11:57 AM - Fri 10.04.19
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Shot episode #1009 yesterday (For the uninitiated - that number indicates "Season 10, Episode 9", not the one-thousand-and-ninth episode).

Had virtually nothing to do - had a line in one scene, and was a well-paid background player for another - but I did have a novel bit of business, which made it fun (Unfortunately, I made the choice to eat pretty much every pastry on offer - which they trucked in from someplace where delicious pasties are made - which seemed "fun" at the time but ended up making me feel sad and angry at myself).

I'm on for the next episode on Monday, and for the episode after that sometime in the following week or two (As of yet, still don't know whether I'm in 12).

Was just talking to Jane R. a short time ago - We finally got word on what we could do vis a vis our thing and Shameless, and to my way-of-thinking, it turns out to be "not much".

When I first brought up the idea with the Producer (near the beginning of shooting), he opined that, at the very least, it probably wouldn't be an issue for me to be interviewed in my trailer.

Many months and a number of emails from Jane later...and we have permission for me to be interviewed in my trailer (Though far as I know, we still don't have the go-ahead on when and how it's to transpire, and we're quickly running out of show to work with).

I'm disappointed - I didn't think we were going to get unfettered access to everyone and everything, but I was hoping for at least a little more behind-the-scenes stuff than me in a non-descript trailer, telling the audience things I'd rather be showing them.

Anyway, it is what it is. And even if I find it disappointing, I still think it adds a little something to the documentary to have me literally on the lot about to shoot an episode of the show. A small - very small - touch of "Hollywood glamour", as it were (Hoping to engage some of the series regulars - including the Big Man himself, Bill Macy - in this little segment. But not sure how that's gonna work out).

But speaking of the show, I have to "circle back" to yesterday's shoot...

I believe I mentioned in one of my previous entries that one down-side of punching myself in the face recently was that I had a commercial audition the following day (For McDonalds), and a callback for a TV thing the day after that.

Well, the TV thing fell apart because of a conflict between the show's producers and Hulu (It was in the news, if you follow that sort of thing).

A disappointing development.

So then who gets a text late Weds afternoon that he has a callback for McDonalds the next day, a callback he can't go to because he's shooting Shameless?

(If you guessed, "You, Jim?", you are correct.)

Coming quickly on the heels of the other thing, I felt something more than disappointment, something more akin to "Why me Lord?" self-pity.

But trying to "keep my sunny-side up", it does strike me as a happy surprise that I got that callback in the first place, especially when I went in with my haphazardly made-up black eye that I couldn't not think about as I did my audition.

It just would have been a much happier surprise if I'd gone in not expecting to get a callback and ended up booking the job, because then they give me money and stuff.

Now, let me be clear on one thing; when you're looking to make a living as an actor, there is never a time when not making a callback is a good thing.

But I'm in a time when the auditions are not exactly coming at me fast and furious (And commercial auditions in particular are an increasingly rare and precious thing), so this was an especially unwelcome situation that transpired.

Guess I just have to believe that if I keep up what I'm doing at auditions, something is gonna come through. Because the dribble of auditions that I'm getting actually seem to be going pretty well.

And with any luck, that "something" that's gonna "come through" any minute now will lead to enough other "somethings" that I can feel confident there will be life-after-Shameless.

Because at the moment the last thing I am about my post-Shameless future is "confident".

What else is going on...?

Jane R. is coming on Wednesday, and she'll be here for a week.

We've had any number of conversations, but I'm still kind of vague on what-all we're doing. I know that she's looking particularly for "sizzle-reel" footage, that she wants to do a little more interviewing, something acting-related at a theater in Hollywood, and wants to do another photo shoot (And I'm kind of hoping our Shameless trailer-interview thing will happen while she's scheduled to be here - She'll probably extend her trip if we find out I'm shooting the following week, but I hope she doesn't have to, since the extra expense is a consideration.

The two of us will also spend some time just "hanging out", which will be nice (We've grown fond of each other during the past year, though it's not the torrid romance that some people seem to be imaginging - On my end, I'm just impressed that someone has spent this much time with me/thinking about me, and still wants to "hang out" at all).

Well, there's other dribs and drabs of things I could write about...but I'm already considering devoting an entire entry to "ephemera" so I'll save that stuff for then.

Till next time...

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