ExclusiveThe Struggle to Stay in Hollywood: Kristin Carey’s Story

I mean, I was kicked out of nursery school for dancing on the tables. Pretty much a year after graduating from USC, I got a role on Dick Van Dyke, on the Dick Van Dyke show, which was Diagnosis Murder, but it was my first job. I thought, wow, I have a trailer, I'm on Sunset, I've made it, you know, it's ridiculous. They were joined by an actress whose journey through Hollywood spends decades, but in her own words, she's just getting started. From her early beginnings at USC's prestigious film program, to recurring roles on SWAT and the ongoing Hulu series, Paradise, Christine Carey has built a career on persistence and purpose. You might recognize her from comedy films like Hall Pass, with Owen Wilson, or The Greatest Beer Run Ever, with Zac Efron. How I would, I cried, I'll be honest. You know, in my 20s, it's very difficult to understand because you feel it's so personal at you. It's kind of that thing of as I'm growing older, sitting into, I'd rather be a character actress with wearing no makeup, losing my hair, and give me a nose prosthetic, you know, let's do it. Christine's work extends beyond the big screen, with a non-profit she started during the pandemic to provide hygiene kits and school supplies to people in need. From meditation to metaphysics, from acting alongside comedy legends, to finding love on the set with fellow actor Dennis Hall, please welcome Christine Carey. Christine, welcome to our program. Oh, thank you for having me. Well, I want to start with you growing up in Santa Rosa. I have a lot of friends from there, and actually a couple of them, one of them is a reporter for Epoch Times now. Amazing. And another one is the emcee for the Shen Yun Performing Arts. Great show. So this small town produces pretty much amazing people, right? So first thing I want to ask you is, as you were growing up in Santa Rosa, were you thinking of becoming an actress? Was something that you were constantly thinking about? Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes. That was always on my thoughts. I was in school plays growing up since I was little. So yeah, it was always on my mind. But my parents really wanted me to have an education. There was opportunities in San Francisco for me, but that was an hour drive, and I didn't drive, obviously, when I was young. So I just waited until I got into college to be trained and then professionally work after that. And then you ended up at USC. Yeah. And then what happened after that? You started getting roles? Yeah. So I was so fortunate. Pretty much a year after graduating from USC, I got a role on Dick Van Dyke, on the Dick Van Dyke show, which was Diagnosis Murder. And it was my first job, and it was a USC alumni director, so that was kind of fun. But it was my first job. I thought, wow, I have a trailer, I'm on Sunset, I've made it. You know, it's ridiculous. And I get on set, and it's Diane Cannon, Pernell Roberts, and Dick Van Dyke. I've never been on a set. I have never been with a camera in my face, right? And Dick Van Dyke was the nicest man, because the camera started rolling, I'm hearing all these people saying, sound, rolling, you know, I didn't know what was going on. And I just started talking. And he said, sweetie. He goes, just wait for them to say action. It's just like, that was my first intro to... So college did not prepare me for the industry. For the real world, in that sense. What would you say are some of your favorite roles that you filmed and you played? Well, one that I get recognized for a little bit is, I was in Hall Pass with Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis. I played Aunt Meg, a crazy cougar. And so something so different than me, spray tan, you know, big hair, tight dresses, that it was fun to play someone a little different, a lot different from me. And that was kind of the relationship with the Farrelly brothers. I had met them doing a commercial. And then they saw me and wanted me to come do this audition for them. And I got it. And then I also did The Greatest Beer Run with them. So it's been a wonderful relationship. So those roles have all been important to me. I did this series with Nicholas Winding Refn, who is an incredible director, producer. He won his films at Cannes with Drive. But I got to work with him and with Miles Teller. So I played an L.A. County Sheriff's police chief. And I love, I don't know, I love the wardrobe. I loved working with Miles and Nicholas. It was a moody, dark series. And it was really fun, the back and forth with Miles and I. There was a lot of emotional stuff. And I remember one day, we're in this big scene. It's a funeral scene. And we're having kind of a brunch for a fallen police officer. Miles walks in, his character. And one guy is supposed to give the eulogy at the other end of the table. And it was always weird to me, because I was the head of the department. Why wouldn't I be? For some reason, I just thought that. But I let it, you know, it's fine. Nicholas said, in the middle of shooting, he goes, what would you say? I'm like, oh my goodness. And thank goodness, I had prepared all of it. And he goes, let's go into a room. We're going to write it, and you're going to come back out and shoot it. And it was a very long eulogy. And it was one of those, that's exciting. Like, stuff like that doesn't happen a lot. A lot of times, actors aren't asked for their writing skills, you know, the writers and directors. So that was, it was really, and it was a really cool series. And it was really fun. And just to work with someone of that stature, and Miles, as you know, as an actor, is incredible. Tell us about your love for acting. How would you describe your love, and where is it coming from? You know, ever since I could talk, I was told that that's all. I mean, I was kicked out of nursery school for dancing on the tables. So I think my parents knew right away that there was a spirit in me that wanted to do this. So I discovered, my parents were like, we've got to put her in something. Ballet, dance, singing, community theater, children's theater. So all of the above. So that's how I started to learn. I loved it. I loved being with other kids, with other adults. I loved memorizing lines. I was in a speech club. I loved giving speeches, speech contests. That was my thing when I was growing up. All over Northern California, we'd travel around and do these speech contests. And teachers, my kindergarten teacher, Danielle King, saw something in me. And it's always important, those teachers, to kind of push you along. Absolutely, yeah. It makes a difference. It makes a huge difference. So I just have never done anything else. I've never faltered from that vision of doing it. I love doing it. There is something about being collaborative with other people, creating something. And I feel each of us has a gift. I felt it was a gift, basically, from God that comes through me. It's not my talent. It comes through me. And I'm grateful that I get to do it. I'm grateful that I'm hired and I get to play these different roles. And I love when there's a message in it. Maybe helping someone come out of a depression, maybe helping someone, something they're going through. So that brings me a lot of joy. Tell us about The Greatest Beer Run, because that sounds like fun. That's with Zac Efron. Yes. And it's about someone going to Vietnam to get- True story. It's a true story. Yeah, and there's a book. Yeah, a true story. And I play Mrs. Minogue. My son is there. And Chicky, played by Zac Efron, decides he's going to go over there and get a beer to every single one of our boys that are from Inwood, New York. So it's a small place, small little town. And he does it. It's unbelievable, the story, what he goes through to get to every part of Vietnam. And he gets every single one of them a beer and makes it home alive. It's a great movie if you haven't seen it. It's enjoyable. Tell us some interesting things that happened during filming or some stories that came up. So many. I remember, well, for Beer Run, we were in this not great part of New Jersey. And we were under a real strict time limit, right? We had to get going. There were sirens. You hear police. And you can't roll a camera. You know this when there's that going on. So I just remember it was intense. And everyone had to kind of be on their game. It was a really intense scene for Zac, as well as myself, because my son has died. And I'd asked him to take a rosary to him. And so he's coming back to give me the rosary. And he feels, obviously, guilty for almost telling him to go, right? He should have said, you know. And I said, no, no. He wanted to go. This was he fought for his country. He wanted to go. This was very important to him. And it was important for the town of Inwood. So it was a great scene. But my point is, we were all under the gun. And you know how it is. Sometimes you work better under pressure. I know I do. But Zac Efron is hilarious and amazing and kind. When I was in Hall Pass, we would go karaoke. Owen Wilson, Jason Statham, we'd all go karaoke. That was our big thing to do, and bowling on off days. And just hanging out with incredibly funny people, I felt, by osmosis, maybe I got a little bit funnier. So in Hall Pass, there's a scene with Jason Sudeikis and I in bed. And you should have seen the nudity clause I had to sign. But there was no nudity. Oh my goodness, that was terrifying. I'm like, really? I said to Peter, I go, do you really think everyone in America needs to see this? I don't think so. He's like, just sign it. No. So there was a scene, and Owen Wilson's supposed to come in. And I realized that Jason's character is lying to me. And I have to kick him in the face, like full kick. Karate kick. And let me tell you, I mean, it was close. I mean, you do not want to hit the star of this movie's face, you don't want to hit the star. It's not a stunt. It's not a double. It's the actual person. Oh, it was me. So I did work with a stunt coordinator. And there was something else I had to do in that movie, too. I had to, I fall. I mean, it's just ridiculous stuff. But it's funny stuff when, you know, they have mats down. They have great, Tierre was the stunt coordinator. He was fantastic. But he goes just, so the kick, the way they shoot it, it looks real. And Jason has the harder job, actually. He has to react. It's almost the reaction is harder, like getting shot. You have to react. And I've had to do that, too. And it's tough to get shot. You got shot? Not in Hall Pass, as a comedy, but in other things. NCIS, I think I was shot, and in some other movies. But yeah, it was really, I mean, I'm literally kicking the side. So you're off by a millimeter. And you're doing it full speed. And you rehearsed it a lot. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, but still, you're terrified. Because if Jason moves, or if my foot, if somehow my, because I was laying down. And it's hard to get it, you know, to kick upwards. And tell us about when you get shot. How, what do you do? Wow, well, OK, so this was really interesting. Because it, you know, all that stuff that happened on that Alec Baldwin movie. You know, you hear it, right? Exactly. And not only that, Bruce Lee's son, Brandon Lee, 93, you know, I was watching his movies. And then he got shot on the set. And so did another actor, Hexum, I think his last name was. Guns. So first of all, they're real guns, I guess. Well, no, they're prop guns. OK. Yes, that fire. I mean, it's different on every set. I just know the knowledge from the sets that I've been on. But thank God, again, my husband is an experienced gun person. And has taken me to gun ranges, which is really helpful. Like, if you've never held the weight of a gun and understood what it does, on TV shows, it won't look real. You need to actually do it. Yeah, you do. I've been on both ends of that, holding a gun and shooting someone and actually being shot. And it's extremely serious business. There is no joking. There is no, every set I've been on, and NCIS is one of the best. I've done pretty much all of their shows. It is a major undertaking. So meaning, the guys that come in, they show you the gun. They let you hold it. They show you inside. They show you the chamber. They show you everything. To make sure it's empty and everything. So when you say it's a prop gun, what does that mean? Like, it's not a real gun? It's a toy? Or it is a real gun? You know what? That's a great question. And my husband might know the answer to that. I don't. But I think they make them to look like replicas. And I believe that, for me, I feel like they make them lighter. Because guns can be quite heavy. So on the set of NCIS, everyone had to have earbuds. Meaning, it's so loud. You don't realize how loud it is. And it's to the senses, to the eardrums. And so we had to practice me getting shot and falling. Because you think you're going to fall back. But there's a kind of a jerk forward and then fall back. It's a really interesting. So you have to rehearse all of that ahead of time. Yes, with a mat. And then at some point, they're going to have to shoot it. So you don't have a mat. You have to, you know. And I used to do a lot of my own stunts. I did some crazy stuff. Driving, doing low independent, that crazy filmmaking when you're young in your 20s. And the budget's $100,000. And you're doing a movie. And you're driving the car. And you're acting. And you probably are shooting a gun at the same time. But I've been very fortunate. I've been on great sets with great armorers, which safety's first. But again, you never point a gun ever at a human being, ever. Even though it's a prop gun, even though it's not, I would never. But during the scene. You always are to the side of it. So it looks like when you watch it, it looks like it, but it's a little bit off. I don't know what happened with Rust. But it was so sad and tragic. And someone screwed up pretty badly. Well, obviously, in those accidents, first of all, they shot the wrong way. But then there's a bullet in there, right? And that was a rehearsal. They weren't even shooting. They were rehearsing. And we did a ton of rehearsing. And it's just very, there's a reverence on set when there are guns and people being shot. It's taken very seriously in television and stuff I've done. Honestly, it's like Sylvester Stallone or something in those movies where it's nonstop shooting. Yeah, I don't. And they're probably used to it in some way. But the sound is the same, right? So there's the actual sound. There's a real sound. It's a real gunfire. When you hear the sound, then you just collapse or fall. Right, the guy walked me through it on when to fall. And do you have a bag of blood or some paint or something? They did later. But when you're shot and then when you're on the ground, they do everything. Then the blood's there or by my head or wherever they want to do it, yeah. It depends. I've never, have I had squibs? I don't know if I have. The squibs are the things that when you are shot, you immediately see the blood. Oh, OK. That's a squib, it's called. So you pull something, or is it just by itself? They are controlling it, yeah. So that you have it on you, and yeah. Well, I can see why this has to be done serious, because it is scary stuff, especially accidents happen, which is so weird how they can happen. No, but also anything, any projectile in that gun, whether it be a bullet or whatever, can kill you. So it's really, you've got to take it very seriously. So you also had roles when you were shooting at someone? Yes. I remember an independent film. Yeah, I came in with a gun, threatening these gangbangers, and I got a shot off. But I don't think anyone was shot. I think he tried to grab the gun, yeah, this was a while ago, this was the 90s, and the gun went off. So yeah, I would like to have more. I like being a gun person, like a detective or CIA or something. Those are fun roles. Well, it's interesting to get the inside story, how these things actually work in the filming and all that. I mean, we do filming here, but we don't use guns, or we don't have any scenes like that. But yeah, you should probably at some point talk to someone. It might be interesting if you ever wanted to do a piece on that, just because I've given you this much of stunts and gun stuff. Like you're right, those scenes that it's non-stop, like the Keanu Reeves movie, John Wick, we just watched it. I don't think the guns never stopped during the whole thing. We'll talk about your nonprofit in a minute, but I want to ask you about the spring commercial, which became really big, and other things happened after that. So tell us, how did that happen? How did you get it? Yeah, so I just auditioned like anyone does, and I remember it was the Fairley brothers. They were in the room for the callback, and they wanted me to beatbox and make up a rap. OK. Do you know what beatbox is? I'm terrible at it. I don't know how. It's like that, pfft, pfft, pfft. I don't even know how to do it, because it's ridiculous. But I did it, and I made up this rap on the spot. And I don't see the things like that. It just, they come through. Oh, that's hilarious. It's like, and they were laughing. Everyone in the room could not hold it together, because someone that looks like me beatboxing, and rhyming, and do it like Eminem, but he's a genius. Don't know anything about that, and they, so I played a studio executive who loses her mind when they're not listening to what she's saying. So that was the beginning of a really beautiful relationship with them, and I remember that that day we were on set, and a lot of my family's from Boston, and the Red Sox were in the playoffs. They might have been in the World Series, probably playoffs. And me growing up in Northern California, Giants, 49ers, Oakland Raiders, and the Oakland A's. Those were the teams. So they said, come on back. We're watching the Red Sox. They are diehard Red Sox fans, and Patriots fans. And they just wanted to know everything about me. And they just said, tell us everything. We want to know you. And I just enjoy people. You're curious about another human being, and they wanted to get to know me, and what made me tick, and what am I doing, and where am I from. I don't know, I just was really touched by that. And then that became pretty big, right? It was random. Yeah, it was everywhere. It was crazy. It was fun, and they're in it too, Peter and Bobby. So the purpose of asking you to do the beatbox. I have no idea. I guess to see if I could, you know, they didn't know me. I hadn't worked with them. Do I have comedy skills? Can I improv? On the spot, what can I do? Because that's how they like to work. They'll throw a different line at you every take. Change it up. Do this. Try that. And you're like, you've got to be able to do it. Oh, that's fun. So what I wonder is like, when you do a role, how much do you think that influences your personality or who you really are? Does it change you in a way to become like that person? It depends, because sometimes when you're very, I did a movie, The Price for Silence, and it was with Richard Thomas. And it was intense. And you start to, it's almost like you, yeah, you take on some of it. I might not be pleasant to be around, because you are day in and day out in this person's shoes. Their griefs, their problems, everything that's going on with them. And yes, but sometimes I'm getting better as I get older. Believe it. On set, right? I remember a quote from Francis Ford Coppola when he was talking about The Godfather. And then he was saying that as he was writing it, he almost became like The Godfather. He was like manipulating people. He was having all these issues that were happening in the script that he was putting together. And he just couldn't believe it. He lost a son also, I think. Yeah, that was tragic. And he's up in Santa Rosa. So I feel like we're family, all of us up there in Northern California. But yeah, there have been roles that I've played where I feel like I want to isolate a little bit myself, because it's just intense. Or you just need to decompress from something. So that's why comedies are so great, because there's no decompression. You just have a lot of fun. Who's your favorite actor and actress? I have to ask you this. Oh, that's a really tough one. I'm just going to do the first person that pops into my head was Ralph Fiennes. I just remember The English Patient. And I don't know what it was. That film just enraptured me. Robert Redford, too. Sorry, I can't have two. But I love some of the older gentlemen, Paul Newman, all those guys. Obviously, Pacino, De Niro. I mean, we could go on and on. There's so many great actors, even younger ones now. It's a 30-minute show here. Women, Kristen Scott Thomas. Gosh, so many women. Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman. I mean, my peers, I think we're all around the same age. I just love people doing incredible work. Amy Adams. It's just fun to see people go outside the box and challenge themselves and don't play the same roles you've always played. They're choosing really interesting, provocative, sometimes dangerous roles. How do you deal with the pressure in Hollywood? You need the next role. There's always something going on. It's not like you go to 9 to 5. You go to work, and everything is the same every day. How is that life for you? When I was younger, I remember it was more stressful. And now, as I get older, you have to live your life. You have to have other interesting things happening in your life, hobbies or things you love to do. I started the nonprofit because of many reasons, but it fills another need. Acting is not the only thing. It's a job that I do, but it's not who I am, if that makes sense. Piano, I love to just keep learning. And thank God I'm married to someone who's the exact same way. He's very curious. And I think it helps keep you grounded. Also, my spiritual practice keeps me grounded. And I realize I'm here to do many other things, not just be an actor. So while other people, my friends, are kind of, they get upset about, oh, I'm not working. I haven't booked a job. And I don't do that anymore. I used to. I used to, but I've grown, I think, in that area that there are so many other things that I love to do. So less stress, you're able to enjoy life more. Yes. Travel, or maybe try to write. I admire writers so much. So I'm trying to start that. Do you sing? I do. I think you sing, right? At what level? You have a... Well, it's been a while. I remember doing a movie called The Black Rose, where I played an Irish singer. We did a CD. I mean, it was fun, but it's not... I'm okay. I mean, I can sing. I can carry a tune. And that's why I got into USC. But it's not something that... I might get back into it. I don't know. Because I'm starting the piano again. I played my whole life. So I'm doing that. And I always wanted to write a one-woman show about stuff, because some really cool stuff happened to me in my life. I have a sister that I never knew I had. So she found me... A full-blood sister. She found me 12 years ago. And so that has been one of the most incredible things in my life, is having... That's gotta be, yeah. I was an only child. That's amazing. So, yeah, it was really... I have a niece. I have a nephew. So how did she find you? Was it through a movie? Or how did she actually... Yeah, well, my parents were in college, and they couldn't have the child. And so my mom went to Catholic Charities and put the baby up for adoption. And so in Catholic Charities, they won't tell you who your birth parents are until one of them dies, which is a terrible policy, I think. So my father passed away, unfortunately, very young, in 2006. And she got the letter in 2007, and that's when she really started her search, because she had no information. So she started the search, and dead end, dead end, dead end, because she had his name. And I didn't put an obituary, because it's a long story, but I hadn't. So he was nowhere, and that was pre-internet. I mean, you have to start to think, what we have now, and searching people, and finding people, and you see. But back then, it wasn't as easy. So through my grandfather's death, after my father, same name, but he was a second, then she started looking and cluing in and saw my name, and said, oh, I have a half-sister. That's a pretty amazing story. Yeah. It's a happy ending. It's a happy, very happy ending. She's an incredible doctor in Pennsylvania. How important is faith in that sense in your life, and how does that translate into your work? Yeah, that's, you know, I was raised Catholic, so I've been since birth, and I've expanded on that, meaning I have a spiritual practice, and I think it's really important. I think, you know, sometimes I have to play roles that maybe I don't, that are not likable, but I myself cannot judge the characters I play. I like to pick roles that I feel will inspire people, again, help people. I feel that's my job here on earth, is to be of service. So my service is acting, but also not my nonprofit, but yeah, it's a tough question, because I do, there are things that I look at, scripts I get sent, and I'm like, I don't know if I really want to do this. I don't know if this is needed, right? So I, that's kind of how I look at it. I like how you add a different dimension to your life through different activities, different work, not just acting, and now you got involved with this nonprofit, and that was during the pandemic. Tell us more about it. So you provide the people in need with supplies and kids, right? My best friend and I were, during the pandemic, we had our pod, right? And we were sitting there one night, and we had been making brown bag sandwich lunches for homeless and the Salvation Army, and we dropped them off. So we were doing sandwiches and all these lunches, and we looked at each other and we were like, we can do something ourselves. We can do something. What should we do? We didn't want to do the food thing. If you've ever started a nonprofit, when you get into food, there's a lot of restrictions. You have to be careful. It's like running a restaurant, kind of. So we decided, what is needed? What can we do? And we realized there's a lot of Title I schools which are very poor schools, elementary, middle school, and they have nothing. They have no school supplies. Teachers are buying supplies, and we thought that was a really good place to start, providing a full backpack at the beginning of the year, and then maybe at the fall break, seeing who needs what, providing more school supplies. And we'd also put little hygiene kits in there because the one thing we were getting from the teachers was like, kids sometimes, you know, they just need to be taught about that. So they, and some of them don't have stuff. Some of these kids were homeless too with their families. So it's unbelievable stories and the resilience of these kids. And we also did full hygiene kits for male and female for our unhoused. And we were working with SELA. We were working with medical groups that are on the ground, helping with antibiotics, going to our homeless unhoused people and checking on them if they have things wrong, if they need medication. So our kits were being used as an olive branch, and they said it was very helpful for them to be able to give a kit and you gain trust, right? And the people, they need it. So, yeah. So how does that make you feel when you actually see the kits you guys prepare being used, you know? How do you feel when you see that? Humbled, totally humbled. And we feel there's so much need and, you know, and fundraising is challenging. I'm sure everyone, there's so many causes, great causes out there. But I think kids are most important. They're our future. And just having a child that has supplies and can learn and write and feel good about themselves. That's what we wanted to, you know, have dignity. That was the big thing for us, is the dignity with the children. That they have that dignity and self-confidence and are able to excel in school. So it makes us feel really good, but there's so much work to do. So you can, for a second, go, wow, that's amazing, but what else can we do? We need more, more backpacks, more supplies. What are you working on right now? I think it's Paradise. Yes, Paradise. I don't want to say much, because if you haven't seen it, there's a lot of little things that happen. So yes, I play the vice president's wife. So I guess- And that's on Hulu? Yeah, it's on Hulu, and it will be airing on ABC as well. Well, what can you tell us at least so far that happened in the first season? Well, if I tell you, then- Then we're not going to watch it anymore, right? Well, no, you want to watch it. James Marsden, Sterling K. Brown, everyone is so incredibly fabulous. It is, it's a, there's political stuff. There's mystery, there's a murder. You find out in the first episode a lot. So if you haven't watched it, just watch the first episode, it'll hook you. So you're the vice president's- Wife. Wife. So what do we call that, the second lady? Yeah. I don't know how they, yeah. So, yeah. Well, in conclusion, I'd like to ask you, what would be your advice for young people who want to get into acting? For kids like you were, you know, they want to make it big in Hollywood. What would you tell them? Well, things have changed. Obviously, dramatically, you know, with internet, social media, a lot of people are doing social media and doing very well, becoming influencers. And whether they're comedians or dancers or singers, their people are coming to, they are, Hollywood's coming to them and going, we like her, let's make a show around her. But if that's not your thing, because, you know, social media isn't for everybody, get a good education, do theater. I think that's the foundation of everything, is being on stage. So if you want to be an actor, I think that's, if you want to be a true actor, I feel my career is about longevity. Yes, yes. But if you just want to be famous, I guess, you know, there's a, that's a different path. Yes. I never thought about that when I was a little kid, loving acting and going to play, to rehearsal and playing Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Nothing about being famous, it was about, I love doing it, I love being on stage, right? I love the audience reaction. So yeah, I think getting an education. And nowadays, you can audition really from anywhere. If you can't afford to move to LA or maybe you just want to stay, and there's, Atlanta has a lot of filming, New York, Chicago, Florida, there's so many. When I was growing up, you had to be in Los Angeles or New York, and that was it. And maybe Chicago. And now you can self-tape, which is really nice. So the net is wider now, with casting directors seeing more people, right? And it's cool. Everyone's getting a shot. Everyone's getting an opportunity. Now, still you have other things you're doing, and I think that's fantastic. Do you think most other actors are in the same position? And the reason I'm asking that is because I'm assuming there's a lot more actors and there's roles for, in Hollywood. Because there's a lot more people who want to do it and less movies. So what do they do? How do they fulfill their life or survive? Well, a lot of people have the survival jobs. I would say also, write something. That's what I'm trying to, write something that you want to play. Write something that you want to do and go shoot it. A lot of people do that, right? Or like independent, independent movie, yeah. Yeah, you can shoot a movie on an iPhone now. Back when I was, we couldn't do any of that. I used to have to drive, I remember. We would get our stuff, we had pagers. We'd get faxed to us, right? Yes, yes. Or I'd have to go pick up the stuff at the casting office on Wilshire. You're like, now it's right in my phone. I shoot on my phone, because we're all doing self-tapes still, which is, I'm in my living room doing self-tapes. It's weird. I miss the collaboration being in person, being with people. I miss that. You know this. In person, you can feel the energy. Yes, yes. Through a Zoom, through whatever. Something is missing there. It feels like it's two-dimensional or one-dimensional. I kind of went on a tangent. Back to the advice for kids or young adults. If you really want to do it, I think you just need to do it. Don't let anyone dissuade you, right? Have the confidence, keep going. Create things that you want to create. Shoot them. Get with friends. Get with your people. I always say improv, too. I studied at UCB. So improv also is great for just life. Just being able to talk and have a conversation, but educate yourself and have other interests. During career, if you had ups and downs, and then how did you come out of when you had a desperate moment or you had a really big issue? What was the thing that you did? Wow. There's a lot of obstacles. Obviously, there can be. You're too tall. You're too short. You're too this. You're too that. You're not pretty enough. You're too pretty. You're not thin. I mean, it runs a gamut. What really helped me was I found out, I went to this Actors Network group, and it was called a Type Me class. If you don't know what you're selling and who you are, it's really difficult. You will bypass the pain and suffering. Everyone wants to be a leading actress, a leading lady. Not everyone's a leading lady. Not everyone's a leading... It's kind of that thing of as I'm growing older, sitting into, I'd rather be a character actress with wearing no makeup, losing my hair, and give me a nose prosthetic. Let's do it. Let's have something fun. How I would... I cried. I'll be honest. In my 20s, it's very difficult to understand because you feel it's so personal at you. You're left out. You're not... Why is he making it, but I'm not? Right, or there's something wrong with you. What's wrong with me? Or am I talented enough or this, anything? You finally get to a point where it's like producers, and sitting behind the camera and watching casting sessions because I've produced and I've plays and short films, and you start to see what... You see actors walk in that are sabotaging, excuse me. You have actors walking in that are sabotaging themselves as they're walking in, and you see it. It's the way they walk. You see the lack of self-confidence. You see they're nervous. And that's fine. Look, we've all been nervous. There's been times where my script is shaking, right? Because there's such a passion. We all want to do well. We all take it so seriously. So like they said, it's 31 flavors. And some days I'm the flavor they want. And some days I'm not. And that's okay. It's now... I just don't take it as... I don't take it personally. I get it. I don't fit the look of the show. I don't match with that man as a husband and wife. You know what I'm saying? It starts to become more... You think about it as a business. So I put my passion elsewhere. I'll do theater to get that fulfillment. And or whatever, piano, singing. Whatever I want to do, it's that thing of not putting so much on each job. That's what I've learned. You know, because it's... If you want to do this... But I get it. It's heartbreaking. I don't know if I answered the question. I think that's a great way to approach this. And speaking of the confidence, I remember people... Sometimes you watch a tennis match. It's a final, right? And you see the two players coming onto the field, right? And you just look at them. And one of them is more confident than the other. And he has that look like, you know, I'm just going to win. And the other one is more hesitant or whatever, you know? And most of the time, the guy who's confident is going to win, right? And especially at some level, like most of these players in tennis, probably in acting the same, they're pretty much the same skills, right? They're one, you know, a hundred or one, it's almost the same skills, right? But it's like that day or power of the mind or whatever that differentiates them. So... You know, the meditation and having a foundation and a practice, and it helps all of that, the focus, the clarity, your mind, and not to let things upset you like they would, or I'll speak for myself, like they did in the past. So yeah, it's taken many years, but I finally, I think I've gotten to a place where it's okay. Well, you look like a well-balanced person, so that's fantastic. Thank you. Kristen, thank you so much for your time. Best of luck to you. Thank you. And we'll see you in the next movie. Yes, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for watching another episode of Bay Area Innovators. If you enjoyed this episode and you know someone who should be on our show, please send us an email at sfbay at epochtimes.com. We would love to hear from you. Thank you, and see you next week.