LA Diary - Aaron Mapleback
For the next instalment in our 'LA Diary', series, we chat to Full Time graduate Aaron Mapleback, who is making his way in Hollywood.
Q. What is different about your life as an actor in LA, compared to Melbourne?
A. My life changed drastically, from living in a relatively safe, secure and simple environment, to a complex beast of an environment. I should explain. In LA, you are met with just as much welcoming kindness but your life also becomes a bit of a chess game, with who wishes to take you for a ride and who is actually real and who they say they are. There are so many more opportunities, but just as there are more opportunities, there are more opportunists.
Q. What advice would you give to someone thinking about making the change?
A. Get a job! As funny as it sounds the most common progression (for most Americans who come to LA) is living in a nice big apartment, then 3 months later a smaller apartment, and then selling furniture to afford another month's rent, then sharing a living room, to facing the street or living in their car. Then most move back home. Why? because LA is ridiculously expensive! As much as you want to do voice and Alexander Technique practice every day and wait for a chance to use your acting skills, you need a job!
Q. Got a funny anecdote?
A. You never know who anyone is, or who they roll with. The countless times that I've been in a conversation with someone, at some party, and as I get to know them, I find out, "you're best friends with the Franco brothers?" or "Oh you're an executive at this film company?" "Oh, you've won multiple Oscars? That's cool...". This town is full of super normal people that work their butt off, deal with all the difficulties and manage to still have the space for creative expression and to make something worthwhile.
I know at The Studio we champion people who make their own work. That is why I love this Studio! Tennesse Williams didn't say "I'm waiting for someone to give me a prompt before I start writing." He started writing and people started coming because they saw it was good. Kevin, one of my best friends over here in LA, when he was 19 or 20 years old he was living in NY Brooklyn, working for his Dad at a seafood shop, surrounded by crime and mobsters. Kevin got an old camera and made a short film and submitted it to a short film festival. Just so happens that Scorsese watched it, and loved it. Kevin won the film festival and Scorsese gave him a full ride to NYU and privately trained him side by side on set. The video he made was crummy quality on an average VCR camera. So I say to you it's less about the quality of the medium and more about the quality of the storytelling. Breaking Bad's first season was shot on film, not a RED dragon monster thing or an Aria Alexa! So just make something!
Q. What's next for you?
A. My Green Card just finished processing so now I'm able to work. So I shall continue to pay my rent and work my day job, but in every moment available outside of that, I will finish writing a script for a series of short comedies and a feature length animation. Continue assistant producing a few friends' projects and finalise my contracts with my new management. But most importantly, I won't wait for the job to come to me. My advice to you is, do it, MAKE IT! And who cares the about the size of the stage, the cost of the set or the reach of the production. We are in this to act! And finally, you don't need to come to LA to do what you love, Acting is everywhere, and if that's what you want to do, you don't need to cross an ocean to do it. Make a film with your classmates. Just make something!