Dea's Advice for When You Think "The Biz" Has Beaten You Down

Here's what I do when I get really down and think "I'll never work again, so why bother?" I take class!      As a matter of fact, the less I work, the more classes I take. I have always been like that and for some reason, it helps me. When I decided to be an actress in college, I switched my major to drama. Class wasn't enough so I performed at night and on the weekends outside of school (at the risk of getting in big trouble...) When I got out of college and couldn't get an agent, I went to film acting school. When I was in film acting school and couldn't get an agent, I took night and weekend classes on top of my regular curriculum. I got an agent - a terrible one. When that wasn't enough, I did a one woman show. When that wasn't enough, I did extra work. That helped and I got a better agent. When that wasn't enough, I wrote a one woman show. That helped and I got the best agent in Dallas. When that didn't do it for me, I did cable access. That helped and I started working. When that work wasn't enough, I moved to L.A. and the entire process started over again. It took me four years to have the amazing commercial agent that I have now. It went the same way: when the one I had wasn't enough, I did something else to get a new one. I have been through many commercial agents in 4 years to get to the one I have now. Now I need a great theatrical agent. So, I have taken two months of Boot Camp to lose some weight and get healthy, taken guitar lessons to get my mind off of how sore I was, finished Groundlings Basic and am now about to start Acme Intermediate. Do I need more training? Always!      This is the most frustrating career in the world. But one thing will always set you apart in this industry - "It's about the work." All of the opportunities in the world will not do a thing if you haven't done "the work" to get the job. "The work" is the training, the crazy side classes, the gym, the vitamins, the facials, the haircuts, the counseling, the book-reading, the theatre, the free stuff for anyone with a camera. ALL of those crazy things that seem so neurotic to the outside world are what can set you apart from the other actors in this town. When you busy yourself with doing "the work" to be an actor, by the time you have an audition... that audition is not a "chance to get a job" but a "chance to perform for an audience after all this work I have done". Your attitude changes. Auditions become the fun part. Jobs are just the icing on the cake. Even with a day job, you can use that as a character study with the people around you. Watch those people. Learn from them. Take them home in your mind and become them. Write stories about what they do at night. Make those the most insane stories you can think of. Work flies by when you picture your boss dressed up as a dominatrix covered with cotton candy... and only *you* know how the story ends.      I never walk into a room wanting the job anymore. I walk in the room to show them "my interpretation of what they have written". If they do not like my interpretation or the way I look when I perform, well, there's nothing I can do about that because I "have done the work and have given them the best I have". If I get a callback and have the opportunity to "heaven forbid... do it again!", I start out with exactly what I did in the first place. If they want it another way, I have the training to give it to them. I have seen it happen where I did it twice the way I did it the first time and they have said, "thanks" and sent me away while keeping someone else. Sometimes, I have gotten those jobs. I have also seen it where they kept me for an hour, called me back two more times and kept me another hour to work with me, laughed and loved me to death... and I didn't get the job. I got a full standing ovation at Disney one day on a film callback. I didn't get that job. But damn it if I didn't get a 40-something person standing ovation at Disney! That is why I do this crazy business. At those times, I remember the 11 year old girl I used to be who wished she could move to Hollywood and be an actress. I let myself get blown away by how amazing those things are to a little girl from Texas. Then I take another class.      So, yes, this is one Hell of a frustrating business when you want a job and don't get one. I take myself there sometimes and it always messes with my head. It's a no-win place to be and you need to get out of it one way or another. Quitting is an option, but what a sad option... Here's how to get a job: Don't want the job, want to perform. Then when you're done performing at your audition, say thank you and leave knowing you just got to do what you have trained all of your life to do! Whether or not you get hired does not make a difference at all.      And always remember that the people who will bad-mouth you to others in an attempt to keep you down, the people who will outright *lie* to others in an attempt to make you look bad, the people who will tell you that what you are doing is "stupid" or "ridiculous" or "impossible"... they are always artists of some kind who were too afraid to keep risking their souls just to get a chance to perform. There is nothing that a failed artist loves more than to watch another actor quit. My father calls it "chasing rainbows" because he really doesn't understand it. If any of you can tell me that you don't understand chasing rainbows, then I would say, "Yes. Quit." It's not about catching the rainbow. It never has been. It's about seeing the rainbow and finding all of the amazing colors and singing a damn song about it and flying on the wings of a dove to try to reach it and leaping in the air to touch it and laughing yourself silly when you land on your ass and then helping your friend up when he falls on his ass and then getting up and padding your butt with some old t-shirts and off you go chasing that rainbow some more.      Auditions are just another way to chase the rainbow. What an amazing way to do the work - you get an audience that you don't know and you leave without ever knowing what they thought. Auditions are the art gallery of the acting world. You are the painting. They have some wine and cheese and talk about your work while you are off looking for another way to make the blue look more blue or the red look a little bit yellow. Leave your work in the room and go start a new project that will get you closer to catching that ever elusive rainbow.      But know that if you ever do catch it, it will disappear in your hands. The art is in the journey. And a big f**k you to anyone who says that acting is a business and not an art. Who says that? The failed actors who write books about acting. Acting is the art of chasing rainbows in the most creative and fun way possible with the complete understanding that the one thing you do not want to do is catch the damn thing. Grow up if you have to, but always know that your artist soul is always welcome to throw caution to the wind and chase that thing some more. As long as you can see it, the fun never ends... -Dea Vise