Hurry Up and Wait

The clock TICKS and TOCKS ceaseless…

I’ve been holding off on posting because I was waiting for big news and wanted something bombastic to come with.

I’m still waiting.

In the last couple weeks, I’ve been referred for assignments, spoken to producers, worked endlessly on Script 13, watched Omission secure top level acting talent, and witnessed the flop of a company’s current feature trouble the life of my first paying assignment. All that adventure, but nothing really solid to mention.

At least that’s what I thought. In truth, the wait itself is something. It’s what we do in Hollywood.

We hurry because time is life and money—and we want results and people egg us on saying there is a deadline—or a producer that can read our script over the weekend—and the buzz is overwhelming, we feel compelled to take advantage right away.

We make our deadline, drop the baton in the producer’s friend’s hand…and wait.

And wait.

And, if you’re not an actor* eventually someone may actually call with a response.

I’m waiting for:
-news on the assignments
-face-time with the producers
-myself to feel confident enough with script 13 to show it
-the Omission money to come through so it can match the talent attached and my plans for this fall…
-and I’m waiting to see what happens to Boogie now that the last film the studio made flopped and the rights to the character are up in the air because the creator has died*.

When we moved to L.A., we were constantly waiting for our reps to take our first spec out. The plan was always to hit the market "next season"; we hustled to meet the deadlines with wide-eyed expectations, but something always came up.

We waited years. Just stockpiled scripts.

Here’s what I learned: there’s nothing we can do to expedite things.

The only remedy is to get the clock out of our mind: focus on the current project or on something not related to film at all; play with the cat; take the wife for a drive or to a museum; have friends over for dinner; obsess over the Yankees—whatever it takes.

So the way to deal with it is to soak up life at the moment.

I don’t have great news right now, but don’t have bad news either. And I have the potential for great news. That’s got to be worth something. More than something.

I will sleep peacefully tonight.

Until the alarm SOUNDS.

Eventually time will tell.
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Footnotes:

*R.I.P. Roberto Fontanarrosa (1944-2007), creator of Boogie El Aceitoso and other characters, his death was front-page news in Argentina two weeks ago.

*My cousin Julie, an actress, told me actors are never called unless they get the part; they find out they didn’t get the job when they see the person that got the role on TV.