We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Athena Garcia a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Athena, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
I’ve definitely been happier now that I have dedicated 100 percent of my time focusing on my acting and dancing career. Before recently graduating college with a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Acting for Film, I was working several regular, part-time jobs to maintain a steady income. Some were retail jobs and others were fast food restaurants. I honestly hated going to work at places that didn’t have anything to do with what I want to pursue in my life. However, I knew I had to make as much money as I could and save up so that when I did graduate college, I would be able to quit my regular jobs and still have a good amount of money saved, to hold me over, while I wait to get paid from getting booked on acting and dancing gigs.
When the time came and I quit my jobs, it was the best decision but also the scariest decision I made. It was the best decision because I don’t have to worry about working at a job I’m not happy with and now I have full availability to submit to any auditions that are a match for me. Although, it was the scariest decision because since I’m so used to constantly being busy and having a full schedule because of work, I was afraid that I would find myself sitting around waiting too much and then feeling like I’m not doing enough to pursue my career. It has been almost a month since I have graduated and so far I haven’t found myself feeling that way. In fact, I try to keep myself constantly busy by practicing and working on my craft and I’ve never been happier.
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 background and context?
Ever since I was a little girl, I always knew I wanted to be a performer and everything about the arts always inspired me. It all started 14 years ago when my mom put me in dance classes for the first time in my hometown, Phoenix, Arizona. Little did I know that dance was going to be a big part of my career in my future. A big enough part that I grew up performing and competing against other dance teams in not only Arizona but also in Nevada and California. Later on, at the end of the 8th grade, my family and I moved to Los Angeles, California to advance my dance skills and start my career in dance. 7 years later and to this day, my most recent credits include competing at the World of Dance competition, starring on the Roku Original dance competition ‘Floored’ hosted by Liza Koshy and dancing back up artists in music videos such as Mickey Singh’s ‘NA NA’ and Victor Semprit’s ‘Doblando Rodillas.’
Not only am I building my career in dance but I am also building my career in acting. My acting training began in high school where I joined the theater club. However, while studying theater, it hadn’t really hit me that acting was going to be a passion for me yet. It wasn’t until after high school, when I went on to study Acting for Film at the New York Film Academy that I knew for sure acting is what I want to pursue as well. So much so that I wrote, produced and acted in my very own short film.
To this day, I am more focused on building my acting career. My goal is to still keep dance around and of course continue to put myself out there for dancing opportunities but my number one priority right now and my main focus is acting because I want to continue to grow in acting just as much as I have for dance. I also have found just so much love and passion for the craft of acting that I find myself so eager to want to do more of it.
What do you find most rewarding about being creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the moment you finish with the project or the opportunity you have just done and being able to reflect on the journey you just went on. Being able to look back at all of the hard work, at the ups and downs and everything leading up to the final product, and then being able to say, “I did that” is the most rewarding thing to me. It’s one thing to get a project that you have to do and then just rush through it to finish it and it’s another thing to let each day soak in and then in the end remembering how those days felt with the people you spent it with. For me, being able to remember every moment on the journey and remembering who was on the journey with me is what drives me to audition for that next role or that next project.
When I started writing the short film that I produced and acted in, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to pull through with it considering all of the requirements and necessities that went into making a film. I also knew that as long as I took the process day by day and step by step I would be able to accomplish it and in the end would be proud of myself. And so I did.
There were times when I was stressed because of all of the paperwork I had to fill out and the people I had to talk to about permits and insurance. There were times when I got stressed over having to organize all of the budgeting and organizing all of the call sheets and emails that needed to be sent out. Every day that I was stressed, was another day that I was able to reflect on and consider if I would want to make another short film in the future. At the end of the day, after meeting everyone involved in the making of the film and seeing the final product after all of the pre-production and production, it felt so rewarding to know that despite all of the stress, it was a learning experience that I would never want to forget. I could definitely say that considering the experience that I had creating my short film, I would definitely want to do it again. I loved the busy work that I had to do, I loved being able to meet new people and it also felt good to accomplish something with such high standards.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
Success/fame doesn’t just happen over night. It’s not easy. It takes hard work, dedication, time and a lot of patience. If you don’t already have a foot in the door into the industry by a family member or friend and you’re just starting out then it’s going to be a tough journey. The one thing that I could say is that if you really aspire to be an actor, dancer or any type of creative in the entertainment industry, make sure you’re 100 percent certain that you are willing to put your all into it. When you feel like giving up, remember what inspired you to go after the career in the first place. Ask yourself if you see yourself succeeding in any other career other than the entertainment industry. I always like to think that if you have a plan B or C just in case what you’re trying to achieve doesn’t work then it will never work and you’ll never achieve success because you don’t believe in it 100 percent. You also have to love what you’re doing. If you don’t love it then you’re just going to be miserable. Also, if you can’t take criticism or feedback, then the industry just isn’t for you because there’s a lot of it. You honestly just have to believe in yourself and have confidence in what you’re doing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.athena-garcia.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/athenagarcia_/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/athena-garcia-336733194/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClmmy0sXnFXdmlWQV0r7bQw/featured
- Other: IMDB – https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm9445321?ref_=co_nv_usr_profile
Image Credits
Aleksi Huhtanen, Luisa Azevedo, Fatima Camacho, Shakia Gant