SO. Marcos Siega called me this afternoon as I was making dinner (my first try at gluten-free lasagna and it turned out perfectly, thankyouverymuch). Marcos is a friend of ours who just so happens to be a very successful director in Los Angeles, and he was calling to offer me a role on an upcoming episode of “Dexter” he’s working on (yes, the TV show about the serial killer who targets bad guys that’s on Showtime and now on NBC or whatever). The role shoots on September 3rd in Los Angeles and I’ve desperately wanted to be on the show since I first heard it existed.
“Are you back in town?” he asked. I then had to explain to him I **am** back in town—back in Iowa City after our weekend in Chicago—not back in LA as he would’ve hoped.
After catching up a bit we discussed the role briefly: it’s a “featured extra” role, which means I probably won’t get any lines (lame), but it’ll be high visibility and a credit on my resume, not to mention good experience (it’s always a learning experience to be on set).
If we were still living in LA I would’ve said 'yes' in half a heartbeat. I’ve worked with Marcos several times in the past and it has always been fantastic.
…But now we are faced with low (as in, like, no) funds in our bank account and skyrocketing airfares—and I have no idea how we could possibly afford for me to go. The cheapest flights I can find are at least $500 and I’d only make about 1/4th of that back getting paid the SAG extra rate.
…And so it begins.
In the two weeks we’ve been in Iowa City thus far, I’ve felt like we were still connected to everyone. That we weren’t so far away. I took solace in the fact that Los Angeles was just a few hours away by plane—but I never considered the cost of airfare, I guess.
And now as I sit here, my stomach is sinking (or the wine is wearing off), and it feels anything but good, I can tell you that…
