What's your excuse?

When you just have to...

It's well known, and established actors always tell you this in interviews, that you should not go into the business of acting for the fame and money. I can honestly say that those two reasons are not why I'm an actor. Still, it would be stupid to say I would not want to make money as an actor, because of course I want to be able to make a living by acting. Fame is something I can live without, but if you're a working actor, fame or being recognized is something which comes with the job. Now, I love award shows, and I've been told many times, that I should not act, just because I want to win a Golden Globe, Oscar, or a SAG award. I think that's bullshit! In any profession, you would like to be recognized for what you do, if it's Employee of the Month, a bonus, a promotion, or in the case of entertainment, it's one of the above mentioned awards (or any award for acting, there are so many). The thing with actors is that the whole world knows if you got an award, instead of just your department, boss, or company.

So, without any shame, I can say that I would be so honored to one day be nominated and/or win a SAG Award. These awards mean more then any other, because the voters are your fellow actors, and to be considered the best that year by your peers is something that would be such a nice accomplishment.

Last night, Peter Boyle said what many actors have said before, when he was asked if he would advise anyone to go into the business of acting. He said that you should not go into the business for the fame and fortune, "only do it if you really have to"...

I see it both as a blessing and a curse: I love that I know for 100% what I'm meant to do in live, and what I really need to do, which is to act. It's too bad that's it's one of the most difficult professions to get established in, and actually be able to support myself by just acting, but I still believe in myself, and when you know that you just have to, and give it your all, and never stop believing in yourself, you can do anything you want to do.

I am already proud of what I have accomplished so far. I'm a guy from the suburbs from Amsterdam, now living in LA for already 5 1/2 years, and slowly but steadily moving ahead in the acting business. I've build a resume with student and independent stuff, made some money with background and photo shoot work, am SAG Eligible, and am still enjoying every audition I go out on. I'm living the live I wanted to live, yes, struggling, but acting, because I just have to...

Amazing, joyfull, and sad occasion

Yesterday I went to Malibu to support P and his department with the opening of the Villa. I love that place, and over the last year and a half I got to know many people in the department. I feel their joy, but mostly their pain when the door opened to the public for the first time at 10am, January 28, 2006. The absence of the most important woman to this department was greatly missed. I'm still very proud of P, CTo, and all the others in their department for a great job. It was still a very impressive morning to me, because I was introduced to the architect of the new Villa, which for me was a huge honor. Everything you see at this beautiful site is because of the architect, and  P's former boss.

Here is to "True Love"!

"Can you hear me now?"

I so should be in a cell phone commercial! This is a short, and yes vain post. Just ran into this picture, taken in NYC over 2 years ago (courtesy of Timm), totally not possed, and I still can't understand why I'm not casted yet as the next "cell phone guy". Okay, gotta get ready for a very important certain opening.

Music for the ears

This week I have a profound new obsession for a artist I've known for years, but never had her CD. She's from Belgium and I think has only one English CD released, mid or early 90s. Her name is Lara Fabian. Her voice is beautiful, she is beautiful, and some of the songs are just amazing. Josh Groban (also totally into this week) covered one of her songs, "Broken Vow". Lara sings "Adagio" which such strenght, it gives you goose bums. My favorite is "You're not from here". I don't believe she's on ITunes, but I got her CD from the Beverly Hills Library. Btw, if you've never been to that Library, check it out, it's amazing.

This week was busy. I know, I know, what do you do when you're unemployed people ask me, but my days are filled with acting submissions, scene study class, rehearsals, tennis, working on an American accent, and before you know it, the day is over.

Anyway, have a great weekend, check out Lara Fabian, and be good!

Amsterdam vs. Los Angeles

Being that I just got back from Europe last week, I notice the differences a bit more now, and what stood out yesterday is the distances your traveling in Los Angeles. When I was in Amsterdam, I was going to meet my friend Gisele at a restaurant in the Red Light District, but I was in Amsterdam South. I debated for a minute to go or not, because it would be a 20 minutes bike ride (normally, in Amsterdam, you're everywhere within 10 minutes by bike). Of course I went. I was thinking about this yesterday, when I was on my way to lunch with my friends from Shoah. I was driving without traffic for 45 minutes (Temple City), had lunch and drove back 45 minutes. Normal driving time for LA right? When I used to drive to work it would take me 25 minutes without traffic and 45 with traffic. My parents live 35 minutes by train outside Amsterdam, which always seems soooo far away. Don't really have a point here, but thought it was interesting. Have a great Friday!

New Obsession

My parents have one, my sister has one, and now I want one! It tastes so good! But, I'm unemployed, my birthday is not even close, so I should not go and buy one...

Check it out, and you will want one too!

Senseo!

Detroit

So, after my 8 hour flight on which I was still wasted out of my mind, I arrived at Detroit airport. As this is my first point of entry in the US, this is the place for me to go through customs and re-check in my luggage. Because I have a Green Card (let me hear YEAHHHHH!), I could go to the line with the US citizens and permanent residents. This line soon became a complete chaos, so the opened two additional lines. I got in one of them, and had no problems entering the US. So, all I had to do was get my luggage, and check it in again for my flight to LA. I got a cart, my luggage was already waiting for me, so I was only way, holding me nothing to declare form in my hand. "Good Afternoon Sir", a friendly custom officer told me. I said good morning, because I had no idea where I was, who I was, let alone what time it was. She asked me the standard questions, and I answered: family visit, 10 days, I'm an actor, no you haven't seen me in anything yet, you know the routine check. She wrote stuff on my form, and told me I was all done (you bitch, you told me the biggest lie since Bush said there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq!)!), and I could proceed to the exit. At the exit, the guy looked at my form, and said I was ordered to go to the left, the custom inspection area (bitch, all done, huh, and then in secret codes write down "strip search this motherfucker wanna be actor"). I went to the first red line and waited to be called. Once called to the officer, he looked at the form, and smiled and said: "Oh, you've been ordered special inspection! Good luck!" Okay. I'm off to the next red line to wait for that "special inspection". When I got there, I was helped by a very friendly customs officer, and while she went through my dirty underwear, we chatted about my acting. IPods, her kids, you know, the normal stuff you talk about when you're scared to dead you have to pay tax for all those H&M clothes, books, and presents I bought, without declaring them. I did find out why I was picked out. I caused suspicion because I had so much luggage with me. I did not even try to explain that I immigrated to the US almost 6 years ago, and that every time I visit my parents I take home some stuff still collecting dust at my parents place, this time a hammock I bought in Venezuela years ago, occupying almost an entire small suitcase.

The there was a lot of confusion, custom officers going on breaks or whatever, and my lovely lady had to deal with the guy behind me on the other belt, who really had lots of food and I don't know what with him from Nigeria or something. She told me I could pack up my stuff, which was not easy, because my suitcases where stuffed to the max, and kindly gave me direction on where to go now, and wished me could luck with my acting career.

So, with an hour delay, I could finally re-check in my luggage. This was easy, so I proceeded to the security check just a couple feet away (I don't get it, we all just got off a plane, went to customs, so how and when could I have bought that gun downtown Detroit and try to bring it on to my flight to LA???). So, here we go again: belt off, cell phone in hand luggage, laptop out of hand luggage, coins, blah, blah. Of course I was called to a "special" lane in the left corner. I put all my stuff on the machine, and was ordered into this very large, modern "metal detector". It looked like some kind of tanning booth. I stepped in, and before I knew it, air was coming at my body from several parts of the booth, like a steam shower. I was dumb faced, and could not believe what the hell was happening now. When the machine was done I stepped out and asked the officer what the f#ck that just was. "To test for explosive", was her short simple answer. Okay, anything for a safer America right? But you could have fucking told me what I was stepping into, bitch! So there I was, safe in America with my luggage re-checked in, so the only thing left for me was to travel about 3 miles to my next gate and wait there for over 2 hours to get home. Oh, the pleasures of International traveling after 9/11. Maybe next time I should pay the extra $ for a direct flight, and ship my personal stuff still at my parents place instead of being "a suspicious" person. Or maybe it had something to do with my clothes still smelling like dope, and coming off the plane from Amsterdam?

Friendster blog

So what about them Santa Ana winds, huh?

I've been wanting to post for a couple of days now, but there are two reasons I didn't. First, I'm fighting with Friendster about my disk allotment. Within two weeks I upgraded my account twice so I would have more space to place pictures on my blog, but apparently, I've reached my allotment again, which is bullshit! I want to blog about Amsterdam, but it will be nicer with pictures there, so that's why I was waiting. Second, I've been having a terrible jet lag. I got back Thursday night, and due to many reasons, I wasn't able to sleep a good full interrupted night since last night, so the last couple of days, I've been extremely tired.

Now, the last reason is mainly my own fault due to the fact that Wednesday night, my last night in Amsterdam, I did not go to bed. You see, I had to get up at 4:45am to be at the airport by 6am. Of course I went out to dinner with Kaline and Sander, met up with Pieter to shoot pool, and before I knew it, I was dancing at Paradiso, drunk out of my mind, and to top things of, we smoked some interesting substance, and danced even more.

Kaline and I got home around 4:15am, so I decided not to go to bed but stay up. Nice plan, until I just fell on the couch and passed out. Before I knew it, Gaby was standing over me at 5:30am (the time we agreed she would pick me up to drive me to the airport). Within minutes I was showered, dressed in the same smelly clothes I wore dancing, packed my last stuff together, and with a HUGE headache, Gaby was driving me to the Airport to meet my parents at 6am to say goodbye. We only arrived 10 minutes late, I checked in, being told I had to proceed to the gate immediately to start boarding. I quickly said goodbye to Gaby and my parents, and made my way to the gate. I still felt drunk and stoned, when I reached my seat. I popped lots of Advil, a sleeping pill, and I was out about half of the flight, maybe 4 hours.

I will post about my arrival at Detroit in another post, because that was a whole other experience! After my 5 hour flight from hell from Detroit to LA (NWA, and those shitty Boeing 757!), I arrived at LAX around 6pm. My friend Coby picked me up (Fishering had to attend a event at The Villa), and got home around 7pm. Didn't go to sleep until midnight or so, which at that point I was officially up for over 48 hours. Ah, gotta love the international traveling. Even though I'm glad I left Amsterdam appropriately, I still do not recommend flying 13 hours hangover from alcohol and stuff.

Now, I've been officially unemployed since January 2nd, but booked a photo shoot on the 4th, left for Amsterdam on the 9th, so today I feel is my first real week of being unemployed! I'm going to enjoy it thoroughly! Because I spend way too much money on my trip (DAMN YOU H&M!), my financial resources will be running out shortly. If anyone needs a hand with anything for a day or two a week, please let me know. I prefer cash, so it won't affect my unemployment benefits:).

It's the most wonderful day of the year!

After a long and cruelsome day of flying form Amsterdam back home to LA, I made it just in time to celebrate Fishering's birthday! Drop him a note to wish him a happy birthday!

Happy Birthday, and can't wait for the weekend to start, so we can party like it's your Birthday:)!

Much love!

And so it is

My main purpose of this trip was to surprise my parents Saturday night at their party at their house. The celebrated their birthdays together, my dad 65, my mom 60, so the they celebrating was 125 years together. I know, very cute, and dorky. It's not a surprise why I'm such a big dork:)

Anyway, my friends Kaline and Sander offered to drive me from Amsterdam to the town where my parents live. We were debating on how to execute the surprise without giving my parents a heart attack. In the end we decided on me just ringing the bell and stand there with flowers in my hand. Kaline was armed with the camera behind a car, and Sander was watching from his car. My god, i was nervous as hell! Playing a surprise like this (flying all the way across the world to show up at a huge family gathering unannounced is kinda stress full). My sister and her boyfriend opened and just stood there in shock. I told them to be quiet, so I could sneak up on my mom, who was talking in the kitchen. When I walked in, and she saw me, she just moved away from me in shock, saying "no, no, this is not possible, you can't be Jeroen". It was hilarious. It was a big success and no one had a heart attack. The party was as much fun as a family party can be. My sister surprised us all by singing a couple of songs with one of her friends (my sister is mentally handicapped and not a kind of person who would stand up and sing in front of people). The last song she sang alone, and she dedicated it to my parents, her current boyfriend and myself, for being there for here when her fiancee past away, 2 years ago. The song was a dutch song, translated "I Love You". My sister never expresses emotions, so this was a very beautiful and emotional moment. Totally worth making the trip over for! Now it's Tuesday morning. Today I'm spending with my parents and we wanted to make a road trip, but because it's winter, everything interesting is closed, so we'll probably go for lunch somewhere and then they'll drop me off in Amsterdam. Tomorrow one more day in Amsterdam to visit some family, lunch with a friend, and some last moments with the city I love so much. Unfortunately, it started to rain yesterday afternoon, and knowing Holland this won't stop till May...

A couple of pictures to leave you with. Take care.

Arriving at my parents house

My mother moving away from like she was seeing a ghost

My mom and I listening to my sister sing

12 pics on the 12th...well, the 13th...

I forgot that Thursday was the 12th, so here's my day in 13 pictures for Friday the 13th!

8am. Snoozed many times to finally get up at 11:45am with a hige hangover from the night before

11:50am A little morning stretching to start this Friday the 13th with!

1pm On my borrowed bike on my way to have coffee with my friend Gaby. It's about 22 degrees. Hitching a ride on the back is my friend Anne

1:15pm At Gaby's place I was able to check my e-mail and read everyone's blog, but when I tried to write a blog myself, her computer would not allow me, and spit my out

1:50pm Arrived at a bookstore, realizing that every friday there's a huge book market outside on a square near by. Got myself, and for friends some books, dating back to 1901!

3:30pm After shopping for books, I ended up at this H&M store buying way to much clothes, but really awesome stuff with discounts up to 70%!

4:35pm On my way home to change into my evening attire, my appetite for Heineken is growing by the minute...

Sometime after 7pm Instead of visiting all my friends throughout the country, I told me to meet me at a bar Friday night. Some of my friends I hadn't seen in 6 years

11:36pm or so It was getting warmer and warmer in the bar, so my sweater came off. This is my friend Gaby laughing and my horrible american accent when I speak Dutch

1am??? Who knows what time. | hadn't seen my friend Anne for 3 years or longer and coincidentally she was in Holland this week, before flying to Thailand next Saturday for work

1:15am ish This girl at the bar forgot to throw the toilet paper in the toilet after whipping her ass. One of my friends discretely went up to her to tell her, but not until I could take a picture of this hilarious sight

4am ish After the first bar closed, Kaline wouldn't allow me to go back home yet, and dragged me to the Piano Bar till closing. You can see I wasn't so sober anymore. I still drove home...on my bike that is (apparently laws have gotten tighter, and the police can now stop you fro drunk driving on your bike as well)

5:30am Time to get some rest. But not after Kaline made me a grilled ham & cheese sandwich, because | was starving. Don't know how the picture turned out red. I swear I went home with Kaline, and did not end up in the Red Light District!

Thanks to Chad for this cool idea!

Love & Hate

I hate H&M! They took all my money!

But I love the stuff I got...

:)

AMSTERDAM

I can't believe it's only been three days that i've been here! It feels so much like home again. My friends are awesome, all have new apartments, lots of drinking coffee, late nights catching up with too much wine, great typical dutch fast food, couldn't be better. Well...it could be a little warmer! Jesus, son of mary, it's so cold i'm freezing my ass off! Yesterday it was also raining, so instead of moving around Amsterdam on the white bike I borrowed, i slipped into the Rijksmuseum to see how Rembrandt's Nightwatch was doing (it's still there).

Little culture won't harm ya. This morning for the first time got up pretty early when my friend Kaline had to go to work. Picked my up some fresh bread from the bakery accross the street, and made myself a little dutch breakfast (yes, cheese was involved). By the time I was ready to pay Gaby a visit for a little coffee break, it was already 10am, but when I got to my bike, I still had to rub the ice of the seat with my jacket. Yes, it's that cold! Oh, Tuesday night, the day I arrived (at 6:30am), i met Gisele and Eli for a quick drink. Was strange to see someone you know from LA in Amsterdam. Gisele and I both had never felt so Dutch as that night, drinking in a Dutch bar. To get there was kinda difficult. Gisele told me the name and the street, so off I went. They were having dinner at a restaurant in the Red Light District (believe it or not, but that area is not just famous for it's "window shopping" but also has many great restaurants). i could find the restaurant, and I couldn't find one single dutch person to ask directions from. Those horny tourists! Anyway, I found them.

This time I letting people who wanna see me come to me, instead of me traveling cross country to visit everyone. Tonight i'm having dinner with some friends, shoot some pool, and probably drink lots of beer! Tomorrow night, a group of about 15 friends are going to meet me at a bar, and then saturday evening I'm off to the subburb I was born, where my parents still live, throwing a party, having no clue I flew halfway across the world to surprise them! Should be fun!

Okay, picture will follow, but none of my friends have good connections, so I'm at a Internet cafe now. It's almost six, so it's about time for my first beer.

Man, having so much fun! wish i could share it with P...

Stay warm my california friends. You don't know how good we have it with the weather out there. Everyone else reading this in a cold region...stay warm!

Doei!

Packed and ready to go

Now, don't tell my parents, because it's a surprise, but tomorrow at 6:38am, I'm on a plane to Amsterdam. I decided last minute and just got the plane ticket a couple of days ago. My parents are having a party on Saturday, and I'm just going to show up. So, yeah, I'm going to the motherland for 10 days! I'll try to update my blog once in a while, to keep you all informed about my days in Amsterdam. One thing I know...it's cold!

Okay, gotta finish up packing. I'm actually watching The 40 Year Old Virgin with P and my room mate, and it's so hilarious! Shit, I have to connect two times tomorrow! LA to Minneapolis, to Boston to Amsterdam...

Ha, I'm going to Amsterdam tomorrow!!!!!!!!! Stay cool ya all!

Movies

Last night we saw The Matador with Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear and Hope Davis. It's awesome! All four of us gave it thumbs up! Pierce and Greg should be in together in every movie they make from now on, and Hope, what can I say about Hope...I LOVE HER! Really funny movie, with some nice touchy moments.

Oh, and Casanova is really good too. Just a fun, movie, that doesn't take itself serious.

Neighborhood

Wanted to post this for a long time. Demolition in Progress:

Unemployment boring? Hell no!

Monday the 2nd was my first official day of unemployment, but it kinda doesn't count because it was still a holiday. Tuesday then my first day without a job, I got THE call from my agent..."Jaron, you booked". YEAH BABY! Finally I did make it through the audience progress and came out as a winner!

The job was for Wednesday, yesterday. It was a print shoot for Eclipsys, a provider of communication systems for hospitals. The shoot was not around the corner...Newport Beach, HOAG Hospital. Call time was not really actor friendly...6:30am! So Tuesday night I prepare my face to look glorious the next day, by washing, scrubbing, tonicing, and moisterizing. At 4:15am I had to wake up to be in the car by 5am to make the drive. Oh, wait car! I forgot to mention my car dissaster! Tuesday I drop of my car at Santa Monica VW, because after the rain, Monday morning there was a huge pile of water on the floor on the passenger side, and no you smartasses...I did NOT leave my sunroof or windows open! I thought this leak would be fixed in a heart beat, but terror struck me when they told me it could take all day, maybe even an overnight stay! Luckily I have good friends who are like me unemploymed and throught the help of P, and Mercury I got a hold of Timm (ofcourse I left my cell phone at home, so I had to make a round of calls). Timm picked me up, and all was dandy. Then I got the booking with the 6:30am call time, the I got the call that my car was not going to be ready on Tuesday, so how the hell was I going to make it to Newport Beach? VW gave me "loaner" car, which in their world means rental car which I have to pay for the first 24 hours the car is in their shop, being fixed for soemthing that falls under warranty. Anyone who understands this, please let me know, because I think it's bullshit. Yes, I said it...bullshit!

So, there I am, in my Chevy Aveo rental car on the freeways at 5am in the morning. I made an awesome time, and was one of the first to arrive. The photoshoot was pretty simple, fun at some point, boring and long for most. The most fun was playing ER doctor, running down a hallway next to a bed, trying to make it to the OR. Even for photo shoot you need to act or otherwise it just looks like a person in doctor's clothes, so I channeled all my good friends Vanguard hospital stories through my body to become a doctor (and a little of George Clooney). My fellow actors got a little tired when I kept humming the ER opening tune all those 16 times we ran through that hallway, but hey, I was feeling it!

Anyway, it was a long day, hit major traffic on the way back to LA, but it was an excellent beginning of a year I deciced no more day jobs but just focus on acting, and so far, so good! Okay, I gotta run off to Santa Monica to pick up my non leaking car.

Oh, and forgive me for the hair. It's was a conservative photoshoot, so I had to look like a conservative doctor...

After the rain is gone...

LA looks so beautiful after a couple of days of wind and rain (I refuse to call it a storm, because anyone not from LA knows what a storm really is). The hills look just beautiful, and this morning I drove P to work in Malibu (his car is in the shop), and the ocean looks so beautiful! Nice big waves, sun, surfers, just a beautiful day in LA.

I hardly ever go to the beach. P works there, adn my room mate Kyle in Santa Monica, right on the beach, but I just never make it out there, even though I love the beach. No that I don't have a day job, I'm going to take more advantage of living in LA, and visit our beautiful beach more often!

Have a good Tuesday!

New Years Eve regrets...

Okay, every New Years Eve party needs to have a drunk, right? Too bad it was me for the second year in a row...:(

I'm sorry if I offended anyone, broke anything, or did anything else inappropriate. Big thanks to P for taking care of me, and to M@ and J for giving me food to sober up. That actually helped because after the food I felt great and was able to dance till 3am. Oh, what a nite!

I don't do the resolution things, but I am going to drink less...

Don't wanna end up in a bar, all drunk like Gary...

I hope everyone had a great New Year, and a not so bad hangover day on the 1st!