I'm in The Georgia Straight!

This is really cool... late last week my agent called to tell me that a woman from the Georgia Straight would be calling to do a telephone interview with me. I was really nervous, as I haven't done a whole heck of a lot of actor interviews. I spoke with her on Sunday afternoon, and we spent about half an hour on the phone. I was so relieved - she was really easy to talk to, and I enjoyed speaking with her. It helped that she opened the conversation by telling me how much she loved seeing my production of Miss Saigon last year.

The article is called "Hopefuls Fight Sterotypes for Pepper-like Success", written by Pieta Woolley. It shares the same page as the paper's cover story, "The Art of War", a story on actor Barry Pepper. Ms. Woolley's article talks about the struggles that non-white actors in Vancouver have. Check it out here. I had no idea how much of my interview would be included, what would be quoted, etc... but my agent called me this morning to let me know he had just finished reading the article, and that my nerves were for naught. I hadn't had a chance to read it yet when he called, but he was extremely positive on how the article read, and how I was featured. I picked up a Georgia Straight on my lunch break today and I am so happy with the article and my involvement. This one is going in my scrapbook for sure.

Auditioned for "The Best Years"

Oooh, I just finished taping an audition for "The Best Years", a new TV show filming in Toronto. I am super excited about this one - the producer is the same one from Plague City! I got the breakdown yesterday and when I saw her name on the list I was giddy! I'm really happy with my audition tape (and my agents are too!), so all we can do now is cross our fingers and hope I'm what they're looking for. I feel great for having done a solid audition, so I'm happy at that, but this sounds like such a great project! Agh, nerves.

MAMM '06 - 2nd Place!

Alright!!!! The Mighty Asian Moviemaking Marathon (MAMM) had a screening of all the submitted film entries at Tinseltown last night. After the screenings, they announced the winners, and then we had a big party afterwards. It was so cool seeing our film up on the big screen. Actually, that was the first time most of us had seen it in its finished, 10-minute form. Alfie (our director and producer) did an amazing editing job. And all the parts that we were moaning and laughing at during filming made the audience moan and laugh too. The feedback was awesome! And we ended up placing 2nd! Our film was called, "Rise of the Kitara".

Unfortunately I couldn't stay too long at the gala - I had to get up super early the next morning because I had to go out to Cultis Lake to shoot a commercial. Bittersweet, you might say - sweet because we placed 2nd, bitter because I couldn't stay to celebrate, but sweet again, because the reason was that I was filming!

Oh yeah! Placing 2nd means our film will be shown during the Vancouver Asian Film Festival (VAFF) in the first week of November. Cool!

No Gemini Nomination

Aww... just read the list of nominations for this year's Gemini Awards. I didn't make the shortlist for my supporting role in Plague City: SARS in Toronto. It's OK - I didn't really expect to, but once you hear you've been submitted by your producers, well, it gets you thinking how cool it would be to get on the list. The good news is our Director of Photography, David Herrington, has been nominated for "best photography in a dramatic program or series". Good luck, David!

MAMM tiring, but fun!

We've been at it since Thursday, and it's all coming along. We got our package Thursday night, had a pow wow, and started filming that night. I have had so much fun working with the Banoodles Team. Everyone has had really good input, and we all seem to work really well together. I think the key is that we are all very creative and we all value and respect each other's opinions. We pretty much finished filming all our main stuff by last night (just a couple more small scenes left to get), and then our team leader has to edit like crazy to get it all put together. We have to submit our final product by this Thursday at 5:00pm!

I have had so much fun with this contest and this team, and I can't wait to see how it all comes together. Thanks mucho to Alfie for getting me on board. I can't believe the stuff we've done in the last 72 hours, but I think with everything that's gone on, our theme could be this: "It's so wrong that it's right."

Mighty Asian Moviemaking Marathon begins

This is cool - I'm going to be taking part in the second annual Mighty Asian Moviemaking Marathon! It's a seven day contest that has you write, shoot, edit, and complete a 10 minute movie. All with elements that are given to you on the first day. We get the package tonight, and we'll start!

Thanks to Alfie for calling me up. He's organizing our team and has cast me as his lead actress. I'm really looking forward to this whole process. I get to work with Alfie again (I've done some musical theatre shows with him in the past), but this will be the first time working with him as a director/producer. We had a production meet and greet on the weekend and I'm really looking forward to working with everyone involved. Seems like a great bunch of people. And what great food we had! It's always good when the food is good.

I'm so excited about this! Wish us luck! :)

August starts with a Callback

July was pretty good audition-wise. I had 7, which I consider great! I'm sort of at the point where I think, "If I get 3 auditions a month, that's fine by me." So, with 7, I'm quite happy. They've all been for commercials, and that's also OK with me. I'm happy to be getting out there. And what better way to start the month of August than by getting a callback for an audition I did at the end of July. They're considering me for 2 possible spots which is really nice. I had the callback today, and it went really well. I even managed to end it by making the whole room crack up. It felt really good. Now I just have to cross my fingers that I'm what they want!