They think I talk funny
Posted by Jen in Australia…
Hi… it’s Jennifer and this April I’ll be telling you what life is like for me as I re-locate my acting career to Australia!
A fun thing about never quite knowing what scene comes next in the movie of your life is one day finding yourself living in Australia. After surviving seven Chicago winters, I want to say to the screenwriter of my movie, thank you, I like where you’re going with this. Naturally, one of the greatest things about moving to Australia for an American actress is that this is an English speaking country with a fantastic theatre scene. Good weather and real theatre? Why didn’t I think of this sooner? And I have to freak out about Sydney for a quick second. What a city! I’ve never been somewhere so incredibly beautiful, so healthy, active, welcoming, happening and cool. Plus, they have gigantic cockroaches and the hot-garbage-in-the-alley smell every so often so you still know you’re in a major city. The birds are exotic and noisy, the bats are bigger than my cat and the people are reeeeaaallly friendly. Here begins my first shocking generalization about life in Australia: Australians are amazingly friendly. It’s true. I cannot imagine nicer people. I have met two assholes… in six months. One example I can give you about the kindness of the folks here is to tell what it was like getting an agent. I mailed out headshots to everyone and received some calls from people who wanted me to come in for some meetings. Ok, nothing too exceptional about that (although all too often a mass mailing is met with a devastating silence so believe me I was very excited to hear that some of these people wanted to meet me and my American accent). BUT, what about all the calls I received from people who didn’t want to meet me but just wanted to thank me personally for submitting my information and to wish me the best? What about the agents who called to ask for my address so they could MAIL ME MY HEADSHOTS BACK AT THEIR OWN EXPENSE? Isn’t that shocking behavior? Can it be trusted? Why are they so nice? I mean it’s almost like they’re treating actors like… people. Anyway, I signed with an agent here and am now officially an actress in a foreign land.
Ok, want to see some kangaroos?
