We recently connected with Murisa Harba and have shared our conversation below.
Murisa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?
One of the major complaints I get from my acting students with regards to the industry is that they are misunderstood by their agents or get pigeon-holed into one type of character. For instance, one of my students, Joanna, came to me with the frustration of only going out for (and regularly booking) Spanglish roles, which were fine for a time, but was really holding her back from the incredible potential she held as an actor. I brought her through our Authentic Branding Process and did a full re-brand on her character looks, and even helped her develop new scenes to shoot for her reel. To say this upleveled her career would be an understatement! I am so proud of how she has grown as well as the consistency of her callbacks and booked roles. David Brier says it best: “If you don’t give the market the story to talk about, they’ll define your brand’s story for you.”
Check out what Joanna said about our Authentic Branding Process: “I reached a point in my career where I was tired of being typecast and only auditioning for stereotypical “Spanglish” roles, so I reached out to Murisa for help on how to rebrand myself so that I wouldn’t be pigeonholed any longer. She worked with me one-on-one and she was able to give me the outside perspective I needed in order to create new looks and updated headshots and reels. Since then, I have gone out for way more roles and for characters that fit my essence across the board! The insight I was given from looking at my materials through a CD or Director lens has led me to be more intentional with every headshot session I’ve taken thereafter. I can apply what Murisa has taught me over and over again throughout my career and for that I am very grateful!” ~Joanna D.
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?
When I arrived in LA as an actor, I was looking for a studio to be able to take risks and really stretch my capabilities in order to expand the boundaries of my craft. I didn’t find that space in Los Angeles, so I ended up creating it myself in 2013. That is how About The Work Actors Studio was born. It was a place we could all check our egos at the door and dive head first into the work. It was a place where we could all be our authentic selves which directly translated to a quality of excellence that came out of our sacred environment and intense level of training. Word spread and as it turns out, many actors were looking for this type of artist incubation, not only for their craft development but also to find community and support in an industry that can sometimes be soul-sucking and lonely. Like-minded artists from all over the world came flocking to our robust Groundwork Engineer Program which is a 16 week boot-camp style series. This series promises to uplevel the way you approach material, giving you a clear checklist of items to decide so you can align your thinking with the person hiring you, the director/creative team while learning strategy for making the strongest choices for the biggest character arc and audience journey possible. Once that is in place after the first 8 weeks, actors learn how to break down their emotional bodies in the 7 energy centers as they become true emotional technicians learning how to layer emotions with ease and authenticity in a practical, repeatable way so they can deliver on set like a pro. This program is for those who are looking for more, for a way to go deeper, and to work more efficiently. It is the 10x of acting programs and truly designed to uplevel the actor experience. Our Groundwork Engineer grads regularly book bigger roles immediately after finishing the program, sometimes even during! Another element we noticed was needed in the industry was a real ability to brand oneself in an authentic way. Most branding programs out there promise to tell you who you are by looking at you and judging how you behave with a list of adjectives and then you get a list of all the occupations other people think you could play. Personally, I don’t agree with this approach. How can anyone else tell you who you really are? Many of our actors were looking for an authentic way in to defining their visual brand and so from this need, our Authentic Branding Process was born!
In this process, we put you in the driver’s seat and through our proven process, we dive DEEP into your psychological branding on all fronts. It is an exciting and messy process where all roads lead to ROME. (Rome in this case is your brand). We go at this from a few different angles to ensure we keep getting the same result and it is utterly fascinating to see the whole process unfold. Actors leave with an incredible sense of confidence in how they can play every character that comes their way in the most authentic way possible, along with a full rebrand of their actor materials (headshots and reel). The ease and shorthand that comes out of this process is invaluable to an actor’s career. Not to mention their reps are thrilled and aligned with what they actually want for their career!
Something I am so proud of is how we have progressed and grown as a studio. Back in 2018, I set a lofty goal to become the #1 studio where directors looked to cast their films first before holding auditions. I wanted to build a reputation where our actors were known to be consistently working at a professional level and executing a level of excellence in this industry, so much so that others were taking notice. We began by launching our Directors Series in 2020 which linked professional working directors with our advanced actors in a collaborative space of creation and development, which goes so much deeper than a one-off casting director workshop. Real relationships were built and the artistry of both the actors and directors involved soared! It took 5 years of building but I am proud to say we are moving into this space full force. Directors are now requesting to work with our actors, whether to direct book them in their next project or if our actors can workshop the development of their feature films, because they are that good. July 2023 will be our first director incubator series and I am so incredibly proud of our student body and our studio that began from the belief that it truly is About The Work.
As the world continues to morph and re-shape itself, the collective looks to artists for permission to make sense of what we are experiencing as a global community. Because of this, we as artists feel that incredible responsibility and cope by creating new works of art. This, along with the constant level of rejection in the entertainment industry, can be taxing on one’s mental space. In 2020, we created our “Inner Work: First Friday Series” which is where all the students of the studio from all over the world come together and devour a personal development topic designed to foster the growth of the human side of being an artist. Exploring potent topics such as uncovering your “why,” having a daily practice of visualizing goals with affirmations, examining self-love and self-sabotage; these are just a couple of the hard topics we dig into as a community at About The Work.
It is what unites us as a family and honestly, one of the things I am most proud of within the studio. The fierceness with which our student body will rush to support each other is something I’ve never experienced anywhere else, and for that I am grateful.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
Absolutely, our mission is to empower actors to elevate their truth using energy to create authentic moments in acting. Being able to ‘use energy’ versus ‘emotional recall’ allows the artist to protect their mental space and not have to dredge up their past traumas all in the name of storytelling, which can be extremely unhealthy and taxing. Authentic moments are created because our artists have learned how to expertly play their bodies as their instruments, the way that a concert pianist plays with absolute mastery. We are here to change the game and offer up a new and sustainable way into ‘the work’. One where you can create brilliance take after take. My book Acting With Energy (available on Amazon – https://amzn.to/3DxXjgj) is the blueprint for this process so if this speaks to you, go ahead and give it a read and then reach out. I would be delighted to share more with you as this technique has changed my life!
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is when we tap into that raw truth. It cannot be fabricated, it must be uncovered; kind of like carving out Michelangelo in the stone. When that level of truth is (safely) uncovered, everyone feels it and no one can deny it. That is what fuels me as an artist, whether it be the truth of a character’s journey or uncovering your actor brand, the truth always sets us free and it is glorious!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.about-the-work.com
- Instagram: @aboutthework
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AboutTheWorkActorsStudio/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/about-the-work-actors-studio/
- Twitter: @aboutthework
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@aboutthework
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/about-the-work-actors-studio-los-angeles-2
- Other: Join our FB Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/itsaboutthework You can also follow me on IG! @murisaharba Or grab a copy of my book, Acting With Energy on Amazon https://amzn.to/3DxXjgj
Image Credits
Picture of Murisa Harba: Tandem Photography Rosie’s Headshots: Sean Kara