99 YEARS AND COUNTING

Since 2006, when the week of October 20th rolls around each year I look forward to a very special birthday lunch to celebrate the talented, genuine, funny, full of youth, and beautiful (inside and out) Carla Laemmle. For the past 3 years, she and good friend Rick, who celebrates his Birthday on October 21st and who is just finishing a book on Carla’s life (see below), have met up with me at a well-known and favorite restaurant of Carla’s in LA, that has been around since 1931. This year marked her 99th Birthday, a very young 99 as you can see in the picture of us from our lunch.

Some of you, especially those in the entertainment industry, might be familiar with the last name Laemmle. Carla happens to be the niece of Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Pictures. Carla was born Rebekah Isabelle Laemmle in Chicago, IL in 1909, but soon took Carla as her professional name. One of the many things for which she is known is speaking the first line in Carl’s classic 1931 horror film “Dracula,” starring Bela Lugosi. She can still recite that line today…“Among the rugged peaks that frown down upon the Borgo Pass are found crumbling castles of a bygone age.”

She spent her youth living in a bungalow by the New York Street set on the Universal Pictures lot, which was common in those days, and is where she collected a number of fascinating stories about what I refer to as the classy years of Hollywood. I simply love hearing about those times and her accounts of the wonderful memories she holds to this day from that very special time, on which she looks back very fondly. These include stories of Marilyn Monroe, Lon Chaney, the filming of the famous tower scene in 1939’s “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, being a dancer at the age of 16 in 1925’s “The Phantom of The Opera”, and much, much more.

While Carla’s history is very exciting, it is her friendship I value most. I receive the most touching, kind, heart felt, and lovely cards in the mail from her and truly enjoy our old-fashioned correspondence. I am someone who to this day loves to send cards and letters in the mail, even for no apparent reason, and truly enjoys keeping this classic form of writing alive today. It is something my marvelous mother taught me at a young age, along with the importance of hand-written thank-you notes, and I plan to carry on the tradition as best I can, just as Carla and my mother do.

Carla truly is an inspiration to me, and one can’t help but smile after hearing from her whether in person, on the phone, or through her wonderful words in a card. She exudes warmth, positivity, and classic grace, and never misses a beat with her spot-on mind and memory, which are far sharper than mine…and I am 70 years younger! I can only hope to be a tiny fraction as influential as she is when I get to be her age, if I make it that far! I feel honored to simply know her and be a part of her life, and what a life it is!

In fact, Rick just finished working with Carla on her autobiography, “Among the Rugged Peaks–An Intimate Biography of Carla Laemmle.” I got to see the cover, straight from the publishers, while at our lunch last week and I am looking forward to reading the final product and seeing the many historic photographs. That said, I am sure there will be many more stories and adventures to come in her long, yet “forever young and ageless,” life of 99 years and counting!

“Thank you so much for your lovely card and ever so glowing words – I am totally overwhelmed by your ever so lavish compliments. I found it most difficult not reacting to them like my beautiful Persian cat, Mimi, lapping up a bowl of heavy cream! I did so enjoy meeting you and was truly impressed by your charm and both outer and inner beauty. While it is true I am 97 in earth years, I assure you my inner being is forever young and ageless.” - A few of Carla Laemmle’s always eloquent words in a card to me after we first met in 2006.

With Rick and Carla Laemmle at her 99th Birthday lunch on 10-24-08.

BRIEFER THAN BRIEF

Last week I posted a shorter blog, at least for me, but this week is going to win on the being brief front. Things have been really busy for me, but pretty much everything in my life continues to move forward in a positive direction.

Overall, it has been a bit surreal being at CBS and on the set of “The Young and the Restless,” seeing that I have watched it since I was 14 and so many of the characters are still on the show. The pace is quick and efficient and I can honestly say the cast, crew, and everyone in between are truly a pleasure to work with. It is rare to find such a friendly, outgoing, and positive group of people on a set, but each does their part to make you feel instantly right at home.

My scenes take place at the “Restless Style” magazine office with the character Phyllis, played by Emmy-Award winning actor Michelle Stafford, since I am her personal assistant. She has the perfect combination of beauty, talent, wit, personality, and genuine kindness, so she makes my job very easy.

I have a number of things in my life that link back to “Y&R” in some form, through a number of actors on the show, over the years, and I plan to bring you some of those fun little stories as soon as I have some time on my hands. Until then, I want to thank everyone for welcoming me on set, and to Genoa City, for making my experience a very beneficial one.

You see, I told you it would be short, and this was briefer than brief!

“I shall be so brief that I have already finished.” - Salvador Dali

UNIQUE SIMPLICITY

This week’s blog is going to be what they refer to as short and sweet, relatively speaking. I know, I know, you might be asking yourself, short? Yes, I will admit that I tend to write some novel-length blogs, but it seems to be that way in most writing aspects of my life. Just ask those who know me, and they will tell you that my e-mails and letters, covered in stickers, tend to get that way too. But what is a girl to do?

Last week, I had the privilege of attending the “Stars for Stars” red carpet charity event that benefits Tiny Stars, an agency that funds a network of undercover operatives to track most wanted child predators. It was a fun night out at trendy Les Deux restaurant in Hollywood, with mostly down to earth people in the entertainment industry, including a few stars, hence Stars for Stars. It was nice to attend an event where I could meet and mingle with people, while giving back. Donating to causes like these is truly fulfilling for me and even teaches me a few things about charity foundations in general, which I hope to be able to use with my own children’s charity foundation one day.

Overall, things have been going really well for me in pretty much every aspect of my life. Although I am usually happy on a daily basis, possibly overly so to some, I am cheerfully chipper and happily hopeful in the most genuine form these days. In fact, I have begun discovering new, what I refer to as unique, simplicities in my life.

Speaking of unique simplicity, I was driving back to my apartment at 4:30AM Tuesday morning, when I was struck by the refreshing silence surrounding me. I was traveling on the usually hip, busy, and oh so popular Melrose, but at a time when there was almost no traffic, an endless row of soothing green traffic lights, and a quiet calm in all directions. Just the mere thought that in a couple hours the sun would be rising and the streets would once again be filled with disrupting noise and infamous morning traffic brought a new appreciation for unique moments like this. Suddenly, simply driving down a street I use often took on a new, refreshing quality.

I think there is growth to be found in such moments for anyone, but especially actors, because it allows you to clear your mind and therefore think more clearly, which is crucial to be able to do. Being able to think about and absorb the lives of other characters, which is what acting is ultimately about, starts with having a free sense of yourself and letting go to the best of your ability, in order to openly welcome the character you are playing, and to take on each personality, as fully as possible.

So, as I get ready to do just that and have some fun over at CBS on the Y&R set, while making the most of the experience itself, I plan to continue trying to actually see beauty in the simple things. My experience driving down Melrose and my photographing things, aside from people, over the last couple years (some of which you can see below) have taught and helped me to do just that.

I feel I have a lot to look forward to, for which I am consistently thankful. I am going to sit back and enjoy this hopeful time in my life, while encouraging you to try finding your own unique simplicity.

 
“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” - Hans Hofman

Picture Locations (from left to right)

Top Row: High-rise Through Tree - Downtown LA / Haunted Woods Trail - Prince Edward Island / Green Gables Berry Bush - Prince Edward Island

Middle Row: Lantern Shadowed Window - Hollywood Hills, CA / Pumpkins - Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island / Railroad Track - Kensington, Prince Edward Island

Bottom Row: St. Patrick’s Cathedral - NYC / Red Wood Trees - Muir Woods, CA / Single Rose - Brentwood, CA

YOUNG AND RESTLESS

It seems that October 1st is upon us, which means my favorite time of year has snuck up on me, once again. However, as the holiday season picks up and my beloved cooler, scarf-wearing weather moves in, the acting and audition front often begins to slow down, cooling off a bit itself.

Honestly, I had another blog written and ready to post about the slowness on the acting front for me this year, and how I have always had a bit of an odd personal superstition where I don’t like to tell others about auditions or talk about acting opportunities until something certain develops from them. Of Course, certainty and this industry rarely go hand in hand. Strange as it may sound, I almost feel as though it is bad luck to say anything about auditions, either before or after they have happened.

In my original blog, I explained how blogging each week makes that superstition somewhat hard to follow, especially since I am “The Actor” on this wonderful and inventive FIB site. I questioned if my blogging weekly could be the reason my year as an actor had been so slow? Well, the fact is that it would be rather silly if I thought it did, especially knowing that it is due to this fabulous outlet on the World Wide Web that I have obtained some of the opportunities I have had this year. It would have been far slower had I not been doing what I love to do so much, which is to express myself through writing, in this case, blogging, alongside my fellow Film Industry Bloggers.

That said, things suddenly changed, and the blog I had written for this week is now filed under “not used.”

On Monday afternoon I received calls from my agent and manager saying I had been booked for the CBS soap opera “The Young and the Restless.” Consistent with my practice of not mentioning auditions until the outcome is known, I can now report that last week I had gone in to read for the show. A casting director for whom I had read 3 years earlier, at an “NCIS” audition and callback, had called me in. Although I didn’t book the NCIS job, it turns out she is now casting “Y&R,” remembered me, and had me come in to audition for it. This time they liked me, but not for the role I read. They hired me for a different part, that of the new assistant at “Y&R’s” “Restless Style Magazine.”

To make a long blogging story short, which, at this point, is pretty much too late to do, and keeping in mind that I had not mentioned this audition in any of my blogs or to anyone, the unfolding of these events stays in line with my superstition to say nothing about my auditions until their results are known. No one, that is, aside from my parents, who send me a cute and colorful “Break-A-Leg” message before each and every audition.

This leads me to two important things to remember as an actor. One, your current situation can turn on a dime, as they say, and it can happen with only one audition. Two, you have to do your best at each and every audition, always remembering that, although you might not be right for one role, you never know when a casting director or other person at the audition might remember you and have you back later for another role, for which you might be more suited.

In my case it happened to be THREE years later for “The Young and the Restless,” which also happens to have been the favorite soap opera of my really good friend Jen and me since we were 14. Incidentally, we started watching because of Michael Damian, who played Danny Romalotti, on the show. I personally fell in “love” with him when he was playing Joseph in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” on Broadway, in NYC. I had to know who he was, found out he was on “Y&R,” and so the watching began…Jen still records it daily!

I will write more on all of this in next week’s blog and my coming full circle where the show is concerned. ‘Till then, I am off to attend the Stars for Stars red carpet charity event in Hollywood and to prepare for my temporary move to Genoa City, where I get to be young and restless!

“You don’t just luck into things…you build step by step.” – Barbara Bush