Ten years being a dinner jacket.

I do believe that I signed up on Ye Ole MI6 ten years ago today (26 March 2003). Not a big deal, but still worth noting. I was in a shitty dorm room with a cold, uncarpeted floor, the roommate from hell who kept snoring and/or masturbating, and season 1 of the Iraq War was on TV. Still the best season, that show should've been cancelled a lot sooner.

Congrats Tux! I'll be hitting the decade mark sometime in late August. My oh my.... time certainly does fly... 10 years... hard to believe, isn't it?

I know. It's a world away for me. I'll be 30 in June, and while I feel too young to be saying it, I can feel the slightest wisps of age. I guess what I have in common with myself from back then is the desire to be in LA. This time it's to go back for my second chance. I'm remodling a house that I inherited which is my ticket back. I'm doing it mostly myself to save money. I should have had it done months ago, but the guilt I felt over not being there when my mother died by herself made it difficult to spend any time in there. I've only recently started to call it "my" house.

I am simply not the same person I was back then. It's hard to even imagine. Unless you were to know me personally you'd probably not believe the distance I've covered. And yet, some of the people here are the only people I've sort of known over that entire stretch of time, by which I mean other people fall in and out of my life, but this place and MI6 have always been there in one form or another. Though my forum presense is certainly fading away.

I will say that in the past few months I have started to feel age seep into me. I feel more aware. I finally feel relaxed. I actually feel better than I ever have. :)

And people still think I'm 19 or 20 before they learn my age. :cheers:

Cheers! Crazy, but congrats. A whole decade isn't something to take lightly. I wasn't on MI6 til 2006, still that makes it seven years since I've been chatting with fellow KTBEUers, never maintained that kind of communication with anyone on any other forum or whatever site. I still have the friends I had seven years ago, even ten, but very few and I don't see them as much as I would like. I know what you mean though on being a totally different person. The only thing I probably had in common with myself in 2003 is being a movie geek. That's about it. Do hope things look up with your L.A. plans.

LA plans feel pretty good. I know people out there anyway, and in comedy where I could make a mark. One big change is that I am a much better actor than I was in 2003. Holy Jebus am I. I've developed what I consider one of the important things an actor can have; the ability not to delude yourself in terms of how well you doing as an actor.

Just the thought of how much has changed in the past 10 years, yet 2003 still seems somewhat recent is staggering to me. Just for perspective, this time in 2003, DAD was just released on DVD and VHS, Brosnan was still set for Bond 21 (recasting hadn't even been considered), sharing videos on the internet was an occasional luxury, and people mostly used their cell phones just to call other people. Social networking was nonexistent, Wikipedia was still in it's infancy, and our president was still a State Senator.

I can't claim to know you personally, Tux, nor can I claim to see you perform either. However, just by communicating on boards like this I can tell you're not the same person you were when I joined in 2004. The surroundings I think have something to do with that, as the Wild West Show at KTBEU around that time can diminish thoughtful opinions for the sake of a punchline. I suppose we can never really see how far we all have changed since the forum was nuked, but enough digital ink has been spilled on that subject already.

You stay classy, White Tuxedo.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

And people still think I'm 19 or 20 before they learn my age. :cheers:

Tux, have you spent 10 years trying to get to first base as an actor? If so, at what point do you say, 'Well, I gave it my best shot.'?

It seems to me that 30 is a hell of an age to still be trying to get started and that 10 years is a long time to spend on any one project. Hell, by 35 most established actresses' careers are already over.

Do you have a Plan B if things don't work out again?

Tux is not an actress though, so he doesn't have to worry about those 35 blues. Heck, he could be the next Morgan Freeman!

Thirty is too old for Morgan even if Tux is his first cousin.

There are plenty of examples of actors who struggled until middle age and then found great success as character actors. But you have to really have perseverance for that.

I don't think Tux has that in him. He's going to end up herding elk on a conservation area.

I prefer herding Ukrainian girls with daddy issues.

'Grats on the decade of Bondage , Tux.

CJB wrote:

I prefer herding Ukrainian girls with daddy issues.

Try hipster girls next. It's basically the same thing, minus the language barrier.

Erica Ambler wrote:

The White Tuxedo wrote:

And people still think I'm 19 or 20 before they learn my age. :cheers:

Tux, have you spent 10 years trying to get to first base as an actor? If so, at what point do you say, 'Well, I gave it my best shot.'?

It seems to me that 30 is a hell of an age to still be trying to get started and that 10 years is a long time to spend on any one project. Hell, by 35 most established actresses' careers are already over.

Do you have a Plan B if things don't work out again?

Naomi Watts was auditioning for 9 years before her big break. Michael Fassbender is in his mid-late 30s, and only recently did his career take off.

Plan B should not exist for an actor. Because it will make them lazy knowing that everything will be ok. There is something about not knowing what to do if acting doesn't work out that motivates the actor to give it everything for as long as it takes.

Erica Ambler wrote:

The White Tuxedo wrote:

And people still think I'm 19 or 20 before they learn my age. :cheers:

Tux, have you spent 10 years trying to get to first base as an actor? If so, at what point do you say, 'Well, I gave it my best shot.'?

It seems to me that 30 is a hell of an age to still be trying to get started and that 10 years is a long time to spend on any one project. Hell, by 35 most established actresses' careers are already over.

Do you have a Plan B if things don't work out again?

Well, I sorta meandered for a while in LA. I spent a lot of time in classes, and not enough time auditioning because I didn't feel ready. Truth is, I've become a very good actor, I still look young, and I do have some connections in LA. I know I can have a career, I'm not worried about that at all. I'm naturally very funny and would have a good career as a comic actor, even though I'd want to be in the vein of people like Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall. None of them are matinee idols and all of them struggled as younger actors. Granted, they were in New York doing plays and I'm in Kentucky. But I've had some first rate training and am making the best of my time in KY. I'm writing at least one film at the moment, and working on a few others. I'll be able to get some footage together for a reel as well, and I'll have that in my pocket (or online really) when I get back to LA. I'd like to be a character actor, a guy who turns up in a lot of things and works forever.

No Plan B for me, I don't believe in it and I know I don't need it. I'll be good enough to be employable. :)

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Granted, they were in New York doing plays and I'm in Kentucky.

They also served in the US Army (Duvall and Hackman, at least).

Largo's Shark wrote:

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Granted, they were in New York doing plays and I'm in Kentucky.

They also served in the US Army (Duvall and Hackman, at least).

Yeah, but I've been through my own hell. :) I'm not a tough guy. Maybe a Buscemi-type, but better looking.

On the Army thing. Hell, Robert Mitchum was on a chaingang. Lee Marvin almost got killed in WWII, if a bullet that got him had been an inch over in whichever direction and gone through his femoral artery if I recall correctly. A lot of those guys LIVED before becoming actors. I've been through trials. Not war, or anything physically violent, but I've been through plenty. At least for a 29 year-old in the US.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Granted, they were in New York doing plays and I'm in Kentucky.

They also served in the US Army (Duvall and Hackman, at least).

Yeah, but I've been through my own hell. :) I'm not a tough guy. Maybe a Buscemi-type, but better looking.

I wasn't suggesting you enlist. It's just that today's world is filled with career artists with little life experience and no lived-in faces. They all wanted to be an actor from the age of 5.

I guess that's the modern world for you. Everyone's becoming increasingly specialised. Jack of few trades, master of one.

Largo's Shark wrote:

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Granted, they were in New York doing plays and I'm in Kentucky.

They also served in the US Army (Duvall and Hackman, at least).

Yeah, but I've been through my own hell. :) I'm not a tough guy. Maybe a Buscemi-type, but better looking.

I wasn't suggest you enlist. It's just that today's world is filled with career artists with little life experience and no lived-in faces.

I guess that's the modern world for you. Everyone's becoming increasingly specialised. Jack of few trades, master of one.

I agree totally. Real expression of art requires something genuine. A lot of people today are pampered. But I've also learned that so many of us feel a lot of the same things, even if what different people go through has a wide spectrum. You don't have to go through the tortures of the damned to be a good actor, as long as you can use what you do have. However, life experience is a big reason why good actors become better as they get older.

I will say that you have to be fucked up to be a good comedian. :)

Well, it takes a big ego to open a thread devoted to yourself so it seems self doubt won't hold you back. Good luck with The Plan.

The longevity of these Internet communities is really something else. They're proving to be quite tenacious. I signed on with MI6 around noon on November 27, 2004. I remember it like the proverbial yesterday. Spike--I believe it was--was running a Thanksgiving Bondathon, which really ignited my interest in Bond. The natural next step was to find a Bond site and sign up. Voila, MI6, and here I am, still at it, 8 1/2 years later, and still associating with many of the same posters from way back then. Will this last another eight years or so? I wouldn't doubt it.

Congrats Tux, you were always the movie expert and the go to guy on the subject. We joined around the same time than Khan. For me it was March 2004...sitting in a computer lab at school during lunch break. Looking back on it has been a crazy ride. (formerly using the name Willard Whyte)

Erica Ambler wrote:

Tux, have you spent 10 years trying to get to first base as an actor? If so, at what point do you say, 'Well, I gave it my best shot.'?

It seems to me that 30 is a hell of an age to still be trying to get started and that 10 years is a long time to spend on any one project. Hell, by 35 most established actresses' careers are already over.

Do you have a Plan B if things don't work out again?

At least Tux is trying.

So many people nowadays don't even try and then spend the rest of their lives saying "I wish" and "Only If I"....

Congrats Tux and keep your chin up and persevere and keep trying.

Many of the actors today struggled in the beginning like Harrison Ford.

He became famous by accident and chance and luck.

He was 34 before he got his big break and was cast for Star Wars purely by accident too.

Another actor who made it big and struggled for a long time was Clint Eastwood - who was told several times by several studios casting agents that he will never make it as an actor.

Ford had acting credits going back 10 years before his big break and still couldn't make a living as an actor. Fortunately he had carpentry as his Plan B.

Likewise, Eastwood and Watts had 10 years of solid credits before they made their breakthroughs whatever the hype. Jeremy Renner might be considered a more recent example of a late arrival, but again he's been in films since his early 20s and, despite his new success, was running a real estate business up until a couple of years ago. That much derided Plan B again.

It's more romantic to starve than have a contingency plan and I wouldn't expect a teenager like Jason to say otherwise. However, by 30, a bit of realism has generally set in. If Tux makes it, then great. No harm in preparing for all alternatives. though.

Big Boss wrote:

Congrats Tux, you were always the movie expert and the go to guy on the subject. We joined around the same time than Khan. For me it was March 2004...sitting in a computer lab at school during lunch break. Looking back on it has been a crazy ride. (formerly using the name Willard Whyte)

Thrilled to have you back, Willie.