I Promised I’d Keep You Posted…

On my ‘Actor’ page, I wrote that I would keep you posted when I get acting jobs. So here goes.

A few weeks ago, I went to an audition for a lead role in a short film — a union production for that matter. Living in Ottawa, there aren’t that many union productions going on, compared to Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver. Let me explain about the union thing… I became part of ACTRA fairly early in my acting career, before having had the chance to gain more experience in the non-union independant world — although I have theatre experience which helps. Once you are in the union, you can not act in any non-union production. But as I said, in Ottawa, union productions are scarce. So it is probably best to get as much non-paying experience possible on your resume before getting into the union. Which wasn’t my case. I jumped on the opportunity to get my first union credit knowing that some people work years and years before even getting the chance.

One big advantage of having the ACTRA acronym on your resume is that it demonstrates in a way that you are a serious, professional actor (for non-union actors — I am in no way saying that you are not professional or serious). Plus, many union productions don’t audition actors that aren’t in the union. So yeah for me.

Anyway, to come back to the audition… I went in focusing on just doing the work and not on results — which is usually what I try to do. It went great.  I came home, my husband asked me how it went and “do you think you got it”. Well, I don’t know. You never, ever know if you got the part or not. Many factors come in to play when it comes to casting. You could have done the best audition ever, but if you don’t have that particular look they are searching for, or if you don’t quite have the chemistry with the lead actor, etc. you won’t get the part. So you can never take auditions personally, or feel rejected.  For this particular part, I was hoping to get it, but I wasn’t getting my hopes up. Do you get it? 😉

A few days later, I got the e-mail offering me the part. Well, let’s just say my hopes went WOOHOO!!! My first lead in a film! We had the first rehearsal last night, wow did I ever have fun.

I LOVE IT. I LOVE ACTING. I WAS BORN TO ACT.

I now realise that the reason why I didn’t start when I was younger was because I had years of preparation to do.  I now know myself, love myself, and trust myself — it all comes through in my acting. I also realise there’s no way I could have made it in this industry when I was younger. I wasn’t meant to do it then. I was only meant to do it now.

I want to show the world that if you follow your heart, you can do anything. I want to show the world that anything is possible. I am doing it. If I am doing it, you can do it too.

Much love,
Natasha