Lydia's Journey BEYOND Hollywood

Director Ivan Reitman (on the right) with his son, director of Up in the Air Jason Reitman YAY!!! I booked my next feature film! I'm playing a nurse in Ivan Reitman's next film, starring Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman! I tell you, the worst thing about being an actor is, you never know if you will get another job. The next job is never promised to you, so its a nice surprise when you book something. Actually, its more than a nice surprise - its peace of mind. You will no longer be "out of work" - well, at least for a day. :) Then its back to being unemployed. But, let's not focus on that now. I got a job!!!! I work in June and I can't wait! It makes it easier to travel and move during the summer knowing I have some income coming in! :) YAY! I needed my next big movie because The Holiday and The Terminal residual checks were starting to dry up. I can't wait until I start collecting the residuals on this film! Is that too premature? To t...

Friday we had a new casting session and callbacks for Scratcher . We have had some really good talent come in for this film. We have been really lucky. We had top three favorites from last week, and have replaced two of those three with a new favorite. So now we are down to two actors who could play this role. We just have to make a decision. This is so hard!!!!! Because your film is only as good as your lead actor. If he can't carry this film, then there goes the film! Now, Friday, before I stepped into my casting shoes for these sessions, I had on my actor shoes and headed to a callback with Ivan Reitman . In case some of you who don't know, Ivan is the man behind such classics like Animal House, Ghostbusters, Stripes , and Twins ! :) I had a good audition and he said I was good - that was nice... Now we will have to wait and see if I will be playing a nurse in his next movie starring Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman! Fingers crossed!

Friday was our first official casting session for SCRATCHER. We started at 10:30am and saw about 17 actors. It was a very productive and interesting day! We ended the day with about three actors we felt strongly about. All for different reasons. The funny thing was I picked one, the writer picked another, and the director picked another! Depending on which kid we cast, the movie could be three different films! It was pretty exciting! I'm loving this process! We're not entirely finished. We're still seeing people and possibly setting up callbacks soon. We're shooting in just two short months. Saturday I took a UCLA Extensions course called Careers in Entertainment: How to go from Assistant/Intern to Studio Executive. It was very informative! We met lots of big executives and had the opportunity to ask them how they got to where they are now. It sparked an interest in maybe TV development in myself. Maybe my next internship will be in a development office t...

hehe This week I am a casting director. Officially. I am casting a short film for my friend Alex Castillo, called Scratcher . I had originally wanted to be part of the producing team on this project (I guess technically I still am), but after my internship in Risa's casting office, and my interest in casting, he decided for me to take on this role. It's pretty damn exciting. :) We put out the breakdown yesterday and have had 50 submissions so far. I'm going through them this week and setting up appointments for Friday. So much is happening with me right now. I guess with Spring here, I'm doing a very thorough spring cleaning. I'm planning to sell most of my stuff, if not all, and go on an adventure of some sort. Travel, see other places, live somewhere else, DO something else - take a break from this industry they call "Entertainment". Minimize my life and possessions and really enjoy life. It's scary and exciting at the same time. I guess af...

Ok, this is my horoscope for today: You're not exactly frustrated or despondent, but you do want to see some changes happen. Now is the time to think big and try to plot out the course of the next phase of your life. Hmmm...pretty right on, isn't it? I think I'll take its advice and think BIG :)

Ok, time to get you up to speed with what's been happening lately.. I've had a couple of auditions this week for short films and a webseries. One of the short films is an action film which would be a nice addition to my reel. I have a chemistry read with the actor who would be playing my boyfriend tomorrow afternoon. The webseries was called The B Gate and it was written by Rick Najera from Latinologues and executive produced by Jennifer Lopez. The character was hilarious but we were paired up with another actor, and we just didn't have the chemistry to make it work. He didn't seem very comfortable with his character, or comedy actually, and our audition didn't go as well as I had hoped. Oh well - there are just some things you can't control. It would've been fun to be a part of this project. I interviewed for another casting internship last week. I'm also the casting director of a short film that a friend is producing and directing and we will be h...

1st pic: Matt Letscher , me , and Danny Wallace 2nd pic: with Laura Prepon 3rd pic: with Michael Braun, who plays Laura's assistant on the show 4th pic: with Tony Hale and Jay Cramer 5th pic: Michael with Brian George last pic: the set I wrapped Awkward Situations on Monday of this week. I had a great time being employed and working with these awesome people. :) Now I'm back to looking for a job - both casting and acting...