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Precious Chong Blog May 28thOkay. I’m back in Los Angeles just for a few days. It was a last minute trip. I used my miles. A theater I’ve worked with a lot was auditioning for “Picasso at the Lapin Agile”. Not only that but Jenny Sullivan, a really wonderful director, and Joseph Fuqua, in the lead role, were having their last performance of Hamlet. It was amazing. He was incredible. I first met them both when we did “The Cat’s Meow” in Los Angeles. Joseph played Chaplin. It was a fun production and since then I’ve worked with them both a lot over the years. It was so nice to see them and all the people at the Rubicon Theater. It’s in Ventura about an hour or so north of Los Angeles. Lots of good memories. Good people. Just before I left I had a little hiccup with my agent. I’ve emailed her over the last few months when I hear of a project I might be right for. I didn’t think she minded. In fact, we had a tete a tete a couple of weeks before and she had mentioned how she liked that I was keeping positive and emailing her about stuff. I think that’s what she said. I’m pretty sure. Anyways this past week I got wind of two projects that I really wanted to go in for. Wes had gotten an audition and in the breakdown there was a part that was right up my alley. I emailed my agent. The next day she called and told me to call her. “Precious, your emails”. “Are they starting to drive you crazy?”. “Yes...It makes me feel like you don’t think I’m doing my job”. “I’m sorry, that’s not my intention at all, it’s just, I didn’t think you minded and this last project. The character was so right for me”. “It’s really hard to get you in for stuff, you don’t have the credits, and the industry is so competitive right now”. “I was just frustrated because I really really think this part suits me”. “Well, I’ll have my assistant send you the script and sides and you can put yourself on tape”. “Great!”. Okay...So now, I had to put my money where my mouth was. So I got the material and worked on it as much as I could. Between the condo meeting in our complex, Jack, finding a place on such short notice, blow drying my hair, looking for someone to watch Jack etc...etc... I found the place that had some time. Got it all done before noon the next day. Yes, I would’ve liked more time and no I don’t feel like I gave them a knock your socks off performance. I mean in the “movie” version I would’ve been hilarious and they would’ve called my agent exclaiming “Where did you find her?”. I would’ve been on a plane tomorrow to the location and on the cover of People magazine in the fall. Right? I’m just surprised that my agent took it personal. That those emails got on her nerves. I mean in our last meeting she basically said, you haven’t booked anything yet so I’m having a hard time selling you. I didn’t take that personal. It’s business. I’ve always been better when I’m more proactive. Most of my really good acting jobs were not the result of an agent submitting me and me going in and auditioning and then me booking the job. It’s a more convoluted complicated web of events. I’m in no way diminishing the agent’s job or function. It’s that for me, that has been just one element. Somehow, the universe responds to me when I put myself out there. Not in a direct way. But you know the energy of hustling. That’s how it works in Los Angeles. Unless you are 19 or really, really really beautiful or both. It’s all about getting yourself out there. Work begets work. I once got a job because of a reading of a play I did two years before with an actress who happens to be the wife of a director who had remembered me and called me in to audition for a part because she had thought I was funny. Maybe it works differently in Toronto. People are more polite, less agressive. Things are more shall we say, savage, desperate, intense in Los Angeles. There is a game. It needs to be played. I’m not always good at it, believe me. I’m not good when it comes through association with my father or sister. I’m much much better when it comes from my own work. I wish I was different but there you go. There is also a hierarchy. My good friend dated a very successful television writer, but that didn’t really help her or us. He was on a level that was way out of reach. People expected, wanted things from him all the time. It put him on edge. I’m not suggesting that was why she dated him or that he should have helped her. It’s just that it’s not always the obvious way. So, is the moral of the story, don’t email my agent because it gets on her nerves? Or was it good because in the end, I did get to put myself on tape for that project. And even if it doesn’t get to the right person or they don’t even watch it. Does it matter? Isn’t the act of putting myself out there. Saying “yes” to the universe. Saying “I love acting and need to do it regardless of how much humble pie I need to eat in order to get there”.
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