A minuscule number of people have the good fortune to stumble into Hollywood and audition for a series or a movie and become the next Megastar. The vast number of actors and writers here who have gained any amount of success worked their asses off to do it! It takes an extraordinary amount of drive in the face of incredible competition and almost constant rejection. There are more than one hundred twenty thousand actors in SAG, (actors' union) and over twelve thousand writers in the WGA (writers' union) Everybody in town is an actor and is carrying a screenplay under their arm. Acting has often been called a suffering profession ...
That said, I absolutely love being here doing what I'm doing and following my dream. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? I often wonder why I chose this path rather than the more traditional lifestyle, one with a more steady income. I really don't know any answer except the obvious one; that I have some kind of over the top ego that longs to be fed. There must be something weird about me that makes me purposely live in a world where I am often in the depths of despair and the height of elation in the very same day, sometimes the very same hour. For example, I recently had the honor of receiving the Michael Landon Award from the Media Access Office for my work promoting the awareness of performers with disabilities. It was an amazing evening at a star-studded event at Universal Studios where I met tons of celebrities and was treated to an impromptu concert by Stevie Wonder! That night when I came home, I had to deal with catheter problems and a caregiver who called off work at the last minute.
It is the nature of the game for a quadriplegic actor/writer. The positive side to that is the fact that I am one of a very few quadriplegic actor/writers in town. If I am attending a Hollywood party or other social event, I am almost always the only guy in a wheelchair there. So, the next day when I contact someone I met there I always say, "if you don't remember my name, I'm the guy in a wheelchair."
Next time, I'll tell a few stories about Michael Landon and the other celebrities I've been fortunate to meet, and I'll talk about how things are progress and with my TV pilot "The Hollywood Quad".
I would love to get your feedback on this blog. If you have any questions about being an actor/writer in Hollywood, or advice on becoming one, let me know. That is the reason that I began this processed ...
That's it today from T-town!
