Not surprisingly, last week’s column on Plastic Surgery is the topic of this week’s Your Turn.
First email:
Thank you for this article. You may have helped me not to make a big mistake! Have a blessed day.
Well, that’s fantastic. 🙂 I know that most people don’t realize plastic surgery may have been a bad idea until it’s too late, so writing the column felt important. I’m glad you feel that it helped you!
Second email:
Hello Bonnie,
Your last article made me smile and reminded me of when I was in grad school a thousand years ago. (They had just invented the wheel BTW — a VERY exciting time.)
A few in our class were invited to audition for a soap opera they were casting out of New York. Mind you this was my FIRST professional TV audition. The CD read me, re-directed, and then “leveled” with me. “Look,” she said, “you’re a nice kid and a good actor BUT, if you REALLY want to make it in soap operas, you’d better fix your nose and change your name.” (If you didn’t know my nose is broken by accidents and fights as a kid, ergo I stopped fighting as I suck at it and end up with busted things!)
I considered her words carefully, and, when I joined SAG a few years later, used my full legal name as my professional one. I also have not had rhinoplasty.
Jump to: Couple years back, a CD I just met took me aside and asked me confidentially, “Have you had your nose done? It’s impressive work.” When I assured her it was the work of past bicycle mishaps and playground high jinx she said, “Wow. Never fix it; it gives you character. People have surgery to GET a nose like yours.” Who knew? What a difference a few years makes huh?
We wear our lives on our faces IMO. I guess mine is of a kid who falls off his bike and took a few to the head. “I yams what I yams.”
Best,
David Nathan Schwartz
“Broken Shnozz, Ethnic Name”
I love it. Always delightful to hear from you, David. I remember when I got my most recent press photos done and the photographer sent over his favorite few, retouched. “No thank you,” I said. While I appreciated that his team was taking out things they thought I would prefer not show off (a mole, wrinkles, my glorious freckles), I said, “How can I be someone who preaches that actors need to look like their headshots and have my press photo be an airbrushed version of me?” Like you, “I yams what I yams!” 🙂 And I think there’s great power in embracing that.
Third email:
Hi Bonnie,
I love your publications! You are such a wonder!
My two cents on getting work done: If you had pouty lips in the past, and lost them due to estrogen waning, get them back with injections! If you never had lips like those, you are crazzzzzy to create them. I so agree about poor Meg Ryan. With all that money, and access to great doctors… why?
My question, if you have the time: I am getting older and really look great (I think) except that my NECK HAS GONE TO HELL. Have you ever seen a bad neck lift? I’m thinking that the neck doesn’t have expressions, or a nose or mouth, and maybe it would be fairly safe.
Thanks for your amazing energy and generosity.
Best,
Kristin Keating
Kristin, thank you for this. You’re making a great point about creating pouty lips vs. boosting ’em back up after you start losing them, over time. I think that’s a great distinction.
And when I think about my few friends who are very happy with the plastic surgery they have had, it’s folks who have had their necks pulled in and up, their breasts re-hoisted (but not implanted), or feather lifts that don’t re-position their eyes. I’m sure — out there, somewhere — someone has had a bad neck lift, but for those friends of mine who have had them, they’re happy.
Fourth email:
I have really enjoyed your columns and other writings re: the IMDb age thing and the plastic surgery issue/dilemma. So many folks get caught up in what turns out to be relatively minute aspects, e.g., “Is my online audition going to be production quality?” “Does that headshot make me look fat?” “Why don’t they like me… really, really like me?”
It’s fun to read your perspectives and I like the way you look at both sides but also come down on the side of common sense. In this “don’t sweat the small stuff in the really big universe of opportunities” universe that we live in, I’m constantly amazed at how people sometimes focus their energy in the wrong direction and self-sabotage themselves.
As I was pondering this as it relates to the acting world, I remembered an interview I saw once with Tom Hanks when he was being asked about the importance of headshots, having the right agent, wearing the correct outfit for auditions, having a “marketable” resumé, etc. His answer: “Those things don’t matter. Just be so good they can’t ignore you.”
Not bad advice for an actor. Mr. Hanks seems to have done okay.
Wishing you lots of smiles and Cricket Feet frictional moments.
Outstanding, Dan. Truly. Thank you. 🙂 I love it all!
Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!
Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/001421.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.