«Life’s 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. Zero, nix, nada privacy. And all the more our mantra is repeated throughout the day: «What do you not do as a struggling actor in Hollywood, right?»

If our living/financial situation isn’t exactly a dream come true – school is. So far, it seems exactly like the way-too-cool-to-be-real place I imagined. It turns out the woman I performed my monologue for starred in «Pretty Woman» and «Taxi Driver», and she is now one of my teachers. My first acting class is with a 62 year old Broadway actor, who has taught academy award and Oscar winners for over twenty years.

My scene study teacher featured in over 40 films and 100 TV-shows including «CSI» and «Two and a Half Men». Not to mention that my weekly schedule includes hours of yoga and meditation, which comes in pretty handy to a former gymnast who tends to turn all possible mental stress into destructive bodily tensions. Point being; PUNCH ME, BITE MY ARM or something – so I can find out if this is just another one of my daydreams.

As for the social part, it comes nothing short to the awesomeness just described. My new friends are from literally «all over the place» – Peru, Indonesia, Brazil, etc. – which finds a rootless soul like myself pretty darn well.

In a hungry, creative and multicultural environment like this, our first day off turned out like this: we checked out a stunning photo exhibition in LA, drove down to Santa Monica to play around on the beach for a while, before heading down IKEA so my roomie and I could finally get the very basics we could afford (about a knife and a fork each, that is).

Feeling the Norwegian vibes, I had to buy the super traditional «köttbullar» and prepared a fool proof Norwegian/Swedish dinner for my bro’s. As we’re all movie addicts, meatballs were complimented by «The Adjustment Bureau», and followed by a touch of PS4 «Just Dance» humiliation. Uh huh, that’s a bachelors Hollywood life, baby.

As a Super Bowl virgin, experiencing this crazy circus of a game didn’t exactly make my week any less exciting. Unfortunately though, the preface turned out to be the actual climax. I hope, for the sake of the Americans, that this must have been the least exciting game in the history of football, as one team completely destroyed the other from the very first minute.

Bored, and cynical as I have learned one must be in this business, I turned the event into something of a networking congress for myself. So far I can add a casting director at Paramount Pictures, a professional dancer, a successful actor, and a pastor to my list of allies.

Yes, life is like a box of chocolate; you never know what you’re gonna get – and you never know who you might need. Recalling my acting teacher’s advice (“as an aspiring actor, NEVER turn down a free meal!), I was no less liberal with the venues’ free food. My roomie’s team sure lost, but I’d say my first Super Bowl illustrates my first weeks here; where there is struggle and letdown, there might be hidden big wins.

Life 2.0 is Khrono’s new blog, and will be presented with new blogposts every week. Petter Egge is a former student from HiOA and journalist at Khrono. He has decided to do something quit different. This is his stories.

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.