This Is Us

Plucked from obscurity! An overnight success! But… not really!

Things we talked about in this episode include:

• Day jobs and being support staff in Hollywood (Here’s a pretty good idea of what a typical day as an assistant looks like.)
• Life after AMDA - actors in the wild. Classes, auditions, commercials!
• Being a casting assistant and a development/production intern
• Ronnie Yeskel, casting director (Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs) 
• Teri Weinberg, producer (The Office, The Tudors, Ugly Betty)
• Doing background acting for film, tv and commercials
• Reading scripts and writing coverage
• The Social Network (2010) and screenwriting icon, Aaron Sorkin
• The Second City LA, The Groundlings, Mikey Day and SNL
• Bridesmaids (2011) and Kristen Wiig & Anne Mumolo 
• Re-writes, punch-ups, improv - jokes!
• Superbad! (2007) and Seth Rogan & Evan Goldberg
• Working in film and TV in secondary markets (Atlanta, Canada, etc.) 
• Independent filmmaking and being adaptable 
• Optioning a book and adapting a screenplay
• The perks of being in LA
• Off-Broadway plays and self-producing theater in NYC
• Manhattan Movement and Arts Center
• Global ad agency, Leo Burnett and NY cultural institution, the Village Voice newspaper
• Hurricane Sandy in 2012
• Being an assistant aka “on a desk”
• Finding inspiration from your day job (Brit’s experience in development and pitching. Caitlin’s in talent management.)
• Bad bosses in Hollywood and toxic work environments (Read more on it here.)
• Be nice to other assistants! They will probably be in Hollywood for a long time!
• The death of Quibi
• Netflix, HBO and Writer/Creators owning their work (Taylor Swift and Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You.)
• The myth of being an overnight success
• Doing your dream job in the free time when you aren’t doing your day job
• Helena Bonham Carter’s performance as Princess Margaret on The Crown
• Ken Jennings, LeVar Burton and the future of Jeopardy! (RIP Alex Trebek)

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