Find a Job You LOVE

Last week I had the honor of being one of the female Air Force pilots in Boundless, a short film set in the 1940s. They are hoping to turn it into a miniseries, which I really hope happens, because these stories deserve to be told and I would love to be a part of telling them. I also spent another 4 days on set, meeting all kinds of cool people and having really interesting, deep conversations. There is something about movie sets that sometimes makes strangers feel like trusted friends. My guess is it has something to do with early mornings and exhaustion, but I’m one of the weird ones who loves every aspect of it. One of the days I got to be SSE (Special Skills Extra), hired by the stunt coordinator, which really makes me want to get back to the badass I was becoming last year.

TAWC, the Toronto ACTRA Women’s Committee, had its first meeting of the 2019/2020 year. It is always so awesome and inspiring to meet with these women, make plans and hear what they are up to. I will be in charge of the Content Development Sessions again, hopefully with help, and volunteered for some extra tasks that have me majorly excited. I’ve been focusing a lot on my writing lately, and this meeting (as well as the ACTRA conference) are reminding me how much I love stepping into someone else’s shoes and creating.

When we wrapped on set Saturday evening I drove to Montreal, then spent Sunday morning with my family. That evening, I attended the Yes Let’s Make a Movie film festival. I was at the door, greeting people and checking names off a list, so I got to interact with nearly all of the guests. A lot were new faces, but so many were the talented and hard-working Montreal actors I know and love so much. I love a lot of things about Toronto and all of its opportunities, but I definitely miss the Montreal acting community. They are so filled with dedication, determination and support that I am convinced we can do absolutely anything we put our minds to.

The screening itself was nearly 3 hours, and kicked off with clips from interviews Danny did to promote the festival. I should backtrack here and explain that Danny Malin is the one who puts this festival together. It used to involve creating teams for a film race and screening the films on the Sunday, but has evolved into an international film festival where he watches all the submissions, curates the selections, hands out awards and swag and door prizes. The festival itself is an amazing accomplishment on his part, but he is also out there writing scripts, shooting and producing shorts and features, acting and auditioning, filling the background on Montreal-filmed content…he is a jack of all trades and a master of all. I am so lucky that he is also my friend.

Back to the screening, the clips from the interviews featured friends of mine, but they also had a few snippets of advice from me. Who am I to give advice to aspiring actors, right? But at the same time, the girl on the screen knew what she was talking about. And the girl in the audience had forgotten some of it. I am working a lot more in Toronto, and creating my own content, but I was involved in a lot more projects when I was in Montreal, hustling more to get agents and headshots and roles. I love being on set, even for background, so it’s easy to feel like I am accomplishing something when I’m on set at least once a week, but I also want to have speaking days on set, which I sort of gave up on lately.

The shorts that we screened were funny and touching and horrifying. I saw beautiful performances and was haunted by some. A lot of them were written by, produced by and starring my friends. I am so incredibly proud of all of them and hope I get to someday work with them.

So far this week I went on an early morning hike with my mom, worked on the next draft of Prophecy and spent an afternoon hanging out with my cousin, which was a highlight of my week.

They say if you find a job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. If I can spend all of my days like this, I will never need a vacation. Except from the cold. Or to see places. But I’ll be excited to get back to my job once it’s over.