Amanda Seyfried: Being ‘Overweight’ Has Affected My Acting Career

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Catherine Balavage

Want to know how hard it is to be an actress? Then just look at how slim Amanda Seyfried is and then read her tweet below.

Fun fact: I almost lost out on several roles in my career because I was overweight. Wrong, America.

— Amanda Seyfried (@AmandaSeyfried)

The Mean Girls actress went on to say in an interview with Elle UK.: “I don’t have to look like a supermodel. I don’t have to have those abs, the camera doesn’t see that. But because we have all been designed to want these things, I’m a victim of this stuff, too. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t constantly aware of what I’m doing with my body.”

It is very disappointing that Hollywood, and the media in general, cannot get over their cookie cutter one-size-fits-all view of beauty. Amanda Seyfried is not ‘overweight’. I understand that you have to be in shape and healthy to act and the camera really does add 10 pounds, but the world would be a truly horrible world if we all looked the same. Hollywood: take note.

If you are an actor then check out my book How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur. It is available in print and in all eBook formats on both Smashwords and Amazon. It has had 5 five star reviews.

Russell Crowe: Female Actors Should Act Their Age. Meryl Streep Responds

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Catherine Balavage

There has been some uproar after Russell Crowe said that female actors should act their age. Meryl Streep came out in support of him and The Guardian did a great quiz on actors and playing age.

Russell said in an interview with the Australian Women’s Weekly: “To be honest, I think you’ll find that the woman who is saying that [the roles have dried up] is the woman who at 40, 45, 48, still wants to play the ingenue, and can’t understand why she’s not being cast as the 21-year-old, Meryl Streep will give you 10,000 examples and arguments as to why that’s bullshit, so will Helen Mirren, or whoever it happens to be. If you are willing to live in your own skin, you can work as an actor. If you are trying to pretend that you’re still the young buck when you’re my age, it just doesn’t work. I have heard of an actress, part of her fee negotiation was getting the number of children she was supposed to have lessened. Can you believe this? This (character) was a woman with four children, and there were reasons why she had to have four children – mainly, she lived in a cold climate and there was nothing to do but fornicate all day – so quit arguing, just play the role!”

Unfortunately that is not right at all. While some women will not want to play older, I have met a few, the roles for women are usually terrible when under 40: girlfriend, stripper, ‘the girl‘, a whore or merely window-dressing. When a women is over 40 the roles do not realistically reflect women’s lives. We are usually the mother, grandmother, crone or witch.

Jezebel blogger Rebecca Rose had this to say: “ALERT: Hollywood movie actor person Russell Crowe is fed up with all the old ladies who dare to want to be cast as something other than old spinsters or whatnot. Quit complaining that you’re cast in a role where your character has ‘nothing to do but fornicate all day’ and make a bunch of babies. Stop demanding that film-makers try to expand the depth of your character beyond ‘broodmare’. Just play the role, OK? Funny how Crowe doesn’t bother to offer any opinion about the mind-boggling legacy of Hollywood men playing romantic leads to women 10, 20, 30, and sometimes 40 (!!!!!) years younger than them,” Rose added. “Because it’s clearly the sad old women daring to pretend they are outside their actual birth ages that are ruining Hollywood … Thanks Crowe for reminding us, yet again, that women are always held in contempt for doing anything remotely similar to what their male counterparts do without reproach.” Very good points. Men do not tend to ‘play their age’ and their on-screen wives are usually significantly younger than them.

Amy Gray wrote on Junkee.com, “The ‘ingenue’ roles Crowe refers to are the only ones readily available for women; on the flip side, the majority of male characters in film and TV are aged between their 30s (27%) and 40s (31%). That could be because we’re more likely to want to watch lead characters based on their fuckability – and the older a woman gets, as any executive will tell you, the less faceable she becomes.” Crowe is 50 and also said “The point is, you do have to be prepared to accept that there are stages in life. So I can’t be the Gladiator forever,”

What do you think?

Sharon Horgan Interview for Catastrophe

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Catherine Balavage

We love Sharon Horgan at Frost. Funny and endlessly talented, we can’t wait to catch her new show, Catastrophe. Find out more in the interview below.

Explain a bit about Catastrophe. What’s the concept of the series?

It’s an unromantic look at a romance, I think. It’s about a couple who meet on a one night stand, and end up spending this great week together, and that should be it. But she gets pregnant, and he decides to do what he thinks is the right thing and stuck around. And she’s happy for him to lend a hand, as she can’t really be on her own. So they have this speed-life version of a relationship, where everything starts going to shit from the moment they get together. But the way it differs from a normal relationship is that they don’t really know each other, they’re just getting to know each other while all this shit’s happening. Going to have a pregnancy scan and getting bad news is hardcore enough with someone you’ve been with for years. But having to do it with someone who’s almost a stranger to you… And as the series progresses, more and more catastrophic things happen to them. And they’re slowly falling in love while all this shit’s going down.

Where did the idea come from? Why did you want to write this?

I guess because of my situation, and Rob’s situation, and the fact that you kind of want to write about what you know. I knew what sort of material he did with his stand up, he knew the kind if stuff I did, and we just figured this subject matter would suit our styles the best. And we both had a series of shitty things happen to us in our relationships or in our experiences as child rearers, and we felt like it would be nice to bring people a warts-and-all picture of a relationship. Still romantic, still a love story, but a real version of it.

Am I right in thinking that you and Rob met over Twitter?

Yeah, that’s right. I started following him because Graham Linehan had retweeted him a few times, and I found him extremely funny. And totally filthy. And then I noticed he was following me, and then he got in touch on a private message saying he liked what I did. I thought that was sweet, and when I was over in the States we decided to meet up – it’s always interesting,meeting people who kind of do what you do but in a different medium.And then we just kept meeting up, over the years, and eventually found the right thing to collaborate on. But that was kind of scary when we started writing – you never know whether these things are going to be a disaster or not. It can be really hard to write with someone, it’s very intimate and exposing. But the relationship worked immediately, it felt fun and easy.

How did that process work? Presumably you were separated by the Atlantic?

Yeah. For the Pilot, we talked a lot across the Atlantic, and then I was in America working again, and we grabbed what time we could. And then, for the second episode, Rob was over here for a while, and then we went back and forth over Skype. When Channel 4 said they wanted to do the full series, we wrote all the first drafts on Skype. We Skyped each other the whole time. But then we kind of realised that you need to be in a room, reading the script aloud, making changes as we’d go. So we did a lot of rewriting when I was over in LA. But now he’s moved here, he lives here now, which makes it much easier.

Did you find that you each tended to write more for your own characters?

I don’t think it did pan out like that. Maybe a little bit initially. What we did end up doing was rubbing our corners off a bit. If I’d write something that sounded a bit harsh, for either character, he’d give it a bit of California sweetness. And if he wrote something that I thought sounded too warm and American, I’d write a bit of Irish acerbic into it.

Judging from the trailer, your character isn’t going to have the most pleasant pregnancy. Is that partly based on your experiences? What were your pregnancies like?

I would say pretty tricky. But it wasn’t just mine that we based it on. We used mine and Rob’s wife’s experiences, we mixed it all in. Any shit that happened to me we multiplied by two, because we had another pregnancy to steal from as well. But you ask any woman who’s been through it. There won’t be too many rosy stories in there. I got knocked over by my dog and broke my knee. My pelvis parted, so I was on crutches for most of it. My second one, my ribs felt like they were splitting because My baby was so massive. A lot went wrong – the same with Rob’s wife – which is why we were able to throw that all in there. I know there are women out there who loved being pregnant, but that wasn’t my experience.

While you were filming, did you have to wear a bump that grew steadily bigger throughout the series?

Yes. I had three or four bumps over the series. It was good, because it genuinely felt incredibly uncomfortable, especially the really big one. It was really heavy, and it did make me relive it, because my back was fucked at the end of it, and I remember feeling exactly the same at the end of the pregnancy. But it worked – whenever I needed to be grumpy and fed up in character, I generally was.

The show’s got a great cast, including Ashley Jensen and the great Carrie Fisher. That must have felt so exciting, getting them on board.

Yeah, it was. It kind of felt like that for everyone who came on board. Every time we got the person we really wanted, we were pinching ourselves. Everyone in the cast is phenomenal, top of their game. But we did end up feeling “Shit, why weren’t they in it more?” with every supporting character. They’re all actors you want to see more of.

Carrie Fisher’s a legend, isn’t she? We were madly excited when she came down on set. We were all acting like dicks. We were running around like grinning weirdoes. I was going over her lines with her, lying on a bed by her side because she was a bit jet-lagged, and I felt like “Yeah, this is it. I’ve reached the heights now.” And Ashley is just incredibly funny, and great to be around. She’s a lovely,. Funny, warm presence all the time. Mark Bonnar, you can’t take your eyes off him. I can’t wait for people to see it, just for the supporting cast.

In the past, you’ve done a couple of factual programmes for Channel 4. Is that something that you’d like to do more of in the future?

No. I really loved that they asked me to do it, and allowed me to make documentaries on whatever I wanted. I hooked up with my friend, Chloe Thomas, and we went out and talked about the stuff that we were interested in, and our own experience. And at the time, that was motherhood, and mid-life crises, and marriage, so those were the three films we made. But it’s not really something I want to pursue any further than that for now. I said what I had to say. And it’s hard work! It’s tough, because you’ve got no script, and a lot of it is built in the edit, and a lot of it is down to chance. These are real people that you’re dealing with, you have to tread carefully. I had a great experience, and I’m glad I got to do them, but I think I’d rather just watch that sort of thing from now on.

In your body of work, what are you most proud of? And where does Catastrophe sit within that?

I’m still very proud of Pulling. It was the first sitcom I ever made, and it was a situation where someone took a leap of faith, and let us have a go. So we ended up making something that we really liked, and had enormous fun doing, with the people that we wanted to do it with. And Catastrophe, for me, feels very similar. I felt with Pulling that I couldn’t have made it at any other time, and I think with Catastrophe, I couldn’t have made it even three or four years ago. It feels like the perfect thing for this moment, for the stories that I have to tell. It’s the same thing, just being given proper creative scope by Channel 4 to make the show that we wanted to make. I guess we’ll have to wait and see now what people think, but it was an enormous pleasure. I felt as emotional at the end of filming as I did at the end of Pulling, just the feeling that I’d really, really enjoyed it and I was very lucky.

Catastrophe starts on Monday 19th January at 10pm on Channel 4

A Guide To Umbrella Etiquette

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Catherine Balavage

The worst thing about bad weather isn’t the rain: it is the fact that people don’t need to take a spacial awareness test before buying an umbrella. Yes, you are dry but everyone else is maimed or injured. These little contraptions tend to bring out the selfishness of people and give scars to the rest of us. So with that in mind, here is the Frost guide to umbrella etiquette.

When not using the umbrella, shake it dry but make sure no one is near you first. They won’t be amused and quite rightly so. Also make sure you carry it horizontally when not in use. This will stop you stabbing people or hitting them in the side.

On public transport, the best thing to do with your umbrella is to hold it in your hands or put it between your feet. This will stop you forgetting it and also make sure you don’t get anyone else, or a seat, wet.

Use it when it is raining, but not for a light drizzle unless you are walking in a quiet area. It is not worth poking someones eye out in a busy area if it is merely drizzling. Watch out for big umbrellas too. If they cover more than one person, fine but they are unnecessary for only one person and not recommended in busy areas.

Always be extra cautious when walking around corners. Especially blind ones.

When you are using an umbrella always stop walking and move to the side if you need to use your phone. You need to pay attention when using an umbrella, and a phone for that matter. You don’t want a Darwin award for dying whilst texting.

To pass someone else with an umbrella the best way is to lift your umbrella above or below the other persons umbrella. This is also good on a busy street when space is an issue. The taller person should lift but do so if they don’t. Another option is to tilt. If you tilt away from each other you will remain dry and the umbrellas will not knock into each other. Win win. Don’t over tilt, you might hit someone on the other side of you in the face. As I said: it is all about spacial awareness.

What would you add to our guide to umbrella etiquette? Please comment below.

Sienna Miller: ‘Having a Baby Saved My Career’

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Catherine Balavage

While some people say having a child ruins your career Sienna Miller has told the Observer magazine that having a child improved hers. A combination of showing up for meetings with executives underprepared and an affair with married actor Balthazar Getty in 2008, which was reported in the tabloids in excruciating detail, all affected her career. “Quite chaotic,” is how Miller sums up her 20s.

Studio decision-makers read papers and care about how actors come across to the public. The article says: ‘The thinking among certain casting agents, Miller once said, is that “People don’t want to see films with people they don’t approve of in them.” She took a break from screen work, performing in plays in London and New York.”

She was the heroine of hackgate and then hooked up with actor Tom Sturridge. In 2012 the couple had a daughter, Marlowe.

“And I think having a baby really changed everything, if I’m honest, I think that’s where it began.” Miller says. “The stakes are higher. You have someone that you want to be proud of you eventually.” And on the other hand she says: “You’re aware of your own mortality. For me, as soon as I had a baby I had a vision of my life – and what was left of it.”

Miller also says that executives and casting directors think differently of her now “I’m sure that factors. People who read the negative things [about me], the people who need persuading, are probably ignorant enough to assume, ‘Well she’s got a kid so she’s serious now.’ Which, of course, isn’t the case. I’m still whoever I was. Maybe more mature, but the same. So amongst that ignorant, ridiculous area of my industry, I’m sure opinions of me have changed because I’m a mother now.”

What do you think? Do you agree with Sienna Miller?

If you are an actor then check out my book How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur. It is available in print and in all eBook formats on both Smashwords and Amazon.

Beauty Resolutions To Stick With

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Catherine Balavage

The New Year always brings out the best of intentions for everyone whether or not these last is another thing, unlike those pesky Christmas pounds. Some resolutions are worth keeping however and these beauty resolutions will pay off in years to come.

Throw Out Your Old Makeup

Old makeup is a breeding ground for bacteria. See that little pot icon with a number and an ‘m’ inside on the back of your products? That is the expiry date in months from when they are opened. It will help if you keep a note of when the product was opened as it is easy to forget. Mascara should be replaced every six months and anything over a year old should probably be thrown out. Make sure you wash your makeup brushes too. Wash in warm, soapy water and then leave them to air dry. You can clean them with some mild shampoo or washing up liquid.

Give Your Hair a Break From Heat Damage

Blow drys and hair straighteners can cause significant damage to hair. Hair can end up drier than the Sahara and could even break off. The best way to prevent further damage is to stop using hair dryers and straighteners. Cutting down your use if you can’t quit will help but also use a heat protection spray and a weekly hair mask.

Have a Weekly Facial

You don’t need to go to a professional for a facial. You can do one at home yourself. Double cleanse your face, use a good scrub and then apply a face mask. Regular exfoliation helps skin renew itself as we age and a good face mask will give skin a good amount of moisture.

Do it weekly and your skin will thank you. A facial massage is under-rated and really makes a difference to your skin. It leaves you looking fresher and more toned. Use a face oil and gently massage your skin in circular movements. Work upwards and tap your eye socket starting from the outside.

Stop Sleeping in Your Makeup

This is a huge beauty no-no and not just for your pillow; your skin repairs itself at night but your skin needs to be able to breathe for this to happen. If it is covered in makeup your pores will be suffocated. Free radicals and dead skin cells also build up on the skin if you don’t wash your face. Wash your face as soon as you get in or keep some cleansing wipes handy. Keep the cleansing wipes to a minimum however as they are not as good as washing your face properly.

Always Wear Sunblock

Beauty decisions you make now will affect your looks for the rest of your life. Putting in effort now means looking good ten years down the line. The most important one you can make is to use an SPF everyday. Use a broad-spectrum sunscreen which protects from UVA rays, which are ageing, and UVB rays, which burn. It is not just vanity. This will also protect you from skin cancer, something that should be taken more seriously than it is. Wear at least an SPF 15 everyday. You can buy good moisturisers which have an SPF in but wearing a foundation with one in is not enough, you won’t wear enough to get the benefit nor will it cover all of the needed areas. A foundation with an SPF is still a good idea, just make sure you also use a moisturiser or separate sunscreen.

What is your beauty resolution?

People Who Were Fired For Tweeting: Why We Should Be More Careful On Twitter

Posted on January 2, 2015 by Catherine Balavage

The importance of social media training was highlighted by Labour MP Emily Thornberry tweeting a picture that many found condescending and classist. Many people tweet without thinking and those in a position of power routinely get themselves into trouble because of this. Reputation is everything in business and it can be destroyed with a single tweet. Twitter is a great resource but many forget how powerful it is and that tweets are not private. Clicking ‘tweet’ can ruin careers.

Thornberry’s infamous tweet featured the St George Cross flag, draped from a suburban home which had a white van parked in the driveway. The now ex-shadow attorney-general for Labour lost her job because of the tweet which not only damaged Thornberry, but also the Labour party as a whole. Ed Milliband was said to be ‘furious’. Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: “We should have pride in flying the Cross of St George – don’t knock the national flag of England.”

Prime Minister David Cameron also said the Labour MP’s actions were “completely appalling” and made a suggestion that she was “sneering at people who work hard, are patriotic and love their country”.

After the incident Twitter founder Jack Dorsey was asked if the reaction to Emily Thornberry’s tweets made him frightened at the power of his creation. He said: “I don’t think it’s any different from what we’ve been doing as a humanity – it’s just faster.”

Other people who have lost their jobs because of inappropriate tweets include:

CNN Middle East editor Octavia Nasr wrote a controversial tweet regarding Lebanon’s deceased Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah. Nasr wrote of her “respect” for Fadlallah, who was very anti-American and was also linked to bombings that killed more than 260 Americans. She later said she had been referring to Fadlallah’s “attitude” and apologised for trying to discuss a complex figure on Twitter.

Politician Stuart MacLennan was fired by the Labour Party after making a number of offensive tweets. He referred to Commons Speaker John Bercow as a “t**”, David Cameron a “t***” and Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, “a b******”.” He also referred to elderly voters as “coffin dodgers”. He apologised for the tweets and was removed from the party’s ticket.

Former MLB pitcher Mike Bacsik lost his job as a radio producer after drunk tweeting racist comments during a Mavericks-Spurs game.

Comedian Catherine Deveny was fired from a job writing for Australian newspaper The Age when she tweeted about her hopes that Steve Irwin’s daughter gets laid.

Her former boss, editor Paul Ramadge, said, “We are appreciative of the columns Catherine has written for The Age over several years but the views she has expressed recently on Twitter are not in keeping with the standards we set at The Age.”

TV extra on Glee, Nicole Crowther, tweeted about some plot spoilers she had heard on set. A big no-no in the entertainment industry. She was then fired via Twitter by the show’s producer, Brad Falchuk, when he tweeted in response: “Hope you’re qualified to do something besides work in entertainment.”

Comedian Gilbert Gottfried was the voice of the Aflac duck and made jokes about the Japanese tsunami. “Japan is really advanced. They don’t go to the beach. The beach comes to them.” He tweeted. Unfortunately for him Aflac is the largest insurance company in Japan and he was fired.

A woman called Connor Riley got a job offer from Cisco and tweeted: “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.” Cisco employee Tim Levad then replied: “Who is the hiring manager? I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the Web.” Oops.

Gone Girl Book Review

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Catherine Balavage

Gone Girl has been the literary sensation of the past few years. It was published in June 2012 and it soon made the New York Times Best Seller list and has sold over two million copies. It has sparked a Hollywood film and a vast amount of copy cats. I came late to the Gone Girl party. The film was out in the cinemas and I did not know whether or not to go and see it or read the book first. In the end I went to the cinema first. Our excellent film writer Owun’s review of Gone Girl is here. The film is brilliant, with great performances from Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike.

Seeing the film first did not ruin the experience of reading the book. The book is deeper, less Hollywood and, obviously, has more information. The author, Gillian Flynn, also wrote the screenplay. She did a good job but there are differences between the film and the book. Not bad differences, I think she did an amazing job.

A lot of people told me not to read the book or watch the film as I am recently married. However, although the book has great observations on marriage and relationships, I really don’t think anyone in a good marriage could possible relate to the book or the film. So, read it and enjoy: it won’t destroy your marriage.

The book is engrossing and I have tried very hard to not give any spoilers. Although I am sure everyone knows, from the title alone, that this is a book about a man who’s wife goes missing. Did he kill her or not? But this book became a literary sensation not only because it is well written, but also because it is original with great twists. It is an intense thriller and hard to put down. Join the Gone Girl fan club, I know I have. Gone Girl is available to buy here.

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