JAMES GREEN

In today's economic climate, work is at a premium and that especially applies for the entertainment industry and for actors and models. That is why so many people have to take on another job to be able to survive. I've done Roofing that earned me just £50 a day to try and help me keep up in a very competitive industry like modeling. The first 2 years especially in the industry are simply about survival. This is because you need to build your reputation up, your image, your client base and also build your portfolio too. It is not as simple as many make out to get in the industry and to very importantly sustain the work to continue being in the industry. It takes time, money and a lot of sacrifices to achieve this and also another job to support yourself. I landed on my feet with my presenting job at Smartlive, but it becomes very difficult sometimes trying to juggle both modeling and presenting. The presenting is pretty settled and in a shift format each and every month, but wit...

Today has been one of the hardest days of my life, having to put my cat down. He was 14 years old and we had him for over 13 and a half years. A cat or any pet for that matter becomes part of your family and something that is always around every single day. Pets are a comfort blanket for people. They give you the company that often you don't have else where. You become so close to them and look after them, are affectionate towards them and they return that pleasure. Our family got Sprite from a rescue home when he was a kitten along with his sister (Pepsi) and their mum (Natasha) almost 14 years ago. Unfortunately Pepsi passed away when she was very young and a couple of years later Natasha went missing and never returned. So we were left with Sprite, the cat then when we first got him was scared of everyone and used to run away. But without the competition of the other cats, he became the main focus of our attention of course and soon came out of his shell and his fantastic person...

This week I have continued my busy period with a shoot for Fitness First down in Christchurch, Dorset. It is the second time in a couple of months that I have worked for this client, but this time was different to no other. The shoot is for the walls in the fitness centers and if you have ever been into gyms, they have pictures of people doing the activities on the walls. These range from various exercises with weights, balance boards, press ups, running, jumping etc. It meant that for 4 hours I would be working up a sweat! (which is what the client wanted). Normally I have no problem with the exercises and it wouldn't trouble me one bit. However, with my knee still no where near recovered, this was going to be a very tricky shoot for me. Now of course I didn't have to do the job and could have turned it down for not being in the right fitness for it, but works work and I need all that I can get my hands on. Time to take some pain killers and to just get on with it, whilst bein...

I am writing, which is a good sign that I managed to survive one of the most tiring days of my life. Monday I was on the casino channel from 10pm until 6am Tuesday morning. I set up camp on the sofa in the Green Room and slept for about an hour, until my horrific alarm woke me up telling me its time for my next job. That feeling when you have very little sleep, the heavy eyes, the aches and the pains were all apparent in the morning. It became even worse knowing that I have a 9 hour shoot ahead of me with new clients who I want to impress. I just felt absolutely horrific. But I had to just suck it up and get on with it, as we all do when times get tough. I focused my mind on the fact it was one day of my life and to just forget about being tired (the mental approach is not usually the route I go for, but for this instance it was needed, and worked) Arriving at the studio in North London, straight away the client saw me walking outside and was very friendly and smiley and chatty (a very...

First post for a couple of weeks and have no excuse for it as it has been extremely quiet throughout this month. Modeling wise there has been very few castings, which has left a lot of people struggling in the industry ad not just the models. Casting directors have also struggled, as have make up artists, stylists and photographers. The industry is in a big slump unfortunately, due to the state of the economy, where as discussed previously, companies reduce their spending on advertising, which has a big affect on my industry as you can imagine. But I have been working on the casino channel a lot, which has included a lot of late nights, to keep me ticking over. Then all of a sudden the storm started brewing and I found myself trapped in the busiest week of my life. After a lovely trip to Leeds to catch up with some friends last weekend, I arrived to start a hectic week of presenting and modeling, with very little time in between to sleep. A couple of days presenting Sunday night and Mo...

It's been a very quiet couple of days of work, so it gave me a chance to finally drag my lazy ass down to the gym and start getting myself back into shape. It also gave me the opportunity to give my knee some TLC (well some painful TLC anyways) and to start pushing forward the recovery period on it. After extensive physio this morning, I have been told that I am making progress with my rehabilitation, which is positive, but there is still a long long way to go. It is amazing how quickly you can lose muscle in your body, I just wish you gain it as quick! (don't we all!!!) The next stage is continuing the gym work, which includes some cycling, cross trainer, constant stretches for my leg muscles and some leg work on the weights too. I need to give my knee the support it needs from the surrounding muscles. This will also be important at the 6 week mark when I have a review of my recovery and to see if the stability is good enough to not require an operation to fix my cruciate liga...

I wanted to give you an insight into what options are in the modeling industry and the often frustration of them. Options are extremely common and often are used by clients to delay a decision over which talent they want to use for jobs. It is simply a shortlist. Like with any jobs, this is often the case when going through the process of employment, but imagine that on often a weekly basis? The waiting, the anticipation, the nerves, all those emotions you have when your waiting to hear about a job. This is something that I go through literally every week. In my previous post I wrote in detail about the "Remington" casting I had and that it was for a lot of money, which for me can make the difference with so much in my life, especially with my intention to go back to Los Angeles. I was put on option for this job, and asked if I was willing to cut my hair short for the job too, which I took as a very promising sign. Then comes the waiting and trying desperately hard to put the...