The Baptist Church and Acting

Hey everyone,

I'm going to be writing a short story about an actress but the thing is, I don't have a clue about acting. I don't know how she would spend her day in Los Angeles when she was working, what would happen on set or whether she would do a modelling job....anything like that. I have no clue.

Also, her father is a Baptist minister (is that what their called?) and I have no clue what kind of duties he would do or what kind of service a Baptist Church would have.

Google isn't being very helpful especially when trying to find out what an actresses day would be like and I'm currently looking up the Baptist Church, but if anyone knows of anything, then it would be a great help.

Thanks,
Anne-Marie

 

Have you looked for forums associated with a Baptist church? Facebook pages?

 

I've had a look around and not many give a detailed description of what happens at a service but I have managed to find a site that has given me a lot of information.

It's trying to find out about being an actress without making it all up and having no truth to it.

 

get some movies about actresses, for info on what their day is like... there are lots to choose from!

you can also check amazon for memoirs by actresses and see how they write about it...

as for being a baptist preacher's daughter, that could possibly be a source of some familial conflict, since i think some of the most 'rigid' baptist churches might consider acting the 'devil's work'...

 

Look up the biographies of Jessica Simpson and Katie Perry. Both come from a fundamentalist christian background.

 

Thanks for the input! I'm going down to my local library tomorrow so I'm going to grab some biographies if I can

 

Both of them are singers but I'll check it out anyway

 

I've known a few aspiring actresses, and they did all kinds of temporary jobs as they auditioned for parts. Some of them had agents but most didn't. They made their roommates practice parts and audition pieces with them all the time.

ps. Awesome avatar, I love Archimedes the owl

 

Brilliant! The actress I'll be creating will already be a famous one but that will help with her background.

And thanks, I made the avatar ages ago since I just love the film.

 

If she's famous, she'll have an agent and probably won't need to do any other jobs between the parts unless she is a "method actress" in which case she might take up a job that helps her immerse herself in the role she'll be playing.

I love Sword in the Stone, my favourite cartoon of all time

 

Maybe you could try visiting a Baptist church and asking them. The Baptists I know are really friendly and would be happy to tell you how their church works.

 

there's a wide variety of baptist 'sects' [or whatever you'd call 'em] so what is ok with one, may not be with others...

 

I guess it depends what you want for your story, if you want your MC's dad to be against acting, you would need a quite extremist branch. You can still create conflict if her dad's in an average church, by her getting a role in a film with a sex scene.
Hope this helps!

 

Thanks to everyone who replied to this! I've got some pretty good ideas, though I can't visit a Baptist church since there isn't one near me locally. I've got a few ideas down and I figured the character's father wouldn't be too upset with her being an actress, depending on her characters and the movie but I'll work on that once I've got this story planned a little more.

Thanks once again everyone!

 

Actors - at least from the few beginner's acting classes I've been to, it's all about "being true to your emotions" and "having no filter for what is socially acceptable and letting everything show like a 3-year-old" - or that is what my teacher said anyway. We were specifically focused on the Meisner's technique, whose famous line was apparently "F*** polite".

Being a Christian myself, I'm not sure how far I actually agree with all this but it was definitely fun and insightful.

And here's something that might be useful to you - depending on whether your MC's father was from a real church or a sect - I may or may not be of some use to you, since I grew up in a Baptist church. First Bretton Baptist, and am now part of the International Baptist Church of Prague. Neither of them sects, neither of them fundamental - both of them actually on the side of being minor charismatic (not like Hillsong or Vineyard, if you know what they are - but just regular church services like any other Protestant ones you'd walk into, but we do talk about spiritual gifts, praying in tongues, and the spiritual battle - things that are indeed taught in the Bible but that some of the more "conservative" churches avoid preaching on due to its controversy).

And judging from my experience - no, there wouldn't be any problem with someone being an actor. But once you get into sex scenes, nudity, gay scenes, or perhaps any religious movie - say if she was a Christian having to play a character that's Muslim and worships Allah - then I imagine there's gonna be trouble, because these practices would go against our faith and what wer believe to be right or wrong - or what is pleasing to God, or not. You may also run into problems with your image - say, it's not the movies you're in that matter, but the public image you have, say perhaps smoking and drugs, getting drunk, sleeping around etc in real life. Yet another conflict I can imagine is - auditions and filming - this girl, if she practices her faith, will likely not get much time to go to church anymore, which is likely gonna become a point of tension with her father. (the Bible tells us not to give up meeting one another, since we all need encouragement from our brothers and sisters in Christ) Your MC might need a fine balancing act if she is to maintain her faith, or else question if she even believes at all and makes a choice to either join her dad or split from it altogether, since her father is unlikely to accept a half-hearted commitment, being a preacher himself. Another thing to consider - swearing. The Bible tells us not to slander, not to use foul language - but often in Hollywood, you do swear a lot, especially cases of saying "Jesus Christ!" and "Oh my God!" - both of them blasphemous according to believing Christians.

Basically, the conflict would not be so focused on the father-daughter relationship - but the conflict would actually be more the girl's own moral dilemma. Does she believe, or does she not? If she does, then some of these things that she is required to do for her job does go directly in conflict with her faith. And if she does not, then she must confront her father. But the conflict must come from within the girl herself FIRST. Her father's opinion matter far less and is actually far less complex than someone doubting or restructuring their faith or the foundation of what they believe in.

 

Thanks Mckk! I had forgotten about this post though I'm going to need more help but on a different story.

You've laid it out simply for me and I would believe that her father would be a preacher, though I won't be sure yet as I'm still planning (I've got two stories to plan and I can't ignore one to do the other since I feel guilty). Personally, I think she would try to balance her work with her religion as she's grown up with those rules embedded into her, whether they were good rules or not.

But I would also think that part of her would rebel against those rules and her religion once she's explored the outer world and started having relationships...okay, there's only one big relationship but that experience is enough to change a person.

I can't wait to write all this down so thanks very much!