Showing posts with label los angeles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label los angeles. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

An Actor's Life

I loved being an actor.

Before I was a filmmaker, I was an actor for 20 years. I starred in over 70 stage plays around the country, and appeared in major television series and major motion pictures. It was poor life, but my life was rich.

I loved being on stage...acting, performing, entertaining....it seemed like whatever city I moved to, if I would audition for a play, I'd get the lead. Whether Chicago....Los Angeles...Vegas...Dallas....Kansas City...Tampa....the list goes on.

I miss those days...they were some great times. But I made no money. I did it for the love of it. Now, I'm doing the same thing with making my movies...not making any money, but doing it for the love of it to get my messages out to the world in film. So, in a way, I'm doing the same thing...just at another level.

I love entertaining people...

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Last Year in L.A.

It was about this time last year I was in L.A. the last time. Man, that was a fucking rough time. I never L.A. being that tough to survive before.

I went out there for the World Premiere of my documentary short THE 60 YEAR OLD STRIPPER. It was premiering at the L.A. Shorts Fests in Burbank at the AMC Theater. I thought this would be a great time to finally move out there again for awhile and work the industry. Boy, was I wrong.

The biggest is not always the best. That fest was for shit. You had to pay for everything, everyone lied all the time (typical L.A. stuff), and I was fighting to survive. I was staying in this rat hole in Hollywood. And working telemarketing jobs by the day to make ends meet. I'm glad I was out there for the Burbank premiere; but it wasn't worth it. I stayed out there for about 6 weeks, then took the bus back home. Mother was with me the whole time, too. She was the subject of THE 60 YEAR OLD STRIPPER. She's the subject of all my beginning films these first few years. I don't know how she survived that city. I'll never put her though that again.

It's times like that that make be appreciate being stuck out here in the boonies. It may be boring out here right now; but at least I'm living. I'm not a rat in a hell hole.