The Aftermath

No journalists called me this week, and my phone has slowly managed to find peace; now it is only buzzing about twice as much as before Ellen (yes, there will forever be a «before» and «after Ellen» now). The number of followers on Instagram has eventually stabilized, and though my twitter profile is more busy with visitors and followers than ever before, the threat of an explosion seems to cease.

On the other hand, I was called in for a meeting with the headmaster of my school, where the details discussed will remain unrevealed – but I’d say it was promising. The manager of Cirque du Soleil’s travelling show Totem contacted me, after reading this blog last week.

I have no idea whether that can or will mean anything for my future – but I don’t think it was all random, and I’ll say I’m quite flattered anyway. I’m still being stopped on the street («Ellen show, right?!»), and if nothing else – at least I still have Ellen’s pretzels in my kitchen drawer.

So, I have yet to be contacted by any big directors or casting bureaus. But like they say, all big things start with small steps – and along those lines, a lot of steps were taken this week. I’ve been participating in student films as much as I can ever since I started here – but as the calls from Hollywood producers are lacking, a rush of requests from student filmmakers are coming in its place.

Hence, this Monday I was the big boss of a police department (corrupt, as such), commanding my employee to «take out» his brother. Of course I am also continuously working on my scene study character (one of T. Williams famous closeted gay men haunted by demons of fury, self despise and alcoholism, as well as a thick southern accent) – which is to be performed in front of class every Wednesday and Friday until the final performance at a real theatre in middle of May.

On Saturday, I travelled back to the 1920’s to become a college athlete at a fancy restaurant with the woman of my life – dressed in tuxedo and appropriate British posh accent.

The day after, I entered the world of German expressionism as an unlucky soul captured by a curse, determining every woman he ever fell in love with to leave him for another man. For some reason, I found myself praying all through that day that it was merely a fictional movie script.

In this new life of mine, I must say that my different alter egos can throw me off a little at times. Not only am I different persons almost every day, but my basic environment is also completely shifted. I barely have contact with my old friends back home, and though I am lucky to have the most loving and supporting family in the entire world, it is also one of the busiest one. Thus they are gone, though they are with me.

The social roles that defined me, who- and whatever I identified myself with is no longer with me. Basically, all the framework of my life is gone. As the original idea of my inner self is becoming a fading memory, I find myself wondering where that person has gone, who that was anyway, and what the heck I really am now.

I guess, or I hope, one is still the same although one takes on various characters and shifting environments. But a lot of times here, I feel an urge to say like my beloved grandpa when his age plays him some mind tricks; «I think I am a little bit confused now…?»

Then he always turns to my beloved grandma – and she can explain him absolutely everything. For me that is a beautiful demonstration of exactly what I need to do as my life changes drastically – now, and for the rest of my life; to know who and what is the most important in life, keep them as my anchors and my safe ground.

Life 2.0 is one of Khrono’s blogs, and will be presented with new blogposts every week. Petter Egge is a former student from HiOA and journalist at Khrono.no. He has decided to do something quite different. This is his stories.

April 23th 2014:
Chronicle #13: The Tribute

Out of his good heart Petter helped a person on the street, and suddenly life turned around for a couple of days. When this week started, I was at the bottom of a deep valley, weighed down under a number of concerns. The ones about my economy had already bothered me for months, as frequent readers would already know, but now my worries included another area of much bigger importance.

The whole chronicle #13 here.

April 16th 2014:
Chronicle #12: When words do not suffice

There are times, even for a writer
when written words become empty signs
Times when a writer don’t want to write
cause there’s too much between the lines

The whole poem-blog here.

April 9th 2014: 
Chronicle #11: «The School of Life»

Life is a funny little thing. It is for sure a trembling rollercoaster, but also a splash of water in your face and missing ground under your feet. It has its ways – mysterious, inscrutable – of surprising me, not just when I thought I had it all together, but even more often when I’m already out of balance.

The whole chronicle #11 here.

April 2th 2014: 
Chronicle #10: «The Decennium»

From waking up scared of an earthquake, to not take notice at all. So: I’m happy to announce that I might already be a real Californian.

The whole chronicle #10 here.

Mars 25th 2014: 
Chronicle #9: «The Wake Up Call»

They say you’re not a real Californian until you no longer notice the earthquakes. This week started with something of a wake up call. As mentioned in previous posts, sleep is quite limited for me over here due to lack of time. That one night when I finally managed to enter deeply into those psychedelic lands of dreams at the right time, with no alarm set for the next morning – THE EARTH decided to shake me out of bed at 6:25 AM with a 4.4 magnitude earthquake.

The whole chronicle #9 here.

Mars 18th 2014: 
Chronicle #8: «So You Think You Can Act»

Do you know how to walk? No, you don’t. Can you sit, crawl, or lie down? No, you can’t.  You can’t even lift your arm up in front of you. I know you can’t believe it – neither could I. But every day here, I am proven wrong.

The whole chronicle #8 here.

Mars 11th 2014: 
Chronicle #7: «The walk of Shame»

Ever had the feeling that your duties seem to pass by like a super fast train and you just can’t catch up with it for the life of you?

The whole chronicle #7 here.

Mars 4th 2014: 
Chronicle #6: «Teaser»

I was a journalist, a gymnast and a musician. I had everything I needed – except what I wanted. Thats why I decided to quit my job, say goodbye to my friends and family, and leave for acting school in Hollywood. The Video presented in this blog is a small taste of what life has been like the first few weeks.

Here you can see the video-blog.

Feb. 25th 2014: 
Chronicle #5: «In a cold sweat»

For a guy who has lived all his life by the rules and routines of a gymnastics regime, there is no doubt that life here is a tad more divergent. Having nothing to do at one moment is just as shockingly unfamiliar as it is to run from a film shoot to my roommates’ baptism in the next. At any point earlier in my life, the degree of variation stretched from sleeping, through eating and practice, to toilet visits, school and back to sleep. The circle of life has definitely taken a new shape.

The whole chronicle #5 here.

Feb. 18th 2014: 
Chronicle #4: «The Proposal and the Valentine’s»

Real life, as we will know it the next eight months (though dreamy it may still seem to me), is about to blossom. As the hassle of settling down slowly dies out, challenges of school is coming to life, growing over the heads of its students.

The whole chronicle #4 here.

Feb. 11th 2014: 
Chronicle #3: «Life’s a like a box of chocolate»

As we still can’t seem to get friendly with our apartment (at least our rent), it took my roommate and me no more than three days to decide to move out again. Already stretching our comfort zone with one bedroom, we are now downgrading to NO bedroom.

The whole chronicle #3 here.

Feb. 8th 2014: 
Chronicle #2: Move-in Day and monologues

When gas, water, power and insurance companies got back in to business on Monday morning, Murphy’s law did the same; what could go wrong – well, you know. For the landlord to let us move in, they needed confirmation letters faxed from all of the above – which should be no problem, since we asked them all to do so when opening our new accounts. After half a day of waiting by an empty fax machine, we dared to call them back with a friendly reminder – only to discover that they’d forgotten all about us. When they eventually faxed it, only one name was on the paper – and we’d really prefer that both of us could move in. 

The whole chronicle #2 here.

Feb. 5th 2014: 
Chronicle #1: «I need a dollar, dollar is what I need»

Ok, just to make it clear right away: I am NOT a blogger. Since the dawn of the blogosphere, my prejudices have kept me far away from its kind. But as we all know, the first unwritten rule of a struggling actor in Hollywood is that «Everyone must accept some kind of prostitution in order to survive up until the big breakthrough.» So, I could have fulfilled the stereotype of waiting tables between my auditions, or I could do a «Sylvester Stallone» – but instead I am now spreading trivialities about my still-to-be famous self. Oh, the irony.

The whole chronicle #1 here.