Let me start off by saying that I highly dislike the term Angelino. It kinda reminds me of Brangelina and all those mashed together names that are meant to sound cool. I thought it was actually a joke when I first read it in a local magazine. It’s not. It’s the term for people who live/work/play in Los Angeles. I now consider myself one, so I’ve gotten over the eye-rolling whenever I see it.

I call this post “Angelino Footsteps” because of the steps my career has taken in the industry. It’s been on my mind to come out with the updates I promised months ago in order to give you all–whoever you may be–the details of my journey. I don’t have solid proof of many things, but they are in the works. I’m still waiting on a few people to finish a few things so I can show you all what I’ve been up to.

There haven’t been many newsworthy happenings lately that I’m permitted to talk about, but since I got my new headshots from MLove Photography I’ve been getting more work and auditions. I figured I’d talk about that first. I’m NOT a morning person at ALL, but I got a call from my agency Talento LA around 9:30am to let me know that I had a Bing commercial audition later on today. So, once I answered in my “No, I wasn’t sleeping. I’ve been up for HOURS.” voice and got the details, it was time to set my mind for the task ahead.

Auditions take a total of about 5mins, but the entire process takes hours out of your day. Mentally preparing and conceding to the fact that all of the plans you made days ago just changed takes a few minutes to adjust to. Going through your wardrobe in your head and guessing what “casual, nice, upscale” means to those you’re auditioning for can take a good hour. Then you actually have to start getting showered, dressed, done up and head out the door. Depending on the time of day, I leave myself up to 1 1/2 hours to travel 30 miles because LA traffic starts about 3pm and goes until 7pm. And you hope that when you get there they will have parking in the surrounding area. This is why you give yourself ample time to travel, find parking, and sign in before your actual audition time slot.

If the casting agent is running behind, you end up sitting around for 30mins in the waiting area and–at this point–your head’s not even in the game anymore. Your name is called and you’re rushed through a couple of lines, expressions, and improv. Once you leave the room, you go over all the things you should/could/would have done if you knew what they were going to ask of you. At this point, I leave it up to God. There’s nothing I can do, no thank you card I can write, or fruit basket I can send to make them remember me. Anything I could have shown them of myself, I just left in that room.

The worst is when you get there and the person you’re auditioning for treats you as if you’re the biggest waste of time and you just ruined their day by showing up. Yes, that actually happens more often than I’d like to admit. Surprisingly that’s usually for the lower paying jobs that I submit myself for, so I leave most auditions up to my agency now.

I didn’t say anything above to discourage anyone from trying to find their way in this industry. Honestly, there are some very rewarding days. I’ve gotten call backs from auditions for national commercials. For those who don’t know what a call back is, it’s like the second round of auditions. Usually, the director doesn’t sit through the first round, so everything is recorded on tape. The casting agents narrow down the actors to a select few and bring them in on a separate date to be auditioned in front of the director. Even though I didn’t book them, I still feel like I’ve accomplished something by them wanting to see me again.

I also booked my first feature film role on one of the worst days I ever had trying to find the audition location. I got lost TWICE, arrived super late, and forgot my headshot. I almost gave up on the whole project, but I went in anyways and gave my all to the director. Fortunately, my lines required me to be angry and frustrated. Once I had that experience, I force myself to push through any circumstances because you never know what’s waiting on the other side.

I mentioned that my new headshots got me a little more activity recently. In my next industry post, I’ll share more about that and give some advice so you can learn from my mistakes. Until then…

Blessings,

❤ KLove