We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sarah Liz Bell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Sarah Liz thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I’ve known I wanted a career in the arts pretty much since birth! Both of my parents are artists, family members on both sides are heavily involved in the performing arts, and I grew up surrounded by theatre and music. My dad was the Technical Director at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio and took me and my sister to many rehearsals; the theatre students were basically our babysitters. I performed all the time at the church where my mom works and any chance I could get at school. I just found so much joy in performing and creating with others, I couldn’t envision my life without it, so pursuing the arts professionally was a no-brainer.

Sarah Liz, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Sarah Liz Bell and I am primarily an actor living and working in Los Angeles with my Master’s Degree in Classical Acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. While my chosen career centers on acting, I consider myself to be a General Creative Person and love having my fingers in multiple pies when working on a project – partially because I’m a control freak, but partially because it’s fun! Throughout my career as an artist I have worked professionally as a Teacher, a Shakespeare Coach, a Stage Combat Choreographer, a Historic Dance Choreographer, a Set Designer, a Sound Designer, a Costumer, a Dialect Coach, a Director, and a Producer. I’ve also had many day-jobs to supplement income that have taught me a lot about managing my artistic career, including Wedding Planning, Coordinating for a Healthcare IT company, and teaching after-school Science classes to kids! And outside of the stuff I do to make money, I ride a motorcycle, know basic Sign Language, German, and French, I love to fish and be in outside, and I’m a big giant nerd for Star Wars and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

I started my career in the arts in Chicago after graduating from LAMDA and quickly discovered that having multiple skills is very useful in the storefront theatre scene. My first acting job I got to utilize my heightened speech and stage combat skills and was also asked to choreograph a dance for curtain call. While I firmly believe each role in a production is unique and folks should never be expected to take on multiple roles unless it’s an explicit element of the production and consent is given – actors should never be expected to assist with set construction and crew should never be expected to stand in for additional ensemble, for example – having a collaborative attitude and putting many skills to work is a very satisfying part of being creative for me personally, and Chicago was the perfect place to flex those muscles.

The strongest traits I bring to the table are my resourcefulness and determination. I’m a former gifted child (shoutout to the other gifted kids, how’s your anxiety doing??) and still operate under the assumption that I can do just about anything with enough research on the topic and practice; very rarely do I say “No, I can’t do that”. If something sounds interesting and makes me excited I want to learn everything there is to know about that subject until I could teach a class on it. Sometimes this leads me to overwhelm myself, but more often than not I end up learning new skills and having A LOT of fun applying them to my artistic and personal lives! For example, I recently got a sewing machine and have been making cosplays for myself and my husband. One character I cosplayed had a very particular costume that was quite challenging. Do I know how to make a hooded leather vest and a turtleneck with leather sleeves? Absolutely not. Can I deconstruct a leather jacket, hem it, put the sleeves on a regular turtle neck, make a hood and add it to the collar after painting it to the right color? I sure can!

I’m most proud of my latest project, directing “the moon play” by Maddie Nguyen for the SheLA Summer Theater Festival. Maddie and I worked on a show together when I first moved to LA and became good friends. She approached me about directing earlier this year and I was hesitant at first – I hadn’t directed a stage play since college! But I read her beautiful script and we had a good chat about the themes and what we could do on stage with her brilliant words. About 30 minutes into our chat I said, “I’m in, if that’s not obvious!”. And I dove in head first! I took on every role in this production in addition to Director as I could handle; I made sound cues, set pieces, costumes, and made so many notes for the lighting that our tech rehearsal was a breeze. The world Maddie created was so clear to me, I wanted to flesh it out as much as possible, and I think we did an excellent job! I was extremely proud of the whole cast and crew as well as myself for that production.

I don’t advertise my skills outside of acting very often as acting is my chosen career – I’m not actively pursing a career as a director or producer or choreographer. I get to be those things when I work on personal projects or on things with friends which makes it more fun than work! If someone wants to employ me as a director or dialect coach, etc. I am always open to chatting about it, but I’m an actor first and foremost…and everything else is a bonus!

There is so much value in being niche, having a specialty, and knowing a lot about one thing. But I think there is equal value in knowing just enough about a lot of things to be useful and have fun!

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

So many actors will have heard this phrase, and I apologize if it gives anyone flashbacks: “If you can imagine yourself doing anything else, go do that.” I was told this countless times in college and grad school. And I understand why – this business can feel quite harsh, and unless you have a pure love for the craft, you won’t be able to see yourself through it. But what that phrase also does is invite shame on actors who don’t “go big” right after graduating who need to make time and space for other things in their life, like getting a job that actually pays well, having a family, taking time for vacations and spending time with loved ones. If, like me, you went the College Degree in Theatre route, you probably heard that you would miss weddings and funerals and major life events because of your acting career…and you probably nodded along enthusiastically! I know I did! Because that’s what I thought “dedication” to a career in the arts looked like. That’s what I was TOLD it looked like.

And it is total bullshit.

I remember feeling so much anxiety when I was asked to become a full-time employee at my temp job in Chicago. I was selling out! I wasn’t an artist anymore, I was a corporate pawn! But that salary and benefits were so tempting…. I talked it through with my husband and we decided that until my acting career and my day-job came into conflict, it wasn’t an issue I should worry myself with. I have been in this role with the same company for six years now and it has NEVER been a problem. I’ve had to call off work for shoot dates and miss events for rehearsals, and my colleagues have been nothing but supportive. And I can actually pay rent and sign up for classes without taking a serious hit in my wallet, and I have HEALTH INSURANCE – what a concept! I’m still a developmental actor by Hollywood standards, so my career and my job won’t always be in harmony. But until it becomes a problem, I’m not going to worry about it.

This particular route isn’t for everyone, and I absolutely got lucky with the type of job I have. But it was so drilled into me that an acting career meant working 2-3 part time gigs to scrape together the money to keep living and that had the flexibility to allow you to go out on auditions and work on projects until you became well-known enough that you could live off your art, and that’s just not true. An acting career looks like so many things and no one should be shamed for doing what is best for them, whether that means being a bartender everyday after rehearsal until the early hours, being a dog-walker in the mornings and a yoga instructor in the afternoons, or heading to the office from 9-5 and doing their art whenever they can outside of that.

Will you have to make sacrifices as an artist? Yes. Should those sacrifices include missing your best friend’s bachelorette party because you have rehearsal, or having ramen for dinner every night because you didn’t get enough hours at the restaurant this week to buy groceries? NOPE. There is no one way to have a career in the arts, and only YOU get to define what success looks like.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Particularly for actors, we’ve had to redefine “rejection” for ourselves – I know I have! Any non-creative (or creative!) out there has likely sent in an application for a job they think they would be great at and maybe even gotten an interview and then…nothing. Totally ghosted. It sucks! Now imagine doing that 1-3 times a week (maybe more!) with that same result almost. Every. Single. Time.

Whether an actor is auditioning in-person or submitting a self-tape, there is a very, VERY small chance they will hear back about that role either way. Sometimes we’ll get a callback or a check-avail and those are huge wins! Or a booking – SWEET LORD YES! But more often than not, we don’t even get a message telling us “no thanks”. We’ll just put our hearts and souls into an audition for 3 minutes and send it out into the abyss…and that’s it. My non-acting friends will often ask “when will you know?” when I tell them about a recent audition. My answer is usually “lol, probably never. I’ll know when the movie comes out and I’m not in it.”

This has caused me to personally shift my mindset when auditioning: I walk into the room or prepare for the tape as if I know for a fact I’m not booking the role. Plenty of great actors have said this before me, so I definitely don’t take credit for the idea! But this puts me in a state of mind that allows me to have fun with the audition, to enjoy the craft that I love so much, even if it’s just for 3 minutes. And once it’s over – when I walk out of the room or a send in the tape – I forget about it completely. If anything comes from it afterwards, then it’s a lovely surprise!

I remember telling this to my sister, who also grew up around the arts but didn’t pursue a career in it (she’s a middle school science teacher, bless her!). She said I should remain optimistic, that saying “I’m not going to get it” is only reinforcing a negative mindset which isn’t healthy in the long run. It was a challenge to explain to her how much not worrying about the end result was helping me. If I focused on each step individually as if it was the last in the process and didn’t try to change who I was or what I did so that I could better my chances of booking it, I ended up feeling way more satisfied with my work and my life. My definition of “rejection” had changed from “they didn’t like my audition” to “I did a good job and whatever happens next isn’t up to me so I’m not going to stress about it.” It takes a lot of practice and reinforcement to feel good about your work when you’re basically ghosted on a regular basis, but it is possible! Only you get to define was success looks like!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @sarahbellum36
• Other: Manager: Renee Story at Established Artists Agent: Vilma Llaguno at Dream Team Talent Agency (Los Angeles & Atlanta)

Image Credits
Sean Kara Photography Stacey Lind Steve Escarcega