This has been quite a wild couple of weeks here in the USA.  Specifically, in Boston MA.  As we all know, there was a terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon on January 15th, 2013.  Several people were killed and many, many more wounded.  Being from a small town south of Boston, I can personally tell you how huge of a deal the Marathon is in Boston- it's basically the event of the year!  It makes me absolutely sick to think that the cowards who committed this act of terror would want to inflict such harm on other people. 

However, I'm not going to get into why it makes me "upset" and "sad" that this all occurred.  I want the point of my blog post today to be one that I have made many times in the past.  LIVE IT UP.  Right now, today.  Right this second.  We never know when things will change for the better or for the worse.  We must train ourselves to truly appreciate what we have right in this moment.  Today may be a very hard day for some of you who are reading this.  I can tell you that no matter what you are struggling with, it will get better.  Your pain will ease, you will smile again.  You will fall in love again.  I challenge you all to go and tell the person that you love how much you love them.  Go hug your friends, family, everyone you see!! 

My life in Hollywood has taught me to understand that living in fear is kind of a regular thing:  fear of not having money, fear of failure, fear of many things.  However, it has also taught me that I can choose to live in fear.  Or, I can choose to live in the moment, be happy with what I have, and take things one minute at a time.  We all have this moment right now to live our lives in the best, happiest way that we possibly can.  It is YOUR choice to find happiness, only you can choose to be happy and free yourself of negativity. 

Life is TOO short to not be happy.  The incident in Boston reminds us all of how quickly things can change.  Live it up, and follow your dreams.  ----HOPE AND PRAYERS TO ALL VICTIMS OF THE ATTACKS.  Be Strong, Boston!!!!----- 

Interesting.  Not sure how I feel about this one.  To be honest, --and I really don't mean to sound cocky here,-- this role is perfect for me.  I KNOW how many actors are going to read that and be like, "OK dude, whatever..." haha, but really you guys, this one seems like it'd be a great fit for me.  I can't really get into the details of this role yet (as I don't know if I actually WILL book this, and the company may not want anything online) but what I can tell you is that I auditioned for a pretty big project!

Anyways, auditions are seriously so awkward.  You walk into a room with a bunch of people who look a lot like you, you wait around with all of those people and try not to become nervous, then go into the audition room and read with someone who you most likely have never met, and  are expected to do the best performance EVER!  Now, I actually am pretty good at the "art" of auditioning.  Living in Hollywood for the past several years has allowed me to become quite good at it.  However, there are always things that are out of your control.  At my audition today, I immediately noticed that this was a somewhat "rushed" casting session.  In fact, the people running the session told us that they had a "rush-call" because the client didn't like any of the previous actors who had come in to read for this job.  Hence the Saturday audition.  The other issue was that they were pairing actors up:  myself and another actor who was supposed to be in the scene with me.  Because of the rush-call however, there were many cancellations, and this left me with the option being to read with the camera-man.  That's already where I should have asked to wait for a second actor to show up.  Lesson learned.  

That's not to say that I did a bad job, I know that I am good at what I do and I did the best that I could do as always.  But I also understand that it is MY audition, and therefore I must stand up for the time that I am allowed to interview for this job.  In this situation, there was a lot that was out of my control due to the casting session being a rushed call.  However if there are any actors out there reading this, please remember that you have the right to ask the casting director for a chance to do another take or to audition at a later time then your call-time.  If they say no, politely thank them and leave.  I didn't ask to have another opportunity today, and looking back, I believe that I should have.  Again, lesson learned.  I also had to remind myself today to NEVER dwell on auditions.  Or really anything from the past.  It's PASSED.  Can't do anything about it now except to promise yourself to do better in the future!  So, here's to a future booking!!  Thanks for your support and love!!!  Never Give Up ;)  xx      

Everyone deserves to be treated with respect at all times.  This should kind of go without saying, right?  Well, in Hollywood (and everywhere for that matter) it's not always the reality.  I often see actors being treated  "better" or "worse" all depending on how much money they make, and what "level" they are at in the industry.  It's ridiculous!!  I truly feel that as a society we must learn to be more compassionate to each other, and stop basing SO much of how we treat each other off of superficial things like money and success.  As I've mentioned before,  I don't have a lot of money, and I'm certainly not at the "top" in terms of the entertainment industry.  But that doesn't mean that I will accept being treated disrespectfully-  by anyone.  

YOU have the power demand to respect from everyone in your life.   We teach others how to treat us.  If someone is being disrespectful to you, do not allow it!  I recently spoke to a group of students at my old university, Concordia University, (see video below!) about a few examples of people who have been disrespectful and have bullied me since I've been in Hollywood.  One such example is a casting director who treated me very disrespectfully.  At first, I felt as though I "had" to accept this type of behavior as this woman was "above" me due to her title as a "casting director". But you know what?  I don't really care who it is- a casting director or not.  No one will treat me disrespectfully.  No one has that kind of power over anyone else.  WHOEVER it is that may treat you badly, bully you, or disrespect you, always rise above it.  You're WAY too good to let anyone bring you down!!  There's only one of you. Go live it up and be YOU!!  ;) xx