We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Emily Brinks. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Emily below.

Emily, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

One of my favorite things about being an actor is the perspective that you have on the world. You can learn from absolutely everything you’re consuming around you. I’m always finding ways to study myself or people around me in different social situations and getting a read on people’s body language. You can just sit on a park bench and see the different dynamics between people around you on the street. I’m also constantly looking for new information in anything that I’m watching. Of course in movies, but also in youtube videos, interviews, live performances, listening to music, or even dancing. It’s all about that sort of “mask” that you put on for an audience, but understand what’s bubbling underneath. It’s truly changed how I interact with the world and a lot of my thinking goes into it. Sometimes I’ve even tried to take a break from it and just step back for just a week and I never seem to be able to. It’s my favorite thing in the world and it’s just how I was made, I can’t change that and I would never want to.

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 back background and context?

For folks that don’t know me, my name is Emily Brinks and I’m an actress currently working in Savannah, GA. I officially started acting when I was 15, but I feel like it’s always been a part of me, even before I knew what to call it. My friends and I would always make small videos and films while we would just run with our imagination. I really started to connect with movies and production when I was 13 and I knew I wanted to be a part of the industry in some way, I just had no clue when to start. I grew up in Mexico and there wasn’t any opportunity to get into theatre or acting besides my rock band that I was a part of, so I jumped at the chance when I found it in high school in the States.

I joined a class called Fall Play Production, where I thought I would be producing the show, but it turned out as a class we were in charge of all aspects of the show including casting it and performing. It was the best way to test each department by doing the sound, lighting, costume, set design, etc. We even did the marketing on top of auditioning, casting, and directing the show under our teacher’s feedback. I’ve always been very good at performing ever since I played piano when I was 5 and played guitar in rock shows around Cabo when I was 11.

Naturally, acting was what finally clicked for me and I realized that this world of pretend was always what I loved and I could never let it go. It gets even better with every day that I find new techniques while learning from the best and realized that there’s such a study that goes into it early on. Since then I worked in every show leading up to graduation, sometimes doing 6 consecutive productions overlapping each other. I then made my way to University to get a B.F.A. in Performing Arts at SCAD, until covid hit. With classes being online, I decided to take some time away from school and see what might happen if I tried to go straight into the industry. As productions were coming back from the pandemic, I started with background roles on some big movies and worked my way up to being a well-known stand-in and photo double in the Savannah community.

I had a chance to work on my first big film or go back to school before I would lose my scholarships and need to re apply after taking so much time off. I told myself that if I got the job, I would take it as a sign to quit school dive full time into professional work like I’d always wanted to, and that’s exactly what happened. The job that I landed was being Anya Taylor-Joy’s stand-in on “The Menu” and not a day goes by that I don’t miss that shoot and think about the amazing people there that really wanted to help me get the most out of that opportunity. I really have so much gratitude towards everyone that I worked with and everything that it brought me. It was the best decision I’ve ever made. I’ve had the opportunity to work on more films after that, including Halloween Ends, and now I’m looking for an agent to sign with.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

It’s hard to put into words what acting really means to me and how important it is in my life. I can’t ever imaging doing anything else. It’s just something that I have to do and I find myself doing it every single day in different ways. Whether I’m around other creative people or even alone, I’m always putting my thoughts out there about how I’m looking at the world and studying my craft from different resources. So, I don’t have any particular goals, because I would hate to do that to myself. I just want to enjoy where this journey takes me and try to be present in every moment as much as possible, otherwise life is just a waste. However, I still have visions of where I want to be and little bucket list moments in my career that I will always work very hard towards, but I never want to stick to hard to one road and miss other opportunities that might lead me somewhere I never thought I’d be. I’m pretty easy going and I’m very good with change, which is almost essential in this industry. You have to be good at constantly working, or going long periods without any work. You have to take care of yourself in both situations and find ways to educate yourself and keep working on your craft even if you don’t have anyone to do it with. I would really have to say I’ve done a lot of this journey alone, but I’m proud of that. I had no previous connections in the industry and no clue where to start. Sometimes it does get hard and confusing, but I look at where I got myself already and realize I can just keep going day by day.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think what I hear the most from people who aren’t in the entertainment industry, or don’t have any interest in it, is the assumption that these people only think about business, when that is farther than the truth. I have only met the kindest, hard working, and passionate people through this job. Everyone seems to be so happy to do their work with one creative goal in mind. It’s such a team effort and it takes every piece of the puzzle to make it happen. I am still aware of the dangers out there and realize that I’m not always going to have a pleasant experience every day that I’m at work, but I hope that the times are changing and people have more compassion for each other.

I also always admire artists who just go out and do what they want to do to express themselves no matter what the general public feels. A lot of people will be quick to judge celebrities, artists, or fashion designers and I don’t understand why we always have to make everything such a big deal and spread more negativity than there needs to be. If someone felt like wearing a certain outfit or creating a certain song and taking risks, people tend to judge something that’s out of their comfort zone. I’d like people to have a more open mind when it came to art and creative people. That’s a huge thing that I’ve learned myself and loved embracing as I find different aspects of the industry I admire. I would love to set foot into the professional music or fashion industries one day because I think life is too short to stick to one thing or ignore other interests you might want to try. If you have the smallest voice telling you that something looks interesting, go for it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://emilybrinks.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/e.milyb.rinks/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emily.brinks.92/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/emilybrinks_
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAENrXiNHgRtap8l5bSyI1A
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12153037/