Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jutta Charbonnier. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jutta, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

The first word that comes to my mind is determination! When you set a goal for yourself in your career, it’s often not as easy to achieve as expected. That’s why determination matters a lot. I remember when I first wanted to start acting I auditioned for a few school in London during Covid but did not get accepted in any of them. However once covid ended I got the chance to audition for a school in Los Angeles which was my first choice from the beginning and got accepted! Even though the rejection of the first schools was hard to overcome I am actually really happy that it happened so that I could begin my acting career in LA! I just needed to wait a little bit more and to keep believing in myself!

The second most important ingredient for success is the thirst of learning. Your business or profession will always lead you to new experience or challenges and the ability to deal and improve with them is definitely a skill that will bring you success. In my personal life, the event that really made me realise that (in my acting career) was during my second year of studies when I had to choose between Musical theatre, Shakespeare or Solo performance for one of my option. I knew I wanted to dance and choose Musical theatre but because I never learned how to sing and never had any training in that, I was really scared of how hard it was going to be for me to learn. Specially when most of the other students were great at it. But I decided to leave my fear behind me and change it into excitement to learn and get better at something new! In the end this experience showed me that with time and determination you can learn and get good at anything!

The last ingredient for success is passion. I think that if you are working in a field that you love and in which you are passionated about what you do, it’s so much easier to find determination and hunger to grow because you just want to get better at what you do without being pushed! You just have fun working which makes everything easier!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My passion for acting came when I was around 14. Which is actually quite late compared to some of my friends. I was a high level equestrian (jumping) and dedicated all my time to become a professional at that time so I never really had an opportunity to take acting classes before coming to LA in college.

A lot of professions really interested me for a period of time. I wanted to become a vet, a police officer, a professional horse ridder, an accountant, a lawyer, a surgeon, an F1 driver but I never felt a passion in any of those jobs that led me to think that I wanted to do that for the rest of my life. I felt like I could do those jobs for a couple of years and then get bored…

I grew up as an only child and both of my parents were working a lot so I got to spend a lot of time by myself watching movies. Cinema helped me a lot during my life to keep me away from loneliness and understand that I was not the only one feeling sad sometimes. That’s when my passion for acting became a real thing. I also realised that becoming an actress would actually really suit me. I am a very curious person who’s always trying to learn new things and develop new skills. One day you can be a cop, another day a psychopath, a professional athlete, a cowboy or even an astronaut. You get to learn so much about these fields and how your character would behave, speak, react and feel which is so interesting!

I also want to make people dream, give them hope and show them that they’re not alone through cinema. It helped me so much when I was younger and it still does. I want to be able to share the feeling I had back then when I fell in love with the art of cinema!

That’s why when I was 18 I decided to leave everything behind in Europe to come and start my acting career in LA! I have since never regret one second that choice event though it involved a lot of financial risks. My years of acting studies just comforted me in my goal to work as an actress until I can’t physically anymore.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I planned on going to the US right after I got my French high school diploma. However Covid happened right during that time and I couldn’t travel to the US. I didn’t really know what to do because I knew I wanted to pursue an acting career in the US but I wasn’t sure how long it was going to take me to be able to travel there because of how the Covid pandemic was going to evolve.

I also knew that I didn’t want to wait until I could go to do something with my life. So, I applied for a couple of colleges in France. I was hesitant between Med school, Law school, Business school, Vet or accountant school. In the end I decided to choose an accountant school because it involved business and law at the same time which I was both interested in. I got accepted and to be fair, I really enjoy this year of studies. But I still had my main goal in mind and auditioned for an acting school in LA during that year! I was so happy when I got the email saying that I was accepted! Despite my passion for acting I’m glad I got to learn new things about economy, law and accounting so I finished my year of college, pass my exams and started to plan my trip to LA!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I have a lot of friends who are not in the acting industry at all and sometimes it’s quite hard for them to understand the struggle behind it.

When I go back to my home country and we have conversation about what our futur is going to look like, I have to admit, sometimes I asked myself if I really wanted to take the risk to become an actress. Most of them are in law or business school and it’s quite sure for them that they will have a successful futur.

However, the path I chose is quite uncertain especially as an international student. Building an acting career is far from easy. First of all because you run into a lot of rejection which is not always easy to take in but also because there is a lot of competition, especially here in LA. And in my personal case, I don’t have any family in the industry who could help me.

You’re never sure when your next job is going to be. You might have a month where you’re on set every day but the next one might be the opposite.

People who are not in the industry tend to think that when you are a talented actor you get all the jobs and you just have to practise your acting skills to get a role but it’s not always like this. You might not get an audition because you have brown eyes instead of blue or blond hair instead of brown or on the other hand get a job because you look a certain way that fits the character you’re auditionning for. It’s really hard to stay motivated and not tell yourself that you’re not made for this.

I know that I’m going to run into a lot of rejection and that I’m going to feel disappointed and question at some point if I should just go back to accountant study but what if the next audition I had was the one? What if I was this close to make it? That’s something I always want to remind myself. I know that acting is the only thing that will make me happy. Despite the fact that I could have chosen a regular path like my friends and have a secure and successful futur, that’s not what is going to make ME feel successful.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @juttacharbonnier
• Facebook: Jutta Charbonnier
• Other: IMDB: Jutta Charbonnier
  Actors Access: https://resumes.actorsaccess.com/Jutta

Image Credits

Tina Vonn
fjarhus photography