Skip to main content

Face Up to It.


While I’m not often one for joining in with these things, I found myself succumbing to the lure of #FirstHeadshotDay / #OldHeadshotDay today on Twitter.

Face (c)1981 David Ephgrave; photo (c) Mark Davis (2002)

When I saw my first CV photo again, which was taken in 2002, it struck me just how young I look. I remember the shoot clearly, because getting your first headshot when you leave drama school is a very big moment.

It was taken by MAD Photography’s Mark Davis in the studio in his house in Enfield. I think I shared the shoot with my actress friend Moya, though I may be misremembering it. I know I was nervous, probably more about keeping my hair intact than anything. The moment that sticks in my mind the most was when the photographer tried to get me to smile with my mouth open, which I don’t really do, and me feeling very uncomfortable and forced about it.

“But you look like Stan Laurel when you don't", was his considered response, which makes me wonder if I was tugging at my hair when he said it; whatever it was, you’ll notice my mouth's closed in the chosen photograph.

(c) Claire Grogan (2006)

My next headshot was taken four years later by Claire Grogan and I was far happier with it. I look more relaxed and self-assured, probably because I'd had more experience and knew what I wanted. I remember really enjoying the shoot, which seems odd, as if anything it was the sort of thing I’d usually dread; I just really liked her approach.

(c) Gemma Poole (2012).

My wife took my most recent headshot in 2012. It may be six years old, but I think I can still pass for it. The shoot was inevitably very comfortable as I’m so used to her taking my photo, though her pictures tend to be less posed and more off-the-cuff usually; whatever the case I’m very happy with it, so "Gis a job…"

Popular posts from this blog

Shakerpuppetmaker.

Have Parker from Thunderbirds and Noel Gallagher ever been seen in the same room? The resemblance is uncanny. So much so, I think something’s afoot. If my suspicions are correct, I've stumbled across a secret that will blow the music and puppet industry wide apart. In the mid-60s / mid-90s at least. It doesn’t take long to see the signposts. There’s the similarity between the name of Oasis’ first single, Supersonic, and Supermarianation, Gerry Anderson’s puppetry technique. The Gallagher brothers would often wear Parkas . Live Forever was clearly a reference to Captain Scarlet and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants to the size difference between Noel and his bandmates. The more you think about it, the more brazen it gets. It’s fishier than Area 51, Paul is Dead and JFK's assassination put together. The only glitch to the theory is scale . According to Wikipedia, Anderson’s marionettes were 1’10” and Gallagher is 5’8”. How does he maintain an illusion of avera...

'...I'm Gonna Look at You 'til My Eyes Go Blind."

Over the past week or two, I’ve been on a bit of a Sheryl Crow kick, largely thanks to rediscovering her cover of one of my most-liked Bob Dylan songs. She has one of my favourite female voices, yet despite this, I only own one CD and that’s just a single (her '97 release ‘Hard to Make a Stand’); on that basis, you can only imagine how much of her back catalogue I’d own if I hated her (it would fall into minus-figures). Dylan, conversely, takes up more of my collection than anyone else, save The Beatles and Paul McCartney’s solo work. He’s one of those artists who, when you get him, you really get him - and once I’d tuned into his style as a student, I'd time and again be blown away by his lyrics; he’ll have more jaw-dropping imagery in one track than other people fit in a whole career. These days, I mostly listen to music in the morning when getting ready, and more often than not, this will consist of a suggested YouTube playlist when I’m in the bath, r...

"Speaking Words of Wisdom, Let it Shine."

Tonight saw the second instalment of BBC1’s latest advertise-a-musical-for-months-and-then-cast-it-with-performers-too-inexperienced-to-do-it-a-thon ‘Let it S̶h̶i̶t̶e̶ Shine’ (or as I call it: ‘REAL AUDITIONS ARE NOTHING LIKE THIS’). I didn’t watch it (clearly), but being reminded of how angry seeing just five minutes of it made me last week caused me to mull over what I would call a musical based on the band’s songbook, if I was responsible for it. Here are a my suggestions: IDEAS FOR TITLE OF A TAKE THAT MUSICAL: Barlow! Dirty Fat-Dancing Orange! A Million Love-changes-everything Songs Owen! Howard's End Pray Misérables Mamma Marka! Babe (with a pig as the lead) …BUT MY FAVOURITE HAS TO BE: Jason & His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. "It was Orange, Orange, Orange, Orange..." (TAKE) THAT’S ENOUGH OF (TAKE) THAT.