037 ATP – North Of Hollywood – Actor Rick Lenz’ Award Winning Look At Hollywood Life - Actors Talk - Come Inside The Acting Business

North Of Hollywood

For every fan of Hollywood, the movie business, of the actor's journey, you've probably read numerous accounts of 'how to succeed' in shown business. Rarely will you have the opportunity to read such an honest account of what succeeding in Hollywood can mean, especially if one gets attached to the fame that comes with success.

Rick Lenz' memoir NORTH OF HOLLYWOOD takes the reader places that most memoirs gloss over or avoid completely. He takes us into his private life and into the difficulties, many self-inflicted, that can come with the territory.

Since this interview was originally broadcast, NORTH OF HOLLYWOOD has garnered seven book awards for the author including: Finalist, Forward Reviews Book of The Year; First Runner Up, London Book Festival (Biography)and winner of the 2012 Los Angeles Book Festival.

Following is my review of NORTH OF HOLLYWOOD. After listening to my conversation with Rick Lenz, I hope you'll hit up your favorite book seller and pick up a copy of NORTH OF HOLLYWOOD. I can't recommend it highly enough.

REVIEW: NORTH OF HOLLYWOOD by Rick Lenz

In NORTH OF HOLLYWOOD, author Rick Lenz says:
I love acting, but I don't much care for show business...

Show business as a career, for those of us whom it chooses - we never choose it; no one lacks that much common sense - is the most enticing siren the gods ever conjured, at least to those with the weakness...

Any wayfarer with even miniscule common sense would take whatever evasive action was necessary to avoid that route.

And that was from a successful Hollywood actor.

NORTH OF HOLLYWOOD, winner - Best Biography at the 2011-2012 Los Angeles Book Festival is an often funny, sometimes gut wrenching and immensely engaging true tale of one actor's journey to grab the brass ring of show business success and by extension, celebrity.

Rick Lenz moves in for an ECU (extreme close up) on a very successful career and an often dysfunctional personal life.

How does the professional actor manage the demands of 'the business' and the responsibilities of a husband and father? Is it possible to maintain equilibrium in both? Of course it IS...but it's not going to be easy. And this isn't an 'easy' book.
Actor-playwright-artist and now author

NORTH OF HOLLYWOOD gives the reader a raw to the bone, bravely personal view of what it can mean to succeed in show business. And what happens when, almost inevitably, that success slips away.

From Lauren Bacall giving 'thumbs up' to Lenz taking over the role of Igor in the Broadway production of CACTUS FLOWER, to his rise to stardom following release of the film version with Goldie Hawn, Walter Matthau and Ingrid Bergman, the reader is along for what will become a bumpy show biz ride.

The work, the fame, the celebrity are all enticing and seductive but ultimately a mirage:

When I arrive on the set the director seems surprised. "I'm really sorry," he says. "You're not quite what I had in mind." When I ask him what he had in mind, he shrugs and simply says, "Someone younger."

And this:

...I begin to freeze up at auditions. Years ago I was offered a role on COLUMBO...I said no to the job...Years later I have an audition with Peter Falk for one of his latter-years episodes of the show.

I want it desperately, and that's how I read for it...I map out every moment. That's the number one film auditioning no-no. I'm programmed like a robot and that's how it comes out at the audition: mechanical, unnatural and dead...I've blown it by a combination of wanting it too much and my Trojan Horse acting.

Ouch!!

Lenz pulls few punches in illuminating the price success may extract from the actor and from the ones he loves.

Though not in any way a religious book, NORTH OF HOLLYWOOD strikes me as the chronicle of a spiritual journey - though such might come as ...