I am working on the production of my first screen play. It is a romance about this girl who is training for the police who meets a programmer looking to change careers. It's a bit more complex than that, but I guess you'll just have to wait and see more when I release a teaser!

(I know I already plugged this in another post...so sue me...but first, support me? Bahaha)

Ok, so I have been on the lookout for the perfect actor for the role of Quinn in this short film. He is kind of handsome and funny and caring, and needs to be a good, strong leading man character. I ran a Craigslist ad for a couple weeks, and after having the original guy I chose try to use his newfound position to hit on me, I found another talented actor, who after meeting told me that he could not be in a kissing scene. (Um, wat?) Then I finally found another guy, explained the role, gave him the script and offered him a small stipend.

(First rule of acting...if you are uncomfortable with kissing, you may want to pick a different career. You will be playing more tonsil hockey than Wayne Gretzky. Everyone knows this. Reasonable human beings that take up acting as a legitimate career know this.)

Anyway, I was super excited to start filming. This was back in August of 2017. I had the cameraman set, I was going to play the part of Kay (loosely based on a friend of mine that committed suicide 6 years ago today actually), I had a boom guy, I had the sets mapped out, we were good to go. Well, silly me with 3 freaking kids, of course something would go wrong and things would get delayed. Luckily said actor was really understanding. I told him I would let him know when the new shoot date was going to be. I made the mistake of becoming friends with him on Facebook until I was ready to contact him again.

Ok guys, let me just say this as a rule of thumb. Here's some advice for how to use social media with those who employ you:

1.) Don't.

So for the past few months I have been following this actor's posts on Facebook, and I even donated a small amount to his GoFundMe he was having because he was trying to get into this TaeKwonDo tournament (he does martial arts along with his acting) and I like to support my fellow actor, but that wasn't all he posted about. Oh no.

He started out posting stuff like this:

Then came a more intense flurry of memes:

(Like this one)

(And this one)

Ok, now I am not one to censor anyone's free speech. Quite the contrary, as my entire life I have felt like I have censored myself, but I also understand now, that actions have consequences. You can share whatever you'd like about whatever you want, but it doesn't make you exempt from consequence. Whether or not I am a "truther" is irrelevant. An actor's page on Facebook is not really the appropriate place to be peddling controversial conspiracy theories. Especially a non-established, fledgling actor looking to break into the business.

I liked this guy, and his acting, but I was growing tired of his posts, and it distracted me from what I originally saw in him as the character I wanted him to play. All of a sudden I couldn't even imagine him in that role anymore, and yesterday, sadly, I unfriended him. I am now on the search again for a new Quinn.

(Literally my face yesterday when I saw the meme that made me snap)

So why am I writing about this rather long and seemingly strange thing to be sharing on Steemit?

Well, I guess this is just a friendly neighborhood reminder that:

1.) it's not a good idea to share controversial beliefs on a page completely unrelated to said beliefs (aka conspiracy theory thoughts on your acting profile page.)

2.) you should always keep your audience in mind when talking about anything or sharing your personal beliefs. 

This may not be a popular opinion (few of mine are haha which is why I don't share them often) but I felt zero sympathy for the Dixie Chicks when they done fucked up their careers a while back. They knew that their target demographic was conservatives who supported George W Bush and they openly bad-mouthed George W at a concert of theirs. I would never say that wasn't their right. I hate censorship at my very core, but you also have to be good businesspeople if you are running a business and the Dixie Chicks were. They were selling themselves as a product, their brand, their music, and the customers were conservative country types for the most part. They single-handedly offended the majority of their customers, and then were upset when they weren't making money anymore. Their few remaining supporters cried foul, but there was nothing to be said other than the fact that they were lousy businesspeople. The upside is they eventually got a book deal in which they complained about how unfair and mean this all was, but it didn't change the reality: in order to be good at what you do you have to consider your audience, your fanbase, your customers. To not do so is just bad business.

(Yass queens, it's called "business practice".)

I guess that's where I am at with the actor I chose for my film. He tended to let loose and post whatever his heart desired on his acting profile page, and it was just bad business. I rarely post my political beliefs on my own personal FB page anymore, because I am afraid it might upset friends of family, and in the end, would it even be worth it? Has someone's FB rant in complete opposition to your beliefs ever made you change your mind about something?

(This.)

Perhaps you might be thinking "just get over it Beth," and "if he was a good actor, just ignore his stupid posts." And yes, I could do this, but in this situation, I am the employer. I would never dream of posting the type of stuff he shared anywhere near where a prospective employer could see it. I guess I felt as though I needed to send him that message. Call me petty, but it is a lesson learned for him, and hopefully one that he will consider in the future, because there are directors who would be much more harsh than me. Showbiz is a cut-throat industry, and unnecessarily exposing yourself to losing a job just to share a meme is well...bad business.

Hopefully this didn't make me come off as too mean. I am really quite nice with the people I work with, and as a Libertarian I am rarely sharing a room with someone who would agree with me, but it was just conspiracy theory overload that made me snap, and well...here we are haha.

Any males in Phoenix that wanna give this character a go? 🙈