Lydia's Journey BEYOND Hollywood

It has been an interesting week. I had an audition yesterday for an IHOP commercial yesterday. That was short and sweet. I signed on for an extra day of interning. Now I'm working three days a week at the casting office. I must be crazy because I got there at 9am and I was the last intern to leave at 7:20pm. I worked over 10 hours, free of charge! But today was unlike any other day. We had a producer's session where a select few actors were brought in to meet the producers for the pilot. I had about 5 "stars" on the list that I had to usher into a separate office so they wouldn't have to wait in the busy waiting room with the other actors. (Without saying his exact name), one of them was The Hoff-man himself (heehee). Now, he isn't just an actor or celebrity - he is an actual EVENT. The man is always "on". He is very tall, and has the performing personality the second he enters a building. He referred to a previous show he was on (where h...

I haven't talked a lot about my new internship - mainly because I started it on Friday. But let me just say...I am LOVING it! Really! I would say the majority of the 12 interns they brought on to help out during this pilot season are all actors. And they are interning mainly to learn the ins and outs of the casting process, without any interest in being a casting director someday. I took this internship to see if there was another area of the business that I could fall in love with equal to my acting - if not more. I've thought of producing, maybe working at the studio level, casting, - anything and everything - in search of another area on interest - just out of curiosity. Now I have casting experience prior to this. I assisted in casting a feature film in Austin many moons ago, and I casted a short film there as well. I also interned at a busy office during pilot season a few years ago. I knew I always liked the casting side - I just wasn't sure how much until no...

I showed up to my audition a day late! Can you believe that??? I arrived to the FOX lot yesterday, ready for my guest star, possible recurring role on Terriers as an Asst D.A., and the guard did not have me on the list. I told him who I was meeting with, and what building they were in. He called up to the casting office to let them know I was there and she asked to speak to me. She proceeds to inform me that my audition was scheduled for YESTERDAY and she would love to see me today except they already have an offer out to someone else. And just like that, that awesome role vanished. :( I kept beating myself up for doing something so stupid! How could this happen? I checked my email from my agent, and right there it said THURSDAY, 3pm. Where did I get that it was on FRIDAY? I was so bummed! Then I remembered I got the call from my agent Wednesday night while I was teaching my teen class and the message said that my audition was Friday the 11th. I just heard FRIDAY, so that...

I have two auditions lined up for this wek! YAY!! It's beed so dead, I'm so excited about this! Tomorrow is for a national commercial and Friday is a pilot where I'm going in for the role of an Asst District Attorney. :) I hope this means I'm gonna start to get busy. REALLY busy I hope...

It has been so incredibly slow these past couple of weeks. I had an audition I set up for myself for a USC short last Thursday. It's a scene from the film Swingers , and they are doing the female version. That was a fun audition. I auditioned to play the Jon Favreau character. It shoots this coming weekend so if they want to cast me, I should hear back sometime this week. My interview with IAE Magazine just came out in their most recent issue! I'm on pages 64-66! Check it out! :) Well, it looks like I may be interning at a casting office starting this week. I'll be helping them during pilot season, trying to learn what I can. Who knows, I may need to get a job in casting if this dry spell lasts any longer. I'm also working on a short film that my friend Alex Castillo is directing. Hoping to learn what I can on the producing end as well....trying to stay busy.

I packed up what I could fit in my car and headed to Hollywood. The plan was to stay with my friend for a month and try and find a job and an apartment. I had saved up $3,000 which I thought was a lot of money at the time. Boy was I wrong! After two weeks, I found myself without a place to live and out on the street. Luckily I had met someone, who turned out to be one of my closest friends today, who took me in and let me stay with her for however long I needed. It turned out to be about three weeks. I found a cheap apartment in North Hollywood and began temping downtown while I finished my paperwork for substitute teaching. I did background work and found an agent my first month in town. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I decided to be a professional actress in Hollywood. And I didn't know exactly how big to dream. I just wanted to work as an actress. I didn't need to be famous - I just wanted it to be my profession. Well, 9 years later, looking bac...