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

Belle, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your career and how did you resolve those issues?

The 2020 pandemic was just about the most unexpected problem/issue I could never have imagined. It rendered us actors industryless. Without the film industry, we don’t work, which is a big issue and certainly was challenging to manage during that time. Especially after having just wrapped the second season of a show I had my first recurring role on. However, those trying years gave rise to an even bigger unexpected issue, and that was the issue of the industry itself. The film industry demands a lot from actors and I experienced its invisible standards for years before realizing I’d engineered my process, and a lot of myself, around meeting those standards. Over the past three years I’ve found myself unravelling old beliefs about what being an actor and an artist means to me. I had been operating in service of the industry based on what I was being led to believe was the “right” way to do things. I was more concerned with the results I was getting (bookings, praise, attention) than I was with the process it took me to get there, and by the time we went into lockdown, it dawned on me that I was holding onto this mass of anxiety in my gut. That anxiety was in the driver’s seat. It’s what had been leading me forward and pushing me to get further, push harder, and achieve more. I was exhausted and my mental and emotional well being was pretty trashed. Nowadays, I am learning to reconnect to my own integrity and rediscover the joy that the process of being an actor and an artist is.

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’m Belle Adams and I’m an actor/artist living in Los Angeles. I’ve got my hands in all sorts of creative practices including (but not limited to) on-screen TV/Film acting, theatre, comedy, voiceover, filmmaking, music, and visual art making. The main vain for me is acting, but in the past few years I’ve expanded my pursuits to include a visual art practice under the pseudonym RUTH.

My acting career predates puberty. I’ve been fooling around in front of a camera/on stage since I was a little kid. My mom was in a commercial when she was pregnant with me so, she likes to say I’ve been acting since i was in utero. I was lucky to grow up in a creative household that encouraged my acting pursuits, so the career path unfolded pretty seamlessly for me. I really don’t have one of those “defining moment” stories. Performing has just always been in my nature. However, I do remember the first time I found my belt while singing. I was Bagheera in Jungle Book the Musical and I remember really going for it and just nailing this opening number in front of everyone at rehearsal. I thought, “Oh yeah. This is it.”. And so it was! I’ve now been working professionally for roughly 16 years.

Apart from acting, I’ve developed a love for visual art making. I’ve always been crafty, but it wasn’t until the lockdown in 2020 that I really started building a consistent practice around visual art in my adulthood. I started releasing artworks in secret under the pseudonym RUTH. Ruth is my great grandmother’s name. She had been diagnosed with dementia shortly after I was born so I really didn’t get to know her the way I would’ve liked. Reclaiming the name RUTH makes me feel connected to her and to all sides of myself I may not know yet. It keeps me in a space of exploration. I am definitely a multimedia artist. I am interested in all kinds of mediums and forms of artistic expression, though I gravitate heavily towards collage and video. I really started to lean into the visual arts as a gallery attendant at MOCA. I met some of the best people in LA working there and these days we’re making art together and putting on shows. So far I have had pieces of mine in 1 gallery show as a member of the art collective, GAG!. GAG! is putting up another show this December that I’ll have a few video works featured in, and I’ll have a one of my collage pieces up in a UCLA show this October, 2023. Come through!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is connection. Wether it be with other people, artistic collaborators, myself, nature, or like, even a lamp. I find I am brought to life when I am connecting with it. Obviously this is a big principal in the art of acting. Connection is the life-blood of that sport. As a visual artist I find some of the most joy when I’m collaborating with others. You don’t really know the possibilities that lie within a piece until it’s in the hands of a trusted collaborator. I love the process of finding a piece with another person. It can be so vulnerable and chaotic. You get to know people in a different and strangely intimate way. Other people’s minds are endless. My collaborators bring out the best parts of my own creative jelly.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to do some big unlearning around pushing myself past my limits. I had a lot of energy and tenacity throughout college and into my early adulthood and I was moving at a pace that was big time unsustainable. I would have these screaming sessions in my car where I’d absolutely loose it. Cry, yell, jerk around. I didn’t have days off. Every day there was something. A project, a class, a performance, a meeting, you name it. I was on E, but I wasn’t able to pull over and stop because when I did is when I’d start to really panic. Feeling that I wasn’t doing enough, that I was falling behind, that I’d lose out on something if I wan’t constantly inundated with creative projects or work. I think that came from an unhealthy belief that my worth was directly correlated to my achievements, which was reinforced by all the yummy attention and excitement people had when I made gains quickly. I still struggle with overworking and have to manage overwhelm at times, but it’s not nearly at the level that it used to be.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cleartalentgroup.com/client/belle-adams
• Instagram: @baaaadams @theruthis
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr13l-ZE2j2HymZVXL6m1ug

Image Credits
Caitlin Fisher Raul Morales Eric Alban