2020 has been very unpredictable. I know that that sounds like quite the understatement but it's also a way of saying that for me 2020 wasn't as abnormal as any other year. In fact, in 2020 I stopped working a day job, worked in high-profile commercials for GEICO and Wayfair, and worked my very first TV show as a co-star. Now, this post isn't about summing up 2020 or even my career. It's about my takeaways from that co-star experience I had only a few weeks ago this same month up in Santa Fe.
The biggest takeaway for me was that working in TV is something I enjoy. The actual job is in the preparation (much like in a self-tape or any type of audition experience). When you show up to the audition and now I realize to a working Hollywood production set it's less about everyone getting on the same page and more about plugging what you've brought to set into the situation. The plugging in that I'm referring to is also a very literal term; it's a plug and play type of situation. BUT if what you're plugging in is a machine that does what is being required when it is being required then this is the miracle. ...And I like that. I am now at a point in my craft and at a point in my career where I know what a commercial, TV show, film needs. I also know who I am and what I can do. THAT IS THE HARD PART. Now I can finally relax into the career and offer what I do to people who are looking for it and solve our mutual problem. The problem for them being "Who can play this that I can hire?" And my problem being "Who is looking for me and for what I do that is in my world of contacts?" I am now a professional. Just like any other professional in any other business. And the business side of being an actor has finally resolved itself. Getting those jobs is still a hunt and as random as always. But now that my co-star has revealed those certain truths to me about the Industry I know that when I secure an audition or am targeting a show/CD I can confidently say "I know who I am. I know what I do. I know what you need. Here's the final product that solves your problem on this particular project. Let's do business!" The rest is up to my contact and up to chance. So, I know for sure that I'm going to continue as always to work diligently to find and capitalize on opportunities. Now I will execute in the audition room and on set knowing in my core what I do and that what I do is being positioned within an eye for solving a production problem in a very methodical way.
I'll talk more specifically about my co-star experience later. But for now this professional insight is something I wanted to confirm to myself as having made as it is a set of truths I will continue to cherish throughout my career.