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The producers of House of Cards are getting creative in touting their cast for the upcoming Emmy awards. Here in Washington, DC, where the show is a hands down favorite of Hill staff, we love the yardsign idea. The 65th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards will honor the best in primetime television programming airing from June 1, 2012 until May 31, 2013, so the 13 HOC episodes released by Netflix slide right in there. But will they consider it officially television? Well, it's being broadcast in Australia! The awards ceremony, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris , will be held on September 22, 2013 at the Nokia Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles, California.  I'm pulling for Corey Stoll , who gave a riveting performance as Congressman Peter Russo - tragic, human, heartbreaking in his final scenes on screen.  Illuminating interview of Stoll at ET Online here . This was truly a breakout role for a terrific actor. 

I attended a SAG workshop a couple of weeks ago where a recent arrival from New York City was adamant that an actor’s Klout number was now checked by every casting person in NY and Los Angeles and that it was entering into the decision to hire. I queried my agent about this and she said her talent in LA talked about it a lot. They told her it is a number that tells how well you are doing in the acting business. Famous actors have a large number;  new talent much, much smaller. Actors have to work their way up the ladder, they said - work hard, get great roles - to increase their numbers. The SAG actress who insisted it was a big deal said she had 2,500 Twitter followers and a 28 Klout number, which she said was pretty good. Well I decided to run a test using my Twitter account, because I had until then seldom tweeted anything and had only 4 followers. I started out with an 11 Klout number and within a week had manipulated it up to 31, simply by replying to tweets from large ...

What’s the difference between a type and a brand? What’s a logline? As an actress, I can see where knowing my type is important; it keeps me from wasting my time auditioning for roles that don’t suit me. Brand and loglines are marketing tools, however, and since I’m out there networking at industry events and have reels that I think convey my performance skills to some advantage, I’m not sure I need these last two. People can see how I come across on camera, right? If you’re starting out and your strategy involves standard actor marketing (and who’s to say that isn’t just fine), it’s probably good to know what these tools are and what they can potentially do for you. An actor’s type is a combination of the criteria found in the breakdowns when a role is being cast, i.e. sex, age range, physicality (short, tall, thin, heavy, light, dark, race), and the job titles that fit (soccer mom, corporate lawyer, big city cop, international spy, blue-collar worker, teen, medical professional.) Bra...

Long before  Bollywood  became a popular term in the West, and Indian films started turning up on cinema marquees in American suburbs, India was turning out world-class filmmakers like  Satyajit Ray .  In fact, his lovely and moving 1961 film Two Daughters ( Three Daughters in the original release) introduced me to Indian film and remains one of my all time favorites. Now of course, actors in India are making much the same effort as actors anywhere to further their careers, turn in good work, and hopefully make a recognizable name for themselves in the credits. Kiran Pande , a Facebook friend of mine who has done more in film than his IMDb page would indicate, just posted a list of agencies and acting resources to his blog.  You can see the list here. If you aspire to be an actor in India, this may be a good place to begin your journey.

I've been looking for a new monologue, and although there are plenty out there, even plenty of obscure monologues out there, it's unclear what makes an appropriate monologue.... for me . I've read enough about auditioning to know that no casting director wants to see a piece they've seen done a million times. I want them to focus on my talent and personality, not be sitting there thinking, "Oh no, not this again." I also need to avoid over-long memory monologues (When I was a little girl growing up on the farm in Kansas....) or monologues intended to shock (swearing, screaming, crying, engaging in repulsive acts). I once saw a quite beautiful actress perform a monologue that involved a detailed analysis of picking her nose. It was grim. But I recently came across an otherwise so-so book called 10 Steps to Breaking into Acting that contained a good definition of the perfect monologue, and I think this is the place to start. Here it is: A good monologue is one ...

Up at 5:30 a.m. yesterday to fix my hair and make-up, put a suit on, step into high heels, and drive nearly two hours to the Armory in Bel Air, Maryland, for an Open Call for day players and extras. This was for Season 2 of the Netflix series  House of Cards , and I was only one of many who'd had a long trek in. The actor behind me in line had driven four and a half hours from Pittsburgh. Fortunately the staff at Kimberly Skyrme Casting had the drill down pat, and union actors were ushered in first. In and out in 20 minutes. Hundreds more non-union actors showed up and had a longer wait. I'd already submitted for this series online and pointed out in writing that I frequently play members of Congress, lobbyists, judges, etc., but there is something to be said for letting the casting people see you in person and having a minute to chat. A plus was that the guy checking us in recognized me from Meghan Reynolds film The Monopoly Club , where I played a Senator, and had lots of ...

This is why we don't have more women filmmakers....no confidence. I saw a 2007 film at the DC Shorts Laughs festival Friday night called "Speed Dating," which was written and directed by Crystal Liu . It was not only funny and original (and my favorite) but it had that element that makes a great story - surprise. But is there a trailer or clips on YouTube or anywhere that I can link to and give this young lady a plug? No. Any contact information? No. Not even a poster to go with the listing on IMDb. Only a few positive write-ups, but otherwise nothing. And Ms. Liu hasn't made another film since, apparently. Instead she's working as a script coordinator for TV. What a waste! Hey, Crystal, you've got talent! Make movies!