Lydia's Journey BEYOND Hollywood

Well, I did it. I was so nervous about that audition - but I went in and did it. I have to say, I wouldn't have been able to if it weren't for my friend Angel who worked on it with me the day before. (Thanks again!) I was so in my head before that audition. worried and scared about the intimacy of the character and scene - but I ended up walking into the audition with confidence. And I have to say - the audition went well. I made sure to take my sweet time with the lines and connect with the reader. In fact, I was looking into my reader's eyes so intently that I sensed I made her uncomfortable. That's good. I hope. :-) Afterwards she smiled and nodded her head, said "great job" - and asked me where I'm from. We chatted a bit and she made some notes on my headshot. nice. I doubt she would've talked to me afterwards if I didn't interest her at all - so we'll see what comes of it. I'm proud that I went in and conquered my fear...

Lance Crayon, now with the new agency Pantheon. I LOVE Lance. He was one of my agents at ACME Talent and he left to join the new agency Pantheon. Well, I saw Lance yesterday to see how he was doing, and what his new office looked like. It was pretty awesome. Pantheon sits on the top floor of this hi-rise building in the Beverly Hills area. I was closest to Lance when he was at ACME. He is a very enthusiastic agent who definately busts ass for the clients he believes in. It's pretty awesome. I'm torn because I would love to be with Lance at Pantheon because I think he's awesome - but I also don't want to leave ACME because I feel it took me a long time to get there. And I can't really complain all that much since I am going out on auditions. What a weird place to be right now. When I first moved here, I signed with the first agent that wanted me that first month in town and stayed with him for almost 4 years. (I'm sometimes loyal to a fault!) I targeted ACME and ...

ok, I just found out I have an audition this Friday for a feature film called Old Loves. The role is not of a maid, at least I don't think. All it says is that she works at a hotel - so then again - maybe she is the maid. But she's also described as "working class, beautiful & exotic, seductive, sultry". Not what I usually go out for. My normal breakdowns are usually: "sweet, kind, girl next door, maid". So I read the scene and my character not only comes onto this guy pretty strong, but she kisses him, and fondles him, grabs his hand and puts it on her breast... Needless to say I'm a little freaked out. It's a far stretch from my sweet and helpful maid roles! ok, I have to get over the shock of this if I want to do a decent job in the audition. It's all just a little weird. But it's a good thing that I get an audition that's a stretch from what I normally go out for and book. We'll see what happens.... Cool thing is it shoots in ...

Nothing amazing happened. I didn't book a great job or perform live on stage - it just was a good day. I had an audition first thing in the morning for that feature film Knocked Up - which I thought I nailed by the way. I auditioned with the red headed bearded guy that was in The 40 Year Old Virgin . I had him laughing throughout my whole audition. It was pretty awesome. But who knows... I left feeling good - so that's all that matters. Then I headed over to Actorsite for a free event with Scott Sedita, an acting coach. After that, I bought a bottle of champagne and dropped it off to Michael, the newest agent at ACME, welcoming him to the "family". Then I went shopping for a friends bridal shower, and then headed over to the party. It was a nice day filled with industry related things, shopping, and friends. Now, if only everyday of my life was like this! :-) Not to mention, I ended the night with getting ready for my weekend trip to Vegas for my friend's ba...

Well, I took a workshop last night with Lonnie Hamerman from Gary Zuckerbrod's office - the one who I just saw earlier this week for the Without a Trace audition. She let me know I came "very close to booking". That's nice - but I would've rather booked it for sure! Not get close... She said they bring in 6 actors to producers and narrow it down to the top 2 or 3 choices and edit those auditions onto a tape for the other executive producers to see and decide. Well, I was one of those top 2 or 3 - and I didn't get the job. Too bad... :-( The good thing is, I am now on her radar and I believe she likes me enough to try and find something for me. She let me know the new season starts back up in July - so hopefully there is something even bigger waiting for me! I do have an audition tomorrow for a feature film called Knocked Up . It's from the same writer who did The 40 Year Old Virgin . I'm auditioning for a maid role named Maria. hmmm...I don't thin...

With friends Jen and Ana. This is our "crazy faces" pic. I couldn't think of what to do - so I blew a kiss! Muah! So I had my audition today at 12 noon for Without a Trace . I had worked on it this weekend, with help from my friend Angel (thanks!), and I made some pretty strong choices. I worked on getting off book (memorized) as much as possible and getting comfortable with the scene. I went into my audition feeling REALLY confident. I had my preread with Lonnie Hamerman, the associate casting director, and she adjusted me to bring the physicality down, but keep the intensity. She said to make everything INTERNAL - which meant I was "acting" too much - (at least in my opinion that's what it meant!) I did it a second time and she said "you hit it right on the nose. GREAT job!". Now, I love hearing that! So after the audition I decided to walk around the mall and do some shopping and run some errands. I didn't get home until 2:30pm and I checked...

It's funny how things happen. I took the month off from subbing in March to concentrate on my acting career and I was bored silly. I didn't have that many auditions, and I ended up subbing a few days afterall. Now that it's April, I planned to get back into subbing, but I haven't had a chance to because I've been too busy with the acting career! haha - Funny how that works out. Since the beginning of the month, I have been finishing up work on Holiday , going out on feature film auditions and episodics, and rehearsing and shooting the pilot Paradise Drive . It's been pretty busy. This week we shoot episode 6 on the pilot and I have an audition on Monday! I'm really excited about it. It's for a guest star role on Without a Trace - a show I have been targeting for a while. My audition is at 12 noon on Monday April 17th at Gary Zuckerbrod's office in Burbank! And the BEST part - my character is an attorney! Not a maid with an accent! YES! ...

Well, yesterday was officially my last day of working on the feature film The Holiday . (The title may change before it's December 22nd release, since it's also being called " Nancy Meyers Untitled Holiday Project".) I reported to the set in Pasadena at 7:30am. Got some breakfast and hung out with the handful of background that was there, and Gilbert Esquivel , who played Jesus, the gardener. They put me in make up and I hung out some more. Finally, around noon, I get into my wardrobe and get my hair done and go to the set where we rehearse. We shot my final scene where I greet Kate Winslet's character. I was pretty happy when Nancy, the director, came over to me and welcomed me back onto the set with a huge hug. Then she decided to change my "Buenos Dias Iris" line to "Hi Iris" - so I did it with no accent. That made me even more happier! :-) I was wrapped by 5pm (more overtime) and headed home. This job was pretty amazing. I origi...

Today's trailer. Slightly better - but still a honeywagon. I can't complain too much - I did get paid these past 3 weeks - for waiting - since I was "on hold". They could've put me in a tent for all I cared! :-) I worked today on Holiday - if you even want to call it that! My call time was 8am and I arrived early to the on location set in Pasadena. I was wrapped at 5:30pm - put in overtime! - and didn't even get into makeup today! I spent the whole day in my trailer - waiting. Speaking of trailers, I'd like to be able to tell you I got to the set and they had a two-banger all ready for me. But no. I was back in the honey wagon, but they gave me two rooms (they opened that accordian wall for me) so it was a little bit nicer. I think I'm coming down with something, so I slept a lot today. My call time tomorrow is at 7:30 am and if it rains, then I get pushed back until next week - or whenever they can fit my stuff in. But if it doesn't rain - tomorr...

I felt like Superwoman today - ducking into phone booths and changing my look - except I didn't have the phone booth! I transformed into 3 completely different looks today for 3 different appointments! I started the day off with shooting the pilot: Paradise Drive. I was in my "goth" look for that. It was a good shoot. The whole pilot is improvised but we rehearse it so much it's like we have actual lines. After the shoot, I had about 10 minutes to transform into a sweet maid for the film audition Expecting Love. That went well. I felt I was a little over the top. I should've played it more real - but it was hard to do that with the comical lines and facial expressions I had to do. I hope I didn't do too much. I have a feeling I did though....Oh well. I did see Joey Lawrence's little brother there, Mathew Lawrence . He's not little anymore. He's a very cute grown man of 26. He was auditioning for the lead role. I decided to stay in character the e...

I LOVE being able to say that! Well, Thursday and Friday of this week are busy at least - but I'm hoping it will trickle into next week! So today was a lot of running around - and tomorrow will be even more so! I subbed today and went straight to SONY studios for my audition for Deja Vu - the Denzel Washington feature. It went well. Well...it went ok. Those 2 line roles are pretty hard to nail. They had me say my first line. Then say it again. Then do something a little different. Then say it again. Ok, now try something else. Then I did the same thing with my second line. It was kinda hard to "stay in the moment" when you're rewinded over and over again. I went straight to my rehearsal for my pilot on cable access: Paradise Drive. We shoot first thing tomorrow morning. Tomorrow will be interesting because I am shooting in my goth character for the pilot - then I have to go straight to my film audition, Expecting Love , at noon, where I'm playing...

It pours! Finally - I get some auditions! I have TWO auditions lined up this week! It's been unbelievably slow for me, as you know, so I'm really excited about these! Tomorrow I have a feature film audition for Deja Vu , a film with Denzel Washington and Val Kilmer . I'm going in for a trauma nurse. Nice. Small role - but I'll take it! :-) Audition is at 4pm tomorrow @ Denise Chamian Casting . THEN, on Friday I have another feature film audition!!!! YAY!!!! It's for Expecting Love, a film being shot in LA and Poland. That would be nice! (That reminds me - I should get a passport! Oops!) The role is a nice sized role, as the MAID. Audition is Friday at 12 noon @ Jeffery Passero Casting . Wish me Luck! I mean...wish me a broken leg - or two! :-)

Well, after checking out the website: http://www.almaawards.com/ , I found out that I wasn't really eligible for nomination. The acting categories require the Latino actors to be part of the permanant cast and play a character that is a major part of the storyline. It also states that an actor with "guest" billing is not eligible. The Latino actor has to appear in 75% of the show's first run episodes. So considering I was just in that one epsiode of Curb Your Enthusiasm , I was never really eligible for the Alma nomination. Great. I wish I knew that BEFORE I made the 6 copies of my Curb episode that ran me $75! Oh well...onwards and upwards!

My manager at Central Artists just emailed me to let me know I was unpinned from the pilot. :-( Oh well...you book some, you don't book some. Onwards and Upwards! A month ago I had decided to take a month off from my "day job" of subbing for the month of March and concentrate solely on my acting career. That didn't work out quite as well as I hoped. I was pretty bored with very few auditions and I found myself sitting around WAITING for calls. I did drops, took workshops, spent time with my mom who is in town, but I still found myself with a lot of free time on my hands. So I caved and ended up working 4 days in March. It made no sense for me to waste a weekday NOT making money when I could put in 6 hours of time subbing and come out with a check. I could never sit idly... Now I know. :-) The good thing is I am still getting paid for Holiday and I should be expecting a residual check this month from The Terminal . Nice! Now if only I could stay busy auditioning and b...

I was called on Friday evening to let me know I am scheduled to work on HOLIDAY first thing Monday morning. Then I get a call Sunday afternoon letting me know that because the forecast calls for rain on Monday and/or Tuesday, they are going to push me back another week and schedule me for next Monday, and they'll call me this Friday to keep me updated. NICE! On HOLD for another week! I can live with that! Another week contract - getting paid - for waiting! That's just crazy! But I am NOT complaining! The last time I worked on the film was March 20th and I'm not scheduled again until April 10th - on hold all that time. very nice. The Alma Nominations should be announced Tuesday, April 4th, so I have no idea if I will be officially "nominated". I guess we'll find out soon enough. Also, I haven't heard anything from the A Day in the Life pilot who "pinned" me. I'm "pinned" from April 4th to the 12th, so again, we'll see what happ...