Lydia's Journey BEYOND Hollywood

This is funny...I somehow stumbled upon this: http://www.fanmail.biz/28778.html Does this mean I'm a celebrity? LOL! I have received "fan mail" in the past - but seeing a website like this, with MY name on it, took me by surprise! Crazy!

Here are my great nephews: Baby Kike and Julian. If they were in town, I'd put them in commercials! Well, my audition for Desperate Housewives went well on Friday. I had a preread with Scott Genkinger and we rehearsed it first, he made an adjustment, then we taped my audition. I think I did great since he smiled and said "Great adjustment! Thank you!". And I felt really good about it. So we'll see. I haven't heard back about a producer's session yet - that's IF I did a well enough job to be brought back for producers. I had a workshop with Tara from Powell/Melcher Casting. They cast the shows One on One, Eve, and Cuts for the WB. I didn't think it went so great. For some reason I was nervous and kinda stumbled through my read. Maybe that means I'm a little out of practice. Gotta fix that. I've decided to take a break from my "day job" for the whole month of March and just be a "professional actress" and that's all. Le...

I have an audition today for Desperate Housewives @ Junie Lowry Johnson Casting at 11:15am. It's a small role playing a distraught woman at a bar. It's a pretty funny part - but I was hoping for the moment where I get to audition for this show, it would be to play someone's bad sister or something. Oh well...No telling if that opportunity would ever have come - so I should just take this one with a smile! :-) You never know.... I shot that short film yesterday. It was a pretty interesting experience. Shooting lasted a little over 7 hours. It was an extreme low budget film, but I thought it was odd that they ordered 2 large pizzas to feed a cast and crew of about 20! And casting was a bit odd. We were supposed to play this mexican family and none of us spoke spanish (which didn't matter since it was a silent movie hahah) and my "son" was armenian, my "daughter" was white, and my "husband" was half mexican. I guess I was supposed to play a w...

New "goth" pics... I know...YIKES! I had to take GOTH pictures for my manager at Central Artists. Apparently there are a few roles on some new pilots where this kind of pic would be helpful. I'm also playing a "goth type" in the pilot Paradise Drive . Who would've ever thought I'D play this kind of role! But I guess that's why they call it "acting"! :-) Well, I just found out my close buddy/agent Lance just left ACME. Sucks, because he and I were pretty close. From what I hear, he's with a new agency, Pantheon. Not sure if I'd want to leave my agent to follow him. I'm pretty happy where I am, and I signed with the agency before he and I became buddies. Oh well...I guess that's "business". I had a commercial audition on Tuesday. That's about it. Pretty slow. So far. I did meet Krisha Bullock, the casting director of a few kid shows on Nickelodeon. I met her Monday when I was working with the kid workshops at Act...

ok, this is a very funny story....I got an email last night from my friend Robert Wu letting me know about this project called 168 Hour Film Project. It's a Christian film festival of sorts where about 50 producers make these short films based on a scripture from the bible, then they put it together, shoot, edit, everything, in 168 hours. Then they screen them. So they were having an open call today in Burbank. I was debating whether or not I wanted to go. The check in time was 7:30am! That's very early for a Saturday! But I went ahead and printed up 50 resumes and headed over to Burbank. It was insane! Over 300 actors were lined up to sign in. It started to drizzle, then rain on us and the sign in process got a little unorganized and insane. So it took me until 10am to get in front of the producers on a stage, very much like A Chorus Line. I come up to the mic and say my name and something about myself...and that's it. The producers decide, while looking at you...

Last night I got the call that I got a callback with the producers of Hannah Montana . I wasn't that surprised since I felt pretty good about my audition. I went today at 5:15pm and there were about 6 of us there. All different kinds of girls - all Latina. I was confident that this role was MINE, until I saw Maria Costa. She's an actress who works alot and is basically on the brink of "fame". She is definately the "fiery Latina" that was in the description for the role. When I saw her walk in, my confidence fell. I hate that I was up against her because I know she could do this role. I told myself that if I don't get the role, she probably would - and vice versa. I tried not to be affected by her presence there, but my timing was screwed up on one part of the audition - but I think I recovered ok. All in all, I think my audition went well. Not GREAT - but well. We'll see what happens.... Onto the next one!

ok, I have spent COUNTLESS years dreading Valentine's Day - usually because my luck always has me SINGLE on this holiday! (Almost always). I have worn black, cursed this day, and had girls nights instead. But this year, for some reason, the bitterness has not shown it's ugly head. I am definately surrounded by the bitterness in other single girlfriends, but I choose to be positive this year and instead to use this day - Valentine's Day - to celebrate all love in my life - not just romantic love. So here we go...Things I love in my life: God - no explanation needed, My parents - for their unrelenting support, my friends - for their belief in me on days when I don't believe in myself, My Godson Aaron - for being MY Godson! :-), My family - for making me feel like a star even when I'm out of work!, California weather , the Pacific Ocean , days that I get to ACT for a living !, days when I work period so I can make the rent, my apartment , making people smile , te...

Ahhhhh...feels good to say that! And even better to feel that! ok, my day started off great. I went to the school early and told them I had an appointment at 11am, and asked if they wanted to find another sub to cover today. I agreed to stay there until the new sub arrived. She got there around 8:45am. Then I had plenty of time to head on over to 20th Century Fox. I got there a little early and dropped off my picture at a couple of offices. Then I went in to my audition. I went in, and nailed it! I felt really good about it - and they asked me to come back for Producer's today at 5pm. So I'll be heading back over there...wish me luck! Then I barely made it to my second audition. I could hear another actress inside auditioning for the same role. I felt a little more comfortable after hearing her, since she didn't sound too wonderful. (Oops....Is that bad to say??) So I walked in and they told me I will only be doing one of the two scenes. I picked the first on...

ok, tomorrow will be very crazy for me! I agreed to sub for a 2nd grade class at this elementary school on Friday afternoon. Then, about 3 hours later, I get a call from my manager at Central Artists telling me I have TWO auditions on Monday! I can't call the school office to cancel since everyone is out already. So somehow I have to figure out how to take care of this. But, tomorrow I have a guest star audition for a half hour show called Hanna Montana. It's a very funny part of a cheerleader coach, and I'm pretty nervous about it. My audition sides are 8 pages long! Yikes! Then, that same hour I have an audition for Pepper Dennis for the role of Mrs. Diaz. The roles are very different from each other, and I've been working on them all weekend. I hope I don't choke! Wish me luck!!!

My beautiful Godson Aaron. Look at that smile - he's ready for his close-up! Yay! Finally! An audition! I feel like it's been a while since I've had one of those! Well, I went to a workshop tonight for Fran Bascom's office. She casts Days of Our Lives, and anyone who knows me knows I LOVE that soap opera! I would do anything for one line on that show! I've watched it ever since I was in junior high! I thought the workshop went well. Now, I just hope she calls me in! :-) I have an audition tomorrow for a national Wal-Mart commercial! Hey, I was just there today - maybe that's a good sign!

top: new color headshot bottom: current black and white headshot I am not subbing today, so I decided to make the most of my off time and try and turn this "slow"time for me into a busier time. I updated my personal list of pilots that are casting currently, so I plan to drop off pictures at their offices today. I also plan to get my color shots reproduced for my manager. It's funny because I have had my current headshot for the past 4 years or so - and it's been working fine. Thankfully it still looks like me! No one has ever told me I needed new shots - which is not the case for almost ALL my actor friends. Usually they are asked to take new shots at least once a year - which is pretty expensive! But I have never reproduced color headshots - which is the "norm" right now in the industry. So I plan to have at least one - if needed. Hopefully I'll get an audition soon...I can't believe how slow it is for me... :-(

First pic: some of the swat crew Second pic: the director Jojo Henrickson, and me in SWAT gear Before the holidays, I emailed Jojo, a filmmaker I had met a while back, to see how his new film GB: 2525 was going. He had cast the film a while back, so there were no parts he could consider me for :-( , but he did say he needed "extra" people for this swat team he was trying to assemble. I teased him and said that I DO NOT do extra work - but for him, I will do anything he asked! So I showed up early, helped with setting up craft service and got into my swat gear. It was pretty fun. I have to admit, it's been a long time since I've filled up the space behind some other actor, a time I'm eager to forget..., but it's always nice to build relationships with filmmakers who can possibly cast you in future projects! (hint hint Jojo!) ;-) It was a good day overall. It's always a good day when you're on a film set! :-)

No, I haven't posted because I have been WAY TOO busy...I haven't posted because NOTHING has been happening! It's been a very slow past couple of weeks. NO auditions at all! weird. I'm subbing today. That's about it. I hope it starts getting busy soon.... :-(