Where's the Love?!

So I must address something that has been irking me for quite some time now...the emergence of all these "singer/actor...rapper/actor...videogirl/actor" nonsense! It's almost like people think that all actors do is learn lines and dress up and that makes them "actors"...I am sorry just because you have a hit single or a following of a bunch of teenage girls/boys who will go see your movie doesn't mean that you should be called nor call yourself an actor. Every time I see a singer referred to as an actor and they smile and accept the title as if they've actually trained and worked hard to become an actor it makes me want to SCREAM! Do people have any idea how hard it is to be an actor? A good actor? Of course its very easy to be a bad actor...ask Kirsten Dunst or Keanu Reeves...they'll tell you. But if you want to be good...great...iconic...you have to work hard...DAMN hard! I think its such an unfair idea that anyone can be handed a movie script and called an actor...I dont see Denzel, Meryll or Chiwetel walking into Def Jam and getting handed record deals because of their acting skills...why? Because we all respect the hard work and dedication it takes to be a good musician...we recognize that you (well hypothetically) actually have to have singing/rapping/producing talent to get into the music industry so why cant we actors get the same type of respect? Every time I turn around some random rapper/singer/music producer is calling him/herself an actor...huh? 

Let me tell you the schedule of a training actor at a conservatory program like the one I went to:

8am: Wake up and get ready for your lib ed classes

11am: you may be all done with your lib ed classes but if you had a huge courseload like I did you wont be done until just minutes before your acting classes start at...

1pm: you're in an acting class that asks you to bare your soul in a room full of people and after you lay it all out on the line someone is going to pick it apart, tell you what can be more specific and make you do it again or you're dissecting a Shakespeare play down to its very skeleton so that you can be understood speaking this highly intelligent, eloquent, emotional text....then 3 hours later

4pm: Voice/Dialect class: learning dialects from any part of the globe (choose one, I can do it), training your voice to survive 10 show weeks and a lifetime as an actor, learning how to speak basically all over again...breaking down speech/language to basic sounds only to put it back together again so that you can tackle any character's speaking pattern thrown your way...2 1/2 hours later 

6:30 you're getting a break for dinner...only 1 hour (which is really only about 45 mins if you consider the time it takes to warm up for rehearsal) because at...

7:30 pm- you're in rehearsal for the next 3 1/2 hours until finally at..

11 pm: you go home to do all your homework, review notes from rehearsal, try to have a second of breathing room before you're too sleepy to hold your head up...

REPEAT for 4 years...!!

Now dont get me wrong, I wouldnt trade the last 4 years I spent working that hard for anything because it taught me that I was stronger than I thought I was and it really showed me how much passion I had for this thing I love so much...I only laid that out to give you a glimpse into how hard it is to be a trained actor and notice that didnt even include the process of creating a character for a play and having it ready to perform...that process would scare some of you trust me...lol...all I am saying is that we work really hard to earn the title of "actor" and I think we deserve some respect. So stop calling these "good memorizers" and "marquee names" actors...its like slapping us in the face and we all know how disrespectful that is.

Sincerely,

@bestnewactress :)

 

Treat yourself to some good acting- here's a scene from the Godfather

Right Person, Right Place, WRONG Time

So to all my readers out there...this is probably the last installment in the Dear Heart chronicles for quite some time. I know, I know "why? what happened? it seemed so nice...". Well why things always seem to happen at the most inopportune times is beyond my understanding but in short McDreamy ( I never was able to come up with my own alias to protect his identity lol) is gone. And honestly I dont know if I'm more hurt because he was the one doing the leaving instead of me or because I really truly dont want him to not be apart of my life. Maybe its both? I mean it may sound horrible but for the last few years of my life I have become accustomed to always being the one with the power to walk away from someone or something, I am always doing the leaving. It gives me a sense of invincibility to know that I can come and go out of people's lives as I please not because I want to but because often times I just have to and I always said that the man I would care about would have to be understanding and have his own thing going on in which he would take some of that power away from me by living out his dreams and seeing where he would end up in the world...

Be careful what you ask for, right? This is in no way a sad, possibly bitter goodbye to something that was so wonderful but more of a realization of how it must feel for my friends and family to say goodbye to me so many times...sometimes on short notice and I expect them to just understand that this is what I have to do for my dreams but I dont even consider that maybe they just want me around because I bring something to their lives like McDreamy brought something to mine. I do think that we'll see each other again and keep in touch but the magic that this summer brought wont be there....I know that...and that in itself makes me a little sad. So here is my last installment into the Dear Heart chronicles:

Dear Heart,

Well things happen and we can't always plan for them but you made yourself available for someone again and you taught me something and so I am glad that you were so open. You'll feel better soon. I promise. I'll take care of you :)

Sincerely,

@bestnewactress

Im dedicating this one to my special heart

Spread the Wealth

I am always overjoyed when I can help out the people I care most about in the world i.e. my close friends and family members. I am not in a place in my life where I can buy them all the things I think they deserve or introduce them to all the world has to offer but I can show I care by just being myself or helping out or sharing an idea. I am saying all this to say my little bro, who would be the first to say he "doesnt do blogs" is now blogging! Go check him out: http://airnighthawkj.blogspot.com/!

Sincerely,

@bestnewactress

White Privilege? Black Self- Hate? Self- Crucifixion?

Ok so now that the fire has died down on the whole Kanye issue, I feel like I can approach this from a somewhat neutral playing field. I mean I know what Kanye did was wrong and I recognize how hurtful it must have been for poor little Taylor Swift but all of a sudden Kanye West is the enemy of the state? I am not understanding how quickly we kill and bury our celebrities in this world. One of my favorite tweeters on Twitter is @bevlove and she made a joke in one of her statuses that read "white people stick together." and as funny as that may be it is so true of them and not so much about us. I know what Kanye did was rude...yes it was out of line and yes oh yes it was Kanye West and "we all know how he is" but all I am saying is that had it been a Jonas Brother or Darren Brand (who may I add is always highly rude and disrespectful as a host) do you really think their white followers/fans would have thrown them under the bus as easily as we did Kanye? 

And that question goes not only for him but for all the other celebrities, especially black male figures, who we criticize and tear to shreds at their first sign of human weakness i.e.-Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Chris Brown etc...we ridicule both privately and publicly, our Icons. Our comedians make them spectacles for all to see and we allow it, we agree with it, in fact we love it. And this is something I dont see happen a lot in other cultures. For example, even years after Elvis Presley's death (which was due to drug overdose) there still has been very little discussion about his deep, dark secrets, his womanizing or battle with narcotics that almost broke him but we will never let anyone forget that Whitney Houston had a bout with drugs even now that she is fully recovered. We like to see each other fall it seems and it feels like we have more to do with the fall than "the man". 

I want to lie out some facts for you: Kanye interrupts Taylor Swift at the Video Music Awards ( an award show that has absolutely nothing to do with any of our lives) and people talk about it like he killed a group of schoolchildren at close range but Joe Wilson interrupts the President of the United States during a speech that could decide how we fair in healthcare for many years to come and we hear about it for maybe 2 days? Hmmmm consider it.

I just wrote this to say that maybe if we start within ourselves respecting our icons and making our voices heard in a positive light, maybe we wouldn't have so much distance to cover when trying to change the way people see us. "Its just my thoughts...right or wrong..."

Sincerely,

@bestnewactress