The Tax on Hope

Every year we have to pay Spotlight £205.80.

Why?

So that we can be employed through their website.

If you have 20 auditions in a year - you have to pay Spotlight £10.29 per audition.

Why?

What do they do?

Well, casting directors find you through it.

Thousands of actors rely on Spotlight to find work.

We must be on it, otherwise our job opportunities greatly diminish.

By it's own admission 99% of UK productions cast through them.

Just try telling your agent you're leaving Spotlight.

It's akin to telling your tennis coach your going to play the next tennis competition without your racket.

It doesn't make any sense.

But guess what, if you want to play in that competition you need to pay a compulsory Racket fee.

You have to pay £205.8.

In Europe the racket fees are smaller.

But Spotlight is owned by a US private equity company, so their racket fees are uncharacteristically high.

They argue that Spotlight is not something actors need to find employment but is solely "a marketing tool to promote…the performer…"

A tennis racket is not something you hit a ball with, it's actually an advert for your next match.

If the player would prefer, she may serve using her appearance on the Graham Norton show.

This is patently ridiculous.

Spotlight is an employment platform in everything but name. It needs to be regulated. Otherwise fees will continue to rise and rise. Barriers to entry get higher. Actors get priced out. Our industry remains rotten.

But as you may have heard, Equity are fighting Spotlight.

They are fighting to get it regulated so that what happened in 2023 doesn't happen again.

But in September, a judge ruled in favour of Spotlight saying that they were not a place

And we know that's bollocks.

So Equity sought permission to appeal.

And last week a Judge granted them that permission. A huge win. And an important step for those of us who are tired of paying through the nose for very very little.

As Equity bad boy (and friend of the letter), Giovanni Bienne put it

What can you do?

• Stay up to date with what's happening with Equity
  ​Follow them here.
• Talk about it with other performers, share what you need to.
  ​If, like me, you are getting pissed off with a bonkers, madenning industry that seems completely unfit for use - you are not alone. We all feel this way - but we have been made to feel alone and powerless.
• But we are not alone and we are far from powerless - collective action may be following so keep your ears to the ground.
• We are stronger together - always.
  (I'll try to keep readers as updated as possible through this newsletter)

End the racket fees.
End the tax on hope.

WHAT I'M READING
​Scott's 102 Books​

A madman read 102 books and articles in a year and has boiled down the most interesting things he found in them.

Here are a few my fav favs:

I found this last one tricky - it challenges a deeply help belief. I will investigate and report back my findings.

There are some other quite spicy takes - as with any article like this - further investigation is encouraged.

​Here is the list of things for your perusal.​

WHAT'S YOUR GAME?

Two things happened last week that got me thinking about how games can help us in our acting.

1. I cover taught a screen acting for comedy class (thanks for thinking of me, mate).
2. I watched an episode of Bluey.

​

The class

The class received their scenes with very little time to learn them, so a lot of were going into the scenes on book.

Stiffness, worry, anxiety and fear resulted in that slightly dead behind the eyes, "I am shit, this is shit" self consciousness. (a feeling I am only too familiar with)

But.

As soon as they were given a game to play, their eyes changed. They suddenly became

Bright. Engaged. Alive.

Their self consciousness seemed to drop away.

Their fear of getting their lines wrong dissipated.

Their concentration had been given solely and wholly to playing their games.

Example of some Games (tied to a character's objective):

• Try and make your scene partner laugh ​
  (I want to charm them)
• Try and hurt your scene partner so bad they start crying
  (I want to destroy them)
• Try and make your scene partner say the words "Let's do it right here on this desk [and then they do that thing where they sweep everything off their desk]"​
  (I want to seduce them)

Playing games work because:

• You become laser focussed on your scene partner (essentially, it gets you out of your head)
• You stop exerting unnecessary energy trying to make yourself believe in the scene. e.g. "what should my imaginary character really think and feel about this imaginary character if i was in an imaginary office being imaginary bollocked by them."
• You don't need to do this because the game is real - "is my scene partner laughing or not? Shitters I am failing try harder"
• Games are fun to play - you do not need to be serious to do a serious scene. When you start playing games, the joy comes from the fact it's a game. There is a relish to winning, but also - a special relish to losing.

One of the actors in the class, who we'll anonymously call Paul, was getting frustrated because he "knew the perfect version of the scene" in his head, and it wasn't what he was doing.

In the scene his new boss was firing him.

His game became,

"See how long you can go without believing your partner's actually firing you".

"Really?" he said, "But I can just last the whole scene"

Game on.

He did not last the whole scene. He held out until his partner (who's game was to make Paul feel 2 ft tall) quietly, and with a gleeful smile, emasculated him (as was written).

Before he could think about it, Paul became small and embarrassed. Then realising he had lost the game, he quickly tried to pretend that he had not lost, only to realise it was too late. He had, in fact, lost the game, hard.

It was hilarious. Without anyone trying to be funny.

But his final, leaving line spewed with vitriol, humiliation and embarrassment - the truth of which you just could not invent.

And this was all happening on camera, in front of our eyes.

Fucking thrilling.

Paul had given himself the perfect game -

"But I can last the whole scene"

The perfect set up for success in failure.

Bluey

On Thursday morning, I sat with my daughter watching the little Aussie dog family, when an interaction between Bluey and Dad got to the heart of it.

Our job is to make up games.

That is what keeps us childlike.

And that is our superpower.

We play because that is the truth of the scene.

As John Truby puts it in his Anatamy of Story:

We must take making up games seriously.

The distance between pretending we are office workers fighting and getting across a room without touching the lava is a lot closer than we might think.

Our job is to make up games.

What a job that is.

​

How you can quickly find the game (the fuckithavefunagain method):

1. Figure out what your character wants in the scene​
   e.g. He wants the detective to leave without information about the murder.
2. What's a fun game that your childlike self would love playing?​
   e.g. No matter what she says, I'm not going to tell her anything. I can last longer than she can.
3. Commit to the game.
   Before the scene begins tell the other person in the scene "I am going to beat you this time"

​

Experiment experiment experiment.

You will win.

FOR THE WIN - Prize time

If you are enjoying these emails - you'd be helping me out a huge amount if you sent something like the below to any one you think might find these letters interesting

Reply to this email if you have shared it with anyone (no names required just how many you sent it too + honour system rules). As a huge thank you the reader with the most shares, will win a self tape tripod with phone holder (postage included, Uk only - any international winners will get a different prize that i haven't thought up yet)

​

And as always, any comments, anger, or wins - always always always love to hear reader wins, are much appreciated. Just reply to this email.

​

You guys are boss.

Have a great week!

A x