Today has been mostly about trying to get young people to engage with the idea of being an engineer. Good Christ it is such a strange mess. I am moving around the country trying to engage people who would never think that engineering is the career choice for them. I’m trying to help them realise that it is precisely the fact that they aren’t the obvious choice that makes them the right choice. But I’m an actor. My best friends from school are engineers. I’m not. I’m waiting for them to walk into it. There’s some interesting humans. Maybe one of them will change the world.
At lunchtime I got an email from my agent and I’m being considered for a story where I would normally be dismissed. I’ve got a self tape for a part I’d normally be overlooked for. Finally there’s some movement in my industry. “You’re too dark to be posh,” I was told by an eminent casting director while still at Guildhall. I didn’t really know what to do with that, so I just kept trying to make the work work instead of being angry. I’m glad of the patience I learnt. I’ve had a brilliant few decades not quite fitting in. I’ve made things work the best I can. It’s weird though. People often forget that we full time actor type idiots are humans who have sacrificed a great deal to do the thing we consider to be our calling.
I had a major agent tell me once I should learn Arabic – at the time I needed a representation shift so I was very happy to listen. That was their advice during a meeting I felt very happy to get. “With your look, you need to speak Arabic and then you’d never stop working.” It’s fucked. I’m just a little bit swarthy. “Where are you from?” I have been asked pointedly by baddies when I was floor managing at Royal Ascot. ‘No but … Come on ….where are you really from?” “Is it because I’m swarthy? My mother was Spanish…?!?” “Ahhh that explains it.”.
Today has been the perfect expression of what I do. A large portion of my time was spent trying to engage young people in engineering. Then I tried to work out which regency coat works best for the show I’m aiming at. Right now I’m thinking this one:
I love the random. I know it’s fun to wear something like that. I’m not expecting it to be the catalyst to something huge. Plus I’m tired and I’m going to go to sleep no matter what. Aaargh. Sleep well, my lovelies. Xx
AlBarclay 