Joined AFTRA. White Collar, New Year`s Eve and The Big C.

The past few weeks have been a bit more interesting. I did one night of background work on the new Garry Marshall film New Year`s Eve. Just a large crowd scene, nothing featured at all, but it was enjoyable. Abagail Breslin was in the scene, so it was nice to work with her. She was very polite and professional, which was nice.

The following day, I was booked on the USA show, White Collar. This was also background work, however I was told it was very featured. It was an AFTRA gig, and I would have to join to do it. I was under the impression I could get waivered, however I already received one for Lights Out last year, which put me in the "must join" status. Now, I have been debating joining AFTRA since I joined SAG. I knew I`d be able to get more TV work if I joined, but with the inevitable SAG/AFTRA merger in the works, I thought I could just wait it out and save some money. I finally decided to just hold off for now, unless an appealing enough AFTRA job came along. My gut was telling me I needed to do this though, and thanks to my VERY supportive wife, we decided to go for it! So we scrounged up some money and went down to the AFTRA office to join. Unlike SAG, AFTRA allows you to arrange a payment plan, which makes the initiation fee a bit easier to deal with.

Once I got on set, it was a great expierience from start to finish. The scene was even more featured than I expected. It consisted of one principal actor, Tim DeKay, and two delivery men, myself and a man named Norman. The delivery men didn`t have any lines, but Tim`s character interacted with us quite a bit. It should be a nice little scene. I got one on one direction from the director, and Tim was fantastic to work with. Very friendly and went out of his was to compliment us both to our face and to the director.

Unfortunately, the initiation fee was a lot more money than I made during the episode, so obviously I need to keep booking AFTRA gigs to help pay it off. But I`m off to a good start. I`m working on the Showtime show The Big C next week. As much as I don`t want to get in a rut doing only background work, it`s better than nothing. I have been sending headshots to a lot of principal casting directors , so hopefully I`ll hear something at some point soon. Until then, let`s hope for more featured background roles like this one and Arthur.

Speaking of Arthur, I did go see it recently. Like I expected, I was not credited, but I did have a nice little moment in it. It was nice too, because two of the four featured extras that day did not make the film, so I was very happy to be in it. They pay of course would have been the same, but I still get a kick out of seeing myself on screen. And this was the first time I`ve been able to go to a movie theater and see myself. Previously, I had only been on television.

So far nothing has come from any of my recent auditions but we`ll keep plugging away. Heather did book her first modeling gig though, so I`m very happy for her!