Headshots. Can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em. Getting a headshot is a long, drawn-out process involving much time, and much money. First, you have to find someone, usually a professional, to photograph you, to capture you. Then you schedule the shoot, and then you go and sit, stand, smile, laugh, look serious, look fun-loving, look cute, sexy, glamorous, high-end, casual, in a jacket, dress, business suit, slacks, jeans, heels, sneakers, made up, hair done, looking like the best you possible. Soon, you get the results. In the past it was contact sheets and a loop, now it’s all digital, but all the same, it’s the same: you’ve got to go through all the shots and pick the best, say, 5-10. Then you really look at these best ones, and then decide to look at some of the others again, and maybe get a different 5-10, and really look at them, and finally, you have, “the one.” Then you take this picture of you and get it made into a hardcopy 8×10 with your professional name at the bottom in a font you took time to choose, and you order 50, or a hundred, maybe with your resume printed on the back, and you walk out happy with the 50 or one hundred copies of “you.” Your calling card in the business. Your introduction to agents and managers. Your in with casting agents. Your key to the audition room. Your ticket to the top. And you’re happy…But… sooner or later, you look at your picture of you, and you start to think, and you ask your friends, maybe, or your agent/manager, what do you think, is it still good, is it still me? And no matter what you think, or what people say, you’ve begun the process all over again. You feel different. You look different. You are different. Do I do it now, do I have enough money, do I go to the same photographer…Can’t live with ’em, for long. Can’t live without ’em, though, even now. Agents, managers, casting people, directors, producers, still need headshots to see some version of you. And, as I am a director as well as an actor, I can say, from the other side of the table, the best version of you is just you. Easy to say, hard to do. You pick a headshot, times change, you change, styles come and go, you change your hair or you lose hair, you age, new people come and go, your calls change, from ingenue to not-an-ingenue to young parent, then mid-30’s to 40’s, middle-aged, 50’s-60’s, grandparent, 60’s-70’s, pharmaceutical pitch-person for every conceivable senior condition or disease, or, wise, or crazy ancient-one, the one usually in kung-fu pictures the other in bucket list movies. Sounds crazy, I know, but all this being said, this life continues to be a great ride. I am Ron Nakahara and I’m a professional actor/director. Welcome to my world.
