Big Break Diaries: The actor

BBC News Online's Big Break Diaries follow a group of people hunting for their big break in the arts and entertainment world.

This month, actor Joe Gooch shows his determination to succeed in a long round of auditions, castings, classes and opportunity hunting.

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5 October

Myself, the rest of the cast and crew of Bikini Zombies From the Moon journeyed down to Studland, near Poole to the cottage that had been rented for the weekend of the films shoot.

The director had brought along plenty of wine to get everyone in the mood for shooting Zombie Big Brother which we would all be participating in, cast and crew, and seeing as the girls would be in bikinis we were required to strip down as well.

Joe Gooch: Mission to succeed

I was being the narrator and the voice of Zombie Big Brother inside the diary room. The zombies were called in one by one to talk about how they were coping in the zombie household and to give their eviction nominations.

A few hours and several bottles of wine later we had finished filming and went off to our rooms to get some much needed sleep.

The place we were staying at was called a cottage but it had about seven bedrooms and two floors.

I literally got 10 minutes sleep that night as there was a doorway in an alcove next to my bed which was padlocked shut and I just couldn't shake the odd way the room made me feel.

Before I knew it, it was time to head off to the beach to begin filming.

As you can imagine filming Bikini scenes on a beach in October was a cold prospect for the girls especially as it was pissing down with rain at times but they all did a great job of being bikini zombies.

I was playing Sergeant 'Scraps' McGuthrie who, along with Captain Chad Goodfellow and Professor Straczynski try to save the world from the terror of bikini zombies created by exposure to red moon radiation emitted from a meteorite that has crashed onto Bikini Beach.

I was annoyed that I had been told just a few days before that I had been pencilled in

Joe Gooch

Once we had shot all the exterior beach scenes we returned to the cottage to film the interior zombie attack and bloodbath. It was more "bloodshower" than "bloodbath" as towards the end the zombies get cornered in the shower room and shot to pieces with chopped tomato being used for the gore effects.

It was quite a sight to see bikini clad zombies in a shower getting splattered in chopped tinned tomato - I usually have to pay good money for that kind of malarkey.

Towards the end of filming the camera went on the fritz and we weren't sure if a lot of what we had filmed had come out okay but we continued filming and hoped for the best.

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9 October

Went to a sitcom pilot casting which appeared to go well. I read for four different parts but felt more suited to two of them though as with all auditions it depends on what the director is looking for in the actors' interpretation of the character and having the "right look" is also a major factor in getting or not getting a part.

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Gooch admires Sean Penn's film

12 October

I travelled down to Brighton for the casting of a corporate video. I read for the part of a mechanic.

14 October

I saw The Pledge, Sean Penn's third film as director.

As I've written before, I'm an admirer of Sean Penn as an actor and writer/director.

I thought The Pledge was a subtle, powerful piece of work with an excellent performance by Jack Nicholson as Jerry Black, a police detective coming to terms with retirement and trying desperately to hang on to the identity that his job has given him for so many years.

There is also a cameo by Mickey Rourke who gives a fantastic performance as the father of a little girl who is missing presumed dead.

He is only on screen for about a minute and a half but gives further proof if needed that he is a damn good actor who I believe is underrated and underused on film of late.

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15 October

I received a call today regarding the corporate video audition and was told I had been pencilled in for next week as the mechanic. The casting agent said she will call tomorrow with more details.

I've just got a load more names and addresses of casting directors to send photos and CVs off to - here I go again

Joe Gooch

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18 October

After not receiving call from the casting agent for two days I phoned up to find out what was going on.

Joe Gooch (l) in action on the set of Zombies

They informed me that I had not been successful in my audition after all due to not having the "look" they wanted for the part.

I was annoyed that I had been told just a few days before that I had been "pencilled in" and that I would be contacted the next day only to have to contact them because they didn't have the courtesy to let me know that, not only should I not go over my pencil in ink, but I should in fact erase it completely.

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22 October

I've just got a load more names and addresses of casting directors to send photos and CVs off to. Here I go again.