Taylor Hastings

One of my favourite classes I ever had in acting school was the Business of Acting class. I had just about the coolest teacher you could ask for, from whom I’ve learned an entire Moleskin notebook’s worth of wisdom! I could probably base my entire blog around the various chapters of notes I took from his class! But the one I’ll focus on for now, is one that has been a big help to me lately, while I look for motivation and inspiration. He called it finding your “Leads of Success”. This meant taking a look at yourself as a person and an actor, what you look like and already present to the world, what you’d like to present to the world, and then finding the people with successful careers that seem comparable with any or all of those things! I love this practice! I love watching new movies and spending time going through magazines, finding women (and sometimes men) that I look up to and who’s careers I can try to shape mine after. I may get a little obsessive about it… but that’s ok. It’s all about branding and figuring out what helped these people create the careers they have now and how you can use those things for yourself. I have a pretty good list, which ranges widely…I definitely need to pull it back in a bit. But my current major actress obsession is Emma Stone. I have a huge girl crush on her…and her career!

So, I started watching her films again; Easy A, Crazy Stupid Love, Zombieland, The Help. I focused on her acting style and the types of roles she usually ends up in. I also started researching how her career came to be the success it is now - where she started and what kinds of steps she took to further herself.

What I love about her is that she’s managed to bring her quirky personality and natural humour into all of her work. She also brings that to all of her interviews as well. Did I mention that she is a (part-time) ginger? Holla! I’m terribly jealous of the movies she’s worked on and the roles she’s played! But jealousy is pretty useless, because I happen to know that she worked really hard to get to where she is. She made a power-point presentation to her parents when she was younger, explaining her pro’s and cons list for them moving to LA so she could pursue her acting career. She also figured out how to brand herself, realizing that the types of characters that she was most suited to play, didn’t match her natural blonde hair. She understood that casting directors needed to see a “type”, and after dying her hair brown, she started being sent out for the right roles and booking!

She is definitely somebody I admire and who’s career I’d like to emulate. I’m not looking to copy any Hollywood actors for the sake of stardom. It doesn’t work that way, and my goals don’t look like that. I’m just looking for inspiration and solid examples of people who were once “working actors”, and turned themselves into “really well-paid actors”. Give it a try - find yourself some powerhouse examples and see what parts of their journey resonate for you, and try applying those things to your career!

It’s the end of another year; the perfect time for reflection and fresh starts. We take everything we learned from last year and figure out what we’ll take with us into the next one, what we won’t do again and what we’ll try to forget. I, personally, love this time of year - this refresh button of a holiday. And anyone with big ambitions and goals, I bet you, feels the same.

But this time seems different for me. It doesn’t feel like it’s enough to sit down and plot out a couple of resolutions that I may or may not accomplish by the end of 2013. There is more riding on it now. It isn’t a “getting older” thing; I don’t have the creeping sensation that time is running out. It doesn’t have to do with putting more on my resume for the sake of looking good or having a more impressive online dating profile…which totally doesn’t exist…This time, it’s more about making everything that I’ve gone through up until this point count, good and bad.

2012 was a very eventful year for me. I got to travel - I spent a few weeks in LA, studying acting and meeting some amazing people who became even better friends. I even got to spend some quality time on the beach in Mexico! I started working with a new agent, which led me to booking my first paid gig - just watched my TV debut a couple of nights ago! I also had the privilege of working on, what I can so far say is, one of my proudest accomplishments to date, Spaces and Reservations. I got to see my cousin get married in one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever seen. And in between all of that, I had some really great times with good friends and my family!

Of course, though, it can’t all be rainbows and sunshine, there are always a couple of bumps in the road. You ride the wave as long as you can, and then out of nowhere you’re trapped underneath it, trying to keep your chin above water. And those things that pushed you down? Sometimes they happen all at once. We’re faced with loss (and if you’re lucky, you’re 22 and it’s the first time you’ve dealt with it), slow times in our careers, and situations you’re positive you’re not grown up enough for. And none of it is easy.

So, maybe you keep a blog where you write about all of the good things you experienced in the past year. Maybe you pretend that you’re writing it for the readers (which you are…) but really, its a way to balance out the good and the bad. A reminder. (And maybe your reader is reminded to do the same, and then you’ve got a win-win). You take the wins with the losses. And a New Year and a fresh start is a win. It’s a chance to take everything you’ve experienced, positive or otherwise (sometimes especially the “otherwise”) and not let them go to waste.

So, here’s to big plans and sincere resolutions. Here’s to seeing the bigger picture and letting a bit of perspective get you through. Here’s to fully feeling and experiencing the things you do and the things that happen to you - and not just for the sake of having more to ‘draw from’ for our next scene study class. Here’s to remembering that, if nothing else, the world didn’t freaking end this year!

And here’s to a happy, healthy and exciting year for you all!

Happy New Year

• Tags
• resolutions
• new years
• scene study
• reflection
• goals
• 2012
• fresh start

Well, it has definitely been a little while since my last blog post. I could chalk it up to a number of excuses, but frankly, I guess the real reason is it just gets a little old being self-sufficient, doesn’t it? It’s hard to constantly be motivating yourself to sit down and work on blogs, or write scripts or remember how to act when nobody is forcing you to do it or paying you for it! But when you can find a job that does pay you, I think you start to value your down time a little more - it’s a little less easy to come by - and getting back on track is easier.

I recently put a cap on my employment hiatus last week, and started working for the call center at Lululemon! I know what you’re thinking…what could people possibly be calling lululemon about so much that they required an entire center to keep up with it? Short answer: lots of stuff. I completed a full week of intense training this Monday. The thing you should understand about this company is that training doesn’t really just entail learning what the job description is and how to solely fulfill that…it’s much, much more.

For starters, our first day began with a yoga class. For real. (There may have been a circuit class in following training days that resulted in me not being able to walk normally for a week as well…). We then proceeded to write down our goals and try to picture where we were going to be (professionally or otherwise) 10 years from now. There was a lot of talk around self-development and growth, as well as a strong implementation that there was a lot of room for that growth within the company.

Great, right? Totally a perfect job and company to work for while trying to pursue the dreams and goals they made me write down! Unless, of course, you’re as neurotic and one-track-minded as I am…then you may be more likely to look at this job as accepting a full defeat in your acting career. I mean, we all need money; we have to live and eat, and working is part of it. Unfortunately - for most of us, anyways - it isn’t enough to just wait by the phone for that audition or gig, or whatever.

But taking on a job…like a real, in-an-office, grown up job…that encourages entrepreneurial thinking and moving forward kind of really feels like throwing in the towel. To me, anyways. I don’t know about you guys…but I’ve always just coasted through day jobs. I manage to learn just enough to get through the day, without risking the chance of becoming good at any job that isn’t acting. I don’t want to succeed there. I don’t want to waste my skills on something that isn’t acting. Am I totally crazy for thinking like this? A ‘back up’ means you have something to fall on in case of failure…well, what if I don’t even want to entertain the possibility of failure at all? What about that?

Well Taylor, to answer your question…too bad! In the end, you learn what being 22 and getting progressively older (make it stop, please!) means…Yes, it does mean that nobody can stop you from having strawberry cheesecake ice cream for dinner and you’re allowed to stay up past 10 (though you rarely do). It also means taking responsibility for what you want your life to look like. Obviously, I see myself succeeding in acting and one day making my living by it, but in the nearer future…I see myself moving out of parents’ house and keeping my car and taking classes and having up-to-date headshots and driving to LA. And if that means realizing how incredibly freakingluckyI am that I managed to find a job that wants me to pursue my dreams and be creative, that helps me set goals and that allows me to wear stretchy pants and socks to work every day, then by all means, I’m the luckiest girl ever and don’t I know it.*

And if I learned anything in my first week with this company, it’s how important it is to live in gratitude, to stay positive and “above the line”. That maybe I should really get back to the gym…one of these days. To recognize that where I am right now, is exactly where I’m supposed to be and to make the most of that. I will be the best freaking phone-answerer ever, if I have to…Until I don’t have to.

*Has anyone noticed how often I end my blog posts with “I’m the luckiest girl ever”? Hmm….I guess it’s true!

• Tags
• day job
• goals
• lululemon
• money
• growing up
• adulthood
• actor life

Seriously. What is it? Because I think I have it…Lately, instead of having that doomey feeling of sitting down at a keyboard and not having any shot of inspiration of where to go next, I have too many ideas! As it stands right now, I am working on 6 different writing projects!

This is insane. I just want you all to know that I am aware that this is insane…and I am working very hard on my time management skills to ensure that I actually spend an appropriate amount of time working on each project. You know, maybe in one day I’ll spend a couple of hours on one script, and then afterwards I’ll have a refresher read through of my webseries, and then go from there.

I feel pretty overwhelmed, but I have never been this inspired with stories and ideas before, that I figure I should take advantage of it! I mean, I think the only thing that could be considered more insane than trying to stomp out this many projects at once would be not exploring the potential of each idea in the moment that it strikes you!

For a quick example of what a Taylor-writing project looks like…(and this is a few years old now…so, you know, don’t set your bar too high! Also, I don’t have bangs anymore.) here is a short that I wrote for my demo reel in college. It is a little comedy ditty inspired by the style of Modern Family and my fear of toasters. Hope you enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZQDjexfelE&feature=plcp

• Tags
• demo reel
• writing
• script
• inspiration
• Youtube

I got my first job when I was 16. I worked at La Senza and sold panties to men who needed forgiveness from their girlfriends or wives…or both. My first job also meant my first time buying Christmas gifts for my family! It also meant that I had my own cash, so if at a grocery store I decided I wanted a Kit Kat…well, you can bet I was going to buy it for myself!

I had learned pretty early on the importance of money and self-sufficiency and independence, and it stuck with me. Since my undergarment (and occasionally some toys…this was a pretty risque job for doe-eyed, 16 year old Taylor) selling gig, I’ve worked a pretty wide array of jobs. I moved on from selling those panties to selling Calvin Klein panties. I was the photographer at Walmart for what I can only assume are the pictures that now end up in the “Awkward Family Photos” books. I was an accountant for a small stint there…Yeah. Seriously. I toured Mexican kids around London for a bit. Also, seriously. I’ve babysat children, and worked an election…kind of also like babysitting children. And now I currently spend my Saturdays as a cleaning lady at an office.

I’ve pretty much covered just about everything  (except serving…I’m absolutely terrified of being a waitress! Don’t ask me why). It hasn’t really mattered what I was doing, as long as I could make sure I made money and felt a little independent.

This summer, however, I quit my job at the time and took a break in order to focus on shooting Spaces and Reservations, as well as to just devote more time to being a proactive actor…a “proact-or”? My time off was pretty sweet. I’ve learned to Tweet! I’ve bombarded my friends with blog posts. I was in a movie. I…came out broke!

You do the best you can, but this industry is tough. Just because you decide to quit your day job for a while, doesn’t mean that everything else is going to fall into place and all of a sudden you’ll book an international commercial that’ll pay your bills for the next year! Doesn’t reality suck?

So, now I’m in a scramble looking for a normal person, (kind of) grown up job. I’ve even applied for waitressing jobs. Because when you need work and to pay bills and to stop feeling like you’re 12, you suck it up and let pride or fears take a back seat. You take what you can get. And maybe accepting a bit of cash from your parents for cleaning out their garage, or taking the household’s pop cans back to the recycling depot for change doesn’t help with the “not feeling 12” thing. But every little bit helps, right?

So until that international commercial comes along, please let this blog serve as my resume and cover letter! ;)

• Tags
• starving actor
• broke
• day job
• resume
• actor life
• recycling

This is something that popped up on my Tumblr homepage this morning…and it really got to me. Only halfway through my coffee, three separate Celtx tabs open at the bottom of my screen with half-written ideas in them, and scrolling through totally banal posts and pictures of Tom Hiddleston on another great procrastination site…and I come across this (literal) wake up call:

“Stop seeing yourself as a list of problems. I caught myself thinking - this is when I was 34 - ‘I’ll write a book when my life begins’. I caught myself thinking this and I thought ‘What do I mean when my life begins?’ Then I realized what I meant was when I was finally properly thin and very smooth and my hair was naturally brilliant and I had a walk-in wardrobe like the one Carrie Bradshaw has in Sex and the City and my house was tidy and I’d finally gotten round to having a regular manicure and pedicure regime…I don’t know, just kind of perfect. Pretty, I guess, and kind of perfect, and everything was serene and calm. And then I started…this is the argument I’m having in my head, and the cleverer me is going ‘What the fuck are you on about? That’s never going to happen. If it was going to happen it would have happened by now. You’re 34. Your life has already begun. It began in 1975 when you were born. If you’re going to do something, get on with it now. Stop waiting.’ I think women have this feeling of waiting - when I’ve just lost that bit of weight, then things will happen, then things will be possible. Stop seeing yourself as a list of problems, stop going ‘Everything will be fine when I’ve sorted these things out’, start enjoying your life now.”
-Caitlin Moran

Raise your hand if you have had theseexactsame thoughts before? I know have. Almostverbatim.Isn’t that odd? Isn’t that such a weird way to live?

Here I am, with my endless list of…lists, and excuses and timelines…My solution is I need to lose 15 pounds. No. My solution is I need new headshots. No. My solution is I need to write a script for myself to star in. No. My solution is I need to throw caution to the wind and move to LA.

My solutionis all of these things…or at any given moment, none of these things, but something totally different. I don’t know! But my solution definitely is notputting those things down in point form, as if they might start magically falling into place and I can eventually check them off. It isn’t putting off the things I think I can one day accomplish because I’m waiting for some big sign to let me know that “one day” has finally arrived and it’s time to start doing.

No more waiting. No more procrastinating. From now on I’m not just a dreamer, or a scared half-asser, or a hyper-organized list maker. I’m a do-er. I’m a do-er who sets out to do things and does them…and enjoys of every second of it. Care to join?

• Tags
• caitlin moran
• solution
• goals
• drive
• actor life
• dreams
• procrastination
• tumblr
• tom hiddleston