Author: Katie Wallack

Part of the reason the election went the way it did was because of the disenfranchised working class. For the past 15 years, unionized labor jobs here in the United States have been competing with exploited laborers around the world who work for slave wages and create cheap products. This created a vicious downward cycle: American workers can only afford cheap products made by exploited workers because Americans themselves are working for smaller and smaller wages. How does this affect me as an artist? Well, it might not as an Artist. But it does as a working performer. When I…

That is the question. Whether it tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune (been going grey since I was 16, embrace it and end my commercial acting career & highlight the age difference between me and my husband.) Or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them (by continuing to crush the salt & pepper signs of truth that erupt every 3 weeks with $200 color and disappear into the silent expectation of the industry and society at large.) To dye, to sleep no more – and by…

The middleclass is shrinking, and so are we. The friendly definition of “Journeyman” is: an experienced and competent, routine worker or performer. A less friendly definition: a trained worker who is employed by someone else that is reliable but not outstanding. For our purposes today, I’m moving forward with the second definition because that is how I believe we are perceived, classified and dismissed. FUCK THE STARVING ARTIST MODEL. Can we all agree to resist the temptation of accepting poverty and struggle because we are actors? Phrases like ‘Aspiring actor’ ‘Struggling performer’ ‘The starving artist lifestyle’ has been put on…

Hi! This is a basically an open letter for all friends of commercial performers. Please keep telling us when you see our spots! The fun and support is always helpful to the spirit, but there is a fiscal benefit too. (And fellow commercial actors – let me know if I’ve left anything out.) We’re all in this together. – Katie You get paid every time a commercial runs, right? Sort of. There’s a complicated pay structure depending on the station and the media buy. The idea is that if the commercial is running we get paid. It’s called residuals. Why…

I didn’t get into acting because I wanted to peddle products but I’ve found success in booking commercials, I have a great agent and I enjoy the work. Here are a few trade secrets I’d like to share. 1. Generic clothes to auditions An actor in a commercial represents the demographic the advertisers are targeting.  My category includes terms like ‘aspirational’ ‘quirky’ ‘young mom’ ‘off beat’ ‘approachable’ ‘girl next door.’ I wear the cheap imperfect fitting t-shirts from Target or K-Mart. I never dress quirky or off-beat, I let my performance and energy in the room convey that. There’s a…

Parliaments. Of all the cigarettes out there, Parliaments were my paramour. I loved the way they burned, they way they tasted and their color scheme. And 6 ½ years ago I said goodbye. It was like saying goodbye to a passionate love affair that is exciting and rebellious and fun because it’s dangerous and I love being part of a minority subculture. But it was unhealthy, I didn’t feel good in the morning and my clothes stunk. And for me, smelling bad in anyway is the kiss of death. Absolutely mortifying. So I quit. And never went back… A couple…

I sat across from a 40 year old male producer who said women, in Los Angeles, in their mid 30’s, in entertainment cannot expect to have the career they aspire to reach AND get married and have kids with supportive husband (financially and/or otherwise) because it’s a diminishing return on investment. He went on say that those same women can’t compete with the hot 20 somethings because successful men in their 40’s in LA are f*cking a different one every night. …yeah I know right? A few things ran through my mind as I worked my way through my glass…

I was in a clothing store on Larchmont and a customer asked if the purses were real leather. They weren’t. And I heard the sales gal say “More and more people in LA aren’t buying anything real.” This statement lingered in my mind the rest of my Sunday… People in LA aren’t buying anything real…. Actually, I think people in Los Angeles are paying top dollar for “real” and they are going outside of LA to find it. Los Angeles is the entertainment capital of the country, possibly the world. Artists, storytellers and creators come from all over to Los…

I think in metaphors. Or symbols. On good days – puns. Lately I’ve been getting into cooking. Actual cooking, not reheating frozen veggie burgers. Quinoa, salmon, halibut, sautéed mushrooms, actually using the spices I have beyond salt. Not only have I felt better physically, but the response from my friends has been so overwhelmingly positive, I almost don’t believe them…almost. It’s true, you are what you eat. And setting the conscious intention of preparing quality healthy food that I let into my body has made a big difference in how I feel physically. Which made me think about what I’m…

I had a scene partner many years ago tell me “People don’t seem to understand that when you give someone your attention, you are giving them something. It’s a gift.” That concept was a turning point for me in the value of listening and the listener. Living in AN EXTREMELY LOUD CULTURE fighting for the consumer’s attention ad nauseam, we are becoming more numb and forget the power we have as a collective. That silent majority tuning in every week for Game of Thrones, or The Daily Show 1) Not so silent and 2) extremely powerful. But do we feel…

The “horror community is small. Celebrated women filmmakers in horror is even smaller” says Stacy Pippi Hammon, festival director and founding partner of Etheria Film Festival, a festival dedicated to female directors of Horror, Action, Sci-Fi and Fantasy genres. The lack of opportunities for female filmmakers in Hollywood is a hot topic right now; and the genres with some of the biggest budgets are hardest for women to break into – Action, Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Horror. That’s why Hammon along with her partners, Heidi Honeycutt and Kayley Viteo, created a festival dedicated to showcase those genres by female directors only.…

In the ever present demand for actors to create their own work, I find myself called to discover what roles are true to my core, my essence. “Don’t kid yourself, the psychological blind spot in an individual is ginormous.” says John Dapolito, founder of Actors Where are You Going? program, a cutting edge profiling technique to help professional actors realize their true potential. Through his seminar and private session, a clarification of myself as a person and artist galvanized. I am now able to articulate my niche beyond such banal terms like ‘Girl next door, aspirational, quirky.’ These stereotype descriptions…

A friend of mine recently booked a series that is shooting out of the country. The bar she worked at had a going away party that coincided with her last shift. It was one of the most loving, heartfelt, fun going away parties that I had ever attended. And it got me thinking about ‘Actor Survival Jobs’ – the stigma, the deeper need and how we’ve been going about it all wrong. First off the name – ‘Survival.’ It’s dramatic and severe. It reeks of desperation and impending doom. People survive wars. People survive cancer. People survive danger, trauma, their…

*originally published on Feb 12, 2015 at puntifikate.wordpress.com BULLYING is the use of force, threat, or coercion to abuse, intimidate, or aggressively dominate others. My cyber bully told me “Use your Intelligence.” … would that be Academic Intelligence? Emotional Intelligence? Intrapersonal or Interpersonal Intelligence? Who cares, here we go. 
A week ago, an acquaintance from my high school days left a nasty post on my wall. And because I think these negative thoughts about myself from time to time, it didn’t occur to me that this was bullying or abusive until I witnessed my friends – Facebook and otherwise –…