved ones for your sacrifice to join the circus of artists – it’s ok. It’s a personal journey that only another artist can understand. You can’t expect everyone to “get you.” Artists are misunderstood bodies of moving art. WE move through life freely resisting temptation to conform to society. There are little rules because all rules can be broken. But a true Artist can never be broken. Artists are unbreakable.
DREAM BIG
Think of the opportunities you have to make an impression. Fight the traffic to act in an audition. Give every moment your one-hundred percent. Turn your dreams into a reality by feeling yourself in every moment while you pour your heart into your career.
Stay passionate and inspired everyday. You are absolutely worth it and people will see it if you show it. Hold your head high and walk with pride – not with ego. Be humble and be strong. Being an Artist means everything to you and others will want to be inspired by your actions. As much as this is a tough city – being inspired is what makes us all vulnerable.
YOU ARE VALIDATED
You have passed the test! you do not need to be validated! You are simply validated because you are who you are. Some moments you will win and other moments you will keep moving forward. Let nothing take away your love of being an Artist.
Being passionate and inspired means everything. Stay that way.
Do you have a story to tell? Click here to learn how actors just like you can get ahead in the industry and give your story the audience it deserves.