One of the most common questions I get asked on a
daily basis is "When did you want to become an actor?” Well
children, in today’s blog I'm going to answer that question for you, with
details and backstories included!
Before YouTube, before VHS tapes turned
into DVDS, before digital cameras could take video, their was a 7 year old
girl, standing in front of her bathroom mirror, with a Shampoo Bottle in hand,
thanking her fans for her Oscar. That little girl was I!
In elementary school, I was always known as the
class clown. I was constantly making people laugh with the things I would
say or do. In fact, in 3rd grade I won the "Most likely to
make you laugh" award! An accomplishment that I am still very proud of, even to
this day. The thing with my humor though is I never try to be funny, it
sort of just comes natural. Also, despite the blonde hair, I never played
the "dumb blonde" card in order to get a laugh. Usually my humor came
from witty things I would say or do. Till this day, pulling the cute/dumb card pisses me off; it comes off as a cheap laugh. Its likes that one friend
you have who always talks in a baby voice. Please, grow up and stop now.
My elementary class clown days was when I sort of
knew that I liked to perform. I liked to entertain people, whether it was
in a classroom, through a story, or even on stage. I liked the attention but not in a self centered way, because I am anything but. I liked
knowing that for a few seconds, five minutes, or even a half hour, I took
people into my world and made them forget about any worries they had prior.
It’s a nice feeling when people would later say to me, "Thanks, I
needed that". It’s like watching your favorite TV show; despite all
the worries you had prior to its airtime, once you start watching the show you
are taken out of your world and put into theirs. The acting and dialogue
are so believable; it makes you feel like its real. You are so drawn into
their problems, struggles, and even happiness that you forget about your
worries for the time being.
Ever since I can remember I was always writing
scripts, stealing my dads video camera, or submitting to contests to appear on
Nickelodeon. Acting was the one thing that always stayed constant in my
life, when everything else was changing. In the third grade, my teacher read
us this book called "Harry Potter and The Sorcerers Stone".
Every day for story time, she would read the book for 15 minutes to the
class. I fell in love with this book, and looked forward to story time just to find out what would happen next in Harry's World. A
few months after finishing the book, I found out that they we're making a
movie! I thought to myself "This is it, this is my big break, I need
to audition for this!"
When I got home from school that day, I made my mom
free up the phone line so I could connect to our dial up Internet. I
found the production companies address and wrote them a letter asking if I
could play Hermione in the upcoming Harry Potter movie. About a month later, I received a letter back from them. I remember bringing the letter into my brother’s room and saying to
him, "Tyler, this could be the letter that changes my life, I could
be a movie star!” I debated whether or not to open it, knowing that it
would either contain really good news or really bad news. Long story
short, although I did not get the role (obviously!), a nice casting director wrote back to
me, expressing how happy my letter made him. He took the time out of his
crazy Hollywood life, to write back to that little girl in Massachusetts who
had big dreams of being an actor. I still have that letter, to this very
day.
Lets fast forward to my High School years. I
used to audition for my High School's plays all the time. I was lucky if I
even got casted; never mind getting a speaking role. My debut role was in
my senior year of high school. The role involved me being a nerd and
peeing my pants on stage. There was this tradition at
my school, where we would wear our costumes during the school day to promote opening night. My costume involved an ugly sweater that was tucked into
mom jeans, my hair in pigtails, and my grandmas super thick glasses. My
favorite part of that day was when no one knew that I was wearing a costume.
Thank you everyone. I'm glad you think that this ugly, mismatched
look is a normal thing for me. By 3rd period I was ready to ditch the
costume, but I didn't have any normal clothes on me! Typical Brittany
situation!
To wrap things up, I was always interested in Acting, but it
didn’t become a career possibility until I moved out to LA. Being 15 minutes from Hollywood, and having
access to some of the top acting schools in the world was enough to make me
want to go after my dreams and stop making excuses. I promised myself that I would never live a
normal life, and so far I have kept that promise. I want to continue to keep it though, no
matter how much work it takes, no matter how much money I have to spend, and no
matter how many times I have to hear the word “no” before I ever hear a
single “yes”. Cause somewhere, somehow, someone is going to
come along in my life and give me that one “Yes” I need to jump-start my
career. Until next time; Don’t let you
dreams be dreams.
Today’s song of the day is a tune my friend Christian sent
me over Facebook! Enjoy!
