How the Quarantine is Affecting Jack’s Career

Side Note: I still find it funny to type the word “career” in association with my eleven-year-old. What a surreal world. Anyway…

Acting is a big, fat waiting game as it is. Throw a pandemic and quarantine in the mix and it can be a really tough time for anyone in this industry. Production is shut down across the country, most pilots weren’t made, and people are trying to work from home if possible.

I can’t wrap my head around all the people who are out of work due to this. Set-builders, craft services, wardrobe, make-up artists, transportation, and the list goes on. The hourly workers. And of course, our department — actors.

We got lucky in that Outmatched was finished with season one filming. We finished the last week of February and within a few weeks everything was shut down. It seemed to happen so fast! During the second week of March, Jack was in the audition process for two movies. Both were set to film in May/June. With one project he made it all the way to the final two or three actors being considered and was doing chemistry mix and match readings. And then it just stopped.

Normally, when you don’t hear anything more on an audition you get the drift that you aren’t moving forward with it and move on. But, if you make it through a couple of the callbacks and then it happens, your agent might call the casting agent and find out more information and hopefully get some feedback. Usually they didn’t move forward with you because they went a different direction; they skewed younger/older, wanted a certain look, etc.

We didn’t hear anything after the mix and match and weren’t sure if they had gone in a different direction or if it was due to the virus. Our manager emailed casting and was told they still liked him but everything was on hold due to the pandemic.

Just to be clear, casting doesn’t ever say something to you just to be nice. They aren’t ever unkind, but they are honest and upfront. They aren’t going to keep your hopes up when there is no need. You basically will get the answer that your child isn’t going further in the process.

Right now they are still interested in him, but what does that mean? So much depends on when production reopens. It’s possible that Outmatched will be picked up again (as of this date we still don’t know), and if it is, and it films in September, then Jack may become ineligible for the role due to scheduling conflicts. It’s hard to wait and see, but I cannot overestimate how much that is a part of this business. It’s frustrating for sure, but if you need definite schedules, answers, and paychecks, this is not the business for you.

What Jack is Doing Now

There is some work going on. We have been doing voiceover auditions here and there. We set him up in his room; try to make it as quiet as possible, and order everyone in the house not to make a peep for 30 minutes! We have invested in a really good microphone and that has made a big difference. We even got a callback for one! Good news, but we’re not really sure where they can go with it right now.

We had not done any film/television auditions at all until last night. We finally received two self-tape auditions. I don’t know about other kids, but Jack gives us a super hard time with home self-tapes. Seriously, he is a big pain, and we just had a big talk about it. I’ve heard this from other moms, so I don’t think it’s just us. The hardest thing about quarantine is we have to do it at home instead of a more professional place, and just setting up the lighting alone is rough. In fact, I am going to look on Amazon tonight for some better options. I just didn’t think self-tapes would be coming in so soon. It takes forever for us to do; trying to get the lighting and sound correct, making sure there isn’t a shadow or electrical socket in the frame, and everyone is quiet in the house for an hour or so is no fun. But it’s a part of the business. There are fun things and not so fun things. I was surprised they started self-tapes already. I wonder what the thought behind that is.

Our every day life is not much different to anyone else with kids. All my kids are involved in trying to get their schooling done. Laura is in high school and getting her assignment via Google Classroom. Jack homeschools anyway, so his school schedule isn’t as different. My oldest, Emma, has been taking time off college in order to do a church/humanitarian mission in Brazil. However, with the spreading of the virus she had to come home at the end of March. She is happy to be with us, but also wants to return back to her regularly scheduled life.

There is a lot of talk about what the future of the industry will look like due to the virus. Will they serve crafty (food services) differently? What will the movie theater experience be like?

We already know pilot season, network upfronts, and potentially next year’s broadcast line-ups and schedules have been impacted by this situation. Normally, we would have Fox Upfronts in NYC in May. We received the save-the-date emails, but it has since all been canceled. They have talked about doing the event virtually, but so far there is no word. Will we hear about Outmatched’s fate by the usual deadline (May Upfronts), or will we have to wait longer?

As for now, we wait. We do occasional auditions, and we wait.