I, like many young girls, had dreams of becoming the next great Marilyn Monroe and live a life of fame and luxury. After being in Los Angles for five years, however, I realized that it wasn't going to happen, at least not overnight. After a lot of hard work and thousands of auditions, I finally landed a role in a Sci-fi drama in the lead role as a "tough as nails stripper with a heart of gold." The only problem was that I had never stripped in my life.
Before I get into the "Trials and Tribulation" of my acting story, let me tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Debra, but most people call me Deb. Like many girls here in "the land of stars," I grew up in far away in "Middle America." The small rural town where I was born was typical. The highlight of every weekend was to go to someone's farm, have a bonfire, drink beer and try to hook up with someone, preferably someone from the high school football team. I found the constant routine extremely boring.
I had always wanted more in my life than graduating from high school, going off to college and coming back to Hickville and work as a waitress or even worse, for my father. Don't get me wrong, I love my dad and I miss my family a lot but I didn't want to follow in my father's footsteps and work at the sawmill until I was a hundred years old with a raspy voice and emphysema. For me there was more to life and I was going to break the mold.
While I was at college, I saved every dime so that I could put my plan into action. The day after I graduated from college, I packed up my old pick-up truck, the last vestige of my small-town girl life, and drove west until I hit the glamorous city of Hollywood. When I arrived there at the "ripe old age" of 22, I had little more than a suitcase, my truck and a bag of dreams.
My desire to become a famous actress was so strong that I immediately tried out for every role I could and saved every penny out of my paycheck from the boring job I got at the local bank. When I could, I invested into myself and my skills as an actress. I attended seminars and took classes at night on how to be "frying bacon," which was the silliest thing I had ever done but I wanted to be an actress.
I even went as far to have some of my physical appearance altered, so I could better my chance to land a starring role. I spent a lot of money having my breasts enhanced to better suit my 5'6" slim frame, my teeth whiten a brow lift and a nose job. I was willing to do whatever it took to improve my chances of landing that perfect role that would launch me into stardom.
After five years, I was still working as a secretary at the same local bank and making just enough money to survive. Don't get me wrong, I still had my dreams, which were revived with every commercial role or a paying job for the local theater; it's just now a little a little more realistic.
It was Thursday afternoon and I was stuck in "rush hour" traffic behind an old Cadillac that had bluish smoke pouring out its tailpipe when I got the phone call changed my life forever.
"Hello?" I answered my cell phone.
"Deb, its Charlie," the gravelly voice said. "Can you be at Imaginations Plus studio on Saturday?" Charlie was my agent. He was a grumpy older man and smelt of cheap cigars all the time, but he was truly one of the nicest guys I'd met in Hollywood. I kept him around because he would find me a job now and then and didn't try to rob me blind with his agent fee. After working with him for the last four years, I thought of him like an uncle.
"Yea, I'm free. What's the role?"
"I got you an audition for one of those space movies. I think you would be perfect for the lead role," He said.
"Really? What's the story?"
"The story is about a woman who is down on her luck then makes it big with a sci-fi theme." "That is so cool! How long will the shoot take?" I asked.
"We are looking at five maybe six months." I thought to myself for a minute. I was going to have to quit my job but if I did really well I would get more roles. Who knows, I might become the star I always wanted to be. "So what time do I need to be there?" I asked. I could worry about my job at the bank after the interview.
"That's my girl. I really think this might be the one. I'll drop off the script later," Charlie answered. I could tell he was pleased with my answer.
After I signed in at the audition, I found a place to stand in the office waiting room. It was a typical waiting room with a gray carpet and off-white painted walls with a few pleasantly colored abstract paintings on the wall by some no-name artist. The cheap metal chairs lined the walls and there was a table in the middle covered with magazines. There wasn't enough room for all of us so many had to wait in the hall, though many were outside smoking cigarettes to help calm their nerves.
I found myself checking out the other girls as we waited. All of them were knockout gorgeous with perfect bodies and I just knew this was going to be another, "Thank you for your time. Someone will call you later," auditions and I would have to go back to work at the life-sucking bank.
I was number 79 and had been sitting on a metal chair for at least an hour, waiting for my inevitable horrible audition and subsequent rejection to happen. I tried to read the script but ended up nervously rolling and then tapping it on my leg then unrolling it and trying to read it again. The woman next to me glared at me every time I tapped it against my leg but I was too nervous to care.
When they called my number, I walked into a big conference room where there was at least a dozen people sitting around an oval shape table. I was a bit caught off guard as most interviews were done either on a set or in the director's office with four or five other key members of the staff.
I tried not to let it rattle me as I did the usual routine of providing them my portfolio and a headshot I'd paid too much money for two years ago and couldn't afford to update it. While they reviewed my stuff, I waited for someone to tell me to read a few lines of the script with a production assistant. Thankfully, they usually chose someone who was horrible so you at least had a chance to make a reasonable impression.
Normally after about 10 lines, someone, usually the director, would say, "Thank you, have a good day." This time it was different. I ended up reading almost a dozen pages of the script before a guy who I later found out was Ron James, the director, said cut.
He asked me to do a little turn, I guess to see if I had the "look" he wanted, then asked, "How do you feel about tastefully nude scenes?"
"If it helps the story progress I don't have a problem with them," I answered. Charlie hadn't said there was any nudity in the story, and I hadn't read anything about it in the script. He really threw me off was when he asked me if I could dance seductively, like a stripper. I lied and said that I could.
The director looked at the rest of the people at the table then announced, "Well, I think we have our lead. What do you think?"
Everyone nodded their head or verbally gave their approval. While everyone shook my hand, an aide, a nice woman named Ginger, went into the waiting room and announced the auditions were over. Then Bob, the production assistant that had run the lines with me, handed me the real script.
"Sorry about the script thing, I didn't want it to be leaked before we'd had a chance to at least choose the cast," Ron explained. "There's been a lot of buzz about this project and I want to keep it under wraps for as long as possible. You'll have to sign a non-disclosure agreement as well as the usual contract, we'll send the contract to your agent to go over but you can't leave with the script until you sign the non-disclosure."
