A Broadway Production. An Audition. An Agent. An Arrogant Actor. Danger Will Robinson…

This week as I was sitting at a talent agency I witnessed a first-rate screw-up by an actor that jeopardized his relationship with a Broadway casting office, director, producer and agent all in one simultaneous, mind-blowing shoot-themselves-in-the-career crash.

We all make mistakes.

I’ve made plenty (even here openly on this intermesh thing).

After three decades of working with, and for actors, I’m still surprised by the career destroying screw-ups that some actors will willingly and without-thought-to-consequences do with what little gray matter may pulse within in their cranium.

This week as I was sitting at a talent agency I witnessed a first-rate screw-up by an actor that jeopardized his relationship with a Broadway casting office, director, producer and agent all in one simultaneous, mind-blowing shoot-themselves-in-the-career crash. It also made me never want to work with the actor as well.

For this exercise we’ll tag him as Actor-Withholding-On-Logic; a.k.a. A.W.O.L.

A.W.O.L. dumped his agent, via a weekend e-mail missive, for he felt that his life was quote “boring” and he needed a change (no, that’s not the main mistake for my mussing here, although being bored and leaving your agent because the Prozac dosage is no longer controlling the mood swings could be considered a career careening crash).

As I was chatting in the talent agent’s office a call came from another casting director’s office (one that I once worked at). The casting director, along with a well-known director, choreographer and several producers were sitting curious at a casting session for an upcoming Broadway production. They were left waiting for an actor who had not shown up to his scheduled appointment for a leading role within the production. The M.I.A. actor? A.W.O.L.

A.W.O.L.’s former agent got off the phone with the now irritated casting director and called A.W.O.L. to ask why he had not shown up to the appointment he confirmed to attend. He had gotten the audition appointment via his agent well before trashing said talent rep. A.W.O.L. informed his former champion that he felt he no longer had to attend the audition because he had just left the agency. Excuse me?!?

So here was an unemployed actor who had just dumped his agent while also dumping upon a casting office and a production team for Broadway. Can someone explain to me, especially in this economic climate why such arrogance (and obvious ignorance) exists? Wait, I may have answered my question; arrogance and ignorance are close cousins.

What’s the moral here? No matter what your relationship with your representation, an Paul's book ACTING: Make It Your Business!actor is to keep their commitment to confirmed audition appointments. And not only audition appointments but also commitments to commissions on projects that your representation helped get you seen for and negotiated the contract(s). One of the few pardonable excuses on making a pass on a confirmed audition is passing, literally, as in six feet under or oven-ash time. Even then you’ll need a doctor’s written note.

Be considerate of others. Don’t become known as problematic. The number of people working in this industry is very small. We talk. We share stories. Don’t become a story that you would not want to be a part of.

My Best,
Paul

Paul Russell’s career as a casting director, director, acting teacher and former actor has spanned nearly thirty years. He has worked on projects for major film studios, television networks, and Broadway. Paul has taught the business of acting and audition technique at NYU and has spoken at universities including Yale, Temple and the University of the Arts. He is the author of ACTING: Make It Your Business – How to Avoid Mistakes and Achieve Success as a Working Actor. For more information, please visit www.PaulRussell.net.

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5 Ways Actors Obliterate Past Project Blues

A joyous job lands in your lap. There’s excitement. Heightened anticipation. Self-imposed anxiety as you desire to deliver more than your best to an upcoming project. Then come the rehearsals. Bonding with new friends. Discoveries bloom both on and off stage or screen. You explore: viewpoints, Snickers-vodka, hang-ups and hangovers. “High-ho the glamorous life.” But then… the fun is done. The project concludes. Once more your feast has withered to famine. WTF to do?

You’re lost. No longer are there the opportunities for enjoying late-night parties with cast mates followed by the 4 AM Taco Bell runs. Departed is rowdiness (and occasional raunchiness) embraced with new peers whose names and faces will be lost to your recall six months hence. Gone are the red-eyed rehearsals following late-night excesses. There’ll be no more sharing with your bros and gal pals the snack of ‘grandma’s special brownies’ spiked with green herbs picked from a local corner ‘retailer.’ No more “I dreaded this one aspect of a scene but then I conquered my fear. I now can kick ass on any challenge.” No more pondering of a co-worker while you snuggle in their bed, “How did you get in my arms and how was I so lucky to discover you? Does this mean we move in together later? My independence forfeited to my bad habit of co-dependency? I should rethink this showmance…”

There’s no more floating within the cozy, production bubble protecting you from living reality beyond the short-lived bubble’s membrane. Protection has popped. You fall back to a hard landing on the unyielding cement that is a civilian’s path. Depression seeps up from the cracks lining life’s sidewalk. Grief anchors your legs. Sadness mires your spirit. Welcome to what nearly all performing artists suffer at least once in their career: Post Project Blues a.k.a. Show Withdrawal.

The best remedies against Post Project Blues for when you’re suddenly unemployed are:

  1. Seek future work prior while working. Set aside time from temporary play associated with your current project so that you may invest in your long-term career. Do your digital and hard-copy marketing to highlight to future employers and gatekeepers your current work. A working actor is far more attractive to an employer than a desperate, unemployed artist pleading for attention. Work begets work.
  2. When your current project ends delve deep into tasks that will further propel your career forward. Engage strongly in expanding your marketing, networking, auditions, and classes. To continue growing a successful career, the previously highlighted activities must never be abandoned during an actor’s journey. Investments in yourself spark your synapses and opportunity.
  3. Return to your routine of life’s daily rituals (exercise, strolls, and meet-ups with friends). Return to life you enjoyed prior to your most recent creative project that had scheduled your every available moment.
  4. Hold fond the memory of the recent experience but don’t dwell on what no longer exists. Focus on the future. Going forward requires momentum. Backing up restrains speed.
  5. Keep close the new friends you made and create with them new memories. Even when distance of geography may separate you technology assists your remaining close.

Upon my return from working with John Guare with my having directed the regional premiere of John’s A FREE MAN OF COLOR I suffered severe Post Project Blues. I crashed harder than I had ever before professionally after a project’s end. I was nearly immobile mentally, and physically. The mental paralysis could have been fatal to my career and daily living. In order to survive, grow and prosper both professionally and personally I had to abandon my mourning for the project’s end. I had to push forward and abandon my loss. I retained fond memories while shunning depression. To conquer Post Project Blues I, like every artist whose heart is broken after a joyous project terminates, knew that in order to harvest future joys I had to return to seeding the field that is my career.

Plow forward so that you may seed and harvest new goals; especially if you’re currently enjoying a feast of a goal met.

My best,
Paul

Paul Russell’s career as a casting director, director, acting teacher and former actor has spanned nearly thirty years. He has worked on projects for major film studios, television networks, and Broadway. Paul has taught the business of acting and audition technique at NYU and has spoken at universities including Yale, Temple and the University of the Arts. He is the author of the new and expanded 2nd edition of ACTING: Make It Your Business – How to Avoid Mistakes and Achieve Success as a Working Actor. For more information, please visit www.PaulRussell.net.