My acting and life journey to date.
Juliette Harrison (copyright 2017)
For the last six years, I was balancing the 9–5 alongside acting courses and getting involved in plays on the evenings and weekends. Truth be told, I was in a hamster wheel with no real freedom or space for the creativity I needed to succeed. My biggest business and life lesson over the last five years has definitely been around the need to become more focused and single-minded, and not to pursue more than one or two projects simultaneously.
Do I have regrets? If I could have my time over again, I would have come to London better prepared and just hit the ground running and immersed myself as a working actor and not fretted as much about training, Spotlight, or agent representation. If I had come to London without the personal baggage, my journey would have been very different as I would have had the headspace to just forge forward and take risks. Fear has massively held me back in a lot of ways as I should have shaken my victimhood mentality off a long time ago, but I had to go through the emotional journey to recovery at the same time. I tried to balance the self-loathing and criticism I had for myself during that whole period from 2013–2016 which I would say were my most challenging years to date. In truth, my acting goals kept me sane and were a channel for expressing my suppressed emotions and heartache from the break-up of my family unit.
Course junkie When I look back, I must have spent thousands of pounds over the last decade in working with coaches and attending the latest workshop (some good, some very abysmal). I don’t regret the courses, money spent, and meeting amazing people as it has all shaped my journey. Once you are part of the acting community in London, you soon realise that the same people turn up to different events and it is all part of the process. I really love that familiarity when you are turning up to auditions and being pushed out of your comfort zone. I tap into the feeling of knowing people have my back when I am in the audition room with a bunch of unknown professionals. It is unusual not to feel this competition but I genuinely don’t on the whole, I trust the process and feel that our peers want the best for us. It is a small minority of people that want you to fail and give up on your dreams.
Best course to date The most significant course in propelling my journey to the next level was the APT diploma at Rose Bruford College. Even though I have taken lots of courses including two-day workshops at City Lit, it was the Rose Bruford course that had the most gravitas and paved my way into the industry. The course attracted people across all ages and walks of life and many of whom I am still in close contact with. The older members of the group are the ones who are booking the jobs and getting agent rep because they are no longer in the competitive casting age bracket. I believe the industry is changing and more roles are now available for women, due to fantastic new writing and I hope to contribute down the line in this area. You only have to watch the latest BBC and ITV dramas where the likes of Lesley Manville are still commanding the strong female lead.
What happened next? Between 2018–2021, I did continue to put myself out there but it took me a long time to get onto Spotlight and I was on the verge of giving up acting when I finally succeeded in getting a profile listing back in January 2021. Like most working actors, the opportunities weren’t regular but I was tapping into work that was safe and reliable, rather than creatively inspiring for me. I was lucky to get fringe and voiceover work through my networks which contributed to my Spotlight and post-training credits. However, I could still see old patterns emerging and was becoming increasingly wary of being trapped in the amdram scene. I was lucky to work on live events but again I could see the same spiral of getting stuck in my comfort zone of knowing the work was on tap and it was all nice and easy. Over the last 12 months, I have had to be ruthless about culling unnecessary projects that were a time drain, not well paid and more importantly weren’t putting me on casting director or agents’ radars.
What am I doing now? I have since gone self-employed in July 2021 at the age of 35, and I really feel as though I am in full flow and alignment for the first time in my acting career. I have a lot more confidence and self-assurance of who I am as well as knowing the right opportunities are there if I push myself forward. My mindset has completely shifted to thinking more about the business side of acting and understanding how to market and brand myself, just like what any other entrepreneur has to do! Like anyone, I don’t have a crystal ball to know whether I will be still acting in five or ten years’ time but I will give it my best shot. I am fully taking advantage of the flexibility that self-employment gives me and not holding myself back from applying for all the opportunities that previously I wouldn’t have had the flexibility to do!