The weather was beautiful in Florida and Southern California on Thursday, August 23, 2007. That’s the day I moved to LA. I remember that day very specifically. I was scared as hell. I never went to sleep the night before, the flight was long, and then I gained 3 hours by leaving the East coast. Like a dumb ass, I decided to fly stand-by thinking it would be cheaper. It wasn’t! I had to connect from Tampa to Atlanta and then fly from Atlanta to Los Angeles, which equaled 2 stand-by flights, which ended up costing me more. Not to mention, I could only carry on one suitcase and it had to be the small one that fits above the seats. That left about 15 minutes for me and my guardian angel, Jemier, to condense my two suitcases into the smallest one. We did and I made the flight. So essentially, I moved across the county with one suitcase! What a nightmare.
So let’s go back a little bit. I graduated college on April 27th at 7:00pm last year and within minutes I was traveling to audition for my acting school with my guardian angel (she just keeps showing up). Well I got in and I’m here. And now that I am here, it really puts into prospective how OLD I am. I’m a seasoned, soon-to-be 23 year old and in this business that’s almost ancient. Lucky for me, I have some good genes, (one time for my grandmama!) I won’t be doing any Olay Regenerist commercials anytime soon. In one regard, it was discouraging because I feel like I waited so late. I’ve always known this is what I wanted to do but saying you want to be an actress isn’t always the most stable thing to want out of life. I must have watched Dreamgirls a little too closely. That’s right! I was front row center on Christmas Day. I already knew a lot of the dialogue because I had been studying the trailers for weeks before it came out. Ever since then I’ve been Faking My Way to the Top! Since then, I’ve been highly favored by God. I did some work with an independent director for El Cee Productions. I worked with some amazing people and got some priceless experience that has served as a great foundation for my career. Because of that all that work, I have a reel, which could take hundreds of dollars and time to acquire. People charge around $300 just to edit your reel, after you’ve auditioned to get the job and shoot the film. I came out here with one in the bag. I found an old high school friend out here when I got here. He happens to love photography and owns professional equipment. Headshots and reprinting could run you around $600. I only paid $70 to print mine and took him to lunch.
So now, I go to school, rehearse, and completely indulge myself into this business. The only thing I do outside of acting is pray. I attend Crenshaw Christian Center faithfully. I love, love, love me some Jesus. And now having become an inspiration to many people back home, I now find myself desperate for inspiration. Whether it is religious confirmation that I will have all the desires of my heart or Mary J. Blige telling me my life is Just Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine. I don’t think there was any real defining moment or any one person that gave me advice on whether or not I should stop dreaming and start doing. I can say that I had a lot of support from my family and friends. It’s just a decision I had to make for myself. Could I really live with knowing that I had dreams that I never really attempted to conquer? Could I really look my future children in the face and tell them they can be whatever they want to be when I never tried to be what I wanted to be? I heard someone say, you can’t fail if you never stop trying. So that’s what I decided to do… Never stop. I watched The Pursuit of Happyness every night before I left Florida. And ironically, Will Smith was the first celebrity I met when I got out here (it was magical).
I don’t even consider myself Breaking Into Hollywood because I believe that what is for me is already mine. No other actress could ever take a role from me that was mine already. That eliminates the entire element of competition and this being such a competitive industry. It’s just a matter of putting yourself in the game, which is why Ashlee and I don’t mind bringing our knowledge and experiences to you! At this year’s NAACP Image Awards Tyler Perry won for his series, House of Payne. I felt so much weight lift from my shoulders when he said, “Nobody thought it would work … I don’t care if a thousand people tell you no, if you get one yes from God, that’s all you need to make it. Today I stand here with that God yes.” At the end of the day, it all comes down to you. You have to be driven. You have to be inspired. You have to want it. I checked yes on all of the above!
