Actors anonymous

You'd think Los Angeles was only home to a handful of actors given the startling number of people who are ashamed to admit it. I hear it all the time in my acting class: "Well, I'm just kind of taking classes and seeing if this is what I really want to do." Bullshit. No one moves to Los Angeles to just try it out (unless mommy and daddy are footing the bill, and that's refreshingly rare).

If you ask restaurant servers if they're actors, they'll usually look at you as if they're confessing to pushing baby Jessica down the well. Perhaps this shame is brought upon by the common yet totally valid stereotypes about actors (vanity, selfishness, a demented sense of survival skills, generous sexual favors in return for an audition, etc.).

I say embrace it. I love telling people I'm an actor. If they're in that rare group of nose-frowners, I'm game to prove that I am not just better looking than them, but smarter as well. It usually takes a matter of seconds, unless I've let it slip that I'm from Oklahoma.

Let there be no more shame or dejection. My name is Chase, and I'm an actor.