We recently connected with Emily Dunlop and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Emily, thanks for joining us today. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?
Learning that being a good actress doesn’t really have much to do with being a working actress was a gut punch to my eager naivety.
Actors tend to start out with a raw, charismatic talent and spend all their time honing that; learning to be “good”. That’s definitely how I started. But what I’ve learned is that the actors who don’t graduate beyond the initial stage of developing their craft will, ironically, never get time to play in that space. That’s the fun stuff. And you gotta earn that. Talent? That’s the entry fee to the game. Actually playing the game…that takes smarts and a kick-ass work ethic. There may be a lot of bad actors in the film industry, but, I guarantee you, there are no dumb ones, and certainly no lazy ones.
So, call me a slow learner, but it has taken me a decade to begin to wrap my head around how to move my career forward. It’s a lot of trial and error. Like, a lot. There’s no corporate ladder to climb. None of that ‘get this job and after 5 years you’ll get a promotion and have a better job’. What works for one actress, might not work for another. The entertainment industry has no rules that way.
Now, I’ve got the work ethic and I’m working smarter – which has led me to realize that in order to be a working actress I have to figure out what I want to say. It’s easy for actors trying to build their resumes to get stuck in co-star purgatory. A place where you contort yourself to fit into someone else’s Under-5 box time and time again. I’m learning that to be a true working actress I have to figure out what is in me that needs to come out. The co-star roles will never satisfy that itch. Something I’ve heard so much it’s become white noise is ‘you create your own luck’. For me, right now that means I’m writing my own roles. I’m getting in touch with my distinct creative perspective and putting that out into the world. The on-going endeavor of being a working actress forces me to trial-and-error my way to a solution and every time I do, I discover it leads me to a way of thinking that makes my world bigger.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am an actress based in Atlanta and Northern Ireland. I have had co-star and recurring co-star roles in over 10 network shows like Cobra Kai, Doom Patrol, and Raising Dion; I have acted in over 20 films; and I have provided over 200 voice overs for companies like Etsy, Toyota, Delta and Ford. The endeavor of furthering my career beyond the world of costars has led me to develop my own creative voice and I am now developing a TV series and two movies.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
I have been delighted by the revelation that the longer I work as a creative, the richer my life is – which is not to say it’s always easy. On the contrary, it’s probably 80% struggle 20% fun. But I’ve found it so rewarding to work through that struggle portion. There is no character builder like a career in acting. It’s a career that makes you face yourself – the good, the bad and the ugly – because it’s dealing with rejection that feels personal. To stay in a job like that means you have to have the strength of character to have honest self-reflection. If you don’t, all of that rejection turns into self-loathing and depression. And self-reflection has taught me who I am. Most people go through life with so much inside of them that never sees the light of day. Though it may be hard to face, I am delighted and grateful to be made aware of my inner world and to have the gift of expressing it through my career.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
A career in acting ebbs and flows, there are times of feast and famine and it takes the time it takes. However, if you listen to the podcast “Audrey Helps Actors” and do everything Audrey Moore says, you will accelerate the process. It is an incredible resource I wish I had known about earlier in my career. Then again, I might not have been in the place to do the work it takes to implement her advice if I had discovered it sooner. Don’t complain about your career until you’ve done everything you can. And there are a lot of very sound, practical ways on how you can do that from that podcast. Pro tip: if you can find a willing partner to go through it with you even better.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.emilydunlop.com/
- Instagram: emilydunlopofficial
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-dunlop-269218233
Image Credits
Gabriel Trujillo Jonathan Wade