From Demo Reel to Off-Broadway? Sweet.

Jesse Eisenberg, Oscar-nominated actor from The Social Network, recently stopped by Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to discuss Asuncion, the off-broadway play he wrote and stars in.

When the subject moved to his co-star Camille Mana, Jimmy Fallon commented, “Who is this girl? I’ve never heard of her before this.” To which Jesse Eisenberg replied, “Her name is Camille Mana. She’s phenomenal.”

Jimmy Fallon knows who she is now.

How does an Asian-American actress go from UC Berkeley to starring alongside Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Bartha, & Remy Auberjonois just steps from the Great White Way? To hear Jesse tell it, he found Camille from her online reel and didn’t even make her audition.

Hear it from the horse’s mouth:



Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? Immediately I had to look up Camille’s reel to see what impressed Jesse so thoroughly. Found it on Camille’s Web site:



It’s a fantastic reel. Great variety – sexy, quirky comedy to indie drama. Color me envious.

This just proves my theory that a solid demo reel is vital for actors in this industry. If you don’t have any on-camera scenes to edit, create some! Find scenes from How I Met Your Mother or True Blood or Criminal Minds – whatever fits your type and talents – get some friends together and shoot them yourself. Focus on quality – bad tape isn’t better than no tape – and be sure that there’s variety.

Look what it did for Camille.

Hair Be Gone Again

So this is what I did last weekend –

That's 9 inches of my hair that I'm donating to Pantene Beautiful Lengths to become a real-hair wig for the American Cancer Society's wig banks across the country. I would have given more inches, but I wanted to keep my hair as long as possible while still meeting their minimum donation length. Why?

Because showbiz likes me with longer hair. If you’ve been reading my blog regularly, you know that even though I prefer my hair short, history shows that I book more acting jobs when my hair is longer.

And the data:

Jobs booked with short hair: 3		Jobs booked with long hair: 15

Yeah. This is a really silly business sometimes.

If it Wasn't Hard, Everyone Would Do It

It’s simple math.

To write a 60 page pilot in 5 days, I just need to write 12 pages a day. How hard could that be?

Say that to any writer and they’re liable to punch you in the face. Because it is hard. It’s hard to will words into the perfect arrangement that will communicate what’s in our mind. The gap between what we want to say and what actually comes out can be mighty disappointing. And imagination by definition is nebulous – the faculty of forming mental images or concepts of what is not actually present to the senses.

Sure there are easy moments – the Relax & Write method has helped me tap into my creative inner core and write without self-doubt, but mostly for my fiction. For me, writing dialogue and scenes is still – as one showrunner put it – like "shitting razor blades."

As I sit here, 6 pages into my self-given assignment for the week, I think about last week’s episode of The Simpsons – “The Book Job” – in which Lisa decides to become a book author and finds herself struggling to get that first paragraph out. She gets distracted by YouTube, plays online games, and gets lattes at the coffee shop – all while facing a blank page. Eventually, she comes to a conclusion – “Writing is the hardest thing ever!”

But this isn’t news to me. Writing was hard when I started, it’s hard now, and it will likely continue to be hard in the future. I’ll get better at it, of course – I’m already much better than a few years ago – but the hard never goes away. The hard is par for the course.

So I will forge on, into the land of hard, for at least 6 more pages today. Then I can watch that Jimmy Kimmel Halloween candy video again...

From Page to Screen to My Heart

I’m an avid reader and a lover of film. When the two intersect, I kind of love it. I know that makes me a rarity – hating the movie based on a book is a popular position to take in social circles. Some argue that in all cases, the book is better than the film based on it.

I couldn’t disagree more – I’ve seen fantastic cinematic interpretations of popular books. The Color Purple, The Horse Whisperer, Cold Mountain – all great books made into even greater films.

I love seeing the movie after reading the book. (I even tried to start a Page to Screen book club once, but couldn’t get anyone else on board.) For me, watching film adaptations is exciting because I get to see images and characters co-created in my imagination come to life. Because you can imagine Mr. Darcy rejecting Elizabeth’s invitation to dance all you want – seeing Colin Firth or Matthew Macfadyen actually do it is that much more delicious. It’s not about getting things right – sometimes the differences between my vision and a film director’s vision are the most compelling.

I’ve experienced a few glaring exceptions. Ben Mezrich’s Bringing Down the Housebeing adapted into the ridiculous, Hollywood-y 21? Awful. (A true MIT genius wouldn't have to work retail to pay for tuition. Puh-lease.) Changing everything about my beloved The Dark Is Risingby Susan Cooper to make the disastrous The Seeker? Don’t even get me started. (Merriman is defined by his white hair – why is he played by Ian McShane? Why is Ephram from Everwoodtagging along? And why the hell is everyone American?)

But for the most part, if it’s a film based on a book, I’m in. After I read the book. That’s the only way to do it, in my opinion.

I just read the first book in The Hunger Games series,so I’m particularly excited to see this:



Though I'm nervous about the Ender's Game movie adaptation. They better do that book justice or I'm going to be one pissed off fangirl.

What are your favorite books turned favorite movies? Tell me below and I’ll add them to my library holds list!

A Blackless Friday

It’s the day after Thanksgiving! Here’s what I won’t be doing:

I’m weeks away from the end of my New Year’s Resolution / No Buy Experiment and I still don’t miss shopping. In fact, I’m thrilled to NOT be participating in the craziness that is Black Friday.

I’ve done it before – freezing while waiting in line at 4 am for the opportunity to spend money. Feeling like I was beating the system when really the system had me just where they wanted me.

This year, the shopping is commencing earlier than ever. Target and Walmart opened at midnight, so by the time you read this blog post, thousands of dollars will have already spent on tons of stuff made in China.

But a deal is a deal, so I get it. A few hours of lost sleep is worth that $200 saved on a flatscreen television.

Here’s another deal that I think sounds great. American Express is promoting Small Business Saturday – another made-up consumer holiday – by offering a $25 credit to anyone who registers their AMEX card and spends $25 at a small business on Saturday, November 26. That’s free money!

I signed up even though I won’t be buying stuff on Saturday, because local restaurants are included on their list of qualified small businesses. Check out the Small Business Saturday Facebook page and register your AMEX card now!

Happy shopping to you all! I'll see you at the stores in the new year...

Celebrating Thanksgiving with Television

Happy Thanksgiving!

It may be a ridiculous holiday of excess, but it's the subject of some memorable television. Here are my favorites:


Mad About You - "Giblets for Murray"

I remember my parents trying to tell me about this episode and laughing so hard they could barely get through the description. My favorite part is when she throws the turkey out the window.




Friends - "The One Where Ross Got High"

Friends had terrific Thanksgiving episodes. My favorite was the one where Rachel made the english trifle out of beef, leading to one of my favorite moments:



And my favorite blooper:




A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

And of course, the best piece of Thanksgiving television ever! Peanuts hijinks set to sweet, sweet jazz. Favorite scene - when Peppermint Patty lets Charlie Brown have it for screwing up Thanksgiving dinner. That's love.



What are your favorite Thanksgiving-themed television episodes?

A Pre-Thanksgiving Hump Day Update

Where have I been for the last four days?

Writing, writing, writing and eating, eating, eating. And it’s not even Thanksgiving yet.

Writing –

After last Thursday’s notes call with the studios, I revised my outline about 6 times before sending the second draft over, which led to yesterday’s notes call. And as we head into the holiday weekend, I have more revising ahead of me. I’m starting to go cross-eyed looking at the same 18 pages, but there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing.

Eating –

KogiBBQ twice in a week! That’s extravagance. I love trying food trucks around LA, but KogiBBQ is still my favorite. No one else packs that much flavor into one little taco. Nom nom.

Writing –

I wrote and submitted my final round fiction entry into the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction competition. I’m one of only 25 writers in the final round – down from almost 500 who started the competition! Hopefully my story is good enough to earn one of the top four spots. Fingers crossed!

Eating –

Saturday dinner with a former co-worker at Mediterraneo in Hermosa Beach. The name led me to assume Mediterranean food, but then Yelp said it was an Italian restaurant and the menu was all Spanish tapas. Our waitress cleared up the confusion – their cuisine is influenced by all the nations in and around the Mediterranean, including Italy and Spain. Favorites – roasted dates filled with cambozola blue cheese & wrapped in prosciutto and sautéed scallops & shrimp in a basil cream sauce. Yummm...

Writing –

I’m back to blogging daily. Help me out by sending me your burning acting or writing questions to answer. Or contact me to write a guest blog!

Eating –

Nothing was better on a rainy, rainy Sunday than a sausage & lentil soup from Bay Cities Deli. That place is magic.