Unscripted - A Blog for Actors - Backstage

The Law&Order : Delayed Flight = Amtrak (?!)

Alice and her freakin' Wonderland haven't had half of the adventures I've had in the past eighteen hours.

Last Night:
8:04pm -- email from Emmy/Oscar winning producer.  Directing an L&O.  Asks me to come in to last-minute producer session for guest star.
8:05pm -- I curse the fact that I'm in Florida for the day
8:09pm -- Get email from Fabulous Manager re: L&O
8:10pm -- Get text from Fabulous Manager re: L&O
8:13pm -- Get & take call from Fabulous Manager re: L&O, stain phone with wing sauce.
8:29pm -- Re-route plans to fly to LAX, have [the morons at] U.S. Airways schedule ticket to NYC.

The Law&Order : U.S. Airways, Bite Me.

Nothing like a 10 a.m., 11.2 fl can of Beck's on a U.S. Airways carrier to start off the day.  Bonus, too.  Middle seat.

The past 36 hours have been sleep-devrivatingly comprised of negotiations between lawyers, layovers, and Law&Order.  Not a day before we get off the boat from the overseas contract, I get The Email I touched upon late last night during  some rapidfire jetlagged blogging.

An email blips into my inbox from someone I haven't heard from in a very long time.  The same someone I stumbled into the office of asking for the keys to my former employer's production office.  The same someone that has Emmy's and Oscars and Sundance grand jury golden's dotting his shelves.  The same someone I almost got a breakthrough opportunity from... but the project fell through.

This Someone had just sent an 8 p.m. email for a 4 o'clock Law&Order last-minute producer session.  The next day.  In New York.  And while it wasn't a role offer by any means (come in, audition, we're shooting in two days and haven't cast it) it was damn flattering.

2 Hours in the States : Request L&O

Back in the states.  Back on solid, eatable (though not literally) ground.  Back from the Floating Prison.

A fine art tour in Europe is one thing.  Following it with a 17 night transatlantic cruise is another.

Two hours ago, I disembarked in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, shaky from the lack of nutrition and osmosis-ed median infuencing age of 85.  And while I did manage to make lifelong friends with the likes of Gordon Buckley, a 90 year old brit with a knack for music and a love for the 'theat-eh', a good... eh, 50% of The European Cruise?  Sheer... unadultrated... I'd like to drink myself to Mojito Bar death boredom.

Venezia was cool.  Malaga was tourist friendly beautiful (read: clean).  The Virgin Islands (sans my partner deciding to bring a bottle of champagne to the top of the rainforest mountain we climbed... not taking into account the decent) were lovely beyond a broken toe experience...

And?  Lo and behold.  Law&Order request casting (by the director!) tomorrow, and a resulting rapid fire plane ticket to New York.  Things are looking up.

Time for some freakin' sleep, Ashley Avis

The European Headshot.

Imagine getting your headshots done in Tunesia.  Or Malaga, Spain.  Or waterside on the sands of a hidden beach in Portugal.

Hurrah for doing a fine art tour with a flippin' photographer.  I'm finally... after, what... five, six, seven years of being in this industry?  HAPPY WITH MY HEADSHOT.

Considering I took out an AmericanExpress to pay for Hoebermann when I was 18, that's really saying something.  And -- bonus, all things considered... these were theoretically free.

Now... in keeping with the "happy for headshots" thing, they aren't the stereotypical, I want to slowly poison myself while smiling through cheesily greeted teeth against a brick wall headshots.  They're more "portrait" style.  I've thrown up a quick link for my manager, so feel free to check 'em out.  Selects from Venice, Africa, Portugal, and Spain are displayed... the first couple are more for fun.

-- Ashley Avis

$100? Really? : Celebrities [Sometimes Totally] Suck

I shouldn't be blogging about this, and I will (for the moment) retain complete confidentiality to protect the individual in question.  But I've recently become part of a situation I find -- in equal parts -- absurd and hilarious all at the same time.  If roughly $11,000 wasn't on the line... it would certainly be a touch more top-heavy on the latter.

I run two webdesign companies -- one caters to the "struggling" actor, the other to the successful corporate conglomeration, product, or celebrity.  It's obvious which one pays the [very high] overhead I have, maintaining a loft in Venice, CA and a space in New York.

And while I've been doing webdesign professionally for over nine years, sometimes the whole "young female / struggling actress" thing comes into play.  

"Celebrity Status" : Italia, Chapter Four.

Day One on the MSC Poesia.

A humongous mistake has been made.

Okay... perhaps not a humongous mistake, but more like a humorously, deliciously, slightly off-base one.

The MSC Poesia staff thinks that my partner and I are celebrities.  

When we opened out cabin door on the 8th floor of the ship (8th floor?  Seemed a little lofty when we checked in, but whatever) we were greeted by a mini-suite, a hand-written letter by the entertainment captain, and a window.  A WINDOW!  There was even a chair in the first room.  A flipping chair.  That's big news for what was supposed to be (or what I assumed) a rather small cabin.

"Dear Ashley and Paolo... we are thrilled to have two celebrities on our ship..."

I quirked a brow.  "What did you tell them?"

Nothing but our credits.  Funny the way things are received internationally.  Now!  Time to explore...

-- Amused, Ashley Avis

The "Unity" Ball.

For any dancers out there... I figured i'd mention I'm going to be part of an interesting non-for-profit event occurring November 13th at the Bohemian National Hall (73rd Street).  Guest of honor is Dancing with the Stars' Edyta Sliwinska -- a very expensive 'individual' to have attend, which I think is silly considering all profits of the event go to helping blind children -- but who am I to scoff at paying someone 10K to simply walk into a room -- the even is going to be utterly spectacular with no corners missed.  Wine, food, dancing... what could be better?  Plus a few surprise network series regulars, too.

http://www.unityball.info/

-- 10K, really Edyta? Ashley Avis

Hello, Italia... Shoot for Juan Carlos : Chapter 3

Early morning mist, galavanting over a cityscape cooled by dawn.  Enter Venice, Italy... and a $&#@-load of  [more] jetlag.

5 o'clock in the morning was never so utterly fruitful.

Thanks to having the internal clock entirely ransacked, I awoke this morning at an absurd hour and managed to throw on a (crushed by international travel) ballgown, swipe on some red lipstick and a dash of eyeliner, and frolic groggily out into the sun-laced fog of Venezia to do a photoshoot for ethereal dress-designer Juan Carlos pre-teach-a-bunch-of-old-people-the-Cha-Cha transatlantic cruise.  Yay for traveling with an amazing photographer.

If curious, check out the images that resulted:  

 

AirFrance : The Only Airline I Don't Hate (Chapter 2)

4.15 a.m.  When in the history of the WORLD (or... er, at least my convoluted little manic coffee-drinking world) have I been up at 4:15 in the flipping MORNING.

In Venezia, Italy I have.  Yay for international jet-lag and a completely screwed up internal clock.  Didn't help, I'm sure, that the unbelievable AirFrance jetliner we came here on proffered wine, vodka, and all sorts of international spirits every twelve seconds... and I didn't get a minute of sleep.

That said... the little just-off-the-beaten-path hotel I'm staying at pre-cruise (for those of you that don't know, my former ballroom partner and I were hired to do a transatlantic cruise -- and even though we're both "retired", it was simply too amazing of an opportunity to pass up) serves super-early morning Cappuccinos for guests just as nutty as I.  Thus, several hours before the sun is even half-tempted to begin rising, I'm enjoying some ridiculously frothy milk that makes me want to burn Starbucks to the ground.

Hmm.  Aggressive this morning, Ashley.

Italia, En Route : Chapter 1

HOLY [large expletive].

Imagine a meeting at the New York Times.  Imagine an international flight to Paris.  Imagine having to go to your storage locker because your LIFE is in three different STATES -- but that storage locker happens to be on 213th Street and Broadway... and you have three hours to get to and complete everything.

Enter -- the taking of the wrong set of keys and a resulting $100 cab ride.

I got to my Manhattan Mini storage locker at about eleven o'clock this afternoon [note: after a very interesting night in the Hotel Chelsea] in the hope of throwing in a bunch of lighting equipment and grabbing a few ballgowns from a box (trip to Europe/Cruise for a month, simply must have's).  I allotted about 15 minutes to get through the boxes and back down to the waiting cab.

Issue 1:  I brought the wrong set of keys.  The two bloated padlocks refused to open.  Issue 2:  There was only one "cut the locks" dude on staff.  Issue 3:  My box was under a humongous coffee table and six other boxes in the BACK of the storage locker.  Issue 4:  Meeting with NYTimes was in an hour.