"So Many Ways"

About 2-3 weeks ago I did a test reading for a studio film that shoots in London this summer. This pic came back to me this week saying “thank you”. It was unusual for me, because, first off, it’s a blurry picture of myself. 2nd, it was a screen test, it was basically a fancy audition. It was me on a job interview. A million people do a million job interviews, do we see accountants who interview get pics back from their firm? Do we see interviews for taco bell get a still frame of their job interview? So once the oddness of it passed, I started thinking. I started thinking about that room. How many times I’ve been in rooms just like that. How many times, all of us, in some way or another, have gone into a room, maybe like this, maybe in front of a crowd, maybe to give a speech, pitch or presentation. We all probably start in the same mindset, that initial bit of anxiety, you know it’s like for even the briefest of moments, we go back to the middle school version of ourselves “oh no, these people are going to hate me”. I think our success in rooms like this in any job and in any walk of life, is how long we keep that “middle school anxiety” in or out of our heads. I used to let it run me. In those VERY early days, I used to go in there and be so vanilla and bland, because that was me thinking maybe that was the flavor they wanted. Then one day, I just stopped thinking about that and just decided to just have a little fun with the material. The second I let it go, I let that anxiety go and just do what I do, results went in my favor immediately. Then a little while later, I was lucky enough to be on the other side of that table, where I was directing, where I had the “job interview” and I figured it all out,you all have more power than you think you do in rooms like this. These things, no one hates you, they’re actually rooting for you, they want you to be “the answer” so badly. So embrace it. Follow your instincts, trust yourself, get comfortable with your flavor, we’re all a little weird, embrace it. In my case, in a room like this, I may have 2 minutes to try and do the following things:

1. “wow” you.
2.Let you know I’m super fun to go be stuck on location with at 4am when we’re filming
3. Sell myself, that I can do this job, and do it well.

I walk in there as pretty much a complete stranger, and I have 2 minutes to do all of that. That’s no time. I have some friends who are musicians, and they have that same feeling “People give our music a few minutes to make an impression before they move on”, but again, this is any job in any walk of life. In corporate jobs, a friend told me that in her interview they said “look, we work in a small office, anyone we hire, needs to be someone fun we can work with”. See? How many qualified resumes/interviews did they look at and toss out? They were looking for specifics (she got that job by the way HOORAY FOR FUN). So many times, there are other factors involved BEYOND who we are and what we do, so sometimes the best thing, when these things are over,is to walk out of there and do our best to forget about it. Normally it works, except for a certain prestigious tv show that brings me in 3 times every season and says “Tim we need a 6’1 blue eyed Irish looking kid” then I never hear from them until the next time and think “I AM THE BIGGEST LOSER IN THE WORLD. THEY NEEDED A GUY WHO LOOKED LIKE ME AND I SOMEHOW BLEW IT”. (don’t do this, this is a dumb thing to beat yourself over the head with, plus no one in your life ever wants to hear you talk like that)

I was on the other side of that table in that room last year for a film called SUHANI, I wrote it and the mighty Mauro Giuffrida was directing. Mauro, who’s got a great eye, all across the board, his eye for the camera is outstanding, but so is his eye for talent. Those 2 days of auditions and screen tests, they were brilliant. It was just great theater with these wonderful actors that Mauro had brought in. It was the first time where I felt anxiety on the OTHER side of that table, because there was so much talent coming in, how was he going to narrow it down? It meant some of these brilliant actors and performances weren’t going to be chosen, I almost ran home to do a rewrite of the script, make it 506 pages long and with parts of everyone. But Mauro was looking for those “intangibles”, he was, in his mind, matching these characters up, “who works here in this key scene?” “Who can be funny there?” “How does this couple look matched up?” he was looking for so many other things. By the way, I’ve seen the finished “Suhani” and it really works, Mauro knew what he was looking for, and he did it. He doesn’t like it when I give him compliments, so I imagine he’ll probably hate that I’m putting this online.

So, back to looking at that room. Looking at that blurry picture. We’re all in this together. Me making that face, it’s a face we’ve all made (though I bet you all made it look way sexier than I did YOU DID DIDN'T YOU). We’re just trying to go in there, do our best, and get the job. Will I be in London this Summer? Seriously, no idea. I went in there, got as comfortable as I could, and for 1-2 minutes, did my thing. So go, go give a speech, give that presentation, go for a dream job interview, do your thing, go big, have some fun, show ‘em all what you got. I think if you stay true to yourself, you’ll do great. 3 weeks left of 2013, let’s make ‘em count…

Take care and be good,
Tim (AKA that guy in the blurry picture)