Jeff Wallenberg writes…
I was intrigued by what you said about never going to audition meetings and being too eager to get the job. Is this because you think that makes you more appealing to producers or because you just don't care that much about any of them?
A little of each…and it's also that I'm not the kind of person who likes to get too obsessed with some outcome, especially something over which I have little control. I have friends, for example, who get so emotional about sports that if, again for example, the Lakers don't win the championship, it will be a major life tragedy on a par with a death in the family. Me, I'm not big on sports. I don't see where my team winning does anything for me…so I don't want to pretend it matters a whole heap, thereby setting myself up for a letdown if and when it doesn't.
It does sometimes make you seem less desirable if you're too eager. Dick Cavett used to say that in show business, the most desirable quality you can have is unavailability. If you seem too unavailable, that can work against you of course…but when you seem real hungry, it usually makes the person with hiring capability think, "Hmm…this guy acts like no one else wants to use him, including people who've hired him in the past. I wonder why that is…"
I'm also aware from several experiences that you usually don't know how some projects will turn out. You're up for Job A and it looks like it might be the most exciting, lucrative, career-fulfilling thing that's ever been dangled before you. But it might not turn out to be that…and working on it might prevent you from getting Job B which turns out to be all or at least more of those things. One day back in the eighties, I was asked to come in and talk about a new series that was seeking a writer. It didn't seem like a great project but you never know…
So I went in, heard about the show and decided it might be a good one but I dunno…maybe not. I really didn't know how I felt and as it turned out, I never had to decide. The next day, they called with a "Thank you for coming in but we've hired someone else." I recall my only reaction to that news being to think, "Good. Now I don't have to decide if I want to do it." A few weeks later, I was offered Garfield, which has turned out to be the best experience of my writing life, at least in the animation division. If I'd gotten that other show, I might not have been offered Garfield or been able to take it. This kind of thing has happened to me a number of times. As a result, when I don't get a job I tend to think, "Okay…let's see what's going to come along soon that will make me happy that one fell through." More often than not, there's something.
So that's why I don't hang my heart on every potential opportunity. Sometimes, it isn't bad news that they decided to go with someone else. You just plain never know.