Chyler Leigh, Jaz Sinclair, Josie Totah, and Monica Raymund talk about the worst career advice they've ever received as part of EW's 'Bold School' panel during SCAD TV Fest 2024.
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 I had been approached about auditioning for this pilot.
00:10 And this is when I must have been, geez, like 21.
00:15 And it was a show that just seemed absolutely awesome.
00:19 It was like an EMT, like paramedic situation.
00:23 And the character was fantastic.
00:26 But in the episode, there was a ton of really gratuitous sex
00:31 scenes and nude scenes that I really, at the time,
00:35 I really was not at all comfortable doing.
00:38 And I went in for the audition.
00:41 The audition went really great.
00:42 I got a call from my manager saying
00:44 that the producers would like to talk to you.
00:46 And one of the producers in particular--
00:48 I will not name names--
00:50 had asked me, it's like, OK, well, yes,
00:52 there are these scenes and whatnot.
00:54 Why are you not comfortable doing them?
00:56 And I thought, A, why are you asking me that question?
01:00 If I said no, I mean no.
01:01 And then I kind of came up with something on the spot
01:04 because I was super uncomfortable.
01:05 And then she said to me, she's like, listen,
01:07 I don't know why you would have a problem with this.
01:10 You're young.
01:10 You want to get into this show.
01:12 It's amazing.
01:13 We've got so much going on.
01:14 And it's not like we're seeing you naked.
01:17 We're seeing your character naked.
01:20 And I was like, that's the dumbest thing I have ever
01:23 heard.
01:25 But I was so young.
01:26 And I was like, at that point, I didn't do it.
01:30 I said no.
01:31 But it just made me think, like, my god,
01:34 the fact that that happens so often in our industry
01:38 and you can get pressured and pushed into doing things
01:41 that you're wildly uncomfortable with,
01:43 and you're scared to say no because you
01:46 don't want to be outcast.
01:47 You don't want to be known as the person who says no.
01:49 And you should be grateful for these opportunities.
01:52 And it really was one of those moments
01:54 that I never got seen by that producer
01:56 again because I used a lot of expletives on that phone call.
02:00 And then-- so I tried to talk to people.
02:05 And however you identify, it doesn't
02:08 matter when people are pressuring you like that.
02:11 A, make sure you have people around you who support you.
02:15 But B, don't be afraid to say no.
02:18 I know that is easier said than done.
02:21 But really, no in your vocabulary in this industry
02:24 is probably the most powerful word that you can use.
02:29 I love that.
02:29 It's incredible.
02:31 Yeah, I just kind of want to say something about that.
02:34 Not necessarily answering the question.
02:35 I hope I'm not eating up time.
02:37 No, that's OK.
02:37 You go for it.
02:38 But I really think that that's so important, especially
02:41 for young women to hear.
02:42 I think once upon a time, the narrative was,
02:44 like, if you want to do it, you have
02:46 to just get naked when people say you have to get naked.
02:49 And I've had conversations with my co-stars
02:51 where they're telling me that they feel uncomfortable,
02:53 but they haven't expressed it.
02:55 Or they're scared that something's
02:56 going to get written in like that,
02:57 that they'll just have to do.
02:58 And I just want to say, you always
03:00 have autonomy over your body.
03:02 And nobody can ever tell you what to do with it,
03:05 just in case you were curious.
03:06 That anything that feels like that is [BLEEP]..
03:09 Yeah, absolutely.
03:10 I love that.
03:10 Yeah, we can clap for that.
03:12 That's good.
03:13 Anybody else, Josie or Monica, bad advice
03:16 that you were given that you were able to turn around?
03:17 That's OK if you don't have an answer.
03:19 I think I was very fortunate to not get
03:22 many pieces of bad advice.
03:27 Or at least, I guess I was so young that maybe I just
03:29 forgot or didn't realize that it was bad advice.
03:33 When I started acting, I was 10 years old.
03:36 And I guest starred on shows for the first four years
03:39 of my career.
03:40 And when I ended up booking my first series regular role
03:43 on a show where you're in every episode,
03:46 I had one line in the first episode.
03:48 And I just remember being on those guest star shows,
03:51 and I was recurring on one show.
03:53 And I remember that someone on the cast or a few people,
03:59 they would continuously tell me, remember your place.
04:03 You're just a guest in this space.
04:05 You're not actually a main person.
04:08 And even on that show that I was on,
04:12 it was always like, know where you stand.
04:15 When you come in here--
04:17 and so I think over the years, I've
04:20 learned my value more.
04:23 And even if I'm not saying the most lines
04:26 or in the most scenes, I have felt more stronger
04:32 within myself as I've gotten older in my career of,
04:35 this is what I'm worth.
04:36 And this is what I'm bringing to the table.
04:38 And I do have a place.
04:41 And I think a lot of times, we get
04:44 told to just be grateful, which we should be grateful.
04:48 I mean, at least I feel that way.
04:50 We should be grateful.
04:51 But we should also not let that invalidate our inherent value.
04:56 Ooh.
04:58 This is good.
04:59 I'm taking this in going, thank you.
05:03 There's nothing sexier than gratitude.
05:07 We should be grateful all the time, because all of us
05:10 in here are artists.
05:12 And we're trying to create careers being artists.
05:15 And that is hard.
05:17 So the fact that we're here together
05:19 being able to bear witness to what
05:22 it means to be in school, learning how we get there,
05:25 and those of us who are practicing it right now,
05:28 I'm very grateful to be here.
05:29 Very grateful for you guys.
05:31 I guess my-- I don't know if it's bad advice.
05:35 I guess it was that person's opinion,
05:36 and I highly disagreed.
05:38 But I'm also a director, and somebody said to me,
05:43 you can't do both.
05:45 You can't do both.
05:46 I said, why?
05:46 Well, you should really choose.
05:48 You should choose, because people will forget about you
05:51 being one or the other.
05:52 If you start acting, people will--
05:55 if you start directing, people will
05:56 forget that you're an actor.
05:58 And you really want people to know
05:59 that if you're a director, you've
06:00 got to really commit to just directing, and vice versa.
06:03 And I was like, well, watch me.
06:07 And I just didn't understand why they
06:09 were bifurcating my space before I had even inhabited it.
06:14 So yeah, now I do both.
06:16 [LAUGHTER]
06:18 Yeah.
06:19 (whooshing)
06:22 [BLANK_AUDIO]