Thursday, February 28, 2013

Statistics

So, it's tax season, which for us performing artists/freelancers involves a lot of itemizing and backtracking and recordkeeping. 2012 being my first full year truly making my living as an actress (okay, fine, as an actress and a little bit as an acadmic tutor), I learned quite a bit while doing my taxes this year. If you're like me, and you try to philosophize and make meaning out of the annoying things that happen to you or that you have to do because you're an adult now, i.e.:

Oh my gosh, my car broke down! This is horrible! It's a sign telling me I'm on the wrong path in life because maybe if I'd have pursued a different career I would've had a different or better car that wouldn't have broken down today! 

...when really all it means is that my car broke down -- then doing something as menial as your taxes invokes a lot of reflection and self-assessment. I tend to look beyond the numbers and internalize and emotionalize all of the information I've gathered:

Oh my gosh, I spent how much on acting classes/headshots/online submission services etc. this year?? Was this a good investment? Did said investment pay off? What should I change? Where and how should I spend my money to invest in my career next year?

For some reason, I've always had a weird, unfounded, innate talent for Statistics. Seriously. AP Statistics was the first and perhaps only math class (besides my college Statistics class, which was actually easier than the AP version...) in which I really excelled and actually felt confident. Maybe it's because it's the type of math that is the least math-y of them all, but I understand and actually like Statistics.

This would perhaps serve me well in some situations, but after compiling all of my tax information that included bookings and all of my auditions for the year (you guys, I drove over 3,000 miles for auditions and classes...that is longer than a cross-country road trip!), my understanding of Statistics got me feeling a little down for a second. I caught myself over-analyzing my progress and measuring success using this type of math:

Out of all of my auditions, what percentage yielded a callback? What's my callback success rate? Booking success rate?

Then, of course, I remembered the central and perhaps most simple rule of Stats: significance. It is generally agreed upon that if something happens less than 5% of a time, that phenomenon is considered statistically significant. Meaning, it's out of the ordinary. It's exceptional. It's weird. I just looked up the current acceptance rate for Harvard, and it's at 5.9%. So yes, while it is quite a feat to get into Harvard, it's not statistically significant. We can all agree that it's wonderful, but not an occurrence that is unusual enough to warrant intense suspicion or awe. SAG-AFTRA boasts upwards of 165,000 members. I'm not sure of the percentage of members who are considered Hollywood A-Listers, but I'm guessing it could be statistically significant. Or maybe not. I'm not that good at math. My point is that succeeding in this business, however you define success, is usually a rare phenomenon. One that it is statistically significant. Maybe they should have these brochures at casting offices or Samuel French or places that actors frequent, like they're required to have at all Las Vegas casinos to teach you the dangers of gambling:


Haha! Just kidding. But yes, the odds are really, truly stacked against actors. But what I realized while going down my dark-thinking mathematical spiral is that while this information can be helpful in maintaining a level head and being realistic, as well as deciding which classes and materials are working or no longer working for me, it is not helpful information to bring with me into the audition room. Because yes, although my rational mind may comprehend that if they're seeing 50 girls for this commercial that I technically have a 2% chance of booking the role, that won't help me give my best shot at it. What I also believe is that this business transcends this type of math. Believing that I have only a 2% chance at booking the job is to believe that all 50 of us auditioning have an equal chance at booking the role. This business is biased, and we all know that all types of variables affect our chances of landing jobs...most of them out of our control. Maybe Auditioner A is less likely to book today than Auditioner B, because she happens to resemble the client's ex-wife whom he loathes. I dunno. Just a hypothetical.

The other day, I had a final callback for the leading female role in a great little indie feature. At this point in the process, the director was choosing between four girls for the role. Pretty good odds, statistically speaking. He called me up a couple days later to thank me for auditioning and for being so prepared and reading "like a boss" (his words, not mine) and to let me know that he had chosen another actress for the role. "You were all so good that we had such a difficult time deciding. We ended up having to rely on hunches here, because any of you could have played the part." There's no mathematical explanation for a director's hunch that one actress fits the role better than another. A chemical explanation, perhaps, but there's no use in dwelling on why something told him to go in that casting direction. Or at least I know there's nothing I could have done differently. Oh well -- if I didn't get it, it was never my role. It was during those fleeting moments in the room, but it is mine no longer. And I'm okay with that. Him going with his gut is the little spark that tells me there's no use in over-analyzing or making sense of things. There were definitely times when my performance gave a director a hunch that a role was mine, and none of the other actresses did. It's the same reason that while Jessica Chastain was perhaps (in my opinion) more deserving of the Best Actress Oscar the other night, Jennifer Lawrence won because we are all obsessed with her (*I am also obsessed with her).

So, long story, well, long, I've come up with my own Statistics that are grounded in no mathematical reality whatsoever:


  • If you tell too many people about your audition, you won't book it. Stop gloating.
  • If you leave for an audition half an hour earlier than you should, you will arrive 45 minutes earlier than planned with a margin of error of + or - 10 minutes.
  • If you leave for an audition with the exact amount of time Google Maps tells you it should take to get there, you will arrive at the audition late by an amount greater than or equal to 10 minutes.
  • If you are running late the session will be running early. If you are running early the session will be running late. 
  • If you put an hour longer than you need on your meter for an audition, said audition will take less than or equal to 5 minutes.
  • Conversely, if you put just an hour on your meter, said meter will expire while you are in the audition room and you will get a ticket!
  • If you don't care at all about booking the role, you will book it.
  • Live your life! Make plans, because then, you will book an amazing job that will interrupt these plans!
  • Your dogs think you did an amazing job at your audition 100% of the time. 
  • Avail streaks come in three's. If you are on avail three times in a row and don't book the job, on your fourth avail, you will book it.
  • If you complain about your life more than 14% of the time, don't pursue this career.

And, finally, here's the funny video I wanted to share with you today...it's a commercial I did for the Frankfurt Airport in Germany. I do not understand what is going on in this clip 100% of the time because I don't speak German:

Frankfurt Airport Commercial

Thanks for reading and watching, as always!

Gilli