Monologue on Dress Rehearsal Pt. 2
Forgetting the ode to Raisin in the Sun that was my last post, let's linger on the fact that I can always live vicariously through the aspiring actors on HBO's new show "Unscripted." I Fucking love HBO.
"Unscripted" is off the hook. I used to watch "Entourage" which is about a young actor who has already had his big break, how he and his close group of friends deal with his new found fame and how they help him navigate through life in Hollywood, riding on his coat tails. Season one finished a while back and before that, I watched "The IT Factor," a Bravo reality series which documented the lives of 8 struggling actors in New York (first season) and 9 struggling actors in Los Angeles (second season). You see a theme here. I love watching shows about actors. All of these shows were great but they are eclipsed, in terms of creativity, by this new show.
"Unscripted" is part reality, part fiction. It follows three main cast members, young LA actors, as well as their friends, lovers and acting instructors. Simple right? The characters are, however, essentially real - what I mean is, The actor, Bryan Greenfield, plays the character "Bryan Greenfield" and most of the auditions we see in each episode are real life auditions. (Most, not all.) The show is entirely unscripted. Everything is improvised. There are no rehearsals and no reshoots. The "writers" simply get together in a room with the actors and producers, discuss real life Hollywood stories, put together a basic story arc and decide the issues they want to cover for an episode.
Oh and did I mention that George Clooney is executive producing? Ain't that some shit?
All this can be disregarded. The show basically kicks ass. Supposedly some people find it depressing because it reveals the constant rejection and failure that actors face daily. But fuck that. People are ignorant about the industry. Serious aspiring actors have been wise to this shit for a long time and it doesn't depress them as much as motivate them to find work and do what they have to do. If I felt okay about taking that chance myself...maybe I'd be out there waiting tables and going up for audition, after audition, after audition. For now, though, I'll watch it on TV like the slob that I am. "Unscripted" gets 5 stars and my undying groupie love.
"Unscripted" is off the hook. I used to watch "Entourage" which is about a young actor who has already had his big break, how he and his close group of friends deal with his new found fame and how they help him navigate through life in Hollywood, riding on his coat tails. Season one finished a while back and before that, I watched "The IT Factor," a Bravo reality series which documented the lives of 8 struggling actors in New York (first season) and 9 struggling actors in Los Angeles (second season). You see a theme here. I love watching shows about actors. All of these shows were great but they are eclipsed, in terms of creativity, by this new show.
"Unscripted" is part reality, part fiction. It follows three main cast members, young LA actors, as well as their friends, lovers and acting instructors. Simple right? The characters are, however, essentially real - what I mean is, The actor, Bryan Greenfield, plays the character "Bryan Greenfield" and most of the auditions we see in each episode are real life auditions. (Most, not all.) The show is entirely unscripted. Everything is improvised. There are no rehearsals and no reshoots. The "writers" simply get together in a room with the actors and producers, discuss real life Hollywood stories, put together a basic story arc and decide the issues they want to cover for an episode.
Oh and did I mention that George Clooney is executive producing? Ain't that some shit?
All this can be disregarded. The show basically kicks ass. Supposedly some people find it depressing because it reveals the constant rejection and failure that actors face daily. But fuck that. People are ignorant about the industry. Serious aspiring actors have been wise to this shit for a long time and it doesn't depress them as much as motivate them to find work and do what they have to do. If I felt okay about taking that chance myself...maybe I'd be out there waiting tables and going up for audition, after audition, after audition. For now, though, I'll watch it on TV like the slob that I am. "Unscripted" gets 5 stars and my undying groupie love.
This entry was posted
on February 09, 2005 at 4:40 PM.
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