We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Callie Beaulieu a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Callie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I love that we’re opening with this question! I knew pretty early on that I was going to be an actor. When I was a girl, I was always acting out songs in front of the mirror with a hairbrush and wearing a tutu (to this day, I love the Billy Joel Stranger album which was my favorite to act out). When I was in the second grade, it all became clear when I was cast as the Wicked Witch in the school production of Snow White. To this day, I remember making my entrance stage right. Following the show, I was standing with my parents in the back of the auditorium/cafeteria and one of the other parents walked up to them and said, “She should consider doing this professionally”. My father gave my shoulder a little squeeze and that was it, it was locked in! By the time I was in junior high school, I was raring to go but my parents said I needed to wait until I could drive myself to and from wherever I needed, so in those in-between years, I read every biography on being an actress I could find. Marilyn Monroe, Vivien Leigh, Bette Davis, Colleen Dewhurst, Elizabeth Ashley…I would read anything I could get my hands on. Then, finally at 16, I hit the local community theatre scene hard! That was the start of it, within four years, I had locked in my first professional contract.

Callie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Well, I was born and raised in Mystic, Connecticut – yes, where they filmed Mystic Pizza. 

I am a self-professed vintage gal who loves the Coastal Grandma aesthetic and loves adventuring to flea markets, garage sales and thrift stores to satisfy my vintage housewares addiction. Umm, let’s see, what else? Things that make me happy? The beach, turquoise blue and fresh cut flowers.

I started my acting career pretty early on, as I sort of touched on in the first question you asked. By the time I had completed my BFA, I had two summers of stock under my belt and had booked my first full time job as an actor at Busch Gardens: The Old Country in Williamsburg, VA. That was an incredible training ground. By the time my contract was completed, I had performed in 612 shows! No, I’m not exaggerating, I have the certificate! That was the best training ground I could have ever been given because I left Busch with the fully developed skill of knowing how to keep things fresh.

After a little over 15 years performing in film and the storefront theatres of Chicago, I took a theatrical hiatus and experienced life. I travelled extensively, France several times (where I worked as a volunteer on a medieval castle reconstruction), much of Europe, Scandinavia and the West Indies. I lived abroad for nearly ten years, became a competitive recreational figure skater and a Caribbean ballroom champion. Got married (twice) and let my life marinate.

When I came back to the States in the early 2010’s, I felt it was time to jump back into the industry and I did it by starting back in community theatre to re-train. It’s been a slow and steady trajectory, and I am excited to say that the last twelve to eighteen months have been what I call “The Year of Firsts” – I started receiving my first residuals, I had my first network booking, my first streaming booking, my first regional commercial and my first studio film. This has all occurred during the difficult time our industry is facing, and I am so grateful. I do not take one thing for granted.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

A story from my journey that demonstrates resilience.? The fact I am still even doing it demonstrates resilience! This entire career journey demonstrates resilience. I think artists, in general, are not truly seen for the extraordinary resilience our career choice and lifestyle demonstrates! No, truly, think about it. In what other career path would you be exposed to the ongoing “rejection” and job insecurity that artists face? As an actor, I am constantly on a job interview – my job is the job interview. If there is anything that demonstrates resilience on such a consistent level, it’s the audition process. For me personally, that’s when my career levelled up. When I finally shifted my mind set to understand that not only was the audition the job, but shifting my mind set to accept the audition as the fun. The chance to act. For far too long, I was result oriented and if there wasn’t a booking it meant that somehow, I had failed. The resilience came when I finally embraced the booking as the frosting, the little bit extra on the top. Here’s an example – over the last two years I have had 42 auditions. Of those 42, I have booked 9 of those projects. If you were, let’s say, a financial analyst…can you imagine going on 42 job interviews in two years and then only getting hired short term freelance for 9 of those interviews?

I think people outside of the arts tend to have a very skewed perception of the artist – artists of all kinds, ballet dancers, opera singers, visual arts – we work and thrive in a constant state of job insecurity and yet we still create magic. That, to me, illustrates resilience. I’m still standing!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the collaboration! Without question. I found over the years I did theatre; it was the rehearsal process that was the most exciting and rewarding for me. Creating something out of nothing and having it all come together. I love the interplay and the spit balling…one person inspires another and the energy that inspiration creates is some of the most exciting I have encountered. The intensity of creation, the adrenalin rush. This carries over into film and television, when you do your character prep and put it up on its feet in the world you’re all working to create. That is what drives me. That collaboration. I am constantly inspired by people’s creativity. I was on set for a major network show a few years ago and there were hundreds of people working that day, hundreds, and each one of them contributed to that creative endeavor…I was in awe. Now, I understand that some people may not see the process as romantically as I do, but that has always been my driving force…the collaboration of creation. Listen, I get joy from the collaboration of a wardrobe fitting!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.calliebeaulieu.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/calliebeaulieu/
• Other: IMDb : https://www.imdb.me/CallieBeaulieu

Image Credits
Headshot: J. Demetrie Photography