Tag Archives: Hollywood agent

Well, it’s my last week in LA, and it was quite a big one at that. I had four meetings lined up  these last seven days, from one with a tiny commercial agency to one with a top ten theatrical agent.

I learned one more lesson about talent agencies: the higher the floor of the suite they’re on, the higher up the agency. Either that or they have to have their own building. It’s quite difficult to estimate the power and reputation of an agency with the thousands that are here sometimes, but the view from the office is a good indication. Up until last week the highest floor I had been on was the 19th, but this week I had a meeting on the 22nd floor. You do the math which meeting that was.

My expectation was that the small commercial agency would work out, since a) it’s a smaller agency and b) commercial agents are easier to get than theatrical agents. Of the top 10 theatrical meeting I expected to just plant a seed without even coming close to signing. It panned out quite differently… Continue reading →

It is Monday, and I sit in the office of the agent who I’d met with before, going through the pages of a book that has pictures of Hollywood all the way from 1910 to now.  Exactly 30 minutes before that a huge bomb was dropped on me from Holland, and my awe for the pictures prevents me from detonating.

There’s pictures of the Hollywood Hills, nothing around, a wide open space. Pictures of the Hollywood & Highland intersection in the ’30, oldtimer cars making their way through an area without high buildings or neon lights.

A few minutes later I go on the meeting, and then I walk out in the Beverly Hills sun, the moment I always dreamed of now reality: an agent is willing to sign my papers. I didn’t ever picture it to coincide with feeling sad but it’s fitting. My last open door in Holland has shut closed hard in my face the very same hour a door to a life in LA opened. And not just one but two more meetings arose the same week…

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Having a new outlook on life every two days can be quite exhausting. On Tuesday I had started to settle for a life in Holland, maybe London, forgetting about Los Angeles. I couldn’t even imagine myself with an Oscar and a purple dress anymore while listening to my ultimate daydream-that-I’m-successful-song Somewhere Only We Know by Keane. I’m sure children in Africa felt sorry for me.

But then by Friday it all of sudden looked like moving to LA was a very realistic option again. So on came the iPod, and on was the daydreaming. Actually, on came the iPod, and on went the worry switch in my mind. There were all of a sudden so many options, and so little distractions that I drove myself crazy a little. These are the things that have been in motion the last week… Continue reading →

I’m now past halfway in my stay in LA and the pressure is building, the clock ticking. While I still have several potential agents that might work out, I don’t have that one signature yet. That one little scribble that will give me the peace of mind knowing I can come back with a work visa, that I can finally start living my dream…

And that dream is really just being able to pursue my dream. That sounds a little Inception-ish but I mean that being able to live in LA and pursue an acting career is already a dream on it’s own. And within that there is of course the dream of – never mind, going down the Inception route again…

Anyway, so far I’ve done everything by the book, with not a lot of return on investment so to speak. And so this week I decided to go a little more, well, rogue… Continue reading →