112. Defining Myself

Bonus Episode: From the reels of Instagram where Tiwana posts one-minute lessons learned. If Tiwana had to start her acting career over, before getting headshots, she'd define her actor identity.

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:: About Tiwana ::

Tiwana Floyd is a Los Angeles-based actor, improviser, writer, and content creator. Acting Lessons Learned is her love letter to her Actor Frens, to assist them in navigating the working actor system while reminding them they are not alone in their show business experiences.

Tiwana's personal stories about the lessons she's learned along the way in her 20-year acting journey can be cringy, comedic, uplifting, and sometimes sad. Still, all to enlighten the listener on the peaks and valleys of being an actor. 

This podcast is for actors of any age at any career level. It's also for non-actors curious to learn what an actor on the rise endures to grow a career.

:: Honors ::

A recipient of the 2019 NBC-sponsored Bob Curry Diversity in Comedy Fellowship and graduate of Second City Hollywood's Improvisation and Directing Programs, 

Tiwana produces original shorts spotlighting societal outliers. Through the gaze of quirky, whimsical, uncharted dark comedy, she writes stories accentuating the eccentric sides of the human condition. 

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Acting Lessons Learned is Produced, Written, Recorded, Engineered and Edited by Tiwana Floyd
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Learn more about Tiwana Floyd at https://www.tiwanafloyd.com

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Transcript

Hello, actor friends. It's me, Tiwana Floyd. I'll be sharing bonus episodes every day this week. Here we go. 

Hey, I'm Tiwana Floyd of Acting Lessons learned the podcast. If I had to start my acting career over, I would not do headshots right away. I would Define Myself. And my Actor Identity, what some people call a niche.

There are a considerable amount of people, schools, and institutions who charge money, a lot of money to tell actors who they are. Called "Typing Classes" where you sit in front of a room of actors without indicating who you are, without saying anything. And they sit across from you, scrutinize you, they analyze you, and they define you by writing adjectives anonymously on pieces of paper, based on their idea of you.

I participated in typing classes, and the problem with these classes is they don't know who you are. They're judging you based on their personal bias and preconceived notions of what they think of you. Or maybe you remind them of someone and they're now displacing or projecting on you. And so the recurring adjective that I would get was, Bitch.

Now how can anyone possibly know or determine who I am? And conclude I'm a bitch or any other adjective based on my sitting and saying nothing. For me, those classes did more harm than good because I was always confounded because I was trying to be what these strangers thought of me, and then I would mimic that in my headshots and reels, but it really wasn't me. It was me in a box. 

So over time, I learned to define myself. And that was probably six or seven years into moving into EL to LA. So I had to excavate all these old things. So I went on people fast and I stopped unnecessarily engaging with people that I didn't need to engage with.

I went auditions. I went to work, I spoke to my mother, and that was it. And during this time, I was relishing my solitude, returning to my authentic self. So I would say this is where I discovered my art– my artistic identity. I'm an oracle, a visionary, a seer. I have the agency to provide insightful counsel and prophetic predictions.

I'm a defender of the underdogs and the meek. I am perspicacious and I am highly intelligent, and because of that, I lead legions because I'm the order in chaos. It took me an entire year to uncover these truths about myself, defining myself. There's no typing class astute enough to know these things about me. I had to define myself. 

This is how I came to my authority to support my actor identity with head shots and a reel, excuse me, to tell the industry who I am and how to hire me, and it took me years to learn this, but once I did, I began to work more often and it was so liberating. So if I were starting my acting career over, I'd first define myself and my actor identity.

And I suggest you do the same. Don't let anyone define you, You define yourself. I hope you found this information helpful. Don't forget to subscribe, write and share with your actor friends. You can also follow me on Instagram at Acting Lessons Learned. See you next time.