Commercials + Authenticity in Hollywood = An Oxymoron

April Martucci

Yesterday I was booked as a yoga student in a Vivo commercial.  Having fantastic yoga photos for the powers-that- be to see usually gets me in the door for these things.  However, regardless of how seasoned I am,  I have discovered that being the OG yogini of the group,  does not always count for anything.  The director is not necessarily looking for my level of authenticity.  It’s all about a LOOK.  Being a yoga master, and having a lineage that supports my physical practice, I loathe this – even though, yes, I am aware that it often has nothing to do with knowledge or expertise when it comes to yoga in Hollyweird, but rather how flexible you are or how your body looks.  Even knowing that, I could not get over the fact that the person they hired as the HERO (that is the lead in the commercial world) was a dancer, a very good looking one at that, but with zero knowledge of yoga.  He was calling all the poses out incorrectly, and was demonstrating with awful form.  The gal next to me was bragging about how she is a contortionist, how she auditioned for Cirque and was not accepted.  All that is fine, but there was a showing off factor that was happening, and then with the crew all oohing and ahhing – the whole thing made me so annoyed.  The practice I worked hard to cultivate in myself and over 100 of my trainees and the thousands of people who I have taught was right in front of me being boiled down to this ugly display of vanity, bullshit, and disrespect for an ancient healing practice. Alas, I know I should have just kept my mouth shut.  I did not.  I was so annoyed!  So, when the AD and I made eye contact, I said to him “you really need to get a consultant on these shoots because this guy does not have a clue about yoga”.  Of course he just looked at me like I was annoying him.  So I shut up.  And I let it go.  It’s hard to let go of the fact that yoga has become what it is today, and that goes for many things.  It saddens me that people today don’t investigate the deeper meanings of things, research history, nor do they care to get it accurate.  I mean, I would never go into a dance shoot and start doing a relevee when I am saying plie, nor would I even allow myself to get hired for something I know nothing about.  If I did, you better be sure, I would do my homework!  This is LA, this is Hollywood. Naturally the director loved it, it looked great on camera, and that is all that matters. Maybe one day I will not be so impassioned about such discrepancies and simply accept that this is the entertainment business, the business I chose to be in, but until then, I will most likely continue to be the snarky NYer people either love or hate.  That girl who values truth AND a good image — it CAN go hand in hand, I believe.  It reminds me of how infuriated my father gets when he watches shows or sees a commercial about cars – (he is a car guy) – he always says, “With so much money in Hollywood, don’t you think they’d get a consultant for this — it’s all wrong”.  Definitely cringe-worthy for those of us who are experts at something that is being recreated on screen.  One random Chinese-American guy on set saw my frustration.  He empathized by sharing that whenever an American actor speaks Chinese on TV,  they are most of the time speaking jibberish, not his native tongue.  He felt that would be his equivalent in that moment.  This made me laugh because that is something I would never know – how would I know if they are speaking Chinese properly or not.  As it is the same with viewers and people on set – no one knows what is the difference between warrior 1 and downward dog, so who cares, right?  I do.  I still do, and that actor who is speaking Chinese on camera should learn that bit of Chinese, just as the yoga teacher or the auto mechanic should know the crafts they are representing.  Acting is not pretending.  Acting is living truth, being in truth, and showing truth through your vehicle – your body and spirit – all in the name of Art — commercial or not.