Lydia's Journey BEYOND Hollywood

YAY!!! I am SOOOOOO excited! Just got the official word that I booked a role on Prison Break !! What an awesome belated birthday gift to me!!! :) I work three days next week!! You have no idea how much I love this show!!! I'm going to be the biggest dork on set when I see these characters and get to work alongside them! Plus, I have a HUGE crush on Wentworth Miller ! ;) I'm taking TONS of pictures!! :)

Today is my birthday! :) Another year older, another year wiser, right? haha I hope so! Today was a nice day. I hit the gym for 2 hours this morning, pampered myself with a spa manicue and pedicure and had dinner with a freind of mine. We had some really good sushi, PLUS I got to see Joaquin Phoenix there! I LOVE HIM!! He looks a lot different in person. He's kinda short, and has long messy hair with a beard. (Hopefully that's for a part!) I still haven't heard anything about Prison Break. It doesn't start shooting until next week, so hopefully I will get that phone call today. Or sometime this week. I hate waiting...I should forget about it like all the other ones.

My manager called to tell me I'm their "first choice" for Prison Break . They just needed to know my availability for June 2nd thru the 11th. "First choice? So, does that mean a booking?", I ask. Well, aparently they have to check the storyboard and my availability and then they would be ready to book. Well, I'M AVAILABLE!! Let's do this! :) I thought I would hear back from my manager before the end of Friday with an "official booking" - but I didn't. So I'm waiting to get excited about it until I hear back, which hopefully will be tomorrow when offices re-open from the long holiday weekend. You don't understand... I LOVE this show! I would do background work on this show just to be around it all! So playing a housekeeper does not bother me one bit! Plus, it helps that she's pretty major to the episode's storyline! :) Hopefully tomorrow I can post a "BOOKED" entry...

Well, yesterday's audition went really well. I was so nervous about this one! That usually happens on shows I REALLY want to be on, like it did with ER! :) I walked into the audition waiting room and I was surrounded by photos of the cast! :) Even huge framed TV Guide covers! Nice! I went in and did my 4 scenes and I felt really good about them. The casting director walked me to the door and whispered to me "Great job" - That's always good! :) So I haven't heard anything as of yet. We'll just have to wait and see... FOUR MORE DAYS UNTIL MY BIRTHDAY THOUGH!!!! :) I sound like an excited 5 year old! haha I'm getting older, but I don't feel old! :) And I can't complain about having another birthday....think about what the alternative would be! :-O

I know that it wasn't too long ago that I said I would NEVER do another maid role again. Well, I remember telling my agents and managers to only call me on a maid role if it's the lead on a new pilot or movie, or the role is important to the overall storyline. I didn't want to just walk into the room and find another dead body, or answer the door with an accent and that was it. Today, my manager calls me with a straight to producer's audition for a "housekeeper" role on Prison Break ! I LOVE this show! Like the kind of love you could call obsession! haha So, this is one of those exceptions! I would LOVE to be on this show in any way, shape, or form! So I'm very excited! It's 4 scenes and it's pretty important to the overall storyline of the episode. This is the description: Intelligent, pleasant, she is unaware that she is a pawn in the plans of Michael and his crew to retrieve some information from her boss without anyone knowing it. ...

The audition for Cold Case went really well. While I was waiting to go into the room, I was pleased to be among some good company there for other roles. I recognized Liz Torres , who was going in for the role of a teacher. She saw a couple of other actresses she knew. One of them, Ivonne Coll , who I recognized as a teacher on Lean On Me !! She played Mrs. Santos. That was really cool! They all seemed really nice, and such close friends. Then, moments later, Lupe Ontiveros walks in!! Wow! She has been working steadily for a very long time and I have always admired her! It really makes me feel good to be around these veteran Latina actresses who continue to work. Gives me hope for the future! One actor, Celestin Cornielle , was there for his audition. He went in and did his thing, and afterwards, as he walked out, they went running after him to bring him back in. Obviously they saw something they liked. He was this good looking ;) actor that was auditioning for a very b...

Just found out I have a callback for that Cold Case audition I went to on Friday. Nice! :) Another booking would be nice right now!

Doesn't happen often, but when it does, it REALLY is LAST MINUTE! So I went to the gym today for two hours and left my cell phone in my car. I usually hate having it on me when I'm working out. Now I know why I should always carry it with me. By the time I left the gym, I had a couple of messages from my agent and manager about a last minute audition for Cold Case today! (Nice! I guess that workshop on Wednesday DID generate an audition for me!) I looked at my watch and saw that I had TWO hours to get home, shower, get dressed, work on the sides, and make it to Warner Brothers. Actually, make that less than two hours. And the role was a guest star role! That's not a lot of time to prepare an awesome audition. Then I notice that the role was WAY too old for me! I didn't question it too much because I figured maybe they changed the role since they released the breakdown. I worked on it as much as I could, mainly on the drive there, and I actually felt pretty r...

This week has been pretty dead, but thankfully I'm staying busy with workshops. :) I had one last night with Dan Shaner of Shaner/Testa Casting, who casts Cold Case. I have been into this office before, but I haven't booked yet. So I wanted to make sure he remembered me. He gave me a scene where I played a forensic detective. Nice... :) It went well. I got to play a very dry and bitchy character. It was fun! Tonight's workshop was with Christine Babayans of Perry/Reece Casting. They cast a lot of films so this is a big office to get into. Thankfully, I had another good scene where I got to stretch some dramatic muscle. It went well. Hopefully these two workshops this week will generate auditions for me in the near future...

See how that works? One day, super busy...running around from one audition to another, and then it's back to being dead for me! I haven't heard anything back from any of those auditions :( so it's safe to say those jobs aren't mine. But that's ok. One of the most important lessons I have learned from being in this industry and living in LA for the past 7 years is...staying positive is essential. This career is filled with disappointment at every turn, but I have also learned to not focus on that so much, and to focus on the positive aspects of it instead. It's easy to be disappointed. Discouraged. Ready to throw in the towel and give up. The challenge is to endure all of that and still stay in the game with a positive attitude. Ready to take on the next thing that comes your way. I can't tell you how much I have learned from The Secret . The law of attraction. It really does work. And that's why I try and stay away from negative feelings an...

I had a pretty darn good day today! :) I arrived at my first audition ( How I Met Your Mother ) just a few minutes early, but they hadn't started the session yet. They were running about 10-15 minutes late, which made me a bit nervous since I had to be at my second audition by 10:45am in Santa Monica! But luckily, once they started, they went pretty fast and I was in and out of there quickly. The audition went well - quick and painless. I made it to my second one ( Raising the Bar ) 5 minutes early. It is always so nice to see the casting director: Scott Genkinger!! He is so sweet! :) I noticed that the director on this episode was the same director I had worked with on The Practice: Jeannot Szwarc, so I highlighted his name on my resume before the audition. The first thing the director did was turn my resume over and notice his name! He said "Oh, you and I worked together on The Practice !" and I smiled and said "Yes we did!" and of course there was...

Thank God! I love busy days!! :) I have THREE auditions tomorrow!! YAY!!! The first one is for How I Met Your Mother , the second one is for Raising the Bar (a new show on TNT), and the third is for Without a Trace . I'm playing two nurses and a courtroom forewoman. Three in one day! I HAVE to book at least one of them, right?? If not all three?? ;) Fingers are crossing....