JAMES GREEN

Saturdays in LA are just like a week day and it is treated like that here. Something that I am certainly not used to is having castings on a Saturday, which, when I'm back in the UK, is my favorite day and my day off always. This Saturday I had 2 castings, one was a callback from one of the five I went to on Wednesday. It was the Maybelline casting, where in the first one they just took 3 very quick shots of me and that was it. This time I was expecting a bit more from the casting, as it was a callback after all. But I was completely wrong. All that happened this time was the director for the shoot took shots of me with different expressions. This took about a minute and that was that and I was on my way back home. Ridiculous hey?! They often have up to 4 callback for a job, which is quite incredible. What makes these callbacks so frustrating is that you don't get paid for them at all. So you have to commit more time, more money in travel costs to keep on making them. The clien...

To say I was unprepared is an understatement. To say that it was unexpected is also an understatement. Completely out of the blue the castings kept on coming in, 1 after the other and before I knew it I had 5 for the day, which for guys is pretty much unheard of, especially in recent times. It also gave me a great chance to get out and about and meet some new clients that I haven't met before. I thought I would go through each casting to show you all in more detail what happens during these castings. As there were 5 of them, they all are often extremely different to each other. Before my day began, I had to plan out my day and ensure I would make every single one of my castings on time. This is all well and good before the day begins, but in LA, you never know what will creep up. The traffic is often horrendous and the waiting times at some castings here are unbelievable, so you always need to be prepared for a bit of day. (First casting of the day for True Religion, in Compton) Ea...

I finally booked myself a presenting job here in Los Angeles! And I would never have thought I would have booked this one. The reason being is if you looked back at my post last week about "The tale of 2 auditions" and I asked which of the two do you think I booked up, you would of said the travelling trip to Asia, the one that I thought went great. Well, you guessed it, I booked the other one, for One Beat, a new online Music Channel. This was the audition where I had a great chat with the clients, but I completely went blank when it came round to remembering my lines. But I am so grateful now that i am up and running and hopefully this will be the first of many. It is a small job, and i could be just a one off, but as it is a new music channel, there is certainly a lot of potential there to do all I can to make it permanent. Perseverance pays off! I know a lot of people probably started to think that maybe it wouldn't happen for me in LA, and I completely understood whe...

I do not usually write about things that have nothing to do with work, but this I had to share with everybody because it was the most amazing inside into a chocolate shop. Not just an every day chocolate shop, but one that is a favorite with the biggest celebrities in the world! If you believe I might be exaggerating, well all I need to say is one name, Oprah. She adores this store and the incredible chocolates that it produces that i have to say are the best I have ever tasted in my life! Those who know me well, know full well I have a big sweet tooth. (This is exactly what Oprah will be giving all her employees for Valentines Day this year) Your probably thinking, OK it's cool that the big celebrities use the store, but whats so special about it? I'm right? Well, this chocolate store started back in 1942 and has been open for 70 years now. With the way the world is and the influence of "Big Business", this is quite incredible. More so is the location of the store, i...

Today I was very fortunate enough to have 2 presenting auditions to go too. Both extremely different from each other in so many ways, and both outcomes feel completely different as well. The first casting was extremely last minute, which is something you have to get used to in my line of work. You have to be ready to go in an instant, and fortunately for me I was today, up and about and not far from where the casting was taking place. It was for a "Travel and Culture Show in Asia". The job would be a month travelling around Asia experiencing every little bit of culture in these places whilst filming it all. What a great opportunity. This is what they were looking for: - Male mid 20's to mid 30's (BOX TICKED) - Out going, up beat, down to earth, positive attitude (BOX TICKED) - I think ;-) - Good sense of humour (hmmmm will let you be the judge of that) - Not shy (BOX TICKED DEFINITELY) - Great people skills (BOX TICKED) - Good physicality (BOX TICKED) - see below ;-) ...

Being a self employed model and TV presenter often brings about a great amount of opportunities for exciting and potentially life changing jobs that could arise. As discussed previously, I had a great opportunity for some regular work with style haul, a very successful YouTube channel. The casting for this went extremely well and I received some immediate feedback about the job. However, unfortunately for me nothing came to fruition and I didn't get the job. Complete disappointment. Coping with this disappointment is something that I have had to get used to over the past 5 years of my life. It's quite an incredible emotion to have to deal with on such a regular basis. I think back to when I worked previously away from the entertainment industry and the only possible disappointments I could have got was being rejected a pay rise or a promotion, which may have happened once or twice in 6 years! It is very different when for work I have to regularly audition for jobs and roles in ...

The one part of living out here that I love the most is when I can walk to my castings in the comfort of fantastic weather and some amazing sights. Being away from home it is always interesting to look at the scenery around new places and having the joy of being able to do this for work is even better. Plus, what great exercise too! I am currently sharing my girlfriends car if needed, but I am more than happy using my legs to get myself around. Today I walked 4 miles for 2 castings and to go to my gym. There is no chance at all I would do that if I was in London. First of all the weathers never that great and second of all the tube system is a lot better ha. One thing lacking from LA is a convenient rail system, mainly due to the sheer size of Los Angeles. But walking is always good for me especially when I look up at the Hollywood sign on my walk back to my apartment. It gives me that buzz and that feeling of being so fortunate to be in this place and also that extra motivation to suc...

LA is very much a 7 day week city, it never seems to sleep and work opportunities can show themselves in the strangest form and often at the strangest times. Late Sunday evening an email comes through with details for a casting for a presenter for Style Haul. Now, I had no idea who or what style haul was until I went on their website and YouTube channel and saw the incredible amount of hits that were accumulating on the site. We're talking millions and millions and total hits past the billion mark! It just amazed me the incredible rise of social media and how powerful it really is. The simple, but extremely effective ideas are being created and developed through social media to hit the right audience and clearly with huge success. This online fashion, styling, beauty and entertainment company was a rather successful online media. So, I started to realise that this was a big deal and that I need to forget the fact its Sunday night and power through and research as much as I possibly...

My first casting back in LA and it falls on a Saturday! On a Saturday?!?!?! My favorite day of the week by a mile and a day that I have always seen as a "no work day". But I got over this very quickly (slightly pathetic I know). The castings in LA often have a very long brief to them. They use specific jargon to describe exactly what they are looking for or what they want you to dressed like. Below is the casting brief for today's casting: SEEKING MALE ACTOR, OR MODEL TYPES THAT HAVE ACTING CAPABILITIES . SEEKING CLASSIC, BEAUTIFUL MEN. "AMERICANA" TYPES. PLEASE SUBMIT ALL RACES. Here is the Wardrobe brief: TIMELESS - STYLISH - CLASSIC, AMERICANA LOOK, A BIT RETRO YET STILL MODERN, BUT DEFINITELY SHOULD NOT COME IN WHAT FEELS LIKE A COSTUME. "MAD MEN" HAIR FOR THE GUYS...BUT NOT LIKE COSTUME. THINK DWELL MAGAZINE Now, let me break all this down. The casting brief first of all asks to see all races, which means they have no idea exactly who they want f...

After being back in London for 5 months the time finally came to return back to LA, and what a great feeling it is to be here. It was great to be home in Essex with my family and friends on my doorstep and work has been fantastic too, but as I've talked about before I've always had unfinished business in LA and believe in myself that I will be able to achieve all I have ever dreamed about one day. Yes I went through hard times last year, struggling to get work out here, but I feel so much more prepared this year, I know exactly what to expect and I am a year wiser to focus all my energy on achieving my goals. New pictures as you can see above and a better attitude this year will stand me in full stead for whats to come. Also, and extremely importantly after spending 5 months apart from my girlfriend, we finally get to see each other and build on our relationship. Something I always strongly believe that is needed in order to for other parts of your life to work out. It doesn...

It's been a while since my last post partly because of the absolute mayhem that's been going on the last 3 weeks! A 2 week stomach bug followed by 7 nights straight at the casino channel (something that should never be done!) before Xmas with my family and then to pack up everything and move back stateside. It started with an enjoyable trip to Canada for New Year, a country that I have always wanted to visit but have never previously had the opportunity too. So I was very excited about experiencing it, maybe less so to experiencing what temperatures that ere waiting for me when I got there! -17c was probably the peak, add maybe -5c for the wind chill factor and I was experiencing temperatures that I have never felt in my life. The term for describing being freezing has completely changed in my life after this trip. I was staying just north of Toronto and was taken to the local bowling ally on one of the first nights! As you can see from the picture above, I tried cheating with ...