Remember when I tweeted that selfie of me . . .
All of us in blazers. All of us the same. Everywhere I look I see ‘me.’ #Solidarity #myjourneythrupilotseason pic.twitter.com/LRVE4YXVNT
— Paige Davis (@RealPaigeDavis) March 17, 2014
One line in a film. That’s what I drove over an hour to audition for today. One line in a movie. All opportunities are worthwhile, it’s true, but I almost bailed on the audition because it seemed like it’d be such massive effort for so little return. In the end, I’m very glad I decided to go.
But I wasn’t glad at first. After driving so far, I was looking forward to just getting it over with and hooking up with a friend for lunch. I signed in, took my seat, and waited to be called. It appeared that the casting director got entangled in other business and had to put the auditions on hold for a bit.
15 minutes went by.
30 minutes went by.
Before I knew it, an entire hour had ticked away. I’m now two hours into my commitment to this audition. In the meantime, women continued to make their way into the casting waiting room. At one point, I looked around to see over a dozen women, all waiting to audition as a real estate agent for the movie. All of them looking exactly like ME. All wearing blazers, all of similar age, all with similar haircuts. And it suddenly struck me as quite hilarious.
I mustered a little moxie and spoke up, “Hey, I’m sitting here gazing at all of us looking exactly the same. All of us in our blazers, staring at one another, sizing up the competition, and I can’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. I’m doing this #MyJourneyThruPilotSeason thing on Twitter and I think it would be funny as heck to do a selfie (ala Ellen-style on the Oscars) of all of us in our blazer glory…. You guys wanna?”
A few of ‘em jumped up enthusiastically and then we all busted out with laughter. We were laughing because we had shared in the misery. We were bonded. We all sat back and relaxed and started to talk and joke around. Now we were free to acknowledge and celebrate our differences. We were, believe it or not, individuals. And what felt absurd in the moment before was suddenly awesome.
I took a chance by breaking the silence, but in doing so, I also broke the ice, which turned out to be priceless.
When I see my favorite actor or actress in a role, big or small, I’m seeing the finished product. I’m not seeing the struggle for the part, the long hours of shooting nor the editing and polishing of the project. And, unless you’re s superstar in Hollywood, there are so many people also struggling for “that part”. I go to work and do the same job I’ve done for 25 years. I know that job and paycheck will be there tomorrow. It’s difficult for me to wrap my head around never knowing where your next job will come from. I’m not sure how you do it. I couldn’t. 🙂
I’d buy a house from that firm.