Yesterday, at around 6:00 pm, I phoned a friend back in New York. I'd received his text message earlier in the day, which read:
Nick - love to talk to you about LA sometime soon. When might be a good time in the next few days/week?
It seemed only just the other day I was the one frantically texting, emailing, and yes, even phoning mentors and friends to pick their brain about the very same matter.
Anthony and I spoke for about an hour. His concerns and thoughts on leaving the "City of Cities" for Tinsel Town mirrored my own, and presumably every serious actor at one point or another.
"I love New York, but feel like it's hard to get a fair shake out here," I'd hear over and over. It was a sentiment I too felt more often than not.
In the end, I gave Anthony my little spiel, which was based on my experience living in Los Angeles, but drawn more from the heightened sense of self-awareness I had continually tried to hone.
I suggested that if trying his hand in Los Angeles was deeply important to him it was worth going. "There's nothing worse than regret," I told him. "Go out for a year and see if it's for you. If you don't like it you can always return to New York. Only now you'll take solace in knowing you tried."
I could feel his youthful angst slowly wane. If we were sitting across from each other at some busy Manhattan coffee shop I imagined he might be silently nodding.
My last bit of advice was broader in its prose but likely more important for him to hear. "You should also work where you'll be happiest. Even if you're wildly successful but have no joy there's simply no point."
It was a lesson hard won, but one I was glad to pass along. Thankfully it seemed to resonate with him, perhaps striking a chord or two.
"If you have no joy in what you do you have nothing," I concluded.
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