Blake Nolan: Conquering Stage Fright

Ever dreamt of leaving the corporate world for a career in acting and content creation? Our guest for this episode, Blake Nolan, did exactly that. Let Blake guide you through his exciting journey, from his college days at Ole Miss to his exciting roles in the NOLA Film Scene. Hear how he navigated his way through filming opportunities in Georgia and the thrilling experience of working on the Last of Us: Immunity fan film project. Blake also discusses his unique role as an assistant cheerleading coach at Louisiana State University while pursuing his master's degree.

What's the role of confidence in acting? Blake shares his personal experiences with improv classes and how they shaped his acting career. The guys dig into the nitty-gritty of an ambitious project Blake was a part of - making a feature-length film in a semester under the guidance of director Glenn Petrie. From its casting process to music production, Blake shares the thrill of working as the first AD on the sets.

Finally, Blake candidly discusses the bumps and successes of his acting journey. From overcoming stage fright and finding motivation in background roles to learning to stand out in the audition room, Blake leaves no stone unturned. Listen how his hard work, dedication, and resilience helped him chase his dreams in the acting industry. You wouldn't want to miss this inspiring conversation!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

I'll say this after working three years in the corporate world, I've got both of my dream jobs right now.

Speaker 2: 0:15

Hello, welcome to the Nola film scene with TJ and Play-Doh. I'm TJ and, as always, I'm Play-Doh.

Speaker 3: 0:22

Welcome back to Nola film scene with TJ and Play-Doh. We're here with actor Blake. Nolan Blake, thanks for joining us.

Speaker 1: 0:28

Yeah, absolutely Super excited to be on guys. I've been watching the first couple episodes, checked out the social media. Super excited to be part of the Nola film scene as I just moved to the New Orleans Baton Rouge area.

Speaker 3: 0:38

Yeah, how are you liking that? So far you came, you moved here from Texas.

Speaker 1: 0:41

Yep, yep, I came from Dallas, texas, so big city. I tell you what I love the culture in New Orleans, baton Rouge. It's not too far from Dallas, but I feel like I'm in a different country. I love it so far.

Speaker 3: 0:52

So a little backstory with Blake. Blake and I worked together on a film project a couple months back now the Last of Us immunity and Blake and I got to know each other a little bit on set and I know a little bit of Blake's backstory. Blake went to college, he went to Ole Miss, right, Yep, and we'll let you tell us the story. You went to Ole Miss and then you ended up in Texas and you've been doing some acting. Go ahead and fill us in on that.

Speaker 1: 1:20

Yeah, yeah, went to Ole Miss, got a business degree. I was a cheerleader in college so I've always kind of had a heart for entertainment. Didn't really know where I wanted to channel it, but as I was at Ole Miss, my hometown is Atlanta, georgia. So through high school and college, basically LA and all the big studios were moving all their headquarters over to Georgia. Their all production was being filmed at Georgia all the big tax breaks and I basically had Trilis Studios, if you guys have heard of that. It's like huge studios Used to be called Pinewood in Atlanta and popped up basically in my backyard and I'd always look at it and see it and I was like man, I want to go do that.

Speaker 1: 1:52

But I had some stage fright, so went off to college, did that, cheered, got through some of the stage fright and when I got home from school it was mid-pandemic and I submitted to some background roles and I thought, no way I'm going to get any of this, it's going to be super hard.

Speaker 1: 2:05

So I submitted to a bunch and same day I got calls back. Oh my gosh, I'm going to be the next Leonardo DiCaprio, like everybody's cast. I didn't really know the difference between background, principal stuff at that point and did a bunch of background work, moved to Dallas Texas, got a finance job while I still wanted to pursue film. But at my job I worked for a large financial institution. They ended up opening a door and I ended up becoming a content creator full-time firm. So basically the past two and a half years been making social media advertisements and content for a large financial institution and just recently stepped away. I am now the assistant cheerleading coach at Louisiana State University while I'm pursuing a master's degree. I'm taking a bunch of film classes. So I really came just to get some student films and basically use a university's equipment and employ students to make some feature link move.

Speaker 3: 2:53

Thanks, thanks. That's a really good plan there. Yeah, that's a good idea.

Speaker 2: 2:56

I did an LSU student film last year. They're about to send it to a festival in Lake Charles. It's called Not Alone. I don't know if you talk. Is Jason the man in charge?

Speaker 1: 3:04

Did you work with the director Glenn Petrie? He's the in-house artist. They hired him. He's like I don't take meetings, I don't do anything other than teach how to make movies. I don't do quizzes, tests, nothing. He basically runs class like a film crew and he's pretty much over all the student films.

Speaker 2: 3:19

It's probably him. Just my brain will switch names. I'm getting old, but we use that giant screen. Y'all have kind of like the small, like the volume or the sound that Star Wars calls it, you know, and so that was fun. So I was in outer space, I was Mr Gray, so it's kind of like X-Files. And you don't know about me, am I a good guy? Short film, lots of fun. You mentioned the Last of Us, immunity, so that's basically like a fan film based on the game and from the TV series as well.

Speaker 3: 3:42

Yes, right.

Speaker 2: 3:42

Because that's why I always got kind of confused, because you're not affiliated with them, so it's independent. I see people making Batman films and put it on their IMDB. I was like wait, somebody owns that. How'd you do that? How's that process go?

Speaker 1: 3:54

I was a little weary of that. When they were casting it I was like man, are we going to get in trouble for some intellectual property issues and stuff? But if you keep things low budget, you can. I really looked into it and you can do fan films. There's a lot of fan films out there and you can do it as long as you're not, I guess, profiting off of the intellectual property. And it was a student film as well. So there's a lot more grace for student films and these kids have actually done a couple.

Speaker 1: 4:18

It's just like rag tag group of filmmakers who go to universities that have great film schools and they all come together every summer and put together a feature length film. And this one was actually. I mean, they had a big crew and it's crazy because it's all kids that were like I'm 26. The oldest kid on set was probably 22, Max Right, and they're just running these film sets and it was. It was awesome experience. It was my first lines in anything narrative, so done some commercial stuff. Tj got to witness my first line. You're standing there right next to me.

Speaker 3: 4:45

Yeah, and you did. You did great man, you really did. So. This crew, this film studio that put this together that's the big thing is that they're not doing it for profit. To my knowledge, I don't think they even had any kind of Kickstarter money. They all were volunteering their hours and people had their own equipment and came together and they were professional just as professional as could be any other, like any other film set. These I say kids because I'm more than twice most of their age and they seem like professionals that have been doing it for years. They came in with a purpose, they knew their schedule. There wasn't any goofing off. They came in, they got to work and they stayed on task and went from one scene to the next and they just I don't know, maybe it's because we came in a little bit later in the filming process, blake, by the time I got there, it seemed to me like they were a really well oiled machine.

Speaker 1: 5:38

Yeah, I think we talked about that on set.

Speaker 3: 5:40

Yeah, we were just impressed, yeah, and this isn't their first one. They did a Star Wars fan film the year before and that was incredible. The production value of that, the special effects that they had were just amazing and I'm kind of picky when it comes to Star Wars stuff. They're lightsabers. The sound effects just incredible yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:01

By all talking. I looked it up to Jason D Butch not D Butch, but Jason D Butch is a. He was directing them, he was their teacher. I don't know, but just like y'all said, these students say they had their whole call sheet and the makeup team. They had had special effects. The computer team running the. It's not even the green screen, it's a live action shot behind you to computer generated. So we'll have to figure out if y'all know each other at one point.

Speaker 1: 6:25

So I actually just recently, I'm working on two big film projects here right now and one of them is kind of on the back burner. It's going to take a little bit longer, but we actually just went into that facility. I think it's like a $1.2 million facility. They just put in the big LED wall. That's a piece of equipment that a lot of major studios don't even have in their toolbox right now, and they've got reds. They've got reds, they've got cinema lenses. The studio space was awesome. I'll say that.

Speaker 3: 6:50

Oh, so the program that you're in the master's program. How long is that program Like? How many hours is that?

Speaker 1: 6:56

So I'm actually. There's no set in stone. Lsu is not known for being a great film school, but I'm a non-matriculating master's student so basically I had to. I got here, kind of. It was a fast-paced change. I got here and they were like here's tuition money, if you can get into classes, you can get into them. So I'm taking some undergraduate classes. I had to find professors who would take me under their wing and put me an independent study to be able to take undergraduate classes. So I'm actually getting like a non-matriculating master's of arts. But my goal is not to get an actual piece of paper from LSU. I'm strictly here because what's the most valuable thing that actors can have actors and directors, we need a reel and I knew that the fastest place that I could come and put together teams and get a good reel put together and get some stuff out in festivals come to a film school.

Speaker 3: 7:43

That's nice. Yeah, that's a good plan. I'm kind of jealous. I've got a graduate degree in another area and I've thought about doing something theater or something with film. I miss being in school. I don't know. I haven't given it a lot of real serious thought, but I've considered it.

Speaker 1: 7:59

I'll say this after working three years in the corporate world and I was always the worst student ever. I was just how do I get by? How do I get a C and get out of this class? Now that I'm actually going towards something, I'm learning like I'm diving in deep, I'm paying attention in class. All these projects are like they're like my baby right now, so it's really cool. I've never felt like going to school and like actually appreciating it, so the opportunity that I have is I'm very grateful for what I've stepped into over here.

Speaker 3: 8:24

That's incredible. Is it a challenge balancing the time, the work-life balance between that and the actual job of coaching?

Speaker 1: 8:31

So that's the other end of the spectrum of my life right now. I didn't know how much I'd enjoy coaching, but coming from a cheer background, I've already got a passion for it. And then stepping into coaching, it's like I've got both of my dream jobs right now, which sounds crazy. They're both not paying me the big bunch yet, but coaching is awesome. It's something I would. If you've got a heart for coaching and you like being in front of people, discipling people, challenging them, coaching is. Coaching's been awesome. So, yes, time consuming, yes, but I'm upset up to sundown. Basically, if I'm not in the gym, I'm over doing stuff get some films ready, casting, setting up cruises, setting up schedules but yeah, time management is definitely a thing I'm learning about in this season of my life right now.

Speaker 3: 9:13

Yeah, that's good and I can relate to what you're saying. I taught martial arts for a number of years and it was very fulfilling, especially working with kids and younger people. I got to teach my kids and I got to teach my wife for a little while too, and it was really fulfilling to be able to bring some kind of value and kind of shape their performance a little bit. Yeah, I get it.

Speaker 2: 9:35

Blake, you're talking about coaching and directing and kind of managing the teaching, and in my mind that sounds like similar job. So my question is what do you find similar between the two and what is something that, if anything, that is very different about the two jobs?

Speaker 1: 9:50

Well, the biggest difference is cameras not rolling for me, but it's crazy. I mentioned I had stage fright and that's something I've had to work through. I had the worst stage fright as a kid growing up, all the way through high school. Even while I cheered in college getting in front of stadiums, it's like we didn't even have dialogue and you're just hitting a megaphone. Or college years I was still crazy nervous and it's an opportunity to step in front of a crowd.

Speaker 1: 10:12

So we have, we have 38 athletes and you want to talk about public speaking. Coaching is like you're rounding up 38 kids at all times and talking to them, delivering lines, you're encouraging them. So I would compare it to and TJ, you know about this I would compare it a lot to improv getting in front of a group of people and, while coaching is not entertaining them, it's kind of like you're improv-ing throughout the day, like figuring out which direction we need to go. Doing this, how do I respond to this? Right? So in this weird way, I feel like every time I step into the gym and coach practice, it's like I'm stepping into an acting class and I'm getting some sort of repetition that's going to help me later on in my career in acting, if that makes sense.

Speaker 2: 10:50

It does Sure.

Speaker 1: 10:51

Difference-wise. Yeah, I get it. The camera's not rolling, that's about it.

Speaker 3: 10:56

Yeah, I could see it being confidence building for sure. Brian actually is who helped me get into improv. He introduced me to his improv teacher through the studio that he went through and I just wrapped up level two, had my showcase show, kind of like a recital, a little over a week ago and now I'm on into level three. So eight weeks of that and then eight weeks of level four and it's only getting more fun as we go.

Speaker 2: 11:24

I don't want to discourage you, but level three is going to break your brain.

Speaker 3: 11:30

Yeah, we kind of. We got the warning on it yesterday that it'll become more challenging. That's it, let's go, I don't care, let's do it. Yeah, it's helping.

Speaker 3: 11:39

I wouldn't say I had stage fright maybe a little bit different. I was never nervous about speaking in front of crowds. I had to address groups, you know through the military, with things I was doing. That was a little bit different because you have a prepared topic and you know the material beforehand. And it was the same thing with teaching martial arts. Most of the time I showed up to class I knew what techniques I was going to go through for the night, so that was never really a problem. But showing more vulnerability, showing a softer side, maybe even showing a funnier side, that's not the easiest thing for me to do. I was always kind of closed off with that and improv is helping with that. Acting in general is helping with that. As I go I'm getting a little bit better about it. I had to do an audition recently where I had to show some vulnerability and it would have definitely been more difficult before I started doing improv and going through some of the techniques that I've learned there.

Speaker 1: 12:35

Yeah, I'm going to have to come see a showcase. I've wanted to get into the improv. I've done the acting classes and everything. Improv is like the last thing I haven't really stepped into for acting training wise and I'm definitely going to have to come out and see one of your showcases now that I'm in the area.

Speaker 3: 12:49

Yeah, for sure you should come sit in on a class, check it out, come out of the class and see if it's for you, see if you like it. The style that we do is long form. The style that most people, when they hear improv, think of is from whose line? Is in any way that short form? It's games that change frequently. Long form is more open-ended. We just interviewed our founder and teacher a couple weeks ago and he explained to us the difference between short form and long form and Brian actually asked that question. The whole time I've been in it I've been trying to wrap my head around the difference between the two. But long form is more like theater, except you don't have learned dialogue. You're figuring out as you go, and you're figuring out who you are, who your character is, what the scene is when you walk out on stage, and it's a blast, it's fun.

Speaker 2: 13:41

It's more like a straight scene where a short form is the game it's playing and you can get from the audience, ask them to give you something and you get a location and all that. We haven't learned that. We can adapt to it, so it's all fresh. My favorite comment I think my wife even asked my first showcase she goes. So how long did y'all write that? Up on the stage it's without a parachute, you just jump. Good, and it's a lot of fun.

Speaker 1: 14:04

You guys got me excited. I want to get into it. I run into that sometimes where I'm like, if I'm speaking in public or I'll be like don't panic. And then when I think that thought it's like and I know that in improv it's like you got to go, you have to jump out of the plane. You got to make it happen. So, yeah, you guys are inspiring me over here. I've got an edge for it, I think. Awesome, awesome, one of us.

Speaker 3: 14:24

Yeah, Brian's known for I don't want to say pedaling, but Brian's known for pedaling improv. He's kind of the he's the pusher, Come try it. Come try it out.

Speaker 2: 14:34

We've told the story a few times, but if you want to tell the class story again, TJ.

Speaker 3: 14:38

Yeah. So, okay, my first day in improv we had I don't know 12 or so people and the teacher was going through okay, who are you? How did you hear about improv, what do you want to get out of it? And everybody was saying, well, brian. About the fourth person that said Brian told me about it. He stopped the class and he said all right, show of hands, how many people know Brian? And like three fourths of the class raised their hand. It was pretty much everybody that was an actor knew Brian. We had a few people in my class that aren't actors that didn't know him, but everybody else was like yep, I know Brian. Didn't even have to say his last name. They all knew Brian and they knew Brian from improv.

Speaker 2: 15:17

So, yeah, the first taste is free, but then I'll get you hooked.

Speaker 3: 15:21

That's right, blake. Do you have any of your projects that you can talk about, your film projects at school?

Speaker 1: 15:28

Yeah, so I'll name drop three of them. Two of them are currently in the works. First one, and highest priority right now we're actually casting. We've got a breakdown on actors access. Right now we're casting for the first opening scenes of the movie. It's called the mysterious lives of earthbound undergrads, and so it's a really cool format.

Speaker 1: 15:47

This that the director, glenn Petrie, who runs the class, put together. By the end of this semester we're going to have a feature length film filmed and ready to go. And to put some students together and put a feature length film that's going to look half decent together in that timeframe is pretty unheard of. So we wrote this script where it's about an alien girl who is in college in her alien world and her assignment is to come study the undergraduate lives of undergraduate college students and just figure out about humanity in general. So we've all been assigned to make about five to eight minutes of a different scene where this girl she's a shapeshifting alien, so she can shapeshift the change into whatever environment she's going into and she gets to explore different problems, challenges, things that you experience in those formative years of your life as college students. And we actually all just finished our final scripts so we're now basically working the scripts. We've got seven short films within this main film and we've all. We're all on our final scripts and we're just weaving the story together to make it more cohesive right now. But we've already got the beginning in the end. We already got it written and ready to rock and roll.

Speaker 1: 16:57

I should have. I've got some people have submitted for the breakdown. We're casting a mother character 30 to 35 years old. I don't know if, when this, this will come out, but if anybody sees it, we've got that breakdown. And then for each of the short films, everybody always needs a guy with a beard. So TJ, I've been hyping TJ up till I'm like, oh, I've got a guy from New Orleans, experience actor, I've got your guy, and so I'm just looking at him in yeah, and we'll be casting. And the cool thing is is I've got a little bit of experience in this. I'm not saying I'm an expert in film or making movies by any means, but I've got some experience I bring to the table to like put it together more cohesively. I'm going to be the first AD on all of their sets. So keeping thing, keeping the ball rolling, keeping kind of someone to lead it a little bit while they foster their creativity.

Speaker 1: 17:45

So we're going to have seven short films within a feature length film. We're going to send it out to festivals, nice. And then the other one is not through classes, it's actually through some some young, hungry filmmaker students that I've met. One of their older sisters owns a record label Lex can records out of. I believe it's Lex can records out of New Orleans and it's a. It's a new record label. She's got a couple of good artists under her. So we're going to have anything that.

Speaker 1: 18:11

If you guys have ever made any films, you know how hard it is to score a film with good music. That's a lot of. That is like the difference between a grade film and a B grade film is the music you have. So it's going to be centered around propping up these artists and it's a. It's a. It's kind of a murder mystery throughout suspense pool and that one's not main priority. That one's probably going to be casting in about December, january, start filming in the spring. And then the third and final one is my passion project. It's a faith based film about cheerleading from a male cheerleaders perspective, and that's all I'm going to talk about on that one. That one is like that's my baby. I've been working on that one. I don't want to make that one until I'm absolutely ready, because that's the one that I really want to go all in on that one. Not that I'm not going all in on all these other ones, right? Sure, I'm going to put some skin in the game. I'll put some money behind that one and really go for it.

Speaker 3: 19:01

Yeah Well, when you're ready to start financing and getting some donations and stuff, let us know. We'll have you back on and we'll we'll promote it again. When you're like, when you're ready to start talking about it a little bit more, we'll get you back and we'll talk about it. I just did a call back yesterday for a student film at SCAD in Georgia. So that was kind of a fun call back. I like auditioning for student films.

Speaker 1: 19:25

So when I was in out out in Atlanta doing background work and stuff, they have an awesome film school through SCAD and some of their, some of their student films. They're like festival winning. You can mess around and end up on a pretty high, high grade set in a set of films.

Speaker 1: 19:39

So those ones are pretty cool. I know a couple guys who went to SCAD that we were doing background jobs and they were in film school at SCAD and they were all very talented, very creative. Some of my original acting lessons came from guys who were in acting programs at SCAD and they were teaching me about that. That's back when I knew nothing about it, and they're like oh, dude, just do this. Like. I remember a SCAD guy. He handed me a play and as actors like that's like you could take a play, read it anywhere, start memorizing lines. And he was like dude, you got to start reading the plays. You put me on the plays. I don't know if you guys read in the plays. That's kind of helped me.

Speaker 2: 20:11

I don't. I'm in like a multiple multitude of classes, but anyway, I do hear it's a good way to practice.

Speaker 1: 20:18

So I know a little bit your story, TJ. What about you, Brian? What? How did you get into acting? I'm always so, so intrigued by people like how did you get here? It's like, how did you get into a band?

Speaker 2: 20:29

Well, I'm 53 now and four years ago Kevin Smith came to town and he had inspired me to lose some weight. He had a heart attack. I'm a month older than him and so I went to the doctor, found out and I lost a lot of weight. And he came to New Orleans, said, okay, fans, who wants to be in my film? And I was like, yeah, so I worked the background on that for the first time. It's like this is pretty cool, because never thought it was possible.

Speaker 2: 20:47

And talking to one of our friends, recently, back in 83, a production company came to town and for $100, you can get your kid into acting. It was all a scam and my mom had paid, not only for me but I think for my friend too, and I was devastated and felt so guilty. I think that set me up for life saying I could never do this you know what I mean Without realizing that it put a wall there. So now that wall is gone and so I did some other things. Then I worked a photo, double and stand in on another movie in addition to background on it, and that week and a half being that close to was like I need to do more, and so then I started taking acting classes with Jim Gleason, the improv with Anubis, then the pandemic hit voice acting with people like Charlie Adler and Michael Bell. If you don't know it, charlie Adler was Buster Bunny, amongst other things, michael Bell was Duke from GI Joe and just whatever I can get. Now I'm taking singing classes and I took self tape with Anne Mahoney you know anything I can get. And so, like you for making a reel, but I didn't go to a student thing and I didn't audition like you're talking about. If you were making a film, hey, brian, come do this, cool, and that's how it started. But I never felt like an actor for a long time until I did Wheel of Heaven, where I played death.

Speaker 2: 21:52

Couple of the classes like Zoom classes, they were six months apart each Actually it was two of them and between that I took, I did the film and then both teachers went man, you've improved so much, because the weekly class I couldn't see the improvement I was struggling at. It Felt like a student. So when I heard that it's like, okay, I'm an actor, and then things change, you know what I mean. You feel like you hit that next plateau. So it's been this struggle and I think one things that it held me back was the urge to go further. Does that make sense? Yeah, you know, you get in the audition room, you get in the class and I've got to do goodness scene, but that's all you're feeling, that's all you're concentrating on, and so getting to be able to relax, let that go. Trust the technique, trust the preparation. Has been a long journey. Plus, I've been working seven days a week cleaning bars while I do that. So exhaustion is my friend too. So it's been rough, but I love it, dj.

Speaker 1: 22:40

what about you? What was the moment when, that moment where you're like you know what I might be an actor Like I think. So let's click in here.

Speaker 3: 22:46

I was working background in a small scene on a TV show that just aired recently and one of the day players encouraged me. He just asked me if I had ever done any principal work and I had not. I didn't think it was possible. I didn't think that I had what it took to get into it, didn't know what it would take. And he offered some encouragement, offered some advice on how to get started, and one of the first things he said to do was start taking acting classes. And that's what I did.

Speaker 3: 23:16

I signed up, I started taking classes at Jim Gleason's studio and started taking some intensives and kind of spread my wings, studying with other people, and started doing self-tapes. Now it's slowed down a little bit since the strike started, but with classes I'm still doing at least one self-tape a week and I think just practicing doing that, staying in the groove, has helped. I don't know if I'll ever think to myself I have what it takes, but that early encouragement by somebody that had been a SAG actor for close to 10 years at that point, saying that you can do it, that was when I started. That was the moment it hit for me that maybe I can do this. Will I succeed, I don't know. I'm sure. I'm sure gonna try.

Speaker 1: 24:01

I heard like a recent podcast or something. It was a clip from Jeremy Allen White, I think that's his name. Yeah, he was in the Bay. Yeah, he was in Shameless. Yeah, he was talking about how he didn't feel like he was an actor until now in his career. This dude's done seven seasons of Shameless, one of the greatest comedy shows to ever be streamed. He was like I wish that I could look back and I wish I would have told myself earlier on like you're doing a good job, and I feel like we all kind of live in that space a little bit as actors. Foster syndrome. Yeah, it's like imposter syndrome and it's almost like, unless it's paying the bills, it doesn't count. And I find that I catch myself thinking like that all the time Just go all in. Yeah, there's no reason to doubt, I guess.

Speaker 3: 24:40

Yeah, you know, I think early on I thought you're not an actor unless you're actually in something getting paid and performing after you auditioned and got the role. But as I started studying acting and learning my teacher now is James DeMonte. He says you're a working actor when you're preparing for the audition. The audition is the job. You have to craft and prepare your audition and it takes hours and hours. You don't just stand up there and read lines. You have to craft that character, you have to develop the character, you have to get that script into your bones and that is the work. You just getting the opportunity to audition. That's the win, whether you book the role or not, that's the win. And I've said it in a couple of podcasts before. He says that he's never been rejected for a role. He just wasn't selected for one.

Speaker 3: 25:31

And there's many reasons that we don't get selected for something. Don't take it personal. It may not be anything to do with your performance. It may be too tall, too short, taller than the lead, shorter. There's a million different reasons that we don't book. So I try not to take that personal. And I started realizing that when you're auditioning, when you're preparing and you're taking classes and you're doing all this stuff. You are a working actor. Whether or not you're getting paid, you're still putting in work toward that goal, and it's a lot of work just to get to the point of submitting the audition. There's a lot of work that goes into that. No, you said it. I don't know if I explained that very good, perfect.

Speaker 1: 26:11

No, I think it's pretty clear. That's the mindset.

Speaker 2: 26:13

So, blake, you're saying how you were advised to start reading plays and it seems like you're more of the manager, director, editor, production side of it. What else have you done for your own personal acting or your reels or things like that?

Speaker 1: 26:26

Four words actor studio. It's an actor studio out in the DFW area. There's a lot of different acting schools out there. I found that one to be the best. I asked around, I audited some classes. That one just seems like there's a lot of driven people that actually make films or get books and films. But studying there for two years, jason Davidson was one of the teachers. He was a great teacher for me. He was kind of ruthless. He was just one of those teachers who would be like that was bad. No, do it, do it better. And he would shoot you straight. And I think it's very important in this industry to not sugarcoat or like you've got to tell people, especially from the directing side or teaching side, to get them better. And then Richard Wayne Blake. He came in and I was only under him for a couple classes but he was out in LA. He made a career for himself out in LA, got cast and a lot of stuff. He acts and he makes sag films. Now he's actually got one coming out called the actor 2024. I believe it's going to release he.

Speaker 1: 27:21

Just this might sound cheesy but I think he believed in me. He gave me a script and I had trouble like coming out of my shell for big characters. And he handed me a script for can't remember the name something monkeys it was. Brad Pitt plays a crazy man 12 monkeys, 12 months. He handed me a script of monologue and he goes all right, you guys have three minutes to get these figured out and come in and cold read them for an audition.

Speaker 1: 27:41

And I was like you have an opportunity here. You can either like hold back or you can just fail miserably in front of all these people, but you got to make a decision Go for it or don't. So I felt like he gave me the right encouragement and I knew that he kind of believed in me. So I went in there and I just like that's when it all clicked. I was reading that script and I just went all in, took all the risks that I thought that I saw and went for it and everything clicked. But that was more of a specific scenario. But yeah, forward actor studio, two years of intense training there that really prepared me for it to be nerve wracking. But I think I could go to any set step in know the etiquette, get the job done, say the lines, go home, and I think I could. I could get the job done for anybody at this point.

Speaker 3: 28:18

Very cool yeah that's important.

Speaker 2: 28:21

Could you share doesn't have to be the worst, but what is something bad that happened that you had to recover from on a set in a class something you're willing to share and expose your vulnerability with us for?

Speaker 1: 28:34

I feel like there's multiple. One just comes to mind. I was in an acting class and we had like it was one of those acting classes where everybody that you know signed up for it and it was like it was a good one. It was like four week intensive. There's a lot of talented people in there and I was partnered with this girl who's got big name and likeness in DFW and just around and it was my first time actually going all in on a class and memorizing lines and getting ready for a scene. And I studied for weeks. I had that script in my bones and we got there and it was flowing well. I was a little nervous, dropped a line and we were recording for reels. The feeling there it doesn't sound like it was a big deal, but that feeling I was like I really dropped all here Since then, a lot of the content that I shot for the financial institution I worked for.

Speaker 1: 29:22

I was running my own sets, so I didn't like have any fear but dropped lines like it was job. I was the writer, director, producer. We did do one big set where we went to Austin, texas, and this was at the beginning of my job, so I just stepped into it and they're like and they pay the big production team. So it was like I love production. Yeah, jim Cruz, they got everything and I was there and they brought me along to like make my own content on the side, while they also had me worked into the main stuff on the big cameras and I was. I got to my set and I had four scripts memorized and the one script that I didn't really really get in my bones and ended up getting moved to like a big camera scene and they had like Gaffer and everything, like they lit it. Everything was going on and I did not know my lines and that is the worst thing that you could be on a set is an actress does not know the lines.

Speaker 2: 30:09

The only worst is a dream where you don't know your lines and you're naked and you leave for the test. Yeah, right.

Speaker 3: 30:15

Thank you for sharing. What about you? You have one, Brian.

Speaker 2: 30:17

Yeah, I've got one. It's the improv incident. I felt so bad. It was called yes Anding Too Hard.

Speaker 2: 30:23

So you may have heard in improv you, someone says something, you say yes, you acknowledge what they say and then you build on that. So my scene partners stepped up and you don't know what's going to happen and I just kind of felt a little nervous. So I was, you know, hunched over and I'm starting to feel like a nervous guy and I was partaking about it and said, ok, we're going to recreate the crime, we're going to film it here, which isn't a problem. But you have to take the value out of it. So if someone says, oh, we're going to recreate a crime, yes, but I just stole a Snickers bar, bring it way low. Or if someone's going, oh, I can't believe they died, you know. Oh well, you know that duck was the best friend I ever had. You have to. You don't want to make it real in an improv show because you want people to have fun watching. I'm a true crime fan. I was trying to make it absurd and I said but you're my lawyer, why would we do this? To me that's absurd. So then someone else came up with a fake boom mic. So this girl came out, she's my friend and she's like OK, I'm ready to play the victim. So I kind of have a dark sense of humor. So, since my twist was that I'm actually the bad guy, so I wrapped my hands around my friend's throat. I did not put pressure on her, I put pressure in my own hand and when they said action, I struggled and in my face I looked like I'm enjoying it. Oh, and cut, oh, ok. So it's not funny. Funny, but it fit to me. I'm seeing part of it. No, no, no, we got to do it again. You got to drown at this time. At some point. Either I should have turned it never should have gotten to the choking point, or someone from the side is called editing, so you may not be in the scene, but you see something like that. You run across the stage like a screen wipe scene ends. So it was.

Speaker 2: 31:45

It was kind of failures and a few different parts and we got an audience complaint and I felt so bad. Even after the show I checked with my friend. I was like that didn't hurt, you Did? I didn't think, no, no, no, it was fine, we were cool with it. But you step back and you can see how the audience it could trigger somebody, you could hurt someone's feelings. People wouldn't understand that we're just playing and it really didn't fit in an improv show. So you should be going for more comedy. So we learned and we grew and we kept performing. I felt so bad. It was like a nuclear bomb went off in the group. That's my TJ.

Speaker 3: 32:13

We could be here for a while. Yeah, I had one at an intensive, kind of similar to Blake's story. I was prepared for it. It was with a casting director that I had auditioned for before and I picked a scene. He put some scenes out that we could choose from and I picked a scene that I had auditioned for recently with him and I got in there and there's 30 actors in this room, I mean, but they're, they're back behind you. You go in front of a screen, so you're not really, you're not seeing the other people, so it's like they're not really there.

Speaker 3: 32:45

But it was the casting director and then two people that were working with him that are experienced actors, and one of them was the reader and I started and they wanted they wanted it to be a little bit shorter, so they had me start from a different point instead of from the very top, and I just blanked, just completely blanked, right in the beginning. I'm like uh, and they're like, do you need this script? And I'm like, no, I'm good, I've got it. And then after a second start, kind of a stutter start. I was good after that. But it was just kind of embarrassing for me, especially with all of these people, all of these other talented and experienced actors in the room in front of a casting director that I've auditioned for quite a few times, to make a mistake like that. But I recovered, I caught my breath, slowed down and started again and I was. I was okay, but to me it was embarrassing, yeah.

Speaker 2: 33:34

You're adrenaline got the better of you for a second yeah.

Speaker 1: 33:36

That one jogged my memory for a good audition, one. At the time I didn't know it was a bad audition and I'll say that because now that I'm seeing things from the casting side, I went into this audition and I didn't say a word. It was an in-person audition recently and I didn't say a word to the casting director, the director who was sitting there, the producer. I didn't build any rapport. It was the most uncomfortable environment that it could have been before. I'd lived in my lines and I was playing like a Southern debutante accent. I did a bad audition. I'll just say like, to say the least, and walked out of there and at the time I didn't think it was that bad.

Speaker 1: 34:07

But now, seeing things from the casting side, I don't know if it's always like this. So take this advice with a grain of salt. Some people don't want to talk to you. They want it to be very professional, I guess, and not me. I like come in, build a rapport, like, sell yourself to the people, show them that you're a normal guy that they'd want to work with day to day on set, because, as you guys know, film sets like some days. You're out there 14 hours a day for six days in a row on accident, and it's like show them that you're somebody that they'd want to be around and that they'd like to work with, and I'd say the same thing to you. I dropped the line at the end of it too, and it was just, it was tough.

Speaker 3: 34:38

Was this a callback or was this an initial audition?

Speaker 1: 34:41

This was a. It was weird. So it was actually through the actor studio. So the people who own Fort Worth actor studio are one of them is an actor. They're both actors and they're both into filmmaking. The wife, delilah Myers she writes a lot more. Nathan, he's actually a art design, right Set design. He does like big sets, so they're both well connected in the filmmaking world. Very popular faith based crime show came and did gave our studio pretty much half the studio. If the, if the owners thought that you were ready for an audition, they gave us all an opportunity to audition. So that was one of those weird ones where you got to be in classes and you got to be networking constantly to get to even get that on this.

Speaker 3: 35:13

So, now that you've been on the casting side of things and the acting side of things, if you could go back and reset that, what would you do different? What would you say to him when you walked into the room? I would just be a human Think, maybe.

Speaker 1: 35:26

I was like in my head, like I'm like that's it acting right now. I'm the guy I would just say be a human and talk to him, sell yourself like a normal conversation If there's an opportunity. If they want to say hey, I'm so and so, say hey, I have a little dialogue. Don't be a robot. Yeah, that's what I would say from the guest. Yeah, that's good advice.

Speaker 1: 35:43

Another thing from the casting side a lot of people think that you need a certain, you need to look, you need to be really pretty or super talented, and I'm getting auditions sent in right now and there's some talented actors that are sending in self-tape auditions and I probably won't pick the most talented actor that I think it's the person that I think is going to fit the best for the character.

Speaker 1: 36:02

So, like you said, it's a win to get an audition. Like, these actors are great actors and they're working. They put in the work, they got the lines in their bones, they built the characters and I'm going to end up casting someone who might not be the best actor, but they're just the one that I think would fit best with the scene partner that we have currently chosen. So I know this sounds cheesy, but like don't, don't ever give up, because there's a role out there for you. It's just, you got to keep auditioning, you got to keep going for them, because one of them you'll be the guy or you'll be the girl that they want to cast. It's not always about who's the prettiest or who's got the biggest resume, who's the most talented.

Speaker 2: 36:32

I think it's just not easy about that at all. We would look at our screen and I know you're going to hear this on audio first, but we've got three different lengths of beard. Blake, you might be the best actor, best performance, no flubs, live in the life, it's coming from your heart, but you got the smallest beard or the three of us probably the fullest head of hair too. And then they look at TJ. Well, I want a guy with a long Gandalf beard. Tj is a guy who means a good actor too. He was number two. You know, I'm not even talking about myself. Call is just for beard. You don't know what they want and they might have thought I want a guy like TJ's beard.

Speaker 2: 36:58

And they see Blake and go you know I can give up on the beard to get that acting.

Speaker 2: 37:01

You just never know when you go in, and I haven't had the in-person audition, I've only had self tapes. I got hired off. One Didn't even have a callback yet I think it's you know. Hi, my name is how you doing. And if the room is silent, okay, let's get started. But if they're like, oh cool, tell me about yourself. There's your interaction, that's how you feel it out. But if there's somebody's like, they're pissed off, they've had a bad day. It's almost lunch. Don't go into your whole history. Give them a whole podcast. The worst of information when they just want to get to their salad or their steak or whatever they're going to eat.

Speaker 3: 37:27

Read the room? Absolutely, yeah, the big joke is, slates are hard. What about slates from what you're seeing from the casting side? Are you getting a feel for some of these actors personalities from the slates Like what they might be like on set to work with, because you might have somebody that is talented and has a good look, but then they come across as a total arrogant person that's not going to be good to be around on set? Are you, are you getting any kind of feel for people's personalities from those yeah, definitely, I would say if you so.

Speaker 1: 37:57

Actress access is like we are kind of slave to actress access. Have slates on your pictures, because from them I hope I don't control saying this, but from the breakdown, the side of the software that casting sees you see if you have a headshot, then you see if you have slate shots, then you see if you have media, so like real footage, any clips, and then your resume. So there'll be four like little tabs under your picture if you have all four, but they won't be lit up if you don't have. So just having a slate shot is almost just as important as the slate shot, because you I automatically take the people more seriously that have the stuff on the profile, just I don't know natural human bias, and then a slate from you can kind of get a read on somebody when they say a couple words on camera how they hold themselves, how they carry themselves. So, yeah, it definitely comes across.

Speaker 1: 38:40

I would say have slates and make them good, because that might be what sells you, because I know that some of them have interested me. I'll be like I don't know about the headshot, don't know about the look like the slate. I'm like you know what I want to see more. So I'm going to go click over on her real intermediate. I'll watch through the media and then I'm sold on that person. So I don't know if that was the exact question. Yeah, it's. It was very insightful to me just seeing the backside of actors access, seeing how the casting stuff works. It taught me a lot about how I'm going to approach my profile and my auditions in the future.

Speaker 2: 39:09

Well, you just taught me I don't have a slate on my profile. I thought it was just in auditions, so well okay, so so yeah, on on your profile what Blake's talking about is a slate shot where your picture is for your headshot.

Speaker 3: 39:24

You do a slate shot like I'm on TJ Sebastian, just something briefly, it's like a talking head and they can see that. And from a class I went through with a casting director he said every one of those four things that Blake just mentioned moves you up in the list. So if you have all four of those, if you have a headshot, if you have a slate shot, a reel, and what's the fourth one?

Speaker 1: 39:46

It's a headshot resume, resume.

Speaker 3: 39:49

So if you have all of those, then that puts you up at the top of the list versus somebody that just has a head, maybe a headshot and a resume. They're going to be further down and the casting director might not ever even see their submission. So just having that couple of second little slate shot talking head on there makes a difference from what I understand.

Speaker 2: 40:10

I appreciate that. And the resume, the look of the resume, the format is important too, and I first started I just had it kind of this is what I did, these are my classes. And then someone walked me through and said put a header. And so you put films, you put that in bold, and then you put the ones that you have television commercials, conflicts, available on request. You always put that and then things like that, and just by making it look that good, because my actors access Blake, I never got any pings on the app and what I mean to the folks out there.

Speaker 2: 40:36

They look at that and they go, this guy might be good, and so it kind of flashes on your side of the screen. Then you see if you want to do the audition and you say, okay, I'd like to try. I never got anything. The day the person helped me out was actually a casting director. We made it look good and he and I were talking and I'm doing it and I didn't know he was watching me. So I fixed the header and I put the films down and hit enter and he goes, no, put this one on top. And I was like, oh, thanks, we did that. And that day or the next day it started pinging. I got like eight offers the first day, so now you're telling me about a slate, so hopefully my offers go up again.

Speaker 1: 41:05

It probably will. It's definitely you got to pay to play, but all the major casting is done through breakdown services. Those are the ones that agents get to. I know there's a couple other big softwares out there, but agencies get breakdowns before. If it pays more than $125 for the role, then you send like me making these movies if any of the roles were more than 125. But for a day it would send it all to agencies too. That's how agents send their actions. It's all breakdowns. These days you make a breakthrough career on actress access, in my opinion. I know I'm young and that's a hot take. I've gotten work from it and it's the only place I've gotten. Unless you want to do small stuff, we like Facebook groups on Facebook. That's another place you can go find some gigs. But otherwise all the other stuff, I don't want to say it's a scam, but most of them.

Speaker 3: 41:45

Most of them, yeah, and agents when they get it, when they get the breakdowns, they get it before, usually before it goes public. On actress access, because I've gotten things from my agent and then I saw it. I got an email that's something that fit my profile or whatever was available on there, and it was several days after the fact. So that's kind of the benefit of having an agent is. A lot of times they'll see it sooner.

Speaker 2: 42:09

Alrighty, that's our time with Blake Nolan Blake. It's been an honor, it's been informative. I can't wait to go do another slate. I never thought I'd say that, but thank you for your time and sharing your information with us.

Speaker 1: 42:18

Yeah, absolutely, it's been a pleasure, guys. Can't wait to have you guys out on set for Earthbound and regrets.

Speaker 2: 42:22

See you next time. Thanks, Blake.