Drinking with Classmates is good for your Health

I adore my acting class. We meet in Carnegie Hall; We learn from Sanford Meisner's protege; We try, we fall, we try again, we drink.

The drinking is not a usual occurrence for me, but when I go, I have a blast. I realize how lucky I am to be in this city. I may bitch and moan and rage about my day job, but I'm surrounded by good people here. I may be a dime a dozen actor, but I'm in class with good, decent human beings and actors.

Last night reminded me of this. Leaving the studio, we started asking each other if we wanted a drink. I had money in my pocket, so decided to go with the group to Old Castle where we watched the Olympics, ate wings and drank beers.

The HOT actresses in my class (all the women are gorgeous, and none of them are bitchy or diet obsessed ... they're all as down-to-earth as actors and actresses can be and still be actors and actresses) were scarfing pizza, chicken wings and Guiness and Pilsner and Wiese. The guys were at the bar, doin' the same. I sat with the girls and we talked about the Olympics, boyfriends, clothes, jobs. Normal stuff. A little business ... agents ... how everyone got theirs, how I can go about getting one ... and types.


"What type am I?", meaning: which Hollywood personality would I be competing with for roles. I had heard this, but have now had it verified ... this is a common question an agent will ask you, and it is a vital one to get right. "Who are you like?" You say someone too ethnic, and woops! You're only being sent out on latin tv commercials. You say someone too bland, and you're never thought of again. So we agonized over this ... who are we like?

Raquel - Rosario Dawson crossed with Julia Roberts (and its true, she has the same look (think Julia is MYSTIC PIZZA or STEEL MAGNOLIAS) and the same presence -- feminine brooding).

Angelique - Selma Hayek. Spot on. Great actress, beautiful, smart and ballsy.

Me ... Nathan Lane. Which was nice, but I wasn't keen on it. Then Mark, the Irishman who has been leading the most amazing journeyman actor life ever, came up with Jack Lemmon.

I love Jack Lemmon. I think its both a compliment and actually pretty accurate.

It was a fun game to play ... a mental teaser over beer and snack food mixed with talking about the hot boys in class (before Mark joined us, because I am the only FOD in the class) and how one of them, Will, gets almost nekked (down to boxers) and how none of us are paying attention to the scene anymore ... we're all either in lust, or trying not to be in lust and trying to focus on the scene, but we're so focused on focusing that it's impossible to focus.

I got home at 3:15am and was SO happy. I haven't been that happy in a while. The scene I'm working on, a subtle Freudian play from the 50's, went well and so did the drinks after.

Again, I am very lucky.