Sitting in the casting office surrounded by a pool of petite, beautiful women, I suddenly become hyper-aware of my breast size, waist size, and hair color; “I’m definitely the wild card here…” For years I have fought my rep about my brand and for years I have lost. Even at my thinnest/most hungry (a size 2) I never felt “good enough” to be in the room with ‘drop-dead gorgeous models with perfect bodies’, not because I don’t think I’m beautiful or talented, but because I am not a ‘drop-dead gorgeous model with a perfect body’. The thing is, I’m okay…
Author: Amber Sweet
Amber Sweet
Amber Sweet is an actress best known for her breakout role in the independent short "There's Something in the Woods.” She is a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, and a proud company member of Kaiser Permanente’s Educational Theatre, where she tours SoCal in the show "What Goes Around.” Amber is a founding member of the up and coming all female comedy group, Full Frontal Females, where she writes, produces, and acts. Amber will be filming two independent features in 2014, "Clarion Falls" and "Pretty Things", as well as hitting the Off-Broadway stage, reviving her role as Bella in the critically acclaimed production of "Women Are Crazy Because Men Are A**holes.”
We all have to start from somewhere, right? As a fresh faced actor that usually means submitting for/shooting low budget projects and working for little to no pay. Upside(s): This is a great way to gain (on-set) experience, pad your resume, make contacts, and attain footage for your reel. Downside(s): Deferred/no pay. On occasion, having to deal with inexperienced filmmakers. Mediocre crafty. There’s a high probability that you won’t get your footage. You can choose to focus on the potential negatives of working for free, and not work, or you could jump in head first with optimism, be grateful that…
Driving on to the lot at Prospect Studios was a first for me and it was exhilarating to say the least. When I said, “My name is Amber Sweet and I have an appointment with Mark Teschner” I felt on top of the world…and almost barfed a little. This was one of those really cool actor moments; strutting up to the General Hospital building in my best heels to an exclusive interview with a huge Casting Director. My face hurt from smiling. I met Mark at a casting director workshop. Let me start by saying up until that day, I…
I made a mistake six years ago; I engaged with a bully. I let my immature, reactive 23 year-old self spit fire and now I seem to be paying the price. Let’s start from the beginning. I had just graduated from acting school, bright eyed, bushy tailed, and very green and stumbled upon a mutual “friend” and high school alumni on Myspace (I know, right?). After seeing that she was also in LA pursuing a career in acting, I sought advice; I messaged her asking about everything from the best photographers for headshots to how I should go about getting…
You want to know all the gory details, don’t you? Easy tiger, it’s not what you think it is. I have a few friends in Casting and have witnessed the grueling hours they put in and the tremendous work the job entails. After watching the invaluable documentary “Casting By”, my awareness to the taxing and thankless job that is casting was brought to the forefront and my admiration for Casting Directors snowballed. Casting Directors are often underestimated and overlooked – a tragic reality evident in the fact that casting is the only main card to NOT get an Oscar nomination,…
It was about 9pm on a Thursday when I lost it: the passion, the drive, the confidence. I was buried in two scripts memorizing lines and basically had a nervous breakdown. I drank two (okay, three) glasses of wine for dinner that night, and basically cried myself to sleep. Why? Acting is fucking hard. The industry is brutal; the constant rejection can send you into a self-sabotaging rabbit hole and the pressure can literally cripple you. I’ve been pounding the pavement for nearly a decade now and with each year, it only gets more challenging. I have this “what am…
Actor to Actor, the question “where did you go to school” comes up a lot. When reflecting about my experience at my Acting Conservatory, I think very fondly on my time there (I met some of my best friends to this day during those two years), and firmly believe that it laid the foundation for my craft. It helped me cultivate my skill-set, master my strengths and acknowledge my weaknesses; and it taught me a lot about myself, both as an individual and an artist. However, did it fully prepare me to jump into the industry head-first, and teach me…
You just uploaded all your new headshots, which cost you $700, but they FINALLY look like you. Your reel is updated and uploaded, that was another couple hundred bucks, but it now has professional pizzaz and pop. You’re in a pricey new acting class but it’s going to look great on your resume, plus its demanding and motivating. Damn, acting is taxing and expensive. Silver lining: you’ve finally done everything your agent and/or manager told you to do. You feel confident and accomplished. You wait proudly “by the phone”… but the phone never rings. Well, about a month ago, I…
As I sit in bed, pinching my back fat, I wonder: Do all women do this? The daily pressure for a woman in Hollywood to be thinner than thin is nothing new, and the amount of inner torture it fosters can be overpowering and dangerous, like a 600 pound wild boar bearing down on you, but in reality the beast is the mind-blowing grilled cheese you had for lunch, and your only escape route is to demoralize yourself. The pressure to be thin. The pressure to be beautiful. The pressure to be perfect. Fuck. It’s a lot to handle, and…