Rehearsing The Campaign with Stephen Mitchell via Skype

Here I am rehearsing the newest monologue of The Campaign via skype with writer/director Stephen Mitchell. The Campaign is a one woman show currently being written for me by Stephen.

Headshots...We need how many??!

Photo credit: joannadegeneres.com

It's very helpful to have several looks in your repertoire of headshots; especially if you have an ambiguous appearance (like me!). You need to hit all your bases and trust me, it's not that easy! As you can see in my headshot above, this is a completely different look for me. One of the many types of roles I get called in for is "Intelligent" (I know, very vague), so it's important to be able to convey this on many levels; the most obvious one being wearing glasses.

Check out my headshots below and see if you can find out which look I'm missing! 

Photo credit: joannadegeneres.com

Photo credit: anthonymongiello.com

Photo credit: Emily Dane Brown

As you can see, I have a commercial shot, a theatrical/action shot with little makeup, and a period piece shot. All of these go within my wheelhouse, although I'm missing just one look...have you guessed it yet??

Ok I'll tell you.. 

Beauty Shot

Photo credit: someone AMAZING

Stay tuned for my new look!

Samantha Bogach talks about her role on Days Of Our Lives

Samantha Bogach 

on her recurring role on 

Days of Our Lives

Q: Can you describe the role you played?

S: The audience is introduced to “Lucy” in the hospital after she had a traumatic experience at a party. I tend to play roles with a type of heaviness surrounding them. It’s clear “Lucy” is a strong woman but has been put in a situation in which her strength was tested. 

Q: How was the audition process, and how did you prepare?

S: The audition was a very pleasant one despite some dark aspects of the script. Marnie Saitta is a wonderful casting director! She doesn’t allow an assistant or camera man in the audition room so she reads with the actors herself. I find it difficult to prepare for a scene in which the role I’m playing has been “traumatized”, because everyone reacts differently to extreme situations. There is no right or wrong way to emote being the victim of an inhumane situation. I cleared my head, imagined this really happened to me, and went in to read the scene. When it was over Marnie had tears in her eyes, so I knew it went well!

Q: Are Soap Opera’s something you’d be interested doing long-term?

S: I love to act, so whenever the opportunity arises I will act. Some of my favorite actors/actresses have started out on soaps and I’m honored to be following in their footsteps! It seems to be a solid step for most actors who have experience and training on stage, which is my case.

Q: How do you feel about transitioning from stage to film?

S: I’m never “transitioned”; That would mean I was once something specific and am now something else specific. My job is to not be specific, but rather to identify with all art forms, including and especially the human psyche. I will always be a stage actress at heart! I strongly believe that acting on stage is the most vital prerequisite for acting on camera. I love cinema as it is the evolution of stage, and has the capability to project more intricately on a mass scale. It carries the opportunity for greatness and I truly hope it starts heading back in that direction soon. 

For further information, contact:

615-945-7062

and/or

samanthabogach@gmail.com

The Campaign advances

Here I am practicing part three of the one woman show, The Campaign, written for me by director/writer Stephen Mitchell. This show was initially intended to be aired on PPV but is also destined to be performed live.

Brief Encounter

   

Over the holidays I spent a couple weeks in Italy with my family. My ENTIRE family, all 10 of us rode in tiny boats through the canals in Venice, climbed the Duomo in Florence, frolicked through wine country, and traipsed through the ruins in Rome! It was a lovely and enlightening trip, which I can easily say about all of my experiences overseas.

I even got to connect with an industry professional while I was in Rome thanks to director/writer Stephen Mitchell. He connected me with a good friend and colleague of his, John Lawrence Ré (CEO of Northern Arts Entertainment) who then connected me with a friend and colleague of his, Carl Haber, a director/writer and film professor at the American University of Rome. Carl was amazing to talk with and gave me a lot of ideas of how I can pursue my dreams while still traveling and living the life I want to live. He also gave me some solid advice on screenplay writing and offered insight on the feature I'm currently writing. We agreed to keep in touch via Skype!

Traveling is so much more than just "getting away" from it all. It's a way to find yourself on multiple levels. You come back knowing secrets about yourself you never thought to unlock. You see yourself everywhere..in the history that's so alive it still holds feeling and presence. In the locals relaxing with their espresso in the middle of the day because their shops are closed for "siesta". In Michelangelo's "David". In your sister as she stares in awe at the buried ancient city. You start to separate all that doesn't make you feel this good, this free. You put it into a box and you never open it again. You discover a secret; We are all the same in some unexplainable way and it is time and circumstance that makes us feel separate.

Acting is putting yourself in a circumstance and acting truthfully within that circumstance. One of the most admirable things you can do as an actor is to lose yourself in a role so much so that the audience doesn't even recognize you. I find that using this secret, I don't have to "lose myself". I recognize that I could easily be any of you just as easily as I wake up as myself every morning. So the "self" I am is the thing that recognizes that, not the tiny outside things I attach myself to. I am a ball of emotion, logic, love, air and water. And I can relate to anyone or anything if I fully understand the circumstance.

Traveling allows room for discovery and presence, both which are crucial to being a well-rounded actor and a well-rounded human being. I can't wait to fill in the gaps with my next adventure!

Mockingjay Part 1: Did anything happen?

As a reader of The Hunger Games trilogy I of course went to see the third film adaptation of the series, Mockingjay Part 1 (directed by Gary Ross). I thought the film was a pretty good representation of the first half of the book, where nothing happens at all....

Most of the film consisted of "Katniss" (Jennifer Lawrence) walking through the rubble of destroyed districts while on the brink of tears. Now I understand Lawrence was probably filming a couple other projects either side by side or pretty close to the filming of Mockingjay, but her performance plays true to the quote "don't bite off more than you can chew". I found her performance to be lazy and completely lacking in truth. We've all seen "Katniss" grow throughout the past two films as a true heroine; Strong, detached, full of mystery yet always willing to take the bullet. This "Katniss" did not honor her. After going through the games not once, but TWO times, don't you think she'd have lost some vulnerability? The games, where the only way to survive is to become literally inhumane. Don't you think she would have not only run out of tears to shed, but also forget that she's even human. All I saw was a weak, sappy, and irritatingly naive young girl which caused me to wonder, "what happened to our Katniss?". The entire film relied on Lawrence's performance because, as I said before, nothing actually happens. Her talent was the only thing keeping this well done blockbuster from turning into a typical hollywood sham of a film; which is exactly what Mockingjay is. 

As for the rest of the sub-par film, "Katniss" (Lawrence) and "Gale" (Hemsworth) had absolutely no chemistry, which is strange because apparently they are very close in real life. The tension between the two characters was a huge flame in the last book that kept the story flowing, which unfortunately is lacking in the adaptation. 

The only thing that makes this film worth watching (if it is at all) is the amazing and surprising performance by Josh Hutcherson. I was a bit unimpressed by him in the first two films, but I must say I was blown away by him in Mockingjay. during his screen time which consisted mostly of close-ups, he captivates the audience with his honesty, perplexity, and the twinging pain that seems to never leave his eyes. I left the theatre saying to myself "Where did he come from?". Lawrence was clearly the stronger actor in the first two films and in this one they seemed to have switched places. 

While the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as well as veterans Julianne Moore, Donald Sutherland, and Woody Harrelson did pull in fine performances, there just wasn't much for them to do with this half told story. I kind of forgot about them...

All I ask is that when there is $125 Million on the line, please for the love of art MAKE SOMETHING WORTH WATCHING. If the studios in Hollywood weren't so consumed with making money and they actually concentrated on the QUALITY of the films, then guess what? Everyone would win! We'd get to see great quality films and they'd STILL get to make tons and tons of money. But ya know what?  Tons and tons of money just isn't good enough for them. Mockingjay so very obviously should have been one movie and the only reason it's not is because now they get to make DOUBLE.  

Thoughts on Interstellar, Birdman, and Gone Girl

The last three movies I saw were Interstellar, Birdman, and Gone Girl (directors- Christopher Nolan, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and David Fincher).  Each of these films are extremely well acted, written, and directed, and are already contenders in this years award season. I did however notice a strange similarity in the way I felt when leaving the theatre for both Birdman and Gone Girl that was drastically different than the way I felt when leaving Interstellar.

I'm very empathetic which can be fun while watching movies, as I truly feel that I'm sharing the experience with the characters. Of course this can also be emotionally and even physically disruptive while watching something painful (emotionally or physically) since I share that experience as well. While watching Birdman I felt very connected to the lead character (Riggin- played by Michael Keaton) because actors share similar "demons", mostly leading back to the need for outside acceptance and praise in order to feel fulfilled. Although I related to the character of "Riggin" which is wonderful, the film left me very emotionally confused. I felt there was no solution to this "demon" living inside Keaton's character, which made me think there was no solution to my own "demons". I felt that the film forced me to look backward at my personal problems instead of looking forward into the light at the end of the tunnel.

A similar emotion arose after seeing Gone Girl when the only conclusion I could come up with was, "both of these people are terrible." I felt confused as to why I spent over two hours watching humanity at it's worst with absolutely no message behind it. This too made me look backward on the world's issues instead of forward.

I know that every film can't be happy and positive the whole way through, and I personally would find that extremely boring. What I do think every Studio film should have at this point in time is a message that makes people think FORWARD. We know our society's issues. Everybody with an active facebook knows the condition of the world today in every aspect and from every person's point of view. We are on the brink of a spiritual and scientific revolution where we can share ideas and beliefs without filter whenever and with whomever we want. The lines are blurring and the light is spreading like wild fire. I think it's about time the media caught up.

I know It's easy to say, "A movie is just a movie", but think about what our subconscious takes from these blockbuster films. Movies like Interstellar force us to think progressively because of it's message. I'm not saying every film has to be about literal progression like Interstellar. I'm saying the most beautiful messages are always intertwined within the darkest of tales, and that might be the only thing I know certain to be true in this life. Why put something out there for the world to see that hones in on yesterdays problems, unless it leads us somewhere new? Where there is darkness there is always light and that message should be underlaid whenever possible.