The question I get the most often from people is the most obvious: How did this happen? As in how did my eleven-year-old son begin a career in Hollywood and actually become successful? My honest response most of the time is, “I’m not really sure.”
The LA/Hollywood journey can be brutal, disheartening and astronomically expensive. Hopeful actors wait tables and audition for years. Sometimes they are successful and most times they are not. If they really love the business they will often end up working in the industry in some way. When it comes to your child acting, there are similar and unique difficulties. One can spend a fortune on coaching, travel, temporary housing. Families are often separated as one parent and child will travel to California with fingers crossed to give the business a go. There are still many, many times I walk onto a studio lot or drive by the Pacific Ocean and find myself surprised again that our life has taken such a strange turn. We never really went looking for this or thought it was possible.
In 2014 we were living a pretty average American life. I was teaching in the mornings, Emma and Laura in school. Jack was five and not yet in kindergarten. We lived in Florida; all of us native Floridians except for my husband. At the time his job was based in Salt Lake City, which required him to travel often.
My daughters loved to perform and wanted to get better at voice and acting. They had performed in community theater and both attended arts schools. If I remember correctly, at the time Emma wanted to prepare for auditions.
By coincidence (if you believe in that), my mother’s cousin happened to have moved to Florida. A long-time actress; she was taking a few years to teach acting at a college in Florida in order to be near her father. She had lived in LA for decades and been involved in acting, coaching, and managing. I reached out to her and asked if she would be open to giving voice and acting lessons to my girls. As I took the girls back and forth to their lessons, of course Jack tagged along. He played and watched. As Debbie was giving coaching on commercials, he would say, “I want to do it, too!” And at the end of the lesson she would allow him to do it as well. I really didn’t think much about it; he was so little. Here and there Debbie would mention having the girls audition for a talent agency in LA, but honestly I really just didn’t see the point. California was so far away; our home was in Florida. Acting seemed like a pipe dream.
Debbie did not give up. She kept at me to have the girls audition. Finally, my husband and I decided we would take a summer family vacation and see the Los Angeles sights. Why not? With Gary’s frequent work travel we had enough frequent flier miles to get us all there. We would have a fun family vacation and then on one random morning try out for a Big LA Children’s Talent Agency where I felt pretty confident nothing would happen. The girls could audition, and Jack could as well for the fun of it, I figured. Might as well.
A few weeks later we found ourselves sitting in The Osbrink Agency waiting room. The girls were old enough to be nervous, Jack was young enough to be completely oblivious. He sat on the couch next to me playing on an iPad. There were other nervous children sitting in the room. Some had impressive looking portfolios. I realized we had none. What in the world were we doing here?
Each of the girls were called in. They went to a room with several agents in it, each representing a different department in the agency (film, commercial, voice, print). They each performed their prepared monologues and I believe they also sang. They talked and answered questions; everyone was very friendly. They took their turns and came back to sit on the couch.
Then the door popped open and they called Jack’s name. This little five-year-old hopped up without a moment’s hesitation. He didn’t even look at me. He put his iPad down and skipped in. He was in there for a little while. I heard laughter. At one point I heard him singing “The Phantom of the Opera” and wondered how that happened. He’s a definite talker and apparently went on about his sister’s boyfriends (?) and life in general. Finally, the door opened, Jack skipped out again without a look at me and plopped on the couch to get back on his iPad.
Okay.
The next night we sat by the beach for dinner at Paradise Cove with our feet in the sand. It was beautiful. Being from Florida we could not believe it was chilly in the evening in summer. Debbie came with us; we ate and talked and laughed, and then we came to the part in the dinner where she let us know what the agency had to say. She took a deep breath and told us they decided not to sign Emma, she had braces and they had several with the same look already, same for Laura minus the braces. They recommended they both develop their talents more and they would like to see them again in the future.
And Jack? They wanted to sign him right away before anyone us could. You could have knocked me over with a feather.
In the parking lot I told my husband there was no way we could sign. We both had jobs, kids in school, and we lived in Florida. And how would we manage to afford it? Not to mention how many kids sign and never go anywhere? I was the skeptical one. I could see the odds stacked up against us. They looked expensive.
My husband threw out this proposal: “Let’s just try it. We have our frequent flier miles, my sister works for a hotel chain and we can see if she can give us a discount. Probably nothing will come of it, but why not just try?”
And so we did. I will detail our path in other posts; logistics, finances, schedules, pilot seasons, highs and lows. Bookings and rejections. Magical moments and discouraging ones. But suffice it to say, eight months later he booked a national commercial and I found myself driving to a location in Pasadena, no idea what I was doing or what to expect. One year after that he had the Mick pilot, and for the next two years we lived on the Fox lot. Not quite literally, but almost. Next were more commercials, a failed pilot, and he just finished shooting the (hopefully first) season of Fox’s “Outmatched.” I have met some amazing people, made some dear friends, watched my son on red carpets and tried to do my best to keep him a normal, nice kid. And that’s pretty much how we got here! Looking forward to detailing these adventures in future posts.
By the way, the girls were disappointed when they heard they weren’t going to be signed. The agency invited them to keep developing themselves and come back in a few months. But after a lot of thought, both girls decided it wasn’t the path for them. Emma was just entering high school and had made the varsity cheer team. She began to join leadership groups and realized she really wanted the high school experience. Laura realized she enjoys musical theater more, and when they both watched the incredible amount of work that Jack does, they decided it wasn’t for them. Will they change their mind one day? Maybe. But probably not. And I am totally find with that. I just want them to know what they want for their life and what makes them happy.
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