It’s textbook. You move to Los Angeles from your hometown or where you went to school or the last place you were pursuing an acting career, and you hate it. Heck, you may have even hated it before you got here, resenting the fact that you felt obligated to be here “cause that’s where the business is.” Hating L.A. is an art form, perfected in bright, sunny coffee shop patios by chain smoking cynics, defiantly wearing all-black in the hundred-degree heat, and interpreting everything that L.A. has to offer in the context of what they did “back east” or in Europe or wherever. And those are people who have been in L.A. 20 years! It’s so cliché that it’s become part of the very fabric of L.A.—as L.A. as the Dodgers or the palm trees.
But for actors, that level of cynicism about the place you’re hanging your hat can seep into the very fabric of your life, foster bitterness, and lead to the practice of hopelessness and paralysis. All of a sudden you’re looking for things to hate. And when you’re auditioning a couple of times a week at best, the practice of hopelessness and paralysis can sabotage your career. If all goes well, you’ll
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