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

Vanessa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I went to this Audition in Santa Monica for a Project that required the Principal actors to completely shave their head, very rarely I get auditions that are very close to where I live so I thought, piece of cake! I’ll just go right after work. As soon as I get there, all I see is teenage girls! around 13 and 16 years old, I thought to myself, what am I doing here!? theres no chance I’ll ever get this, they must have made a mistake calling me in for an in person audition… I went to the restroom and I was seriously contemplating just leaving, but then I convinced myself to stay and just go in the room, take the opportunity I have to act and Just start building a relationship with the Casting director and Director… (A lot of things happened but…) Fast forward to I ended up booking the job! and I was just in shock.. I was also going through a period in my life of a lot of Shadow work and self deconstruction so I was facing a lot of pain, and knowing I had to shave my head, my therapist warned me I might go through a period of grief because hair for women is such a big piece of Identity; but I did it! I took the risk… Fast forward to: I don’t know if you believe in the butterfly effect but, having shaved my head was one of the biggest risks and also most freeing feelings in my life!… When My hair started growing back, It looked so unique that it led me to book other bigger projects! like this new horror movie acting Opposite to Danny Trejo
! and even be noticed by big Hollywood names like Sterling K Brown! and even Matt Damon and Ben Affleck! It’s just crazy the things that happen when you decide to step out of your comfort zone!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I was trained Classically and humbly. Growing up I had very strict Acting teachers that would train you to remove your facial make up with one sheet and only one sheet of toilet paper because sometimes we would be performing a play in very remote places and some things would not be accessible that easily. I was taught how to make my own costumes from scratch, we recycled, re used and appreciated the final product and took care of the things we used, I was taught to be respectful of the art and the artist but always I was taught “The Story is always the most important thing”, more than the actor…
And above all of these things, we were always encouraged to be creative and to never stop creating, I love to study the scripts and put my creativity at work! and I know that I am just one more piece to this puzzle we are all collectively creating, so I try to be as professional as possible but I always defend whats best for whichever character I am playing!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist or Creative in my opinion is the knowledge and new skills you acquire, acting will always force you to step out of your comfort zone and learn something new in order to embody a character and tell a story; wether is riding a bike, starting a campfire, learning a new language, you’ll definitely have a wide range of random skills throughout your career path. The second most rewarding aspect is the people you work with, the relationships you build along the way, some are temporary some are long term, but at the end of the day we are social beings and everything in life is about relationships. The last but not least, The money baby! Acting, or just overall story telling can be one of the most financially rewarding jobs.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Industry wise I would say have more mentorship programs. there are more than 150,000 actors living and working in the Los Angeles Area, and most of the few mentorship programs always select a “Small group of individuals”.
If we consider the total of number of actors in Hollywood (Over 150,000) and the number of mentorship program participants (Typically ranging from a few dozen to a couple of hundred per year) It’s very clear that a very small percentage of actors have access to these opportunities. On average, mentorship programs might only involve 1-2% of the total of actors in Hollywood, depending on the year and program availability. Now that is just for actors in Hollywood! now imaging for Actors in the United States, or The entire continent! now Imagine what is like for Filmmakers, singers, songwriters and writers! The creative ecosystem would be a lot greener if we stopped gatekeeping knowledge…

Contact Info:

• Website: https://pro.imdb.com/?rf=cons_nb_hm&ref_=cons_nb_hm
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vanessa_gelacio/