It is not at all what it seems! People may think it is glamorous and easy but it is hard hard work. It takes hard work, dedication and patience. Every step of the way and in every moment of the journey, a youth actor must always remember who they are and why they are doing what they do. There is a great need for a child actor to have a strong support network and especially to have parents who are instilling some strong moral fiber and values. Without a strong mind, the child actor will give up, be full of fear or just turn obnoxious. The Acting Industry is a People-Industry that requires the highest degree of interpersonal skills in order to achieve any success. You RECEIVE back as much as you GIVE. A child actor must know and learn to give...GIVE of themselves and be kind and courteous and always joyful.
My Annika has a unique quality that truly endears people to her. I must share, however, about the dark side of people...and their influence on Annika over the last 11 months. There are those people around her who give here their unwavering support on an emotional level and also make sacrifices to help her ...so that is on the physical level. Some really spiritual and encourgaing people have even helped lift her to some greater depths along the way too. But sadly, there are those who choose to cut-down and be offensive to this hard-working little actor. Children in her grade have chided her...friends have put her down ...even other adults in our lives have sent such conflicting behavior about her that it has become necessary for us to simply ignore it and overlook it. We (meaning Annika and Me and her Dad) have had to do this in order to not behave badly back to those people. Actors need thick skin...to overlook the abuse they may encounter from negative people. But it is worth it. It is worth it when you have a week like ours.
So Annika had not had a Casting Call since October 22nd. I checked in with the agency as a good Mom-ager should. I keep things positive, I try not to complain or nag or be overbearing because I can only imagine that they have some Talent in there, whose representatives do that! I remind them regularly that we are grateful. I visit their facebook page and read their posts and "like" their comments and offer encouragement to the other youngsters who are experiencing successes. None of us can possibly know which of the children will become lifelong actors or which will give up or which will be Broadway stars or Hollywood Icons one day. We do not have a crystal ball. My Annika is no different than any of the others...just a good kid with a great personality and a lot of special... something! So how did she come to inherit her first commercial? Glad you asked. Since you are no doubt reading this in order to learn how to help your child or yourself get into acting, I will include as much detail as I can recall.
First, about two weeks ago, Model Club Inc. sent out an email to all the Talent in a certain age group asking if anyone had ever used the services of Hasbro Hospital in Providence RI. When Annika was born, we were living in Providence and as a young child, she was twice treated at Hasbro. I responded to the email right away (I always make myself available for Model Club). I wrote them a short two paragraphs about here expereinces at Hasbro. We were told in the email that if Hasbro wanted our child, we would be called by Hasbro directly. A week passed and no phone call. I assumed we were not selected. No problem..we went about our business. Then one morning, I get a call from Model Club asking if we can reserve Tuesday January 24th for a possible Hasbro Shoot. The word shoot is vague, I know. I had no idea what kind of project this was and neither did our agent surprisingly. But of course I said, YES! Nothing was confirmed until the morning before the "shoot" when we received the instructions from our Agent to report to Hasbro's World Headquarters Office in Pawtucket RI that day at 1pm.
Annika was thrilled and after a bit of negotiating we got my clients situated and our transportation situated and a sitter for Annika's little brother and we headed out to the job. Annika and I try to make these special days fun and engaging and we really try to "suck the marrow" out of it...just throw ourselves into it and have a lot of fun. Arriving at Hasbro was like a mini-trip to Walt Disney World. Here are some great photos of this fabulous RI Company:
When we arrived, we were given "Visitor badges" and escorted through a maze of hallways cleverly named and proudly displaying the company's life-work...their toys! I wished we could snap photos but this was not allowed. We can only cherish the experience to ourselves. However, I can tell you that we first came up Memory Lane and then Crossed down Main Street, taking Light Brite Way and passing "The Hinge" before finally arriving to Cake Mix Studios and our first Commercial Shoot. When Annika found out she was to be in a Television Commercial for Hasbro Childrens Hospital's upcoming Gala Fundraiser, she was thrilled!
Here she is getting into hair and makeup:
Annika had fun reading her lines and the Director Ashley has such a great technique with getting the right lines and the right delivery from the kids. A child is professional if they can really follow the directions and change as they go along and be positive and ultimately deliver some great lines and their were a few very special moments where the crew and Director really liked Annika's work. Altogether we were there an hour or so. We left on a high...with Annika's beautiful hair! Here was us decompressing outside after a fun commercial shoot:
Ah...the many sides of Annika. She really has a charming face. I am her biggest fan. I really am. I am so proud of her. She is brave and adventurous and good at what she does!
But don't just take my word for it...listen to her tell you herself:
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