Who becomes an actor?

There seems to be 2 types of actors that inhabit the Hollywood TV & Film culture.

TYPE A : These are the actors that pursue acting for the love of the acting itself. To make dialogue written by someone else and make it your own. To be a king, a bum, a killer or even a president or pope. Happy to do this every night for 2 hours on stage, using a child like ability " to make believe".

Once the acting but bites, they are in it for life. To make a living as an actor is complete success for these actors. If stardom comes, they will take the money but always gravitate toward projects that stimulate their imagination and acting talent.

TYPE B: Many of these pick acting or theater because it is the easiest coarse. They do a couple of amateur plays in college and feel their live theater experience is complete. After college, they head straight for Los Angeles, Ca. to pursue an acting career and hopefully be chased by paparazzi as they go by in their limo. Most end up waiting tables or leave La ,broken.

But many stay and clutter the market so much , that many directors of a list films are forced to cast theater actors from other countries in American characters because these days most actors are type b and do not have the acting skills to properly portray the character.

While many type a's have lucrative careers, many are uncomfortable with the pandering that is required in Hollywood.

My Final Curtain

I am writing my epitaph for my acting career. It has been a long journey from 1973 when I walked into my first acting class.Since then, I have 20 years vested in screen actors guild, which means I have a pension and medical insurance for the rest of my life. I have raised my daughter on money I made as an actor.I still get residuals for work I have done over the years.But alas, acting work has been very scarce the last 5 years since my agents retired and I lost good representation. At 69 years old, even with good agents, the parts are rare.

I was trying till recently to get back on the fast track. I did leads in short films, did live theater and received good feedback and recognition as a seasoned actor. Unfortunately, these were deferred projects, which means you don't get paid, and none of them had the juice to propel me  to the fast track, 'and back in the room'.

I know that if I can get auditions, with directors and producers for A list movies and tv, I would, like  before, get  work. but now caught in that catch-22, can't get good auditions without a good agent and can't get a good agent without a job.. Most actors start their career with that dilemma but I don't have 40 years in front of me anymore but behind me.

So, why now,I was recently cast in a revival of Arther Miller's ' a View from the Bridge' to play Alfieri, the lawyer. If you are familiar with the play, you know that Alfieri is a very difficult part and vital to the play. The production was going to be at 'the Stella Adler' acting studio. I was very excited to do this play. Theater has not been an ally of mine like it was in New York. this was a part that could show the industry how good I really was and not just a type.

I was cast in the play on march 30 2014, we had one sit down reading in April and were to take the rest of April and May off and begin rehearsals in June and open in August. While waiting, I worked on the part, not only the lines but I thought about my character, things that the play doesn't give about his inner life. I told people about it as it was the only acting  I had to talk about. Well, a couple of days before we were to start rehearsal, I get a mass email from the producer that they were denied the rights to do 'a view from the bridge',the show was off..

That was it, a lousy email, no phone call, nothing and all my hopes for this ,crushed. So what now, I will not spend anymore money on acting, no pictures and resumes , no workshops or classes and most of all, no actor hangouts. I refuse to be just another out of work actor hustling to get one line in something here and there.I will not get on my knees and beg for crumbs. In these actor hangouts, bars, coffee shops etc. , most actors ask you how you are doing and hope you have bad news. tell them you have a good gig and you can see the hate in their faces. not all but most.

I still love the act of acting, i looked forward to doing ' a view from the bridge', not only what it could do for my career but to do a great part in front of an audience is one of the best pleasures I have had in my life. I will concentrate more on my writing and my youtube channel.If you wish to read my whole story, start at the beginning of this blog.

So, I will slowly fade from the scene. good bye.

Update, I am currently involved with 2 plays. Running right now at the Whitefire theater, I am doing Mark Finks Smart People and then I will be doing " Our Lady of 121 Street", which opens May 1. I am doing them because I enjoy acting for it'S own sake. If someone offers me a job from this,I would be open to it.

Diamonds in the Rough

I want to talk about this abundance of untrained and often untalented people that migrate to Los Angeles dreaming of having a career in acting. I say not only untrained but naive because if they had gone through the theater in New york, Chicago or a another country where theater is taken seriously, they would have found out, before too much of a investment in time and money, that they have no talent.

Now, some come to La without much theater training or experience but have a natural talent. They have a chance to have some kind of career if they work on their craft, have some luck and enjoy the act of acting. Enjoying the act of acting, to some, acting is torture, they feel naked and exposed on stage. Their motive for going into acting is to walk on the red carpet, get their picture taken by photographers as they pass in their limo. without much talent these people are destined to work as servers in eating establishment to be able to pay their bills. They believe that their time will come if they just stick it out. The business is hard enough if you have talent but without it you are doomed to a life of anguish and disappointment.

Universities offer degrees in acting to anyone who applies and is able to borrow the money to pay the tuition. The teachers are not professionals in the business and have only a academic knowledge of acting technique and the theater.

On a side note, nowadays theater is only one of the worthless degrees given out by the universities , as they put these young people in debt for many years to pay for the bloated salaries of inept professors.

The acting world provides a variety of acting workshops, agent showcases and classes by charlatans that have never worked as professionals and will never tell a paying customer that they are wasting their time. This gives the untalented and untrained a false feeling of accomplishment.

But what about those diamonds in the rough that don't have a theater background from the major theater centers. There is help for them if they have the desire to learn. Below is a link to a video that will give the essentials of acting technique. Study these and you may have a chance.

Acting secrets revealed 

Improvization

A good tool for actors when trying to find the truth of a scene is improvisation. In rehearsal take the values of the scene and use your own words instead of the playwright's which would enable you to follow impulses without the restraints of the play. Of coarse you then would include the actual lines but now you can have insight in the possibilities that can be achieved in the scene. There are film directors that encourage actors to improvise a scene because the spontaneity can lead to magic moments that can be captured on film. A good sense of truth is a requirement for good improvisations as selfish actors that try to take over the improve defeat the purpose of finding the truth of a scene and instead bluster and overact trying to dominate the scene. Improvisation is a creative way to write a script. There was a time when the rights to a play that I was doing were pulled when we started rehearsal. Instead of looking for something else to do in 4 weeks, we decided to write and perform a new play in a month. We sat around and discussed the story for a couple of days then we improvised every scene with a tape recorder. We were able to get dynamic exchanges between the characters because of the conflict of different personalities. Only the most gifted of writers can create dialogue as rich as good actors improvising.

The Sad State of American Acting!

Watching old movies, I can't help notice the difference between actors back in the day, Like: Humphrey Bogart, Lee Marvin, Edward G. Robinson, Marlon Brando and Charles Bronson, average looking but masculine actors that were big stars and loved by millions. They shot from the hip and were not afraid to voice their opinions whether left or right. There probably were lively debates on sets about politics, religion or who was the best baseball team. Not anymore.

Now, actors have to be very careful not to say the wrong thing that might offend someone, especially political lefties.This means, to have any kind of career in Hollywood, actors have to behave. Sure they love a free spirit but only if the actor falls within politically correct guidelines.Condemn your country, say you are embarrassed by it, no problem.

But say anything against a PC icon and you are in danger of being blacklisted.

Several years ago, I was cast as a recurring character for a TV series. The series was picked up for a year and I looked forward to helping the series be successful. I already did a couple of episodes that went very well and as a new father, I cherished the thought of having a little financial security for my family.

At that time Bill Clinton was president of the USA. As a US Navy veteran, it bothered me that this proven draft dodger and demonstrator against the Vietnam war, in a foreign country, was now commander in chief of Armed Forces and had the power to send troops into harms way, which he did often.

So, one day on the set during lunch, the female lead went on and on about what a magnificent person Clinton is, his charisma, intelligence and charm. I tried to keep my mouth shut but I couldn't stand it any more and stupid me I blurted out ," Does that make him a good president?"

The reaction from everyone, there were about 20 cast and crew around, was instantaneous. Everyone stopped what they were doing and glowered at me as if I said the N word. One of the flunky ass kissers said " I guess you don't believe in the Holocaust". I was stunned, I didn't know what to say, my remark was innocent, so I thought. But, to show any doubt to the PC agenda puts you in the enemy camp.

The lead male actor and one of the producers said  "you're fired". To his credit, the director came to my aid and told them to leave me alone. I wasn't fired and finished that episode but was not called back to do anymore episodes. This attitude is prevalent through out the industry.

So, how does this affect the quality of acting in America.

The best actors have improvisational skills, their emotions are close to the surface and they trust those emotions. There is no editing of what they are feeling in the moment, they just go with it.This is the magic of good acting. This talent has gotten actors in trouble in the past with many divorces and crazy antics

But now, with political correctness, forces actors to act in real life, they must hide what they really feel. They have to act like they care about this or that cause, as long as the cause is deemed correct. Young actors come in the business with a restraint on their emotions. Good actors are basically truthful and lose out in the long run to liars and hustlers .

So, before they portray a character, the liars already have a barrier inhibiting creativity. What you get are very safe, underplayed performances by superficial posers. 

How many working actors under 60 tears old have done time in the military. I know a few around 65 yrs. who were subject to the draft and served, like myself. But back in the day, actors like Jimmy Stewart, who at the height of his career and one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, went off to fight in World War 2 and was gone from the scene for 4 years.

There were others, Elvis Presley, at the top of the entertainment world, drafted and went into the US Army for 2 years. He didn't have to go. He could have got out of it but he felt it was his duty to do something for his country that made it possible for a poor boy to make it.

So, because of political correctness a certain segment of the male population has slowly been excluded from the casting process, and we are left with either raging liberal activists or cowards and liars.

So, when a part comes around in a big production that requires a greatly skilled masculine actor, it is no surprise that,as the US talent pool is filled by lousy or androgynous actors, the producers use actors from other countries to play American characters.

Acting Secrets Revealed 

Parody of a college professor!

John Del Regno demo reel