2 Sides

My mom used to take me to shows when I was little and at the end of the evening, someone would hand the leading lady a dozen roses from the audience. In fact, people would throw flowers up to her. And they would clap and stand and cheer for her. I thought, I want that. When I decided to take up acting, it was basically to get out of the house and do something. I had no idea how much I would enjoy the kudos I received after the job was done.
During the day I work in an office cubicle. I am pleasant to my coworkers. I eat breakfast at 10 and lunch at 1- a salad everyday. Everyday someone blows their nose and everyday at least 2 people sneeze. And in the office I say 'god bless you' and 'did you have a good weekend' , but I never mention acting.
The difference between 'day Cristyn' and 'night Cristyn' is huge.
So many people ask me why are there 2 sides to me? How can I be on stage open to the world and be a performer yet be so shy about it during the day? Maybe one of the sides is the real Cristyn.

HerbaLife

The reason I have this blog set up is so that I can look back when I'm old and remember all the good times I've had acting. That, and its for E!True Hollywood story! Yesterday I had a commercial shoot for HerbaLife in Malibu. It wasn't really a commercial, more of a video they will use to show happy healthy people playing tennis, running, drinking, etc for trade shows and their website. I usually get the gigs that in the end, no one will see. So its hard to be overly excited about it. If I was on the set of 'The Office' or a Quentin Terentino movie, then you may more orgasmic noises coming from my blog!!! But, I digress. My call time was 12:00-you know what that means-hurry up and wait. Twelve is when everyone goes to lunch. So you get there and sit around until everyone is done eating and until they finish the last scenes they were doing. That was the only downer of the day. The drive to Malibu was beautiful. Even though I live in San Diego and can go to the beach whenever I want, it was somewhat more magical to drive along the coast. I could have pulled over at anytime and ran into the water. I still don't know why I didn't. The shoot was at a health club. My role was Tennis girl #2. (I love when I'm typecast-Scream girl #1, Green Shirt worker #3 etc...my life as an actress.) My partner and I had to put on cute outfits, pretend like we knew how to play tennis, drink the HerbaLife drink, get our check and drive home. Easy as pie. It was. It was really fun being out in the sun, hitting some balls, and eating from the craft service table. They had cheese goldfish, and candy goldfish, fruit, trail mix, salt and vinegar chips, bagels...basically every thing you were craving! All in all it was nice day. However, DO NOT EVER TAKE the 10 East at 5:00pm on a weekday-EVER! Thats all I'm going to say-Peace!

The truth about corn

About a month or so I got a phone call out of the blue from a director. He said he got my headshot from a past theater I auditioned for. He needed to cast a girl in his play right away-"we only rehearse 2 nights a week and the show is a fundraisor so it will only be for 2 nights". Well I wasn't doing anything so I said what the heck. Even the words, "hillybilly", "HeeHaw", "fat suit", and "musical" for some reason didn't stop me. I was honored at the fact someone looked at my picture and wanted me to be in their show-I felt kind of big headed. Although the statement "we need a girl right away" should have been a clue as to what I was about to get into.

At first, it really wasn't that bad. The show called, Corn Fried, was only about an hour and 15 minutes long. But the script...well, if you have seen Hee Haw you know. Two people walk out on stage tell a joke and walk off. Then the next few people come on stage, tell a joke and leave. Then someone sings and then the jokes start all over. And the jokes went like this -"Hey Clary, do you smoke after sex?" " I don't know-I never looked". One of my favorites (or the only good one) was "Hey Buford, if a couple gets a divorce are they still cousins?" So no big deal. I get to dress up in a fat suit and wear a wig. Hopefully no one will recognize me. Although they insisted I kept my legs the way they were for humor-hilarious! I didn't have to sing but I did have to dance a jig. The whole process was crazy because (besides the obvious) there was no direction. If you are an actor, you know that you get one director and you listen to what he/she says and you try to do your best. Well this process consisted of 8 cooks in the kitchen. The "director" wanted this show to be a collaberation but when you have so many people in the show thats alot of words being thrown out at the same time. I kept quiet. I just moved when someone said move and told my jokes when someone said talk.

The personalities in the show was another story all together. The negativity from one of the cast was almost unbearable. I tried to be calm and listen to the lesson that I was supposed to learn. Maybe I have negative qualities about me. Maybe I sometimes over react to things. Maybe I need to not give my opinion so much. Those were my thoughts the first few rehearsals then I got over it and thought "no she is just a bitter sad lady and I'm not like her at all"! She drank before she came to rehearsal and if she didn't she was in a terrible mood. She complained about everything from the show, to parking to the sky being blue! Lesson I learned from this whole experience-its ok to say no to a show if someone asks you. I am good enough, I'm smart enough and doggonnit-people like me!

Rest in Peace Jeff

I don't know what to say. I have never had anyone close to me die before, never mind commit suicide. I can't understand it. Jeff was the one that picked everyone off the ground. You wanted to keep going for him or he would call you on your laziness. He went everywhere he wanted, he did everything he wanted-he believed life was for living. This is why this is the hardest news for me to bear...
Youngin, I never told you that was your nickname. I thought, you were always going to be too young for me. This didn't stop me from falling in love with you. You walked on the correct side of the road to protect me, you opened my car door, you picked up my sister from the hospital, you danced with me, you told me not to quit,you dreamed of a better life....why would you leave it?
I'm sorry that you couldn't tell anyone your pain inside. I'm sorry for ever having doubts about your good intentions. I wish you were here for me to tell you that.