Post by Corin on Oct 4, 2012 15:50:25 GMT
NAME: Corin James Forester.
NICKNAMES: Most people tend to shorten his given name to Cor’ if they’re going to do anything with it, there isn’t really much you can do with his name and he’s fine with that. He’ll answer to his surname just as readily as he will his first name. His friends aren’t really imaginative enough to come up with anything more creative.
RACE: Human.
OCCUPATION: Primarily, Corin is an actor, or at least he would like to be but he has bills to pay and rent to make every month so he also works as a barista at a local Starbucks. Honestly he picks up as many extra shifts as he can fit around his auditions and any call-backs he might get because the pay is kind of pathetic.
GENDER: Male.
SKIN COLOUR: Caucasian with a natural and even tan.
NATIONALITY: Canadian. He had a student visa and now has a working visa which allows him to live in the United States legally.
AGE: 22 years old. It depends on just how much facial hair he has and how well groomed he has as to whether or not he looks his age, but for the most part he does.
CLOTHING: As his wardrobe goes Corin is as relaxed as they come and it’s clear he doesn’t make a huge effort and that he isn’t vain, but at the same time despite that fact he always manages to look reasonably well put together. He tends towards the simpler styles -- plain t-shirts and jeans with battered boots or sneakers, usually Converse -- that don’t require all that much effort, that and they tend to be cheaper to buy. As colours go he isn’t overly fussy so long as nothing is neon and the design or logo isn’t childish or feminine in any way. That’s about as vain and particular as he gets. With whatever pants he happens to be wearing he usually has to wear a belt given his lean build and he has a few different ones, including a number with buckles that are probably best described as colourful; they are actually memorabilia from one movie or another, though not many people get the references, sadly, a fact which has always shocked him given where he lives. When he’s working he wears the standard Starbucks uniform, consisting of black pants and t-shirt with a green apron embroidered with the company logo, topped off with a name badge. When it’s cool enough to warrant wearing one he has a leather jacket, rather weathered and worn and black in colour. It’s clear he’s had it for a few years and he likes that it shows.
HEIGHT: 5’7.
WEIGHT: 153lbs.
TATTOOS: None. His drama teacher in high school always told him that tattoos could affect an actor’s chances of getting hired and that has always put him off getting one. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t been tempted in the past but for now he doesn’t have any plans to get one.
PIERCINGS: None.
JEWELLERY: Corin tends not to wear jewellery, to him it’s more of a hassle than anything else. The only things he does wear are a leather cuff watch on his left wrist that he only ever takes off when he showers and a woven leather bracelet on his right wrist. Both are brown in colour though the former is much darker than the latter.
BODY MODIFICATIONS: None. Corin has been lucky enough that any childhood mishaps he has had in his life haven’t left any real scars. He probably has a few small faint ones but if he does then he doesn’t really know where they are or what caused them.
HAIR.
LENGTH: Several inches for the most part, shorter around his ears and the base of his skull. It is longest over the top and has been roughly cut into different lengths throughout the main body. At the front his bangs fall over his forehead if not pushed back and up out of the way, and when wet they could very easily reach his eyes.
STYLE: Dishevelled is a good word, haphazard is another. It tends to look a little like Corin has just rolled out of bed and raked his hands through his hair, usually, but it never sticks up in strange angles or shapes so it’s clear he styles it at least a little. Usually he brushes it and tames it enough so that it looks controlled without going overboard. If he uses product it is only ever the bare minimum. There is the barest trace of a curl through Corin’s hair, though it’s nothing extreme. It tends to be more obvious through the front, in his bangs, and at the very back. Sometimes he will style his bangs up off his forehead, spiking them just enough to keep them out of his way.
COLOUR: A dirty dark blonde that can sometimes appear brown. It lightens in the summer months.
FACIAL HAIR.
LENGTH: A centimetre at most but usually only a few millimetres, Corin tends to keep it fairly short, more like stubble than anything else.
STYLE: Haphazard at best, Corin’s facial hair is the result of indifference with just a hint of laziness. Usually he doesn’t even think about shaving and when he does think about it he tends not to have the time for it. It makes him look a little older than he would clean-shaven at least. Corin’s facial hair tends to be more along the line of his jaw than anywhere else, which works just fine for Corin. It suits him.
EYES.
COLOUR: Blue, though in some lights they can appear green.
ODDITIES: None.
PERSONALITY: Corin is one of those easy-going and amicable guys who always seems to be able to make friends wherever he goes. He has an effortless and casual way about him that seems to put people at ease. He’s a good guy to have around in a tough situation, he always seems to have something to say and even if it’s not necessarily the right thing then he has a way of lessening the tension somehow, intentionally or otherwise. As a result of this aspect of his personality Corin tends to have plenty of friends wherever he is at any given time, though they might not be the closest of friends or even the most reliable. Just because Corin himself is reliable and trustworthy that doesn’t mean everything he surrounds himself with. As much as he likes to think he is a good judge of character sometimes he can’t see through everyone else’s acts and he makes mistakes. He is, after all, only human.
Raised by parents -- and a grandmother -- who believed strongly in treating other people as you yourself wish to be treated, Corin is a very polite young man, the sort to hold open doors or offer to help others if they look like they need a hand. He might get angry or annoyed by people just like anyone else, he isn’t immune to such things, but he has an easy enough time pretending otherwise. Given how good an actor he is Corin can lead other people to believe he feels one way when in reality he feels another way entirely. With a smile and a few casual words of calm indifference he can give the impression that he is perfectly at ease when all he might really want to do is hit someone in the face with the closest heavy object he can get his hands on. He doesn’t get many acting jobs or call-backs, even, so his day-to-day life is a little like practise, it helps him keep his skills sharp and he’s usually always putting on some kind of act, a smile or a kind word for a customer he can’t wait to see the back of. In his line of work he sees plenty of rude and impatient people but he never gives away how much he hates their attitudes.
Corin hates confrontation, which plays a big part in how much he placates the others around him. He would much rather everyone else just got along and talked things out than turned to violence and needless antagonism. He isn’t stupid or naïve, he knows sometimes there’s absolutely no way out of such things, and in his time he has been pulled into a couple of these situations himself. He doesn’t really know how to handle himself though, he’s not a fighter by nature and he has never gone out of his way to learn otherwise. There’s always another solution to your problems, that’s what he was raised to believe, and he tries to keep that in mind at all times. People very rarely exhaust their options, they just don’t take the time to consider them all. Not always true but it’s a philosophy he sticks to nevertheless.
Despite the fact that he ploughs his way forward and goes from day to day with a smile on his face and an act of acceptance and indifference towards his current situation Corin really is just deeply frustrated. Disappointed too, even a little disheartened. All his life he has been told he’s a natural in his chosen field but there has been so little success outside of school that he is starting to wonder if people weren’t just placating and misleading him all along. Why else would he be doing so badly? He has had a few call-backs and a few jobs, certainly, and some good ones even, but he hasn’t had a big break yet. It’s too early to give up though, and his grandmother reminds him of that frequently in the letters she sends him on a regular basis; all Corin has to do is keep his head up and keep trying and sooner or later something will come along. That’s what he has to remember. The longer he has to work at Starbucks and act as if he’s okay with it, the more challenging it is to do what his grandmother tells him to do. Corin will never really give up on his dream, he loves it all too much to do that, but it’s only natural to get frustrated and start doubting yourself when you’re met with rejection after rejection the way he is.
WEAKNESSES: First and foremost Corin is mortal and as such can be wounded or killed in any number of ways, natural or otherwise. He can fall victim to illness at any time and anything from exhaustion to hunger and thirst can take its toll on him. Of course Corin has no idea that the world around him is so dangerous; naturally he knows all about gangs and guns and just how likely it is that he’ll somehow get involved in an accident in a big bad city like Los Angeles, but he has absolutely no idea that vampires and werewolves are real. That in and of itself is dangerous, that ignorance, Corin could very easily walk right into the middle of a group of supernaturals without knowing just how much danger he is in, and naturally he has no concept of just how much said supernaturals might want to harm him or just how easily they could do that, or even flat out kill him. Corin doesn’t even realise he works with a werewolf several days of the week.
Aside from his mortality and the ignorance that comes along with it, Corin was raised to be polite and try to talk his way out of problems which would be just fine if he wasn’t in a city like Los Angeles where people are just as likely to punch you or reach for a weapon as they are to laugh and walk away. He prefers not to enter into confrontations with other people, he would much rather work out a better solution. He also isn’t the most suave or composed of young men when it comes to anything even remotely extreme; when his friends drag him out to bars and clubs he tends to be much more awkward, that much more likely to inadvertently make a fool of himself somehow, which isn’t so much a weakness as it is an inconvenience.
Corin wouldn’t know how to handle himself in a fight if he was dropped into one, a real one anyway, and while he can throw a punch or a kick and put his all into it the odds of him coming out on top are relatively low. Given how much he dislikes confrontation it isn’t really a surprise that he is averse to violence and as such hasn’t really been in many fights in his lifetime. In saying that he can get easily frustrated, surprisingly as it might seem when people meet him and are met with his usual easy going personality. Then again there are a number of things in his life that certainly help with that frustration, the fact that he can’t seem to land a steady acting job for one and his insanely OCD and taxing roommate for another. Corin also hates his job and some days would like nothing more than to set the place on fire and watch it burn, which isn’t the most stable of thoughts for a young man to have but there you go. He would never go through with it but he tends to get pushed to this level of frustration at least once a week when it comes to his place of employment, and his employers themselves.
On a mundane level Corin never learned to drive so he has to rely on other modes of transportation, and he also can’t cook beyond your basic student fare, ramen and things out of cans and packets.
ABILITIES: It probably goes without saying that Corin is a good actor though there are times when he seriously doubts this fact for himself. He did well enough in high school for his teacher to push him towards pursuing the path through college and when he did he was once again told that he had made the right choice and that he should go on to audition for as many parts as possible because he had talent. And he does. He genuinely does. Corin has a natural and easy flow that allows him to settle into parts with minimal effort required and he can change his accent, his gait, his mannerisms, and of course his expressions to suit whatever character he happens to be auditioning for at the time. He is also very good at memorising his lines, as well as his actions and any dance moves he might need for a role. That isn’t to say that he lands every role that he auditions because he most certainly does not, as a matter of fact he gets very few call-backs which doesn’t do much for his self-esteem. Despite the fact that Corin is a naturally gifted performer he just doesn’t land many roles, no matter how hard he tries, and he tries very hard, he puts everything he has into every single audition without fail. As well as being able to act Corin can also sing and dance, both skills he worked hard on developing in high school and college alike. Acting is his strength, whether it be scripted or improvisation, but he is very good at the other facets of performance as well, and he has been in a fair few musicals in his time. If he could just land a steady role and get some kind of success, even if it is unpaid, it would go a long way towards boosting his self-esteem, which is starting to take a real hit the longer he lives in Los Angeles and fails to get roles, no matter how many he auditions for.
Given that he has been riding a bike instead of driving a car or taking the bus or subway, in the time since graduating college and getting settled into his life after education Corin has gotten very good at navigating traffic. He can weave through cars and trucks with surprising speed and agility and while he doesn’t have the reflexes of, say, a werewolf, he can think fast and avoid obstacles and though he has had his fair share of close calls in his time in the city he has always managed to come out of them unscathed. That could change at any time, he knows that of course, but he is always aware when he is on his bike and doesn’t do anything stupid. Unless you count weaving through traffic, which at this point he doesn’t but most other people would.
Corin is a people person, he gets on well with others and it’s easy for him to establish a rapport and, if he so chooses, build upon it. Strangely, children and old ladies really seem to like him, they’re almost drawn to him in a way he has never really been able to understand, something about his nature and his general demeanour puts them at ease, or so he assumes.
In general Corin just has a very easy time putting people at ease and making them feel comfortable around him. Honestly he isn’t sure if it’s his ability to adapt to his surroundings -- like any true actor should be able to, in his opinion -- or just him personally, his general energy and attitude, but it doesn’t really matter, not to him. Corin much prefers for people to feel at ease so he likes that about himself, that ability to put others at ease and help them to feel calm when he’s around. Perhaps that isn’t really a skill but he has come to consider it one.
WEAPONS: None. He has a passable right hook and he isn’t afraid to kick another guy right where it hurts, but he doesn’t carry any actual weapons.
PRIZED POSSESSIONS: He has a few old books -- scripts really -- that his grandmother bought for him when he was younger, not long after she found out he wanted to be an actor. Corin has made sure to take them with him wherever he goes. Sometimes he’ll take one of them with him to an audition like a good luck charm. Also, though he would only call it prized because he simply cannot afford to replace it, Corin owns a bike that serves as his primary form of transportation given that he can’t drive and really shouldn’t be spending money on the bus or the subway.
HOME(S): Corin lives in an apartment that, unbeknownst to him, is on Isabella Valdez’s side of the city. He shares his apartment with another young man by the name of Percival Hughes. Percy -- not that he likes to be called that -- works at the University, though Corin can never actually remember what it is his roommate does. Percy is also extremely OCD and an undeniable chore to live with.
HISTORY: Born just outside of Toronto to James and Jane Forester, Corin’s early life was anything but remarkable. Really he started his life as he meant to go on, with a big imagination and some might say a big heart to match, always befriending others and more than willing to listen to their problems without feeling the need to burden them with his own in return. Corin was always a well behaved and good mannered child and from an early age he was taught that it is important to treat others the way you yourself expect and wish to be treated, a lesson he took to heart and always did his best to carry out. Even when people were rude or inconsiderate to him he never believed in an eye for an eye or turnabout being fair play, he always took the moral high ground and let them wear themselves out without feeling the need to retaliate.
Corin was close with his grandmother growing up, Grandma Alice, and she was always deeply supportive and encouraging in anything he wanted to do, whether it was attempting to build a tree house or a fort in her backyard or making up some kind of costume from old clothes she had lying around. As a result of this bond they forged Corin spent a great deal of time at his grandmother’s while he was growing up, her house was within walking distance and he would frequently go to her house after school instead of returning home. His father wasn’t the biggest fan of this plan, believing early on in his son’s life that it would be best for Corin to follow in his footsteps and go to law school but he was ultimately outnumbered and as such powerless to do much about it. That wasn’t to say that James and Corin had a bad relationship, they spent time together and father helped son with homework on a regular basis, but there was always that faint trace of disappointment when the younger Forester didn’t show any enthusiasm for pursuing a career in law.
No, Corin had his heart set on something else entirely. With that big imagination of his he was always coming up with characters and playing parts, and as the years went by and drama became more of an option in his education Corin became increasingly enthusiastic about pursuing the whole thing as a career once he was done with school. It certainly helped that his teachers told him he had talent, that he was genuinely interested in the whole thing and put effort into it, not like a lot of the other kids who didn’t really try or simply wanted to get out of a classroom for a while. To Corin it was perfect, it was what he had always wanted to do, and when plays and performances came around he was always involved, frequently lending a hand backstage as well as actually performing in front of the audience.
Corin’s parents were sensible people, a teacher and a lawyer, and even before their son was born they set up a college fund for him so that he would be able to get a good education. This came in handy when he applied to drama school in the States, it wasn’t cheap and it wasn’t easy to get a place on the program either, but Corin managed to get in and so at the age of eighteen he was packing his bags and heading off on a plane for California. It was a whole new world, the atmosphere and attitude was so different from back home in Ontario, but Corin had always been adaptable and so he adjusted to fit in without changing who he was in order to conform and be like everyone else, not an easy feat to say the least. That knack he had always had for making friends and putting people at ease certainly came in handy though and before long he had a group of friends and was settled into college life. The classes were challenging and it became clear early on that there was a lot of competition and everyone had to work hard if they expected to make it through to the end of the program.
Naturally Corin worked hard and put his all into it, he wasn’t about to try and coast by, not after his parents had spent so much money and he had put in so much effort in high school to get where he was now. Despite the fact that he was frequently told he had an easy way of slipping into roles and becoming a character he still worked hard, he practised and he rehearsed, sometimes well into the night in order to get little inflections and details right, and the performances were challenging with long hours and a demanding director who expected the best from all of his students. It wasn’t just the acting side of it either, Corin also had to work hard at the singing and dancing side of things if he really wanted to make a career out of it and he did exactly that, always learning new tricks and little things to help when you were on stage. This was where his ability to make friends really paid off, while Corin was a natural when it came to the acting side there were others in the program much more talented than him when it came to these other aspects and he relief on them heavily to help him improve, and they did just that. A lot of the time he would return the favour and help them with little things about their performances that were tripping them up. It was a good arrangement and it kept everyone happy, which was what mattered most to Corin, not exactly a people pleaser but the sort of young man who didn’t like the idea of others being upset or put out in any way.
By the time college came to an end Corin felt undeniably optimistic and eager about going out into the big bad world to try and make a name for himself. People at college had been just as supportive and complimentary as they had been in high school and it was hard not to feel confident with that kind of praise behind you. Corin saw no need to travel all the way back to Ontario and run the risk of getting stuck there when he was already in California. Los Angeles and all the possibilities it held was so close, all he had to do was take the step and go there, and that was exactly what he did after graduation. With what money was left from his college fund -- it helped that Corin was always so focused on studies and papers and performances that he had never been interested in the wilder side of college life -- he moved to Los Angeles, managing to get lucky and find himself an apartment easily and quickly enough. Everything seemed to be going so well.
It continued that way for a while, with the odd role and job coming his way and helping to bolster his spirits and keep his confidence up. Corin understood that he couldn’t get by on those little jobs though, he had been taught to watch his money when he was younger and though his grandmother frequently sent money to him in the mail he wasn’t going to let himself fall into the trap of failing with his finances as he heard of other people doing before him. They let themselves get caught up in auditions and those jobs they successfully landed and forgot all about rent and utilities and groceries.
So he got himself a job. The local Starbucks wasn’t the most glamorous of places for a promising young actor to work but it was money and the hours were decent enough that he could support himself and still attend auditions regularly. Corin picked things up quickly enough and settled in as he had with so many other things in his life, but he didn’t focus entirely on work and forget all about auditions and trying to get in with an agency.
That initial success he told himself not to be fooled by soon dwindled and reality was quick to settle in afterwards. Corin hasn’t been out of college all that long, he’s still new to the area and he hasn’t yet managed to catch the eye of any agents that could land him more roles. The longer he’s in the city the more chance he’ll have at success but for the time being he’s been attending open calls and doing everything he can to get parts and, in turn, attention. As it turns out that’s much easier said than done, there are so many budding actors and performers in Los Angeles that it’s a constant battle and that, if nothing else, is the one thing Corin -- somewhat foolishly -- didn’t anticipate. He never coasted along on that talent people told him he naturally possessed but somewhere along the line he forgot all about the sheer amount of competition he would encounter when he finally reached the city. All he can do is keep auditioning though, keep working and keep pushing forward. Success isn’t going to just land in his lap and no one ever told him this would be easy.