Turning down work that isn’t animal-friendly
Submitted by An Animal-Friendly Life
Some of you may know that I have, on occasion done some acting. Apologies if I’ve been holding out on you. I really haven’t done much of it lately, as activism has occupied much of my time in the past year, and I tend to focus more on writing, producing and directing, which allows me to bring my activism into my work. Acting’s fun if you’re not moving from one audition to the next, desperately hoping to finally land that one breakthrough gig.
So, anyway, when I moved to Boston, I researched the agencies that were franchised to handle members of the Screen Actors Guild, of which I am a member, and I found only one! Fortunately, the agency is well-respected and took me on immediately. The twist is that they also handle modeling, which I had flirted with twice in the past but never done, since the Los Angeles market was definitely not for me. I was told that I had a much better look for this region and I decided to go ahead and see how that went, since a little extra money for standing around and being me–but better lit–is something I could use. Even better, my agent understood totally when I told her I would not work for certain brands that sell animal-derived products like leather or hamburgers. See? This is actually going somewhere animal-related. And here you just thought I was being a narcissist.
So, since arriving in Boston, I have been out on numerous commercial and major movie auditions (things are hopping here in Boston right now), and even more print castings (including a booking, thank you very much), none of which involved selling clothes or food, so the issue hasn’t come up. But I just now received a call from one of the people at the agency that handles booking auditions. She had a Dunkin Donuts casting for me. Now, I haven’t set foot inside a Dunkin Donuts except once since going vegan, and that was to make sure they didn’t have soy milk to put in their coffee (they didn’t). Of course, none of their food products are vegan, either.
Apparently the person calling me from the agency didn’t see on my card or whatever it is they use to track their roster that I was vegan, but I kindly let her know my position on not “lending my image” to companies that are distinctly not vegan, and she seemed very understanding. I was pleasantly surprised at a) how well she took that in stride and b) how easy it was for me to turn away potential work that would have conflicted with my values. That actually sounds funny; I’m not surprised I said no so easily, but I am surprised at how I felt zero pang of regret that my vegan ethics narrow down certain options in my life, particularly when there was some financial gain to be had. This made me happy, thus the post.
So, how to translate this beyond my own experience? All I can say is that it’s worth it. If you can carve out a living without having to work at a non-vegan restaurant or sell leather shoes or otherwise work in a job that doesn’t align with your animal-friendly values, you will be so much happier, and you may just find respect for your choice.
A side meta note: I realize this is my first post since December 28th, and I apologize that I have been so silent. Things have actually gotten even busier around here lately, with a lot of activities and meetings shoved together in a very tight timeframe, a busy BVA calendar for January, and several opportunities that are moving forward all at the same time. January may be as light a month as December, but I will do what I can to keep this blog relevant and interesting. In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled for another AAFL column at tastebetter.com, coming soon.
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