.png)
Indiewood
A Podcast for Indie Filmmakers
In the world of social media, and fast-paced journalism, knowledge is abound. But with all the noise, finding the right information is near impossible. Especially if you’re a creative working in independent film.
Produced by Cinematography For Actors, the Indiewood podcast aims to fix that. This is a podcast about indie filmmakers and the many hats we wear in order to solve problems before, during, and after production.
Every month, award-winning Writer/Director Yaroslav Altunin is joined by a different guest co-host to swap hats, learn about the different aspects of the film industry, and how to implement all you learn into your work.
"We learn from indie filmmakers so we can become better filmmakers. Because we all want to be Hollywood, but first we have to be Indiewood."
Indiewood
From Theater Kid to Forbes 30 Under 30: Julia Steyer's Creative Journey
What does it really take to forge a successful path in independent filmmaking when there's no ladder to climb? In this captivating conversation with Julia Steyer – actor, producer, screenwriter, playwright, and recent Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree – we discover how creative persistence can evolve into industry recognition.
Whether you're just starting your filmmaking journey or looking to diversify your creative approach, Julia's experiences offer both practical wisdom and inspiring encouragement.
Subscribe now to join us for a four-episode chat with Julia, where we'll dive deeper into how her experiences can help you create a sustainable career in independent film.
____
A Podcast for Indie Filmmakers
More on:
IG: @indiewoodpod
YT: Cinematography for Actors
In the world of social media, and fast-paced journalism, knowledge is abound. But with all the noise, finding the right information is near impossible. Especially if you’re a creative working in independent film.
Produced by Cinematography For Actors, the Indiewood podcast aims to fix that. This is a podcast about indie filmmakers and the many hats we wear in order to solve problems before, during, and after production.
Every month, award-winning Writer/Director Yaroslav Altunin is joined by a different guest co-host to swap hats, learn about the different aspects of the film industry, and how to implement all you learn into your work.
"We learn from indie filmmakers so we can become better filmmakers. Because we all want to be Hollywood, but first we have to be Indiewood."
Welcome to the IndieWood podcast, a podcast about independent film and the many hats filmmakers wear in order to get those films made. Each month, I'm joined by one such filmmaker, where we explore their approach to the craft and how they thrive within the visual medium of film. For the next four episodes, I'm joined by an actor, producer, screenwriter and playwright, to say the least, and who is also on the 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Hollywood and entertainment. Oddly enough, this is all the same person, so please welcome to the pod, julia Steyer.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. Oh, that was quite the intro. Thank you, I practiced on. The way in your voice is so calming, really.
Speaker 2:This is an ASMR podcast. Filmmaking is just the niche we chose.
Speaker 3:Filmmaking and cut.
Speaker 2:I'm so excited to chat with you because you've accomplished so much in such a short time and I don't know where to start because, like that multi-hyphenate isn't like the full multi-hyphenate that you have, which we'll kind of unpack in the later episodes. What I've noticed with a lot of filmmakers that come on the pod is that everybody's journey is different. Whether they're an actor or a writer or a producer or director. They all kind of get to their current point just on their own, in their own way. I guess that would be the right word to use. And my analogy for filmmaking is like, hey, if the corporate ladder is actually a ladder to get to a treehouse and the treehouse is success, like in the world of film and cinema, that structure is kind of the same. There's just no ladder, and so how do you get to the? How do you get to the treehouse?
Speaker 3:there's no ladder and there's multiple treehouses along the way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like what's what's, what's your path? And so how did you get to your treehouse?
Speaker 3:can you?
Speaker 2:tell me a little bit more about what got you to house. Can you tell me a little bit more about what got you to film?
Speaker 3:and then the many different kind of milestones you've had so far. Yeah, absolutely so. I am a theater kid through and through.
Speaker 3:My first show I ever went to was Broadway, in Chicago's performance of Les Mis, which is like not a show to take a six-year-old to, but I knew like every word because I was obsessed with that show. My mother really loved, you know, musicals and theater and so she really instilled that in me and my brother at a really early age and we both just really took to it. And then, so you know, we had kind of I'd kind of done it like as much as you can as a kid in the suburbs. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like the little take the church plays or, like the local, um performances Um did you ever play like a shrub in the or a burning bush in the church? I close I.
Speaker 3:I was in a play at, like the local. It's called the CRC, which I honestly don't even know what that stands for, um, some kind of recreation center, and it was. Oh my god, what was it called? It was called the xyz files and it was, and about a sinking mall that got taken over by aliens and I just played like I was like eight and I played like one of the people in the mall. So, like that's, I felt like a shrub in the mall background.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the mall walkers basically um, and then when I moved to Texas actually. So I grew up in the Chicagoland area when I was about 12. I moved to San Antonio, texas, and I went to public school for middle school and high school. But they were still so intense about their theater program and when I tell people about it they're like, oh, did you go to like a theater magnet school? I'm like no, this was just like the local high school, and they were. They had this class called productions where you literally had to like audition to get into it, and part of it was like this is for kids who are planning on majoring in it in college, so you, you like literally had to sign something like to take the class. That was like that's really cool.
Speaker 3:It was yeah, yeah, it was kind of insane. Like, when I look back on it, I'm like that's really intense to tell like a 14 year old like hey, like, if you want to take this class, like you have to know what you're majoring in, yeah, which?
Speaker 3:you know is good in a way, because it kind of helped like focus in on what I wanted to do, because you know it's I could have done band, I could have done like so many things. So I was in this like kind of intense theater program in high school and then I just like part of part of this class is we had to do. Sorry, you're getting like the full story Please continue.
Speaker 2:Part of the class you had to do, because some people who are listening are still in school. That's true. So this is true, this is important.
Speaker 3:But so maybe don't listen to this next part because I did not make. I my decision-making skills are maybe questionable, but we had to do these presentations on uh colleges and somebody and this is my freshman year someone did one on USC and I just decided that's where I was going to go. Like the little 14 year old like did not know it was a hard school to get into, like didn't know, like I had to have like really good grades to get, I was just like that's the school I'm gonna go to, um, and I did. I just and I think just having that goal since I was like 14, like it put everything into perspective for me.
Speaker 3:Like I'd be up at like 3 am crying about my math homework and my dad would literally be like if you want to get into usc, you kind of have to do your math homework like that became the mantra of like kind of getting through things that I was struggling with was like, okay, if you want to get to USC, you have to do this like, if you want to get to USC, you have to figure this out. If you want to get to USC, like, you have to memorize that part, you have to do that homework, you have to show up. Like so in a weird way it was really motivating. Um, I just you know I probably should have looked at other colleges. I just didn't want to.
Speaker 2:You know, I did the same thing where where I applied and I was like, okay, I want to apply to other colleges, but this is the one I'm going to go to. And I got into a bunch of other ones and I was like, no, no, this is the one I want to go to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, of course, and it's like, it's funny because it's like my safety schools quote unquote we competitive within the state of Texas and I was like la, la, la, I'm not gonna go to UT and like there's kids in my classes who are like if only I'm dying to go, like I hate you for turning it down. I'm like la la, la fight on you had a yeah, you had a yeah, a milestone I did, and so that that, I think, has been how I've treated my entire career is I've?
Speaker 3:set milestones for myself of because once you, I think once you graduate college, it's a blank slate. Like you are, like cause, it's like I knew what I needed to do up until the age of 21. Right, your life is kind of planned out for you.
Speaker 3:It's like go to school, you know, graduate high school, get into college, graduate college those are your major milestones. And then you're like, oh my God, what is next? Um and so at USC, it was a little interesting because I had auditioned for the BFA, but I made it very clear in my interview that I wanted to study abroad and have a minor, which is like two things you can't do in the BFA program so they were like, okay, great, like you can't do the BFA, but you can do the BA.
Speaker 3:And at first I was really worried because the BFA they do, you know it's it's like all acting all the time and I thought that's what I wanted, until I started really exploring the options in the BA, which was like writing classes and getting to study abroad. So I got to do like a whole semester at a conservatory in London that you know, just fit really well into the BA program. I did have to take a directing class. I'm not a director, but it gave me a lot of respect for people who do direct, because I was like this is hard, I don't like this. And I think the BA did a really good job of just making sure we will. We were well-rounded, creatives, not just actors, not just one discipline, not just one discipline. And something that I picked up in school as well, that kind of kick-started this whole journey, was something that's really big at USC. It's called Independent Student Productions.
Speaker 3:And it's essentially exactly that. It's plays that are put on outside of, kind of the main school, because you have 200 students in the BAs and maybe 30 roles available each year, each year. So there's not like you could go to USC as a theater major and never be in a play there, like it's competitive. And that is actually something I also really appreciated, because it was like I had to fight, like I, I I had to get in there and I had to like, really like figure out a way to make myself, you know, stand out and and and get myself out there.
Speaker 3:Um, and so we were really a couple friends and I were really interested on this idea of these like independent student productions. So we just made a theater company because there was a really good infrastructure already at USC. We kind of like we were like, okay, they, you know, they give this. There's those theaters we were going to do this play that we were able to, like you know, get in contact with the playwrights, and that was actually that came about through one of the producers and I that was a part of this theater company.
Speaker 3:We both wrote for our school newspaper as theater critics and she had gone and seen this show, really fell in love with it, and it was just like two really cool playwrights from Seattle and they were like yeah, absolutely, like we'll give you a small licensing fee and you guys can absolutely do our play. They came down for it, which was like huge. We're like 19 and we're having like playwrights like fly in to come see our production of their show, and so that kicked off a lot, because junior year I saw and this is actually how I know sarah I saw a um and for those listening at home, sarah is previous guest, uh, the creator of stupid cupid, which I bring up all the time because it's uh traumatic.
Speaker 2:no, no, I'm kidding like in a good way. It's such a big part of my career Not in the sense that it was a big project, but that it taught me a lot as an independent filmmaker. And then Sarah's also my wife.
Speaker 3:So shout out to Sarah Thank you for setting this up. But I saw an internship for Hero Theater and it was kind of exactly what I was looking for.
Speaker 2:It was like one uh sarah, and former podcast wayne car, wayne t car.
Speaker 3:They're uh company members at hero both wonderful actors, both go check out their work, um, but there was a it was like a one month small stipend and the stipend was huge because it meant I didn't have to pay for class credits okay and because usc is like really weird about that. They're like, if you're taking an internship, like you have to pay like two thousand dollars that's weird yeah, it's not a great system.
Speaker 3:So I was like they were like you either have to be getting paid or getting class credit. That's the law in California. And so, yeah, usc was like oh, if you're not getting paid. So I was like the stipend counts like I'm, it counts as being paid. Um, and it was only one month and I was like I hadn't done. It was the summer going into my senior year and I hadn't done an internship yet, like they don't really push that.
Speaker 3:In theater school, like in film school, it's huge, right, like I think it's even maybe part of the degree, but in theater it's not really. And so I I was kind of like, well, I feel like this would be a good thing for me to do.
Speaker 3:So I applied and somebody else had already gotten it, and then the artistic director, elisa Bocanegra, called me and she was like I see that you have producing experience. Like I'm still really interested in you. And so we started talking and I ended up becoming a producing fellow for that um that month, and it was truly because my friends and I had just taken this initiative to start this theater company Um, and it had given me the experience. Like you know, I didn't wait for somebody to tell me uh, you know, this is what you need. I I also didn't know really how to produce in college, but they were just like, if you're willing to do it, we'll teach you. And it was definitely extracurricular, like it was on top of my full class schedule, my full rehearsal schedule. You know I was in improv clubs and acapella groups, like I had a full schedule and then on top of it was like trying to learn how to independently produce.
Speaker 3:And I think that was one of the greatest gifts that USC gives its students is they're like you will get out of this exactly what you take on, but you have to take it on. And so I always tell people I was like I actually think I learned so much more outside of the classroom than I did in, because there was just so much opportunity. There was so much. The other students are all brilliant too, and so you're learning from other people your age, who are maybe a year or two older than you. That can kind of show you the rope. So it's a really collaborative environment. And then through Hero, I stayed on there for a while. I was part of their leadership team. I was for a while I was their in-house dramaturg. I was like the literary manager for a little bit. I was like the literary manager for a little bit and through my work there, elisa is friends with the first black woman to be nominated for a Tony for directing Liesl Tommy.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 3:Liesl had posted on face, literally on Facebook hey, I'm working on this movie, respect Starring Jennifer Hudson Shadow, and I'm in New York and I just need to come to LA a couple times to take meetings at MGM. I would really love an LA based assistant, if anybody has any recommendations. And Lisa put my name in um, and so I started working with Liesl very sparsely. It was like I think over the course of a year we met up like three times because she did not have to come to LA all that often and it was like it was. It was cool for me because it was like I would like put on a pencil skirt which, like you, don't have to do as an you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like I was like oh haha like I'm cosplaying office work.
Speaker 1:Like I have a job.
Speaker 3:I have a job like and I would just go to MGM. They'd be like you know, 10 hour days. But I was like, oh, it's true, it's like three times a year, and um, that was kind of it. And I was like, okay, cool, like and I had always heard in college which I know we're gonna talk about more about this later, but it's what I think is bad advice they were always like a desk job is gonna be the death of your writing or acting career, and so I was like, oh, but I'm not taking a desk job like this is just temporary. Like I'm, you know, I'm not taking a desk job Like this is just temporary. Like you know, I'm hacking the system. And then the pandemic came.
Speaker 2:And the desk feels real nice in a pandemic. Yep, yep.
Speaker 3:And the pandemic was really interesting because I had been doing a lot of LA theater. I was a big believer of like. To me, my metric of success was constantly working, no matter what it was, and that can go either way, right, because there are people who can be like, well, you're using up all your time and not saving it for something bigger. But this is also like acting is such a gamble, like if you say no to everything, something might not come. So, and I I am a big believer of work begets work. I also recognize, though, that I probably worked hard, not smart, so I know those two things feel like a contradiction and they are.
Speaker 3:And that's why this career is so confusing.
Speaker 2:And it's also something that you, I think, understand in hindsight.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:You know like, oh, I've worked hard. And then you look back on it and you then maybe second guess your decisions. Well, it's like and I don't regret any of the things- I did.
Speaker 3:It's just like, oh yeah, when you were doing, you know, maybe that unpaid show for weeks on end and you weren't submitting to films and maybe the films could have gotten you a better read, like it's all a guess, you're right, it's all a game in hindsight, yeah, yeah, and, and I am a big believer of like, yeah, you also can wait and nothing can come.
Speaker 3:So I I've always been a believer of just go out there, just do it. Like I said, almost every job I've done has led to another one. So I really I'm like work begets work like I I think I think I've come full circle of beating myself up, uh, on shoulda, woulda, couldas, and landed on.
Speaker 2:No, no, you did good, you did good and I want to kind of go back to this um moment that you had in, uh in school, um at USC, because you said what you put in, you get out and.
Speaker 2:I think that's true of a lot in this medium, not just in kind of, you know the the, the stuff that we learn in school, or just in a film school that may not even be accredited. You know, like you could still go to a school that's not accredited. That's a quote. Unquote film school, put in so much and get so much back, and uh, it's a weird medium that demands a lot from you but also gives back a lot. And I I see some folks that come in into school, leave school and they're like okay, give me, like I need to audition. No, you don't, you need to.
Speaker 2:Like feet on pavement, like find your own path, climb your own tree, find your own ladder. And even if we look at you know all these success stories of actors and filmmakers from the last like 50 years, sure, there could be some exceptions where they're like born and they get the role you know or get the job and now they're iconic, uh, but a majority of people like forge their own path. You know, unapologetically, they just build that road brick by brick as they're walking it, and because they're putting in so much, they're getting so much back. And I think this is something that I talk about a lot and I think you agree because you've lived it. Work begets work, like the more you do, the better you are. And then when you look back you're like, wow, look at all the stuff that I've done. And then people look at all that stuff and they're like, wow, you're amazing, let's hire you for other things. You know what that's?
Speaker 3:such a big thing too, because exactly what you're saying of like being able to be, like look at all that, look at all I've done people forget. You have to build your credibility yeah like and you don't like.
Speaker 3:I can think of a few exceptions of of you know people that I went to school with that maybe like struck gold right after graduating. But like most of us, you have to build your credibility and that starts with like the student films into short films, into, you know, maybe the unpaid theater show, into a small role in a paid, like it builds, and you're not just going to come out famous role in a paid, like it builds and you're not just going to come out famous.
Speaker 3:Basically, and like I'm also a big believer of one of the reasons that I am happy that I took this more theater path right out of school, I built community and I that's, I think, one of the reasons I've stayed in the industry is because I.
Speaker 3:I can talk to other people who are having the same struggles, or talk to people who are inspiring me, or I have a group of people who uplift me, or I just have people that are willing to just like get together and flex creative muscles, and a lot of that was bred from theater. Film is different, right, because it's like you kind of come together for a weekend and then sometimes you like never see those people again or like your producer Haley, which we did a show together or a film together like seven years.
Speaker 3:Like you still. You keep people in your atmosphere which is I think really cool and social media definitely helps with that. You know cause? It's like I'll see her Instagram posts and be like oh yeah, I remember I did. I did that web series with her or something and so but yeah, but then the pandemic came right as I was telling myself you know what I'm in LA? You really came out here because you wanted to do film and television. You should maybe start focusing on that.
Speaker 2:Doing film and television, and then everything shut down. Yeah, and then two strikes happened, and then the city caught fire. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But the pandemic was an interesting time because I got lucky in that my lease ran out.
Speaker 3:And so I know a lot of friends who got stuck paying for a year's lease of a place they weren't living, and so I did the whole like oh, I'll go visit my family for two weeks Turned into six months. We flew back once to empty out my apartment and then I just wrote Like I almost worked more during the pandemic than I have before or after because I suddenly had all this free time. I had a blog that I had started before of, uh, it was like for early career, uh, early career actors, and then like filmmakers as well. So I just like really poured into that.
Speaker 2:I like started can you tell me more about the blog? Is it still up?
Speaker 3:yeah, it's technically still up. Um, I have not contributed to it in a minute, but it's called um. Players, performers and portrayers. I stole the lyric from rush um, and it was kind of. I started it because I honestly so. Oh my god see, this is, I mean like. I feel like I can't tell a story without being like, and here's all the backstory.
Speaker 2:Well, see, this is why I like hearing about your story, because it it kind of justifies this idea that I've had where you should just do yes you know, the more you do like even if it's adjacent, even if it's just a little in like in left field or maybe even a different ballpark. Like that is a cumulative.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, I can say this word hold on a cumulative and it forges a career that other people can look at and then I don't want to say it brings legitimacy, because I don't like that word, because we're all like legitimate artists, um, but it it adds weight to it, then you can throw that weight around it's some history too, and you're able like I feel like it.
Speaker 3:I feel like I can actually talk with people and engage with people, because I'm like no, no, no, no, I believe I'm in the trenches, like believe me, so I very much get that it. It yeah, I like that. You bring your backstory with you, kind of yeah, credibility. How about that? That's a good one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good one, because I I know some folks who are like, for example, writers, though they're coming in and they've lived a good life, they've, they've, they have this experience to lean on and they start writing and then you read their script and it's good, but then there's that little nugget of something missing, of like the x factor, the, the life, for example, and it's because you know they've really focused on this thing. They're like I'm a writer, I sit down every day and I write ten pages and I'm like that's amazing, but where are you sourcing?
Speaker 2:these pages from the the ten pages you wrote the day before, the ten pages he wrote before that. And then going back, you know five, five years, those pages like where are you? What are you living like, what are you doing?
Speaker 1:yeah.
Speaker 2:I think the idea of kind of diversifying your life as well as your craft, you know, really helps. I was gonna say helps define, but that's not the right word you know.
Speaker 3:I will just to pick up what you were saying, though, about how, like diversifying your life can make you a better artist. That is something that, when I was like full-time acting or like that was like my only focus, would piss me off, because I'd be like what do you mean? I spent four years and all this money to learn how to act and the only way I'm gonna get a job is if I could do a triple backflip if I had known that I would have not gone to school for acting and I would have been a gymnast, exactly.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's like yeah it's funny, it's actually that's a solo show piece that I'm toying with of, like, yeah, you have to have a special skill to get hired here. Like acting doesn't count acting doesn't count as a special skill in acting.
Speaker 2:It's like you've worked so hard to refine this instrument. But then they're like, okay, you're there, but what else you got?
Speaker 2:or or when they went through the phase of well, we want to hire real people, not actors, I'm like great, so I'm no longer a human, okay you're just a wrench in a toolkit yeah that's and I, I, the industry is always going to change and be weird and and kind of not know what it wants, because it's always, it's always playing on a fad that's just passing, yes, and so I think the trick for filmmakers or for creatives in general, is to figure out what the next fad is, or maybe even just make it. Yeah, because I, you know, a lot of creatives have defined culture, and I don't know, is that weird to ask of people like hey, how about you? You find success by defining culture which feels like a I feel like that is what filmmaking does, though, yeah like think about how many films have become like part of our vernacular right and we just we?
Speaker 3:I mean, I always just think about like I had to start watching the office because everybody would always be like, oh, you're such a pam and I'd be like I don't know what that means, and like it's our, it's our language.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I agree with you. I've still yet to see the office I've seen a couple episodes. I'm like that's funny. But also I did parks and rec that that was my thing.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Oh, I just started Brooklyn Nine-Nine and it's got its hooks in me.
Speaker 2:Like two to four. Two to five are just peak TV. Yeah, yeah, also not to digress a bit more, I've been watching Cheers and, just like a little sidebar advice for writers who are listening, go watch a couple episodes of Cheers.
Speaker 3:Really.
Speaker 2:Some of the early episodes are so refined just from like a sitcom, not even a sitcom standpoint, just like really good writing, structural writing, like you have something like a scene starts and you have like a weird little something from a character quirk or like a joke. Then the scene happens and the joke's paid off. And it's so just on point, and it's so well structured that I think a lot of writers can learn quite a bit from it. Don't watch a lot of Cheers because it's a little problematic.
Speaker 1:It was of the 80s. Yeah, I haven't seen it, it's a little like don't do that.
Speaker 2:You know like, ooh, the 80s. Yeah, I haven't seen it. It's a little like, don't do that. Oh, you know, like what? The 80s are weird.
Speaker 3:Uh, yeah, there's a couple I watched like wedding singer the other day I was like oh, that there's. Maybe we shouldn't be laughing at the 12 year old kid like grabbing her butt, like nope, nope, nope, no.
Speaker 2:There was also a movie. Uh, waiting also very problematic. Uh, don't watch that either. Um, yeah, but that was like 2009, which is not that far away, although I say that, but that is actually kind of far away, isn't?
Speaker 3:that crazy, I know, isn't that? I was about to be like, yeah, that was only a decade ago.
Speaker 2:No, it wasn't Julia. Almost two.
Speaker 3:That was quite a while away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh man.
Speaker 3:Well, so you came out of the pandemic like writing oh yes, okay, so the blog, do you still want?
Speaker 2:the little backstory on that. I feel bad. I feel like I keep taking you down. Different, no, no, no. Digress. We have time. Okay, perfect, we have time to digress.
Speaker 3:Just with your thing of do everything, you never know what's going to pay off. My freshman year of college I actually had a talk show show. Usc has its own television station that airs around Los Angeles called.
Speaker 2:Trojan Vision and freshman year you're not allowed to audition for the shows, and so I was just like what am I like?
Speaker 3:Did you do it anyway? I can't, no, because the school literally won't let you. You can do the independent school. Sorry, the theater shows you can't audition for or at least like your first semester or something, and I just was not getting into anything like. I, because I was doing like the independent student stuff, didn't get into that, like didn't get into the acapella group, um, didn't get into the film fraternity. I was just like, oh my god what's happening.
Speaker 3:I can't do anything like and you know, it's what they say about college is like, yeah, it's everybody who is the lead in their high school play goes here, like so you're no longer special and you're just like ah. And so I saw this opportunity. It was called See you at USC and I was like, yeah, sure, whatever, like it'll be, uh, it'll be practice on camera.
Speaker 3:And it was honestly like this, um, except I was 18, didn't know what I was doing and I was talking to, like academy award winners, and so I was just like really like, oh, that's funny. One guy we didn't even know he had an academy award. He wrote footloose the movie and then he wrote he had an oscar for writing the theme song for fame and he had pitched himself to us as a children's book writer and we started researching and I was like, dean, do you have an oscar? And he was like oh yeah. I was like yeah, yeah, we're gonna talk about that I wonder where he keeps it.
Speaker 3:I know I was just like okay way to bury the lead. But my mom described that whole experience. She was like it's like you got to corner the most interesting person at the party and just talk to them. And so when I was out of school and I was meeting other people my age, you're kind of always being like, well, what are they doing? Is it something I could be doing? Where do I kind of fall on this scale of six?
Speaker 3:it's a little bit of comparing yourself to others, which I know isn't great, but I think, if you do it in a way of like I want to learn from you it's okay. I find that people don't always like to tell you everything they've done, because people can be a little protective until you're like what if I give you free press?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah. Then they're like, let me, and then they just tell you everything.
Speaker 3:So I started players, performers and portrayers, literally as a way to talk to people my age and figure out what they were doing, that I wasn't doing, that I maybe should be doing, but being like, and here's a really beautiful spread for you, um, you know, like I I would pull pictures, I would format it really nice, like I would advertise it. So it ended up being a really great win-win, um, and it ended up kind of taking off in that, like I got to uh, interview, um, the casting director of Transformers had to interview the um casting director for a Lord of the Rings, like those were kind of like two of my like oh my God moments.
Speaker 3:I was like this is so crazy, um. And then I kind of started a little bit of a podcast, um, on accident, because I was like, okay, it's the pandemic I've always wanted to write. Now is the time, like if I don't try to write a pilot right now, like I literally never will, like I have nothing but time. And I've been introduced to this man, stan Zimmerman, um, who is a fantastic comedic writer. He wrote for Gilmore Girls, golden Girls, that's kind of like his big one I know he does like he does like the Golden Girl cruise every year.
Speaker 3:He had started just like an online class and he hadn't done it in years and I was like I signed up for it and we got talking and he learned about my blog and he's like, well, you know, I have this play going up Like would you be interested in interviewing me?
Speaker 3:it's amazing it was over the phone because it was the pandemic and so I had a recording and I just went stan like what if I turn this into the first episode of a podcast? And he was like sure, podcasts, interview, podcasts are hard. So like I'm bowing down to you because I think I'm just sitting here.
Speaker 2:You're doing most of the work. I'm just nodding.
Speaker 3:I think I literally lasted like six episodes, and then I was like this is this is a lot, um, but anyway. So through Stan, I started um writing. Uh wrote my first pilot. It was about my experience living at a fraternity in USC Um, which is as gross as it sounds. Um, it was actually the summer I was interning at Hero, because they were like eleven hundred bucks. You could stay for the whole summer.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow so.
Speaker 3:I was like sign me up.
Speaker 2:Disgusting Like maybe not yeah, comes with some caveats.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but super nice people, just like it's a frat house, so it's exactly what you expect. And then through there I just, you know, I was like I think I really like writing and I had had some success with playwriting. I had been on the board of a theater company at my school called Brand New Theater and I had written my senior year. I finally was like I've read so many, let me write one Wrote like a 20-ish minute play, got it into a festival in Manhattan right after school, so it was kind of like that helped me keep the momentum into a festival in Manhattan right after school.
Speaker 3:So it was kind of like that helped me keep the momentum. I was like I'm having like my you know, my low key New York debut, like a month after graduating, and that also just I think sometimes you just need wins like that to build your confidence. Cause I was like, oh okay, maybe this is something I can do. And so I really started writing a lot more 10 minute plays. Turned some of those into short films. Also got a lot more 10 minute plays. Um, turned some of those into, uh, short films. Also got a lot of them produced during the pandemic because everyone was looking for like virtual 10 minute pieces.
Speaker 3:So I grew my produced list, which was really nice um did two full-length plays as an actor during the pandemic on zoom okay, which was.
Speaker 3:It's exhausting, but it was like it was one of those things where I was like, okay, I guess I literally can make it work in any way. I realized I was telling this story to tell you more about Liesl, but basically I get a call from her halfway through the pandemic of being like my assistant just quit. I trust you. I know you Would you want to. Like I'm in New York. I ideally want a New York based assistant, but like everything's virtual anyway, would you want to take over my calendar for a little bit? She was like probably be for like three months.
Speaker 3:It turned into a year and I was with her for her entire Oscar campaign, which was fascinating, and with her for the entire development of a Disney plus show that did end up unfortunately getting cut like right before we went into production. But I learned so much and for me, that experience really opened me up because I was now getting access to places that I never had access to as an actor and a writer and, like in school, they were always like you know, if you want to get repped, get to know the assistants and the coordinators. That's really hard information to find. Suddenly, I'm texting assistants at WME every single day, like I'm talking to the assistants at MGMT, I was like, oh, these are people like and places that would not look at me twice if I was just like hi, I'm like a 24-year-old actor, writer with like nothing that you would consider a substantial credit. And so for me, that really became the moment where I was like, oh no, I think, working in entertainment at you know, a desk, you know, I guess, desk job.
Speaker 3:It was remote and it was flexible, but I was like it really. I think I was fed a lie. I think I was fed a lie that this would be the death of my career. And it's really opening it up.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of lies and a lot of like or or or. You know you have rules and then the rules don't make sense. And I think this is why I was so excited to talk to you, because you have like hearing this story that Ben loops in on itself, you know, and kind of helps you grow as a creative and, as it gave you a career, you know all these different choices that are it all adds up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, looking back in hindsight, it all adds up and this is something I want to kind of explore more in episode two. Like all that work that we do isn't a waste of time, and that's a concept that we always talk about. But I want to talk to you more about that and see how all these little things you've done kind of tie together but for now I think we'll have to wrap it up here little things you've done kind of tied together, but for now I think we'll have to wrap it up here.
Speaker 3:Julia, thank you for coming on the pod. Thank you for having me Amazing. Looking forward to it, yeah.
Speaker 2:All right, Take care everyone. Thank you for listening to the Anywood Podcast. You can find us anywhere you find your podcasts or on YouTube on the Cinematography for Actors YouTube channel. See you next week.
Speaker 1:From the CFA Network work. Cinematography for Actors is bridging the gap through education and community building. Find out about us and listen to our other podcast at cinematographyforactorscom. Cinematography for Actors Institute is a 501c3 non-profit. For more information on fiscal sponsorship donations because we're tax exempt now, so it's a tax write-off and upcoming education, you can email us at contact at cinematographyforactorscom. Thanks.