Sorta Weekly Update (More Like Sorta Monthly) – 11 Mar 2013

So sorry this SCOSWU (more like SCOSMU) has taken so long, but at least I come bearing gifts! (cue search for gifts!) The reason for the delay is mainly having the FLU – and I’m talking the real flu here ladies and gents, not the dreaded “Man Flu” that goes around from time to time. I lost weight on this thing and I’m naturally not a big person. I’ve never sweated/bathed/washed and changed my bed so many times in the first 4-5 days (and that is way too much information already. So, I’m just gonna stop myself right there and move onto the other reason this has taken so long!) Just over a week ago I moved house – anyone who has ever done this will know what a process this is. I feel very settled here now though and I’ve caught up on most of the work postponed due to the sickness and the move! WINNING!

I’m just gonna dive right into this in whatever order seems appropriate to my Sunday morning brain and hope I get most of it done before I have to head out to the Aussie BBQ #5 at The Echo today. I know this probably won’t happen but at least I’ll get part way there! It was my Bro (pun intended) Ben Lawson‘s Birthday  last month and I went out and celebrated with him. I still find it crazy how many Aussies I know or meet out here! Another Aussie bro of mine’s bday was last month too and I went out to celebrate my bro Tim Phillipps‘s’ss’ss’ss Birthday also – after growing up with and living with this guy for so many years it was nice to celebrate a birthday in the same country again! Doesn’t happen very often these days! Unfortunately it means I was in the wrong country for my Mum’s Birthday which is the same day as Tim’s!

So that was all I got done (haha) before hitting up the Aussie BBQ which was loads of fun. I saw some fantastic Aussie talent and caught up with some great friends too! Stand out performances from The Trouble With Templeton (I think I may have fallen in love with their keyboard player Betty!), Folk duo Jordan Wilson and Ben Riley AKA Georgia Fair (Fantastic vocals and excellent guitar playing all round) and The Falls (Definitely check out their lovely tune Home). It was so nice to finally check out some really good live music this year! I never see enough live music and I hope this year is filled with many more days like yesterday!

In other artsy news I organised a group of people to check out the Stanley Kubrik exhibition at LACMA. It was my first trip to LACMA and definitely not my last! The exhibition was amazing and I was also lucky enough to see the Caravaggio exhibition on it’s final day. I would have loved the opportunity to work with Kubrik – his all-encompassing approach and commitment to creating powerful/thought-provoking stories is incredibly inspiring. So nice to celebrate the creator of one of my favourite films to watch on the big screen – The Shining. Please check out my Instagram (@samjclark) for some pics I took during the exhibition! While you are there I’d love you to like/comment your favourite pics!

Interior of master bedroom

In even more artsy news (yes I’m one artsy mofo these days!) I went to an awesome exhibition of world-renowned French photographer Mathieu Bitton (if you like his page please feel free to let him know Sam J Clark sent you). The exhibition was held at the Sheats Goldstein Residence in Beverly Hills which had the most incredible virtually uninterrupted view of LA. Check out 45 pics of this incredible living space where this exhibition was held (shots taken prior to a renovation – in which space the exhibition was actually held – pictured to the right). Incredibly cool to have two friends in two of the featured prints at the exhibition and I made a new friend on the night who appears in a third print. I was obviously so incredibly impressed by the shots in his Travelogue exhibition (take a quick read of his IMDB to understand this man’s caliber) and was so blessed to receive my own personally signed copy of a very limited run book to celebrate this exhibition. What a genuinely lovely guy too – a welcome rarity in this world!

As you are aware, I’ve been doing a lot of auditions since I moved to the US and there have been several projects I would have really liked to be involved with. One was a Lifetime mini series about Bonnie and Clyde. I had to learn a Southern Accent late last year for this audition and really enjoyed the scripts. It is really hard when you miss out on jobs like this one that you felt you would’ve really nailed. It makes it slightly easier when someone like Emile Hirsch lands the role. Crazy to constantly be competing with such high quality talent for almost every role I go for these days! Another job I would have loved to work on is a new TV series called The Hundred which fellow/Neighbours Co-stars Eliza Taylor and Bob Morley have landed roles in! In good news I recently wowed an American casting director with my American accent – she almost fell out of her seat when I ‘became’ an Aussie again at the end of the audition. In amazing news I am currently on hold for a job that would see me come back to Australia for a few months. Fingers crossed this one works out (currently between me and one other actor) and I can visit my beautiful country earlier than expected!

The US version of the Mental Trailer premiered on iTunes about a month ago – so excited for this film to finally be released in the US on March 29th! Finally I can include footage from this in my show reel and hopefully it brings plenty more opportunities over here in Hollywood! I’ve seen a couple of movies in the last month too but none that have really blown my mind unfortunately. A Good Day to Die Hard was pretty much exactly what I expected it to be, which isn’t an issue – Action just isn’t my favourite genre – and a big congrats must go to fellow Aussie Jai Courtney for being involved! He is just killing it at the moment! I also saw South Korean director Chan-wook Park‘s Thriller Stoker starring some very well-known Aussie Actresses. I found this film a little slow during the first half and I didn’t get much pay-off by the end of the film, but the cinematography and art direction was stunning.

In other random news I hung out with Seth Green at a party at Nathan Fillion‘s house a week ago – Seth has been a favourite of mine for a while – cool to meet him. I did my second twitcam for the year and will be doing a third early next month – check back for a date closer to April. I also recorded a new cover video which is already at over 250 views – at this rate you guys will be getting another cover in no time! I’ll do another video from your requests once this one hits 1500 views.

Last year (when I had super long hair) I was in a music video some friends of mine produced for a red seattle artist called Billy The Kid. This video is finally out through the production company Win That Fight Films and you can spot me a few times in the video for his catchy as collab with Jasper T – Taking Over the World As always I’ve been hiking a bunch though my healthy living was definitely interrupted in that. I’m back on board now though and hiking/playing Bball/personal training a few times each week and feeling great because of it! I also just joined a BMX crew though I can’t say much more than that for now! Watch this space!

Anyway – time for me to head off and start watching Breaking Bad Season 5! BOOM!