The Best Acting Advice I Could Ever Give You →
The Best Acting Advice I Could Ever Give You… and Myself.
So, I wanted to talk about something that almost everybody asks me. What’s the best advice you could give to an actor who is just about to start out? Long story short, it isn’t have the best headshot, have the biggest agent or even be the most talented actor. It’s far from that. It doesn’t have anything to do with what you do for your career, how you approach agents, or how you approach your work.
It all starts with how you approach yourself.
The best advice I could give anyone, and I have to give it to myself daily, is just be so comfortable in your own skin. Regardless of where you’re at in life, what you look like that day, what size you are, have a pimple or dark circles, being so comfortable with that is the first step, for me, to do great work.
I came to realize this after I was told so many things by so many casting directors and everything was regarding my face and body: gain thirty pounds, you’ll be funnier if you’re bigger (which I ended up doing because I’m pretty sure I was depressed because it was a rough transition to a big city by myself, more on that). I was at a point that I realized, I am where I am, and that’s great. This is what I got to offer. I’m feeling myself, rocking’n’rolling, putting out great work and just in the groove, you know the feeling.
Then fast forward six months to the fall of 2016, an industry professional told me to “lose sixty pounds because you’ll never work looking like that… you might want to move back home and think about another career.” That was ALSO the year I shot my first network pilot for ABC directed by a celebrated Game of Thrones director, (they said, yeah well I never heard of the show or him…), had a small recurring on Silicon Valley, was pinned for Scream Queens for a “pretty girl” type role, and booked costar that turned into a recurring guest star on Famous In Love and I had the most amazing time working with so many talented people. Prior to this meeting, I was confident in myself, my work, and accepted where I was and it worked for me. I had come to the point that I was just going to be my absolute self, no questions asked, and I was happy and working. But for this one person… ONE PERSON, I was too this or too that and that I should have moved home. I really want to ask them, “who hurt you?” Because they not only said things like this to me, but a lot of other young women in our class. This person said, “I’m at a studio, why are you dressed like that?” To even “You’re a really pretty girl, you should wear more makeup.” Y’ALL. I WISH I WERE MAKING THIS UP. WHO HURT YOU??? I literally thought I was taking crazy pills. I get the point, but also… I think people forget artists are vulnerable in their work and in their life, we literally pour our hearts into everything and there’s just business ways of saying things without making that person want to jump off a cliff. Just saying.
You could see why I was exhausted and annoyed. Had I not been confident in myself or comfortable in my own skin, I might have had a meltdown and quit then and there. Trust me, I had a meltdown because we schedule one every other Tuesday because… do I really need to explain?
I was just so exhausted of trying to be this and that and change myself to please other people who had opinions about me, instead of transforming myself for work and characters, not necessarily myself in my life.
I realized I’m never going to make everyone happy. Everyone is always going to have an opinion on what you can and can’t do, and that’s part of the gig, I embrace that and accept that. Internalizing that and accepting that as your truth, however, is another story.
The one thing that transformed me, was taking my power back and just saying, “This is me right now. This is the work I’ve done, I’m going to do my job to the best of my ability.”
So that’s my best advice I can give anyone who has been at it ten years, just starting, or considering a career in the industry.