We were lucky to catch up with Ella Jerrier recently and have shared our conversation below.
Ella, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I’ve been dancing since I was 2 years old – so it feels like I’ve always been on stage. I’ve always been really comfortable in front of crowds. After dancing for a while, a local talent agent saw me at a performance and signed me. I did a few local commercials here and there where all I had to do was dance or jump around. After that, I started really focusing on training with acting coaches in Texas and Los Angeles. I worked with people like Cathy Sullivan, Lauren Lazell, Cynthia Bain, Sharon Lieblein and Amber Horn. Acting is way more than just memorizing lines – there is a ton of prep work required for every audition and every role. After all of this training I was lucky enough to book a lead role in a Lifetime Movie. I say “lucky” – but I prepared just like I did for the literally hundreds of auditions I had previous to this one. The planets aligned and I booked the job. Shortly after that movie, the pandemic hit. Everything shut down. There were no roles or projects for anyone. With no acting roles, I had started taking filmmaking classes – so I decided I was going to make my own short films. In addition to classes, I watched a lot of YouTube videos on camera operation, lighting and editing. I wrote, produced, directed, shot (and acted in a few!) 3 short films that have won awards and even been screened at The Chinese Theaters in Hollywood. After that I was hooked – so I actually moved to California from Texas to study film & television production at Orange County School of the Arts. So now every day for high school I have regular academic classes, but then in the afternoon we study film production, cinematography, audio, television production, etc. It’s also amazing to be surrounded by kids that all share a common passion for filmmaking and performing. This training now will really help prepare me for film school for college. I never could have done all this stuff without local training, a supportive family, and an amazing high school like Orange County School of the Arts.
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?
Well as I said before – I started off as a dancer because that was what every little girl in Dallas does! I love performing, creating and being on stage – so I was really in the right place at the right time in Texas when a local agent wanted to work with me. Since then, I’ve built an awesome team in California with Kim Matuka at Schuller Talent (my manager) and Gwenn Pepper and Dede Binder at Defining Artists (my agents). They are always looking for opportunities for me to be creative and help me find mentors – both in front of and behind the camera. The director I worked with on my movie, DJ Viola, has also been a huge help and inspiration. He wrote recommendation letters for my school applications, and I always ask him questions about cameras, lenses and audio equipment. He always takes the time to help – even though I’m just a kid. When the pandemic hit, it was a terrible time to be an actor. One of the things I’m most proud of is that instead of sitting around moping and waiting for a role, I got off my butt, gathered my friends, and we made our own roles and projects. I started my own production company, Girl Boss Films, and plan on continuing to make short films when I have any free time. I have lots of half finished projects in the works. It’s really hard to be 14-16 year old female and be in a creative field. A lot of kids my age don’t get it, and I get teased quite a bit for making films and get quite a bit of mansplaining on how to use the camera equipment. A lot of my acting friends have had similar experiences. I just want and need to create. I learned at the beginning of this process that the less I cared what other people thought, the happier I was. I’m doing this for myself – and hopefully to entertain some people along the way.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Pivot was THE word of 2020-2021. Virtually every person in the world had to pivot from their daily routine to something completely different as the world shut down. I went from being solely focused on being an actor to working behind the camera writing, directing, producing, and even running the camera. It was just what I needed – get out of my comfort zone and hopefully build a future career.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of filmmaking is finishing a project. Not only is it a huge relief/release – but now I get to start a new project and start the whole process over again!!
Contact Info:
- Website: ellawestofficial.com
- Instagram: ellawestofficial
- Twitter: ellawestofic1
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCYtNXbzWWwRsG7gxIDZN9tQ