CLARKE: THAT F*CKING GUY!

20th October 2010

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JOB BLOG 3: - DOING THE ROUNDS: PT 1

ALMOST Not even near FAMOUS Known

It’s late 2000. I’ve finally got an agent. In all honesty they were the only people out of 50 agents I approached that were willing to give me a shot. (And although I’m not with them now, I still love them; spoke to them a couple of days ago).

Anyway I’m thinking that after doing Metrosexuality and the two short films that things are about to change for me. But they’re not really, the agent is great, but it’s not about them, It’s kind of about, Nobody wants to take a meeting with the untrained guy who has 3 little jobs on his CV.

A few people did actually see me and they know who they are and I’m very thankful to them to this day. Then of course their were the couple that saw me and looked at my almost blank CV and turned it over to look at the other side as if there would be 100 more jobs on the flipside. That shit hurt the most, but it toughens you, makes you look em dead in the eye, like WHAT?!

Getting auditions was tough. I was still happily working in the gym, and I realised that it was like this for the vast majority of actors, but while a lot of people were moaning, some people seemed like they were doing something about it. I wanted to be one of those people. I had already written one script (See JOB BLOG 2) but did I really wanna write for a living? “I’m an actor damn-it” and how would anything I write ever get made? Was thinking maybe i should just go back to uni an quit it all.

But low and behold I manage to get a few auditions, but everything was always. NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO. Let me tell you something now, if you are gonna be in this biz, you are gonna hear the word NO A lot. It comes in different forms…

…Like this – “it’s not gonna work this time – You’re not quite right – They’re going in a different direction – They loved you but …“  Bottom line is though that it’s all the same thing.

It can be frustrating, but that’s the way it is. What I advise and what i started doing was asking for feedback… When my agent told me I didn’t get something I’d ask why? What did i do wrong? Or more importantly, what did i not do right? Be warned Agents aren’t always given feedback, it’s time consuming for all involved if they have to do that for everyone, but my agent asked for me and I started getting feedback that I feel helped me improve.

Then one day, I got an audition for THE BILL. Now for a guy that had never got a job that Rikki beadle blair wasn’t connected to, this was a big deal. I travel down do my audition do my thing and head back to the gym. (To work, not train)

A few days later I got the call. I was on THE BILL. Two weeks later I was on set filming. Playing my mate and still a mate to this day, although apart from the occasional lunch I barely ever seen him and we never really hang out was a young and very, very talented https://twitter.com/#!/REGYATES  Look at him now. BIG LOVE REG!

So that was my first job out there on my own, and they filmed so quickly it was pretty scary. I thought I was great, I see it now and obviously I was shit. But the bill is/or was part of the learning curve in this country; most people have passed through there at some point.

Not long after I got a tiny bit on WAKING THE DEAD… two scenes, again working with Will Johnson. Someone who was very supportive of me, and someone I hooked up at a later date. Again, I was shit in it, but I was still learning.  (That is no excuse, just a reason)

Then another little job, this time, playing the friend of the daughter, in a pilot called JUDGE JOHN DEEDS… I was in a scene with a young man Called JAMES CORDEN and of course Martin Shaw. The scene ended up getting cut I think.

So I’d done 3 more jobs. Tiny ones, but all things that were all considered stepping-stones. Surely now things would take off? HA HA! You may think so, but I’m afraid that’s just not the way it works for barely anyone and only my naivety thought that it did. I was sure I could do more, but wasn’t being given the chance. So I just kept doing my shifts at the gym.

the end…

P.S... I started also started planning out a little script based on me and my friends growing up, in and around Ladbroke grove. We weren’t bad kids #Notaganster but had seen stuff. Couldn’t think of a clever name so decided on calling it KiDULTHOOD. Kids growing up before their time into adults (It’ll never catch on). it was relevant to me growing up and the kids now a days. Didn’t think anyone would like it though, it was really just for me.

THE BILL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0525037/

WAKING THE DEAD: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0743350/

JUDGE JOHN DEEDS: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302128/

 COMING SOON: 

 JOB BLOG 4: - DOING THE ROUNDS PT 2: BIGGER THE FALL THE HIGHER THE BOUNCE (but not for me)

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