Lydia's Journey BEYOND Hollywood

I shot General Hospital this week. :) After 10 years, that was the one thing I hadn't done - worked on a soap opera! It was a really cool and different experience! Things work really fast in soaps. You don't have time to perfect a scene take after take. You show up to set, block it, rehearse it, shoot it, and move on to the next thing. I play Inez, supposedly the housekeeper's cousin who Dr Niles steals medicine for. Well, that's what Dr Niles tells everyone at the hospital. Apparently, she's quite the villian! But the actress who played her couldn't be more sweet! In fact, the group of actors I worked with were all very welcoming and nice. They put glamourous makeup on me and when I arrived on set, they said I looked too "pretty" for someone with bronchitis, so a makeup artist had to alter my face and made me look pale with bags under my eyes and a red nose. LOL I'm gonna look lovely! I was there only 5 hours and shot my scenes which...

I got called in to audition for The Cape yesterday. :) I interned for Risa on the pilot earlier this year, so I was very happy that she brought me in for a small role of a teacher in a flashback. I had auditioned for a detective role on the pilot, but had to pull my name out of the running because I had booked that other pilot, Awkward Situations for Men . Oh well...we'll see. maybe I will finally get to work on this show afterall! I just got the call today that I have to do ADR on the film I did this summer, Little Birds , in a couple of weeks. That's always fun :) Then I have to learn my lines for my General Hospital shoot on Monday. Busy busy busy! Never feels like it though... Workshop tonight, and then my Singing for Actors class on Saturday. Trying to keep busy before I leave next month...

10 years ago I made a "to do" list of the kinds of projects I wanted to tackle during my career. I checked them off as I booked them... Films, independent and studio, sitcoms, single camera comedies, one hour dramas, one hour dramedies, soap operas, commercials, print work, etc... Over these past 10 years, I've been fortunate enough to work in all of these mediums except for soap operas....UNTIL NOW! :) I booked a role on the long living series General Hospital. I didn't even have to audition! It was a straight offer. I went by ABC studios today to pick up my script so I can see what I will be playing. My role is "Inez" - yes, an undocumented worker who is posing as a maid to help Dr. Niles lie about stealing medication from the hospital. I'm asked to do an accent. Hmmm...I wonder if Irish would work? Or Austrailian? hehehe I picked up my script in the casting office and met both Mark and Gwen today for the first time. Both were incredibly w...

I have a crush. His name is Mark Ruffalo. I went to the SAG Foundation Conversations with Mark Ruffalo tonight. For those of you who don't know, Conversations is like the Inside the Actor's Studio Q&A with actors. He talked about how he got started and his 9 years as a bartender before he got his big break. He's a very modest man, never thinking his movies are a success BECAUSE of him. When asked what he wished someone would've told him when he first started in the business, he answered "It's gonna take a LONG time....but it's ok." He said that he had thought about quitting acting and moving back to Wisconsin plenty of times in those 9 years, and even went back home once and worked for his dad. But he found himself feeling like he was missing something, and came back. He said he did theater during those tough years, to help him get through it. I love this man. I went up to him afterwards, nervous and curious if he would remember working with...

So, as we all know, it's been pretty dead for me lately. No auditions in weeks! My cousin came to visit last week, and on her first day in town, I got a commercial audition, one for The Office, and a straight offer for a role on General Hospital! :) I work in two weeks! I told her she can't leave until I book a series! ;) She left today, so I hope my luck doesn't run out.