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

Mika, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

Almost everyone can relate to being misunderstood and mischaracterized throughout life, but it wasn’t until I started pursuing acting that I truly felt the weight being falsely labeled can bring. Due to the hard work of my parents, I was privileged to attend the same Christian preparatory school from kindergarten through twelfth grade. By the time I graduated from USC with a Bachelor’s of Science, the stereotypes and assumptions of a silver-spoon childhood placed upon me were not foreign. I learned at an early age to demonstrate my true background and circumstances to those who would choose to assume differently via actions, work ethic, and character. When I decided to pursue a career that is forward-facing, putting myself physically under the spotlight, the entire realm of assumptions morphed into a higher intensity.

I am only starting in my career, as I sit down for this interview, my schedule for the coming week is running through my mind: An audition, a table read, and being booked as the International Mistress of Ceremonies for the Buldak/Samyang Awards make up my Monday and Tuesday. I know the full level of public scrutiny to come is incomprehensible during these beginning phases of my acting career, but I can speak to what it is like for people to look at you and make an assumption.

Recently, a family member asked me a question while chatting about a social media commercial I had booked. They asked if I get nervous knowing people will be watching (and subsequently judging) my work. As someone who found comfort and success behind the scenes in the entertainment business, I am no stranger to nerves, yet never thought of the content within their question. I was able to give them an answer instantly, a true gut reaction: “No. People judge you the minute you enter a room, might as well make money doing it”. The day passed, and I thought nothing of the conversation, but a social media interaction brought it back into my focus.

Just as social media can bring us together – a forum to share joyful news, favorite films, and beloved pet photos – it can also be a breeding ground for less than positive correspondences. One weekday morning, I found my phone flooded with notification after notification of mischaracterizations by strangers. For actors in the modern age, our social media is our portfolio, business card, and advertising. To be able to promote our craft, we need to post our work publicly, something I am comfortable doing. But up until this point, I never experienced direct and “large-scale” mischaracterization (I put large-scale in quotes as what I experienced is irrelevant to those further along in the craft). Thousands of strangers flipped through my page, making assumptions about my swimwear and outfit posts, images that have aided in pursuing my dreams as well as expressing my love for fashion. I found myself wanting to spend my entire day responding to every comment, proving to strangers that I am not who they are saying. But why do that? I do not know these people, and they do not know me. They simply saw a post and made a quick, off-the-cuff assumption.

Thankfully, I know what’s in my heart, mind, and intentions. I realized the best path when faced with being misunderstood and mischaracterized is to not run, hide, shy in putting yourself out there, or try to prove to any nay-sayer who you are, it is to choose peace. I will choose peace in my Christian values, peace in the love of family and friends, and peace in knowing who I truly am.

Mika, 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?

I am Mika, a behind-the-scenes entertainment professional turned aspiring actress! Since my early teenage years, I always had a passion for the glitz, glam, and escape from reality the entertainment world provides. Never one to shy away from my goals, I jumped into the music business at 15, finding myself working and learning at entertainment’s top management and festival companies. As a true lover of knowledge, I balanced work with collegiate studies, graduating Cum Laude from the University of Southern California within three years. My studies at USC connected and directed me back into my love for cinema.

Giant (1965), Gone with the Wind (1939), Casablanca (1942), White Christmas (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955), G.I. Blues (1960), Sabrina (1995), and La La Land (2016) are all films that motivate me and remind me why I am pursuing this craft: To provide audiences with a sense of awe and relief from the world’s stressors.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

For any actor, this comes as no surprise, but Sanford Meisner’s On Acting is my go-to book when working on expanding my acting abilities. As a proud Type-A personality, I always resort to creating and organizing my thoughts into a document, a fate that not even Meisner’s endless avant-garde artistry could escape when put into my hands. My (sometimes tiring) need to consistently summarize by putting pen to paper has proven helpful, in this instance, as I have created a cohesive “CliffsNotes” of his book, tailored to my thought process and goals at this point in my acting progression. It has come in handy to flip through before an audition – The reading calms my nerves while brushing up on a few acting points.

A book I am currently enjoying is Edith Head: The Fifty-Year Career of Hollywood’s Greatest Costume Designer, which I discovered via the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures’s gift shop. Edith Head is the genius and pioneering designer behind many of Hollywood’s Golden Era costumes. As I am learning more about her career in the pictures, I was pleasantly surprised to learn she used to teach French at Bishop’s School in La Jolla, CA! Bishop’s is a fellow, local school of my high school alma mater. I vividly remember playing lacrosse on their campus and find amusement in knowing Edith shared similar stomping grounds.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Indeed, I can. As mentioned briefly, I used to work in the music business within the realm of artist management. This background continues to support and enrich my pursuit of acting as the two businesses are intertwined. I had the pleasure of doing a fantastic interview earlier this year about my pivot specifically.
You can find the interview below:

“Rising Stars: Meet Mika McCalla of Film and Television”
https://sdvoyager.com/interview/rising-stars-meet-mika-mccalla-of-film-and-television

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mikamccalla.my.canva.site
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikamccalla/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@mikamccalla