Recently those of us in the potential over 40 category got a series of texts from a Boston casting director ordering us to update our age ranges within 5 years of our real age. I get it. Some actors get a little zealous about trimming off the years and, as a result, there probably has been some backlash from the film production teams that keep receiving submissions wrong for the roles to fill. And what is so wrong with being your age? Not a damned thing. Unless it blocks you from getting called in for the work you would actually book.
I don't normally try to cover up my age. The chronological order of my life is the foundation of my act. I do not look the assigned number. But every role that I have ever booked has been on a submission sent in for a role way more than a decade younger, usually based on a casting director's assumption of my age, not a computer's assigned category. Sure, in order to book me, the producers went older than they intended too by a smidge or at least on the high end of the age range. But, due to the weeding out process created by computerized systems that a few modern casting directors use, I would have never been called in for those jobs based on my number of years age. And, if I change my age category, when they punch in the age groups that they traditionally go for into the computer to search for available female comedy actors, I will not surface as an option.
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| Dignity in my twilight years. |
I am a quirky bleached blonde character actor in the tradition of Victoria Jackson and Georgia Engels. Both of whom in their hay day would have been called in for characters in their 30's. I also use a voice that sounds much younger than my number age which is also a bitch since our voice over stuff goes into the same data place. They do not look for my comedy type in the over 40 set. For some reason, goofy physical female comics just can't be the numbers that be not named although even Flo from Progressive is playing for our team. And the irony is, it took me being over 40 to not care enough what other people thought to get good at it. When did people start thinking about Martha Plimpton ("Raising Hope") as primarily a comedy actor? Think about it.
I give up. I am going to get another tattoo but this time its going to be on my arm, not on my torso hidden like the others. Its going to be of the middle finger flipping high into the air, symbolizing the demise of my present ability to get acting work. I am also going to pierce my nose with a gold loop. And dip the ends of my bleached blond hair in deep red and black. If they want the real me, they will get the real me. The East Village one, not the motherhood joke one. And under my age I will write, "Jessica Baade is dead." Because it will be the same as me writing "45 to 50."
Sigh. Okay. I lied. I folded and changed my age range. And I didn't write "Jessica Baade is dead." Even though its pretty much the same thing with this one casting group. And I didn't get the nose ring because I hate potential face infections. And I will get another tattoo but probably will hide that too. Because the truth is, as much as I hate being thrown into that category, I don't want to scare the casting directors who bring me in because they actually know me and what I can do, not relied on a computer to remind them of my existence. Its a small town. And, I may not look it, but I'm too old to be that stupid.
