Homing In

I have a particular look. I've got all this curly blonde hair, I've got this mustache, and these lines on my face. I'm skinny as a rail, and while I smile when it's called for, it seems to me that I glower by default. These are all self-assessments, of course. I'm glad to have a distinctive appearance, as I consider it a real plus professionally. I'm eager for any clues as to just how it may be defined and what may heighten it.

The other day, I was doing a scene for my roommate's short film, as I believe I've said. I was wearing the undershirt I wrote of previously, along with some jeans. I had a face-full of real uglifying makeup. It all make for quite a picture, and it elicited smiles and compliments from everyone who saw it. Nobody thought that I looked handsome of course, but the total effect was a look that really worked for me.

The clothes I described were not my costume really. The undershirt was not too visible. The jeans had to come off, and I wore a long nightshirt along with a cap. While we were filming, I was a pitiful sort of Gothic villager. While we were not filming and I was in my undershirt and jeans, I was playing another sort of character for laughs. It was a kind of quirky but imposing redneck who frequently offered advice that required as a first step the acquisition of a brick.

It was pretty funny, but it might have just been dramatic if played a little differently. It was the sort of think that I feel I could do very well. A conversation with a more experienced actor on set was very illuminating, as are all conversations when people are being very candid. He ran off a whole slew of character types that he saw me in, and I couldn't help but agree. He bemoaned having a conventional look, and I couldn't blame him. I'm fortunate that being burdened too much by convention has never been a problem for me.