DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
The Real Skinny On Award Shows
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© Getty: Kerry Washington, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Anne Hathaway

OK, What’s the Real Skinny?
And I’m not necessarily referring to weight…

Though, last night on the 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards broadcast here at the Beverly Hilton, hosts and best friends Tina Fey and Amy Poehler got huge laughs when they joked about actresses and their insane dieting leading up to Awards Season.

Tina set up the joke referring to The Hunger Games as not just one of the year’s biggest films, but “What I call the six weeks it took me to get into this dress.”

Poehler slam-dunked the response with the film Life of Pi being “What I’m gonna call the six weeks after I take this dress off!” Get it? Life of pie. :=)

But seriously, after blogging Friday about awards and True Greatness, I feel compelled to reveal some tidbits of truth to you as it relates to our Awards season. Many of you ask me tons of questions; so, here’s the scoop.

THE REAL SKINNY

1) BIG BUSINESS

Award shows are big business. They are one big commercial for everyone involved: studios, production companies, actors, actresses, producers, writers, directors, fashion designers, jewelry makers, shoe designers, fashion stylists, hair stylists, limousine companies. Everybody, from the company that hauls in tons of red carpet to the celebrity chef for the event, is banking on walking away from the night with lots more loot and/or more potential to make more loot.

“Go see our film,” says the studio that wins 3 awards.

“Hire me for your next film,” says the actors, singers and composers.

“Remember my name,” says the designer who sends the lead actress 3 dresses on loan to choose from and prays that she, her stylist, her manager and entire glam squad will choose their dress and say their name when interviewed on the red carpet. Becoming ‘the chosen’ designer is VERY competitive. Becoming the actress that every designer wants to dress is even more so.

2) NO COINCIDENCES

Everything’s planned. Everything.

Highly-paid publicists (standing off to the side of the celebrity) hand info and questions to producers to feed the hosts to chat with the celebrity on the red carpet. Acceptance speeches are usually written by master craftsmen and actors are expected to pull them off with sincerity and truth. (Though, I don’t think Tarantino wrote that ahead of time last night. Actually, my husband and I agreed… we think he was toasted.)

3) NOBODY WINS ON TALENT ALONE

Nobody wins any award around here without the power of a well-oiled Hollywood PR machine.

I remember reading Angela Bassett’s autobiography years ago where she stated how surprised she was to learn that she couldn’t win an Academy Award for her portrayal of Tina Turner based on her performance alone. She was expected to hire one of the PR firms in town who specializes in publicity campaigns to Academy voters. She didn’t hire. She didn’t win.

That doesn’t take away from anyone’s talent. You must give a great performance to be invited to the party. But you will not be voted prom king or queen without some major marketing. So, have your manager contact your business manager and put that top PR firm on retainer at least 6-12 months beforehand so they have enough time to build your public story and make it look like you’re in the news for other causes than the repetitive message, “Please vote for me.”

KNOWING THE TRUTH

Knowing the truth doesn’t take away any of the glamour of the fabulous gowns and everyone playing dress up and looking their best. It just reiterates that Hollywood is a business first.

If I can pass anything along to any of my fellow artistic peers, it’s this, “If you want to work in Hollywood, learn the business.”

I meet so many actors who move and just have faith that things will work out, but they have no idea how this business works and neither do they want to learn. They want to pray and watch God work miracles on their behalf and jettison them to the front of the hiring line without learning what it took to build that line.

James 2:14-26 is a fascinating expose faith and works. Verse 17-18 says “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead… Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.”

Our faith should propel us to learn as much as we can about the field that we want to work in, whether that’s Hollywood, Wall Street, or the elementary school down the street. Our faith should drive us to learn the real skinny on wherever we’re called and utilize that truth to make a difference in somebody else’s life.

Happy findings,
Naima

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