Part 1.
(The Beginning)
(This is the shortened version of my long journey. I’ve narrowed my story down to the parts I think are most important. I’ve sped it up too, so please don’t get lost. – love Abrianna, [A-bri-ann-a])
I like attention, let’s just leave it at that. I enjoy people looking at me and knowing who I am. I’ve always wanted people to scream my name, Abrianna Cane over and over again. I’ve been this way since I was born. I smile and pose for the cameras, and my acting skills are superb. I can sing, oh yes I can. I’m like Mariah Carey and Beyonce put together. I’m a triple threat, model, actress and singer. I have it all and I use it well.
I’ve auditioned for many things over the years. You name it, I’ve auditioned for it, commercials, magazine ads or parts in the school plays. Each time I get that phone call to my agent, (my mom), which gets transferred to me telling me I got the part I add it to my résumé. Commercials, ads and plays have become my life now. I’m always doing one of those things. Last month I did a commercial for a local fast food chain, it was no big deal to me and that made me ponder.
This commercial was no big deal, like any commercial or ad or play or whatever I’ve done over the past 15 years. Maybe the first or second one was a big deal because I was just getting used to it all. But now, now it was nothing to me. It was almost, boring.
I nearly slapped myself right there on set for thinking that. Acting or modeling or singing wasn’t boring. Where I did it or what I did it for might be but never was it boring. Sure seeing yourself on the T.V was fun but seeing you on T.V say one word like “amazing” or read a poorly written script wasn’t. It got boring saying one word or “Harley’s hamburgers are the best by far”. I wanted to do more, be more. I couldn’t handle singing sappy musicals on stage for my high school anymore or saying stupid lines or posing after taking a bite of a sandwich. It was time for me to really shine!
So after that commercial I explained to my darling parents my epiphany. I called my thought an epiphany to exaggerate my feelings so my easy going parents would really be into my biggest idea.
“So mom,” I said as I stirred my hot cocoa at the table, “and daddy,” I added, “I want to audition for a movie.”
My parents, the loving folks, of course agreed with my idea. (Being an only child with wealthy parents who have nothing better to do can really help in times when you have crazy ideas.) They both agreed with me on the fact that it was time to take my career to the next level. We got on Google and searched some movies to audition for. I found the perfect movie after a good twenty minutes of searching too.
The title of it was unknown yet but it already had a few well-known actors signed on. I felt confident in the fact that this would be my big break. This was the audition that would change my life from anonymous girl on the commercial to Abrianna Cane, movie star. I was ready for my time in the spotlight.
It turns out I wasn’t as ready for the part as I thought I was. I didn’t get the part; I didn’t even get the part of an extra. Instead some girl from some small town stole the show and now she’s in the spotlight. I had a severe problem with that because, well, that was my spotlight. I was supposed to be the small town girl (even though I live in L.A) who rises up to stardom over night. But no, little miss nobody became a somebody. (That’s’ not a fair title to give her since if it would’ve been me I would’ve been the nobody turning into the somebody, but that sentence states my feelings very well.)
I went through a horrific period of my life after that. I took the rejection very hard. I moped and sulked around the house for three whole weeks! I wasted those three weeks in my own suffering. For the briefest of moments I had the most horrid of thoughts. (Not suicide!) I thought about ending my career! But like any good actress I rose up and decided to overcome this loss and start new. I wasn’t going to give up; I was going to become famous no matter what.
My parents were deeply saddened that I was saddened so they were willing to help in any way. They signed me up for acting classes, though I didn’t need it, it just looks good on the résumé. They hired a real agent for me, Mr. Walter Welsh. So I started auditioning for lots of parts. Of course I wasn’t getting any jobs because you’re not seeing any exclamations points or shouts of joy. But everyone urged me to go further, so I did.
I was working very hard. I was always practicing and memorizing famous monologues or practicing emotions. I knew what I was working for and how hard it was to achieve it. Even for an experienced actress like me, it wasn’t easy. The work I was doing was hard. The monologues I memorized and preformed where long and hard. The emotions I practiced gave me headaches and my cheeks cramped up. I even had to better my crying on queue skill! I was working tediously at my goal.
The tedious work I was doing began to mess with my school work though. The better I did in acting class the worse I did in school. The harder I worked on my tone and pitch the less I did for math or biology. My grades were slipping horribly, but I didn’t mind much. Soon I wouldn’t need to be worrying about them because I’ be famous. My parents didn’t think that way though. They threatened to pull me out of classes if I didn’t fix my grades. Can you believe them? I slowed down on my acting and worked on my school to please them (after all they were funding my goal).
The slow down on my acting didn’t affect me too much though. Like I said, I’m an experienced actress. After a short break from acting, I easily hopped back into the scene. I did more auditions, never getting the part but I kept pushing. I kept working harder and harder. Walter was quite proud, my parents too. My friends Shelby and Katie weren’t too excited though.
“I don’t understand why you can never make time for us,” Katie moaned on the way home from school.
“I make time for you guys,” I said, appalled by her accusation.
“Oh yes, in between classes because you could care less if you’re late or not,” Shelby exaggerated.
I rolled my eyes, “be real.”
“Oh we are,” Katie exclaimed!
“You guys just don’t understand,” I shook my head, “this job I want is hard work and you guys just don’t understand how bad I want it. You’ve never wanted something like this.”
Katie and Shelby both gasped at me. They must think I meant to insult them, which I didn’t. They started to turn away, how rude of them.
“Wait you guys, don’t be like that,” I said as I stretched out my arm. My acting coach told me that this helped exaggerate the needy emotion.
Shelby turned towards me, “save the acting for your pointless auditions.”
I nearly choked at the last two words she said.
“My auditions aren’t pointless,” I shouted, “and if you can’t understand than we don’t need to be friends!”
Katie and Shelby didn’t even turn back to me when I said that. The words that came out of my mouth stung. Katie and Shelby were my best friends and they just left me. I was upset when I got home but my mom comforted me.
“Baby girl they just don’t get it,” she said, “and it was a good career move to let them go if they were only holding you back with their nagging and complaining.”
My mother was a very smart woman. I went to bed that night with happy thoughts, Katie and Shelby was just a sad memory.
Now let’s pause my story for a moment. You might think I sound selfish and conceded, over rated or something in those terms. But I’m not. I was on a mission and I was willing to knock anyone off my path to success if they were holding me back. There is nothing wrong with that if you ask me! Now I’m hitting the play button.
After dropping Shelby and Katie from my friend status I decided it was time for another change to better my career. School wasn’t becoming very important to me. Like a little while before, my grades were slipping once more. (Didn’t purposely just rhyme.) I had no one to really talk to at school and if I wasn’t caring about it than it was becoming a waste of my time. That idea didn’t fly very well with my parents at first until I came up with an alternative, home school.
I started home school a week after I came up with the brilliant idea. A nice, elderly woman named Meredith Mack came on Tuesdays and Thursdays for two hours to teach me. Since I was only schooling for four hours a week I was placed on an accelerated education. I skipped around a lot in my studies, some days were devoted to just math, algebra, geometry I even started learning trigonometry. Others were devoted to mixed classes like thirty minutes of history and then an hour and a half to biology. With this schedule my grades weren’t perfect but they weren’t horrendous either.
My parents were happy with my grade situation which made them open to any ideas. And that was a good thing because Walter had a very big idea.
There was a new movie called “Sweet Brown”, it was about a girl who grew up in Alabama during segregation. They had filled in the majority of the roles but they still needed a girl between the ages of 12 and 17 to play the role of Anne Brown, the lead. They were looking for a fresh face, “something new” read the description. I knew just after reading it that I was the new face they were looking for.
Now why would this be a big idea if I already had auditioned for several other movies? Well because the audition wasn’t in L.A or anywhere near it. It was in Alabama, on location. A plane flight for a rich girl, no problem, so what is? But an on location audition, as Walter explained to me, meant that I was skipping past everything and auditioning for the director himself. (That was the problem if you didn’t pick it up.) I was skipping the cattle calls, call backs, everything. I was going to be shot straight at the head honcho.
Now I am an experienced actress. I’ve auditioned before and preformed in tons of things all without being nervous. But this was totally different. I couldn’t mess up at all! There was no room for errors anywhere. Everything about me had to be perfect, everything!
I had two weeks to prepare. Those two weeks were very nerve racking. I spent every day trying different monologues, pitches, tones. My mom had her designer come up with several different outfits for me, each representing a different monologue. After a whole week and half of trying I finally decided on one. It was from the play “Wait Wait Bo Bait” and it was simple but elegant and comedic but not too funny. It was perfect. After that everything else got decided.
I thought the day I was to fly to Michigan was going to be horrible and filled with nerves but I wasn’t ready for the day of the audition. I was sweating bullets that Tuesday in May. I was on the set in a line of twenty girls who kept reciting their lines over and over. I tried to block out the noise, I knew my monologue very well so I didn’t have to practice. I watched as one by one they went in and came out. Their dreams were crushed and I could only imagine what would happen to me if mine were too!
I was number 16 in line and by girl number ten, 17, 18, 19 and 20 had left. That made me last to audition! I was tempted for a minute to back out too, I wasn’t ready for this one and I knew it. Then I thought about my goal and how this could be the last step on the ladder. I walked into that room with my head held high.
“Hello,” said a friendly lady as I walked to the big X. The woman glanced at me and rolled her eyes. “This is Abrianna Cane, 15, Los Angeles California,” she sighed.
I smiled widely at the three people in front of me. One was a buff man in sun glasses and the other two were smiley ladies with notepads. They didn’t intimidate me at all, at first.
“Ok Abrianna, act out your monologue,” one of the smiley ladies said, “if John here likes it we will hand you a script to perform for us, if not Jenny here will escort you out.”
That’s when their smiley faces and his glasses intimidated me.
I took a deep breath and began, “Oh Mr. Phone why don’t you ring? Why don’t I hear you sing in the night? One ding a ling is all I need to feel right,” I was at the part where I needed gestures when “John here” raised his hand.
“Script,” he shouted at the lady.
I sighed to myself, this could be it! The lady handed me a thick script and I flipped to the marked page. The script was very detailed, from the exact accent to tone and gestures. I studied it for a minute and then looked at the three people.
“Oh come on Sally you can’t expect me to do all that in thirty minutes,” I said sounding like Sookie Stackhouse from “True Blood”.
“John here” put his hand in the air and whispered something in the ladies ear. She then went to the girl I took as Jenny and she walked towards me. I felt faint for a moment, as if I was going to have a heart attack right then. But instead of taking my arm and escorting me out, she handed me a paper.
It read:
You’ve been chosen to play the role of Anne Brown in the upcoming movie “Sweet Brown”. Director John Boi is excited to have you on board. Please report back to the set Thursday, May 28 at nine am sharp for the script reading. Wardrobe fitting is Friday at noon in the west wing of the building. Again we are pleasured to have you aboard.
- Abigail Minot (screen writer)
I smiled widely and nearly screamed. Jenny then escorted me back to my parents and we did a small happy dance in the set parking lot.
My mom and dad were so happy for me. Walter was happy for me. I called my acting coach and she was happy for me. Everyone I told was happy for me. I of course was happy for me too. I was ecstatic but I couldn’t show it. Me being a professional and all, this was no biggy for me. Well it was I just wasn’t going to show it or tell anyone.
Let us pause once again now so I can happy dance again. I did so well in my audition, obviously. I learned that the two signed actors were Leonardo Dicaprio and Jennifer Hudson. They’re two of my idols now. Johnny Boi I learned is a well known director in England who wanted to make a cross over to American films. Abigail Minot, the lady who wrote the letter, was and has been Johnny Boi’s screen writer, she specializes in drama. Walter had to teach me everything about everyone before the “table reading”. Now I’m pushing play.
My hard work had paid off. My boring acting life was on its way from boringville to Hollywood. I was very proud of me; I gave myself a pat on the back. I was ready for the paparazzi and press now. But Walter said I’d have to wait until the end of filming for all that. I guess I could wait that long. I was just overly excited about everything. This was my time now, I was going to be the nobody to somebody over night deal. That was going to be me in 48 hours!

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 28.03.2010

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