December 20, 2005

• Making the Move

  
  

   

  
  

  I’ve been emailing back and forth with a reader/aspiring actor about to make the move to Los Angeles to pursue his career.  I felt a lot of what’s been going on in our dialogues might be beneficial to any actors out there planning the same – so here they are:. 

  
  

   

  
  

  Parry,

  
  

      I’m about 6 to 8 months away from moving to L.A.  I’ve been doing exactly what you said about building a war chest.  I put away about 63% of every paycheck and should have a very nice chunk of change by Summer of 2006.  When you first moved to L.A. did you look for a job that had something to do with your business degree?  I’m just curious what you did.  My thinking is that I would get an engineering job in the L.A. area and then start the whole process of getting an agent and taking more acting classes, etc.  Then after a few years when things start to pick up on the acting side, I’ll eventually have to quit my engineering job (or get fired because I keep taking off work to audition).  Is that the right way to go about it?  I don’t want to be like everyone else in L.A. and be an aspiring actor/waiter.  You know what I mean?  If you could do it all again, what would you do?  Thanks!  – MIKE

  
  

   

  
  

  Mike,
      #8 in Part 4 of this recent (article) by Erin Quill has always rang true in my opinion:
  
  Top Ten Ways to Absolutely, Positively Keep APAs off TV
  
  1. Grab the head of the Screen Actor’s Guild Diversity Department by the throat at a ‘minority’ showcase after you’ve overturned a table and start choking him. Do it in front of about 200 people so you can’t deny it.
  2. Protest all Asian roles that you yourself have been considered for, but did not land.
  3. Talk about the Great White Plot really loudly in ABC, NBC or CBS Executive offices.
  4. Start attacking all APA network executives with the label banana-assed sellout when they do not agree with you. Or when they go to work for FOX. Or marry white guys.
  5. When you join committees that intend to “make a difference,” be sure to start as such infighting as possible so that nothing can be accomplished.
  6. Protest Asian American theater companies who continually push the creative limits because they are portraying “negative APA images”.
  7. Make sure that you proclaim the opinion “hapas” involved in entertainment projects negates the term “diversity” because we all know “dem bitches is white.”
  8. Don’t study acting, dance, art, music or anything that is vaguely creative — just jump right in there from engineering or business because “anyone can do it”.
  9. Absolutely never, ever mentor anyone less experienced than yourself — and generally avoid other Asians like SARS.
  10. French kiss Jay Leno after he makes yet another joke about APAs eating dogs.
  
  Having the war chest is good but an occupation as intensive and time consuming as engineering/business/law/medicine/bio chem is really going to overtake your life — you won’t feel like taking those 3 hour acting classes twice a week and meeting with your scene partner in between to rehearse,  much less have the time for it after an 8+ hour workday.
  
  Although waitering/bartending is such an actor statistic — it fits the mold of the ideal sidejob that an actor needs – 1) extremely flexible 2) good money for the amount of time put in 3)  mindless/ relatively simple so that it doesn’t tax you too much mentally and 4) you’re less likely to get “trapped” doing it forever because the money/security is so great.
  
  I was a dorm parent at a boarding HS.  In the daytime when the kids were in school, that’s when I took classes, auditioned, found an agent, etc.  And when I was working at the school, I was just hanging out with the kids and taking them to the movies.  Plus I got free room/board along with medical benefits/salary — so I had no expenses and was saving a lot of money even though I was making no money from acting (which lasted for about 2 years).
  
  But then again, there is no one “correct” path.  If you can make it work,  the more power to you — just know that those instances are rare.  Use your knowledge of the obstacles in your situation to your advantage.  Like being aware of  the obstacles going into a long distance relationship.
  
  Having a war chest is a good start and 63% of a paycheck is more than 90% of the people in this country do. But one day, you’ll be faced with either keeping that nice salary you make as an engineer or the average $15,000/yr that 95% of the members of the Screen Actors Guild earn.
  
  If I had to do it all over again, I’d change nothing — it was the perfect situation for me. The only thing I’d change is that I would get more formal training earlier (like when I was in college).  Good luck!  -parry

  
  

   

  
  

   

  
  

   

  
  

  
  

  Parry,

  
  

       Thanks for sharing your experiences with me.  I agree with everything that you said.  I used to think like #8, but now that I’ve gotten more involved in the scene, I realized that not everyone can do it.  I totally understand about being “trapped”.  I’m definitely enjoying the salary and the prestige, but I still have my goal in mind and I’m moving towards it step by step.  I remember reading one of your xanga posts that said to do something everyday to make yourself better.  Since there aren’t any acting classes here, I go to the gym almost everyday to try and get that “hollywood physique” — haha.  Did you have a cut-off point when you first started out?  For example, did you give yourself 3 years to try the acting bit, and if you hadn’t made any big progress after 3 years, you would go back to the business field?  Is it wrong to have a backup plan?  Most people say that if you have a backup plan, you’re most likely going to end up using that backup plan.  - MIKE

  
  

   

  
  

  Mike-

  
  

      The fact that you are doing the “1 thing a day” for your career shows that you’re already doing a lot more than a lot of talkers.

  
  

   

  
  

  There’s nothing wrong with having a backup plan, just as long as you give Plan A a realistic timeline.  You’re looking at at least 3-5 years to really just get something started and making a living out of it.  Some take longer, some take less.  But it’s important to achieve about 5 small, attainable, benchmark goals every year — all leading to the bigger picture.  (Ex: Year 1: take classes, get headshots.  Year 2: Get into SAG, correspond to 30 casting directors a month via mailers, book 2 jobs either commercial/film/tv.  Year 3: Book 5 jobs, write screenplay,  Year 5: 1 lead role in a film, etc).  Map out your desired path (realistically) over the span of 5-10 years on paper.

  
  

   

  
  

  Then at the end of each year, you have to be brutally honest with yourself and take inventory to see how your career’s going.  Which of the goals have you attained?  What can you do to get back on the “path”?  Maybe the path’s been adjusted and you have to compensate (Ex: You’re booking lots of commercials but no film/tv work –  maybe try a different instructor that teaches more film actors, etc.).  I guarantee if you keep doing that diligently year after year, that backup plan won’t even be a consideration.  -p

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