Secret Auditions.

Is it proper to drink wine when you blog? Well, you could say it was sophisticated at least-right? I always envied the characters in movies, who poured themselves a nice glass of wine, while they pulled open their laptop to crack a crime case that had remained unsolved for 35 years. I envied them because I wished I could make intelligent deductions and analyze information effectively whilst knocking back a glass of Bordeaux. I would be more likely to fall asleep, so I tend to save the wine till after I've done my homework. And yet, here I am, glass in hand. But this blog isn't exactly rocket science now, is it?

I've had a full and interesting day. This morning I auditioned for a leading role in a top secret studio movie. It was so top secret that they wouldn't provide me with a script, a scene to prepare or even tell me if it was a comedy or a drama! How was I suppose to give them what they wanted if I didn't know what they wanted. Well, it was the perfect lesson and experiment in being myself and expressing my truth because I had absolutely no idea what anyone expected of me. I decided to walk in with an American accent (I have a foreign one), even though I knew I was doing a chat to camera and an improvisation. The third question the casting director asked me was, where I was from. "Damn!" I said to myself, "I was hoping to be able to hide that for a bit longer." I answered and told the truth (I considered lying for a split second). The casting director said he was very impressed with my accent because he had not noticed I was doing one. I was pleased. I then had to talk about weird nightmares I had and what I had done during the morning before the audition. The truth was, that all I had really done, was wash my hair and put make up on for the audition. So I said that, (knowing that it was not very interesting) but I managed to make it into some sort of joke. I then said a little lie and said I had gone for a walk which really I hadn't! I just didn't want to seem like the type of person who just does their hair (which is really, exactly all I did do). Looking back, adding in 'going for a walk' hardly makes me into an intriguing person. Anyway, I then did an improvisation about losing a small child in a mall and managed to get kind of worked up. He seemed impressed and then gave me a scene to read. NOTE: THIS SCENE WAS NOT FROM THE FILM! If they are so top secret that they give out scenes that are not from the film, then surely they could have given them out the day before the audition. None of it could possible leak the story of the film anyway. I asked one girl at the audition if she had had as little to say about her morning as me. "Was your morning answer as boring as mine?" I asked her.
"I'm not sure I did so well," she said." I think I stuffed it up because he didn't give me a scene to read." I assured her that one can't possibly stuff up answering questions about one's own life. I then immediately wondered whether it was indeed possible. I was then called in to do my scene and it went pretty well. He made me do it twice but I really have no idea if it was what they wanted. He seemed pleased though and said it was nice to meet me. I actually believed him.

I then went and met Langford* at Soho house in Los Angeles and we had roast beef sandwiches looking out over West Hollywood. He had just come from an exciting script meeting and so we had much to share and discuss. I then had to run off to the 'Mud' audition. I waited 45 minutes to go in. I saw a friend there. He was actually auditioning for one of the characters made of mud. I was glad to be a witch. I didn't fancy rolling around on the ground and grunting like a pre-historic cave man. The audition was successful! In as much as the feedback in the room was very good. The director said that he loved how I expressed everything in my eyes and that I had obviously understood the script on a very deep level. HA! Sure fooled him! No, to be honest I felt I did get what this witch character was going through. I asked him if he wanted to try it again and he said,
"No, when I push people around, I really am just trying to get them to do something like what you just did. I don't know how it could have been better!" He then got me to sit in the light and they just filmed my face on close-up. They asked me some questions and then I left. In my opinion, that audition went really well.

I then went over to see one of my best friends Zara* who is back from overseas. My god I missed her. Within 5 minutes of being together again, we were off gallivanting around LA on the hunt for Maldon Sea Salt that seems to be available at few locations. We went to three different shops and bought lots of cheese and mousse pate and lollies along the way. We then went back to her house and Zara cooked an amazing roast lamb. We even made our own mint sauce with fresh picked mint from her herb garden. We ate with another actor friend who was in Zara's TV show and Zara's boyfriend. Delicious. To top it off we drank an '05 Bordeaux and ate baked apple pastries. A pretty wonderful finish to the day. And very proper too, I think.