Fact: acting is a consuming job.
Double fact: you. need. a break.
You cannot possibly hope to ever play a real person if you’re not a real person yourself. I know how much it feels like you should always be working. You’re tied to your email all week, pitching yourself and hoping you get an audition or two. Or maybe you’re scheduling lunch meetings back to back. Or you HAVE to get to the gym. Whatever it is — if it even remotely connects to your career (acting, producing, anything), you are still ‘on’. I cannot stress this enough: do not be on all the time. You won’t like it, the people around you won’t like it, and at some point you will crash!
So what can you do? Earlier this summer, a friend and I went on a camping trip in the Angeles national forest; there was no cell phone reception and I even put up an “out of the office” email note. It was blissful. We went hiking, made smores, got tipsy, and enjoyed not having to deal with the biz. Another friend of mine told me that there’s white water rafting just a few hours from L.A. — just google ‘white water rafting los angeles’ and you’ll stumble on several!
If you aren’t the outdoorsy type, book a hotel and visit somewhere new; I know the temptation is to always save money, but one splurge every year or so isn’t going to kill your budget. Hearst Castle or Santa Barbara are lovely and very relaxing!
I personally have a nice little introverted streak and I can’t handle the amount of “going out” that everyone seems to want to do. There is a birthday party every weekend, mixers, “girl’s nights”… I mean, it can get exhausting! And when you boil it down, they are all networking ‘opportunities’, which means your brain can’t really shut down and breathe. Movies and T.V. are great and definitely a way to quiet the ol’ noggin, but again: that’s work for us! I have always been a voracious reader and it has become really important for me to have at least a few minutes every day (or night) to read and get lost in a world of someone else’s making. For a few book suggestions, feel free to follow me over at Goodreads. (Though, just to get you started: Thursday Next, the entire series.)
There is seriously a ton to do in Los Angeles — the Getty, other museums (as a Maryland girl, I was spoiled by D.C., but the museums are okay here!). There are farms for apple picking two hours away. There is snow in the winter at Big Bear and other spots. Go to Yosemite. San Diego. Get out. Get the heck out of Los Angeles. Your agent and other obligations won’t murder you for taking two days off — and seriously: you deserve it.