I’m not gonna keep counting these Willows days. Rehearsal will be a flash and then suddenly I’ll be a workhorse in a meadow in Oxford dehydrating and laughing and badgering.
Today, obscurely, we were given a day off. Thank God though. It couldn’t have rolled better. Three self tapes just came in. Two of them were due this morning and one of them tomorrow morning. Normally you get the whole weekend, but the casting Gods knew that today would be my day off, and they decreed that I would be able to send the tapes at an otherwise very busy time.
I have a Badger beard. For the most part I’ve sent the tapes unapologetically bearded. I’m not sure which photos my agent has been using. Fuck it – they’ve asked for the Barclay. That’s what they get. Sometimes there’s a beard and sometimes there isn’t.
For one of the roles I was clear in the tape that I can shave the beard on August 8th. The others just get what they’re given. One of them has a moustache in the script. The other fits the beard I have and it’s not specified. He’s just a job title.
The heartwarming thing is that these were all interesting projects, even if not all the deepest parts. Props to my agent. Good to at least be in the mix for some interesting material again after the Covid desert, and even if my facial hair might get in the way.
The parts were mostly functional so personality and individual takes are less important than just basic efficiency. If your photo on the mood board doesn’t match an existing cliche of the job you are named for, then somebody else’s photo will end up on that mood board.
Only one of the roles I read for today had a name – an excellent name – and a personality. That’s the one I’m most likely to get, I think. I don’t do well with functional parts. I’m a character lead by instinct, by experience and by attack. Nevertheless, there’s not much going on out there and I absolutely have to flex my muscles. Get me on the major set playing “Job Title” and the next time the director is looking for somebody like me to do something with a bit of heft, they know where to find me. “You gotta be in it to win it,” and lots of these casting directors haven’t looked at me in twenty years, so I’ll joyfully come in for a spit.
Tomorrow is my last day for a week without two shows. Aargh. Glad that all the distractions are away on WeTransfer and in the lap of the gods. Maybe I can just relax into being an Akala Badger for a while…
AlBarclay 