WIL WHEATON dot NET: Where is my mind?: Last Place You Look</h3>

November 25, 2002

Last Place You Look

It's so windy here in Pasadena today, it's snowing leaves. There is this large area of a hillside in Burbank where there was a massive fire a few months ago, and a huge cloud of dust hovers over it, like a sandstorm.

The Santa Ana Winds are in full effect, and my dry skin, nose and throat are a small price to pay for clear blue skies and warm temperatures in November.

So here's something unexpected: I did a voice today on this new show for the Kids WB! The call came on Friday, and here's the cool thing: the director, a wonderful woman named Andrea Romano, who has won seven emmy's called my agent and requested me, based on my work with her last year on "The Zeta Project."

I can't say what voice I did, but I was told when I left today that they were so happy, I would probably be asked back to do the role again in the next thirteen episodes.

The episode I did was written by this really nice guy named Marv Wolfman, who co-created and wrote "Teen Titans" for sixteen years, created "Blade," and was just an all-around cool guy. We spent some time geeking out about comic books today...it just killed me that he was referring to Alan Moore as "Alan."

Animation is really fun, because it's really quick work (usually less than 4 hours for an episode), and the people who do it are all really cool...but it's also very hard to break into the animation world, because the community is extremely small, and very protective. Being asked by a very respected director to come back, based on her previous experience with me, is just HUGE, and it makes me feel really good, and it may signal my entry into the world of animation.

A few months ago, I made this major decision in my life: I would stop applying a singular focus to getting work as an actor. I would continue to accept auditions as they came along, but I wasn't going to break my back, or sacrifice time with my friends and family to play Hollywood's game.

Since I made that choice, stopped caring so much about acting, and started focusing on writing, and being a husband and father, I've gotten two jobs almost immediately.

So I guess I'm going to have to start calling myself "Writer-Slash-Actor."

You'll note that I did not say "Actor-Slash-Writer." This is a very important distinction.

Posted by wil at November 25, 2002 04:26 PM