12:27 PM - Fri 8.08.14
"Shameless" To The Rescue

Thurs 8/7/14 (8:40 am)

When I start writing relatively early, like this, I�ve noticed my first impulse is to write about how bad I feel, and how much I�m thinking about going back to bed (Or how much I�m dreading the fact that I have to go to work feeling like this�though today, I don�t have to work till late afternoon). But I don�t think there�s anything terribly interesting about that, and I don�t think it�ll get �terribly interesting� until I figure out what I�m actually going to do about it.

(Like �address my sleep issues�, or � start taking �performance-enhancing drugs��).

Anyway, my perennial, debilitating fatigue is not exactly news � What is is that the Shameless shoot has been confirmed (For Tuesday & Weds of next week, though I don�t have call times yet). And for this episode, I�ll be going to Chicago for location shooting, during the week of the 25th.

(As of now, I don�t have a �call time� for that either. And since I�ve never done it before � gone on a �location shoot� where they had to fly me somewhere and put me up � I don�t know quite how it�s going to go at this point).

Right now, I just know I�m pretty damned enthused about the whole thing; I�m going into my 5th season with the show, and I�ve never made one of the Chicago trips for location shooting, and it makes me feel �more a part of things� � that�s a �shared experience� I�ll now have with more of the cast (Though in terms of the actual scene, it�s just me and Bill Macy, and maybe some guest actors).

The novelty of working more than one day on the show � for a single episode - is pretty cool, but what�s also cool is that multiple days (And location shooting) means more money.

A lot more money.

My new theatrical people have gotten me a $250-an-episode raise, so between that and the multiple days of work (And I don�t know if one gets a �bump� for out-of-state �location shooting� or not), this is going to be far-and-away the most I�ve ever gotten paid for an episode of tv.

Fri 8/8/14 (9:17 am)

Was woken up by the exterminator around 8:30, who wanted to know how the bait he�d put out a week or two ago was working (And the answer, since I�m still seeing the little beasties, was �It has not been completely effective�. So there was a brief discussion about going to the next level, and I guess �bug-bombing� the place, but for now, he just �re-baited� � a little more extensively than before � and we �called it good�.

But back to Shameless�

I got a callback for the GE commercial I auditioned for this past Saturday (So I�m �five for five� in getting callbacks from my commercial auditions). But sadly, I couldn�t do it, since the shoot would be this coming Tuesday, the first day of my two-day Shameless shoot (When I mentioned this on Facebook, a couple people said �nice problem to have�. And it kinda/sorta is�but while I�m getting a big payday for this particular episode, a national commercial would likely pay out at least two or three times as much, so I can�t be quite as blas� about missing out on opportunities like that).

(But I just had another commercial audition yesterday � for Net10 � so �life goes on��)

I�ve posted a number of updates on Facebook about this particular Shameless gig � that I booked it, that I was invited to the table read, that I�m working two days, that I�m doing location shooting in Chicago, etc � and while those are all legitimate �news items�, people have responded as if each thing is a new, �fresh success�, and not facets of a single positive event (�making a good thing better�, as it were); I�ve had a number of people comment on how well my life/career are going, pretty much all based on this one thing.

And it�s good, don�t get me wrong (I hope I�ve made it very clear by now how enthused I am about working two days next week, and going to Chicago, and making way more for one episode of the show than I ever have before). But from where I�m sitting, it�s less like �my career is going great�, and more like �Shameless is saving me from what, so far, has been a disaster of a year�; I have booked no �new business� so far this year, and I�m into Year Three of not booking any national commercials.

And while I�m a pretty happy camper when it comes to being part of Shameless, which I genuinely think is a great show, I can�t be happy if it�s the only thing happening - That�s way too �all my eggs in one basket�. As a recurring gig, I have no idea from one year to the next how many episodes I�ll get, how much I�ll get paid (Though my manager wants to push for �guest star� status regardless at this point), and, ultimately, how long the show itself will last.

(Every so often, people will ask me about whether the show�s getting another season, how much longer I think it�s gonna run, etc., and of course, I don�t know much more than they do, but I will say this - Showtime has a reputation for �running their shows into the ground� (ex. Dexter), so if/when Shameless ends production, I think it will most likely be one man�s decision: Bill Macy�s).

While I don�t really �know� him, he seems like a really good guy. But the fact he (Or Emmy Rossum, for that matter) potentially has that much power over my future is�disconcerting.

But beyond the money/uncertainty aspect, I just want more of a career than �Kermit�. I want to do different things, I want to do a little more than I�ve gotten to do, and I want/need more �visibility� (The number one response I get when I tell people I�m on Shameless is, �Oh, I don�t get Showtime�).

And ultimately, I�d like to put �day jobs� behind me, and have acting be �What I do for a (comfortable) living� for the duration of my time here.

So basically, �Yay!� for Shameless, but I really, really, really want other things to start happening in 2014 too.

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