I had a lot of challenges, personally and professionally, in 2011 that I'm working on overcoming in the new year. When old ways of doing things aren't working - change! Easier said than done, right?!

A good friend of mine has talked with me about "letting go", and it's taken me a while to understand what that really means to me on a feeling and energetic level, and not just as an abstract concept. Now that I have a handle on it, I feel that I get a lot more out of the personal time I take to release energy and emotions that have accumulated within me over the years. My hope is that I'll be in a much better place to make the most of opportunities that come my way when I know that I'm taking better care of myself in areas that make for a more peaceful me regardless of what happens in the outside world.

What are you doing to take care of yourself and how are you "letting go" of the old and making room for the new? Discuss...

All the best to you in 2012!

Clark

p.s. If you haven't already checked out my new reel featuring scenes from TV shows and films I've done in the past year or so, please click on the Video section above. I'd love to hear what you think of it, and if you like what you see, please spread

I had the pleasure of guest-starring on "The Good Wife" in September. My friend Jay O. Sanders was also on the episode - his acting was fantastic as usual - so it was nice to have someone on set with me that I already knew, which isn't always the case! The director Brooke Kennedy, who is also an executive producer on the show, was very complimentary towards me throughout the day and made the shoot that much more enjoyable. And what an interesting day it was - they did something called "block shooting," which means that once they have a particular lighting set-up, which is one of the most time-consuming aspects of the shooting process, they shoot all of the scenes using that particular set-up before moving on to the next lighting set-up. Doing it this way is more time-efficient, or so I was told. For me, it meant that I got there at 8am, got into costume, etc, shot some of the scene I was in from around 9am until 11am, and then didn't shoot again until after 7pm! I used all that downtime to do all kinds of stuff, but it was definitely a longer waiting period than I'd ever experienced before on a TV or film shoot.

When i returned to set after 7pm, we were back to shooting the same scene we'd worked on earlier that day but now from different angles with the new lighting set-ups. I worked off and on from that point until around 10:30pm. During that time, I got to talk with the star of the show, Julianna Margulies. My good friend works as an personal assistant for a crazy rich guy who lives in the same building as Julianna, so we traded some wild stories about him as well as about Kanye West, who also lives in that building when he's in NYC. Fun!

I've been able to extend my connection to "The Good Wife" community by playing softball with them against other TV shows' teams, including "Blue Bloods," a show I was on last year, so I knew some of the people on that team as well. It's been really fun to get back to a sport that I grew up playing all time (baseball, that is) while doing some casual networking - killing two birds, right?!

The episode of "The Good Wife" I'm in airs this upcoming Sunday, November 6th, on CBS at 9pm. Please check it out if you can! Thanks for your continued support - Clark

I shot a TV commercial near Tampa, FL, for the Publix grocery store chain at the end of March. It was quite an Interesting experience to hang out poolside all day at the hotel where I was staying, and then be picked up and brought to set at 9pm, where we had "breakfast" before starting the shoot shortly thereafter. We worked through the night while the Publix store was closed until almost 6am; the director did an excellent job of keeping things moving and lively so that there wasn't too much hanging around and getting sleepy. When it was over, they drove me back to the hotel where I slept for a few hours, and then I got back on a plane to NYC. In total, I was down there for less than 48 hours!

My understanding is that the commercial will air in the regions where Publix has grocery stores, namely the Southeastern states, but you can view it under the the Video section of this website with a single click of a button. By all means, let me know what you think...

I'll be traveling to Tampa, FL next week to shoot a Publix grocery stores commercial. Should be fun, not to mention a chance to make some solid money! Looking forward to it.

I've had an excellent pilot season thus far, with several auditions for series regular roles that have gone quite well. I made it all the way down to the director of one TV pilot selecting me out of the finalists for a recurring role, but the network, which has to give their final approval, went with someone else in the 11th hour. Aaargh!!! But I'm grateful for the opportunity and have built on that experience with even better auditions I've had since then.

I recently ran into Peter Berg, Executive Producer/Director of "Prime Suspect" pilot for which I recently auditioned for a series regular role, and was briefly able to "chew the fat" and make myself more known to him. I was also in "Wonderland" several years ago,  a short-lived TV series on ABC on which Peter also served as Executive Producer/Director, and I mentioned that to him in our convo. Connecting those dots, baby!

Learning, growing, making mistakes and coming back to do it all over again with some wisdom to guide me. That's how we keep the hope alive!

Cj