Lydia's Journey BEYOND Hollywood

with Lev, AKA The Nicest Guy! I never know just who stumbles upon my blog… I have had strangers contact me because they know someone I mentioned and want to get a hold of them, or just to say hi for them, I’ve had casting directors email me just to let me know they still remember me - and now, lately, I can add “TV Directors” to that list! I got an email last night from Lev L Spiro - the director from my Notes From the Underbelly episode AND the one that was in the Ugly Betty audition room when I made a huge dork of myself! He “stumbled” upon my blog and read my account of that audition and how awkward I felt afterwards! He actually APOLOGIZED to me for not hearing me and making me feel awkward. Can you believe that? Even though I’m the one that created the awkward situation by saying anything at all! Nice guy! And it so happens that he did remember me from Notes , and was just lost in thought and didn’t hear me address him. I was really touched by the fact that he even emailed me ...

Dan Finnerty performing at the Avalon with his group The Dan Band I feel bad that I haven't written in this blog for a while. Sorry everyone! I've just been really busy lately with people coming in from out of town every week this month! Let me catch you up... Last week I had an audition for NCIS . It was another maid role. Needless to say, I didn't book it. I had a commercial audition for Blanca Valdez Casting. She's known for casting commercials for the Spanish market. I had a callback for that yesterday. It went well...except they had this weird thing that they wanted to see everyone's hands and feet - and the product and/or commercial had nothing to do with our hands and feet. Weird... I had an audition on Monday Desperate Housewives . They called me that same day to tell me I was "pinned". YAY!!! Just found out yesterday they wrote that character out. :( So maybe if they decide to write it back in, I'll be working tomorrow on it... I won't ho...

I had an audition today for an AT&T commercial. It went well. My "husband" decided to paint the room by paintball and I just had to walk by and give a weird look to him and the room. Pretty simple and subtle. The coolest part was running into my old friend Bruno Amato who I haven't seen in a while! We caught up as much as we could before I was called in. I also got to meet one of my "readers" from this blog... I feel like I'm coming down with something. Perfect timing though, since I had a friend in town this week and they just left yesterday. So hopefully it will give me this weekend to knock it out of my system. I'm sitting in on my friend's acting class for kids. She approached me about maybe teaching classes every other weekend or so. So this is the weekend I check it out and see if I want to be on board. I have an audition tomorrow for NCIS . And it's another maid role - but to the lead female character played by Lauren Holly. I'l...

Well, I'm not in Hawaii today. :( Oh well... It would've been nice to book the season finale of LOST , especially since my mom is so addicted to that show! At least I'm on hold for Medium ... I should know for sure by next week if I'm shooting it or not. My sister will be visiting me for the first time in the 6 years I have lived here. She'll get here next Wednesday. Time to do all the fun touristy stuff! :)

I had two auditions today. My first one was for Medium . I was going in for a hotel housekeeper who finds a dead body. I think I have played this exact role a few times already :) so I should have this in the bag! I went downtown and met the casting director, Mark Saks, for the first time. The audition went well and he invited me back to producers later today. The second audition was for LOST - the season finale! And of course, this show shoots in Hawaii, so if I book this, I fly out on Thursday and shoot on Friday! An all expense paid trip to Hawaii! Nice! I really hope I book this one! It's a pharmacist role and I think it went pretty well. As soon as I walked in the room, the associate was commenting on my Curb episode and how much she liked it! So we have to wait and see. Hopefully I will know by tomorrow afternoon. :) After my LOST audition, which was running SUPER behind (1 hr), I rushed to my Medium callback in Manhattan Beach! I had 30 minutes to get to my callback, an...

This week was nice. I only "worked" Monday and Friday. I took Tues-Thurs off because I had a friend in town. But I also had 2 commercial auditions on Tuesday. One for Cold Stone Creamery where I played a bikini waxer. At first, I had no idea what that role had to do with ice cream - then they told me the spot would be focusing around "Bigfoot" and he runs into his arch-enemies: A hunter, bikini waxer, and scientist who are all having ice cream. They use it to lure him into the ice cream shop. Next audition was for Johnsonville Bratwurst (hotdogs). The audition had me and a "husband" BBQ-ing hot dogs on our grill outside and the neighbors were drawn over because of the amazing and delicious smell! It was a fun audition - they just had us wait forever before we could even get seen. Still waiting to get paid on the ADR looping for the pilot. Do you know I worked that looping session 5 WEEKS ago???? I hate having to chase my money around - trying to...

So I went in for my audition for Ugly Betty today. I felt pretty good getting there. I thought I looked the part, with my little mexican top and my hair pulled back, to play the mexican nurse. I saw a couple of other Latina actresses that I normally go up against when they are specifically looking for our type. :) One of them is a good friend of mine, Lorena Mena , who I just worked with on the new show Notes From the Underbelly . Well, Lorena goes in first and when she comes out, she tells me that Lev is in the room. Lev Spiro is the director from our Notes From the Underbelly job. So since she came out with a huge smile on her face and told me that, I just figured he recognized her and they had a nice reunion in there. Now, let me preface this by saying - I NORMALLY go into my audition rooms, do the work, and leave. No serious chit chat or trying to be funny or charming. Just professional. But this time, for some odd reason, I walk in the room, see Lev, and say "Hey...

1st pic: Jordan and Randy introduce the pilot to the eager audience, 2nd pic: Casting Director Barbara Fiorentino and Jessie Disla from FMW Casting, 3rd pic: Laurie Metcalf and Jordan Budde, 4th pic: Jill Latiano and her real life sister, 5th pic: Me and Mauricio Mendoza (who played my husband on the pilot) Wow! Last night I got to see The Virgin of Akron Ohio pilot that we shot in Vancouver! It was so exciting! Mostly the entire cast was there, including Laurie Metcalf who played the mother and Chelah Hordahl , the actress from Vancouver who played the sister. It was awesome to get a chance and hang out with Randy Zisk , the director, who hosted the screening in his beautiful house in Brentwood. I got a chance to spend some time talking with Jordan Budde , the writer of the pilot. He's such a nice guy. Actually EVERYONE on this project was amazing! And it all started with how amazingly supportive the casting office at FMW were! LOVE THEM!!!! :) I'm really excited about this pr...