Anything Goes : You Are Damn Good at This by Tom Gurnee

This past Tuesday and Wednesday I had the pleasure of working with the Tallgrass Pictures outfit in San Diego. Tallgrass Pictures (.com) is run by Jeffrey Lamont Brown and if I may say, it is a first-class company in every way. I was very fortunate to have been selected to play the lead role in a short film they're producing called, "Driver Wanted". The 12-page script was written by Matt Ragghianti. Matt, I learned after I was booked for the role, was one of the writers for the first two seasons of LOST and we were blessed to have his presence with us when we shot on Wednesday. He told me stories of how the team would write the episodes in Burbank(!) and then fax the scripts to Hawaii. Coincidentally, I told him Josh Holloway and I shared being coached by the same acting instructor here in LA. Matt told me over lunch that they looked at over 1000 actors for the mere three roles they cast for the film. When he viewed my audition, he immediately saw that I was his "Kirk Wakeman". Fortunately, he said after that, he was glad to see that I could act. Over the years I've been in Hollywood, my confidence has grown immensely. From the numbers of auditions I've been to, to the excellent training I've received, to the personal development courses I've attended, everything seemed to come together for this production for me. The "flow" of being totally in the moment came over my body and the techniques I've learned over the years seemed to naturally come forth at all the pertinent and right times. Before each take, I would "surrender" to that "something" that I asked would act through me and each take became an excellent one that the director could use. I wrote on my FB page today that one of the things I love about being an actor is when the director and crew applaud after a take. When that happens, I know I did my job well. When they applaud again after another take of the same scene, that's when I really know we're onto something. It's a fantastic feeling. One thing I'm adamant about doing after a production is writing thank you's to those who hired and worked with me. This morning, after writing to Matt, I received this response: Hi Tom, Very happy to meet you as well, and, again, you did a superlative job on Wednesday. Thank you for all of it. Sincerely. Yes, I would be happy to speak with your manager. And yes, I plan to keep in touch and will, of course use you and/or refer you whenever I can. Thanks, dude. You are damn good at this. For real. Very best, Matt (reprinted w/ his permission) I sincerely hope everyone out there can experience and receive an email like this. It's such wonderful validation that the course I am on in life is the right one and that my hard work and invested money in classes and courses is paying off. All I can say is keep at it. Persistence and keep a positive mental attitude. Bless, give thanks and be grateful for those things that have yet to come to be and the universe will have no choice but to send these things to you. Each day I wake up and give thanks for the opportunities in this industry I have yet to experience and lo and behold, they show up. What's really cool, is they keep getting better in quality and the people I meet are higher in the mover/shaker; decision making echelons. I have no doubt I'm destined to be someone in this industry and I'm grateful for everyone and everything I meet and see along the way.