I found your take on things really interesting, especially your misunderstanding of show business. I have seen people like you get eaten alive time and again in my home town, yes you guessed it- Hollywood where I was born and raised. I guess (after reading your essay) in your opinion everyone from L.A. is an asshole -which is sad and shockingly common for people in Arizona.
There is something strangely homogeneous about Arizona that I find totally disturbing. You summed things up about the people of Arizona very well. Thanks for the insight, I was having some trouble bridging the gap between the negative, closed minded anti-hollywood “people” comments I hear ALL the time and the morbid fascination you guys have with people of my ilk. It’s almost like you guys pretend outwardly to be too good to “sell your soul to the devil” but do it in a hot second if the opportunity avails itself to you.
When you work on any film set, you are supposed to remember what your role is. PA jobs (PRODUCTION ASSISTANT) are the doorway to all kinds of opportunities - if you know your role. You ARE getting paid REALLY well to get kicked around and learn the business from the ground up. You ARE NOT the talent so you don’t get the talent’s Per-Diem, or wage for that matter and your “joke” about making 400.00 was not funny. It was more like an immature attempt at veiled hostility. You were jealous and didn’t negotiate your day rate at all, just took whatever they offered you. You were an eager little beaver chomping at the bit for your big “show biz” moment, thinking perhaps this would be your big break -how special you felt, only to have that bubble burst . You actually had to work, as a production assistant, and found out it was really hard work and not at all glamorous.
That’s the job!
Welcome to Hollywood kid.
It was hard for me to read about how quickly you became embittered when you saw what kind of money gets thrown around for a piece of garbage as you put it, in your grandmas words, TV show. You don’t have to put everyone else down because you are not cut out for a production job, or the world of movies or television, just find your place in the world and get over it. The worst part about reading your essay is that it’s really one-sided, and written from the standpoint of a puritanical, sexually confused and repressed southwestern boy with shattered illusions. I tried to like it, but just can’t. I found your paper to be totally offensive after reading the whole thing.
I can live with that.
I need to understand what makes people like you tick. I don’t plan on being in Arizona very long, only a year or two. People of your ilk don’t suit me either. You should just be a kid, grow up a little and and try to keep your condescension down to a minimum it’s really not attractive and makes it hard to like you as a story teller and by extension hard to like your story.
Good luck with whatever you end up doing with your life, stay republican and stay away from Hollywood -everyone will be much happier that way.
Thanks.
Thanks for sharing your experience. Also, I personally felt better knowing the approximations of your parts. Gave the story flavor 