Backstage Magazine asked, “What would you tell your younger self about acting?” Well, in reality, as the great Maya Angelou said, “Wouldn’t take nothing for my journey now.” That is to say, as messy and backward and sometimes heartbreaking as my road has been, it feels really good to know I made things happen for myself through sheer force of will and guts and faith. I don’t think I’d trade that for anything.
But for the purposes of this piece, let’s say there are a few things I wish I had known. A biggie is how much time I wasted preparing all the wrong things for auditions. I can’t tell you how many times I would audition for a detective role and proceed to spend a good chunk of my prep looking at pictures of cops and scouring the local Macy’s trying to find that perfect button-up shirt that would scream “Detective!” Then another half-day working on the toughest, most law enforcement-esque hairstyle I could wrestle my ’fro into. Rugged but still a bit sexy, because this was network TV, after all! Then perhaps I’d watch some YouTube videos of cops and how they walk. Only then would I get down to memorizing lines, watching myself in the mirror to
Backstage Magazine asked, “What would you tell your younger self about acting?” Well, in reality, as the great Maya Angelou said, “Wouldn’t take nothing for my journey now.” That is to say, as messy and backward and sometimes heartbreaking as my road has been, it feels really good to know I made things happen for myself through sheer force of will and guts and faith. I don’t think I’d trade that for anything.
But for the purposes of this piece, let’s say there are a few things I wish I had known. A biggie is how much time I wasted preparing all the wrong things for auditions. I can’t tell you how many times I would audition for a detective role and proceed to spend a good chunk of my prep looking at pictures of cops and scouring the local Macy’s trying to find that perfect button-up shirt that would scream “Detective!” Then another half-day working on the toughest, most law enforcement-esque hairstyle I could wrestle my ’fro into. Rugged but still a bit sexy, because this was network TV, after all! Then perhaps I’d watch some YouTube videos of cops and how they walk. Only then would I get down to memorizing lines, watching myself in the mirror to
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