Audition

Since you all know that i have been in the Entertainment world for quite some time. When going to an audition relax, you never know what the casting director is looking for anyways. I have studied with acting coach Susan Batson author of the book “truth” & did a graduate program @ the William Esper Studio. It is very important to study your craft. I asked my agent the other day why i dind’t get a call back from the NBC 30 Rock casting , i recall doing well, he said not to worry cause they were looking for a certain look. My point is you might do well @ an audition & not book the part or you might book the part & they will make you look like the character they want you to be. my thing is just believe & keep going your opportunity will come.

My best wishes

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Teen Years

I have always been resposible & hardworking. When I Was in 8th grade my mom couldn’t buy me things, so I went & got myself a job @ Marketbasket as a cashier. At the age of seventeen,I bought myself a toyota corolla. I always been independent & a gogetter, I don’t sit around & wait for people to do things for me. I am not afraid of trying new things in life i love challenges, i like going after things that are hard to have & If I have to go to the other side of the world & get it, I would. When I entered high school every one wanted to be my friend, I mean i wasn’t fat anymore I had lost weight & was looking sexy and developing pretty fast. My freshman year I wanted to be in the mix so i would go to the house jams, you know the best music was back in “89″. I got popular, By my junior year I was really deferent & had a certain style to me. Everyone talked about the way I dressed. I was always in Boston partying because alway felt like I dindn’t belong there. People would always say that i was weird,I was always the talk of town.If I dated a guy the whole town knew it the next day. Girls did not like me for no reason. When time when I was 18 i was driving home & these 4 girls from school followed me to my house & when I got out of the car jumped me, luckily that my mom was looking out the window & ran out to help me. If i dated a guy he would say that he slept with me, i mean i lost my virginity when i was 19 years old com’n! I always knew that i belonged somewhere else, but since i was trapped in that little town, i would get wright sucked back in, hanging with my friends going to the malls, clubs…. it was a routine, I dind’t know what i was going to do when i graduated from high school. I just knew that i had to go to college but didn’t evern know what to major in. I graduated from Lawrence High School Attended Northern Essex Community college & there i took a class in Theatre. I new that I wanted to do it but din’t know how to begin & put it past me. I knew that the wright thing was to work in an office & thats what i went for. At the time I got pregnant had a beautiful son. After my son was 9months I became single & had to work evern harder in Life. I had to do something in my life & be a role model to my son. Even though I have always had a swagger to me, i have also had insecurities that i have had to overcome.I have always tried to stay positive in life even through the dificult times.I wanted & needed something more in life but i did not know how to begin. This is where my journey as an actor begins. I was working at a company called Norell Services a staffing company as a secretary, a young man by the name of bill walks in, he is talking about how he just did background work on a film called Carlito’s Way starring Al Pacino In New York City. All I remember my brain opening saying I want to do this. I asked bill that how he found out about the auditions, he said that in New York there is this newspaper that comes out everyweek on the newstands called Backstage. I went to Boston Harvard square newstand, picked up the casting newsletter & the rest is history.
~ by jes123 on January 16, 2008.

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No Rules

Bottom line is there is no rules to this bussiness just be ready when the opportunity comes your way. Train work on your craft & speech & believe me your time will come. One of the things that I should have done was enrolled in a four year college majoring in theater witch @ the end of the fourth year a showcase is held where Talent Agents & managers attend & recruit talent.I mean agents are always looking for new talent , I meant if you get lucky walking down the street by all means good for you. If you cant go to college do your mailings stay on top of them even if your not doing anything keep sending them out, get involved in student films & keep casting directors posted with post cards in due time you will recieve a call. When in acting classes always network with your collegues dont under estimate them. I remember when I did the graduated program @ William Esper Studio here in NYC one of the young ladies Brea Cola was working @ a casting agency & when there was a casting she would email it to everyone in the class, And a few of them had agents, one gentlemen had a few episode on Law In Order. These are the people that can help you, more likely then going to an industry networking party. When going to an industry networking party more likely comes in handy when you already have established a little bit of credits or if you introduced by someone you already know who is already working as an actor, If not you are being looked @ like the next person trying to get on, but if your granted an audition boy be ready it could be the audition of your life. I have stayed inhouse for the past 6 years, doing research networking with directors that have seen my work. Also if you auditioning well directors or casting director know your work you will be referred to other projects in development. I auditioned for a director Lemont “Liquid” Burrell back in 2002 in which I knew since 1999 from music videos but he had never seen my work & he knew me, I mean hes the one that told me about the casting he was holdin for a whitney houston film , I went in auditioned & blew them away, he called me up the next day ,told me he didn’t know I was that good. Film didnt proceed but he refered me to two films in which i did not have to audition & one of the films was “Fulgazi” Starring comedian Talent in which you can purchase @ any blockbuster video today, he also was the person who told me about the audition that Robert Townsend was holding, I had missed the NY audition so i had to fly to Miami ,I looked it as my life time opportunity, bought my own ticket & was out, happens to be that I competed against atleast 1,ooo auditioners & made the cut only 40 people made it & I was one of them, only thing is Robert Townsend never was able to get the funds for MBC networks. If the Robert Townsend Joint would of came through today i would have been working for Primetime. My confidence also pumped up after that, ain’t nobody stopping me I needed that confidence in my life.

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End of 1999

I stopped working for Handprint Entertainment & im thinking whats my next venue by that september did featured background work for “shaft” a Johnsingleton joint, did MTV Jams & MTV global groove background dancer work. I met people there that could of looked out for me but i was just another chick trying to get on. By now three years in the business im not doing nothing but doing background work, i dont have enough credits & i wouldn’t submit myself to agents on a regular basis cause i wasnt training & if i was sent to an audition I didn’t want to make a fool out of myself. I mean yeah in 1997 i auditioned & booked student films but you really need to know what your doing when your getting all these defferent types os scripts they all carry defferent techniques, example sides for drama, comedy, sitcom, soap opera , commercials etc.. but one thing though i did under estimitaded myself to an extend because now i realize that i could of submitted myself & if i had the look with no credits & non-union i would of gotten a call into the agents office, but once i got in i had to know how to audition though. for example one time i met someone who reffered me to The Carson Organization Agency & i met with agent shirley she gave me sides & gave me roughly about 15 minutes to look it over & I was terrible she said to take classes & come back to her, I tried coming back but do you think she paid attention to me, first impression is what counts. Today you can give me ten minutes to read sides & i will nail it, i mean thats what the director of feature film “Crimson Mask” said. I went in was roughly ten minutes to see sides & was asked come back & read for another role, this was about a month ago, film shoots next month. A good way to get an agent is by doing Theatre work you can invite an agent to come see you, or submit your stuff for commercial work
but even then these people really just like hiring actors by referrals, you can get lucky though. I had a friend who came to NYC with no credits submitted her headshots got called in & nailed the audition & was signed on the spot. It took her three years though before she booked a job, Or I can give you my example in 2004 i auditioned for an agent i was reffered to as well i nailed it did two monologues by then I had taken plenty of acting classes. I was called next day they had an audition for me starring Rosario Dawson “The Descent” , I have been freelancing with them for three an half years & they have only sent me out on about 8 audition you know why? cause i havn’t booked anything, its all about them seeing that you can make them money. Since I have came this far & I realize that this business is all about how can you make the industry money!! im like the heck with everyone im putting my channel up! I mean im not seeing the same rule applys to everyone im speaking from my own experience cause @ the end of the day everyones situation is different. There are girls who started doing music videos & blew up but they can only get so far ,they cant even get a good movie role cus they dont know how to act & they dont want to take their craft seriously.

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NYC Scene

Summer of 1998 i was alway @ justins Sean “Puffy” Combs’s restaurant, I figured it was a good way of meeting people so I would be there every wekend. I was so amped up with all these celebrities like Bryce Wilson, Foxy Brown, Lil Kim, Shyne to name a few. Hoping that i will get discovered but even though from being around that atmesphere it motivated me to wanna be more around the Bad Boy Family so the following september I applied for a receptionist position @ Daddys house. I called every two weeks for the next four months until i got the job. I started working in january of 1999 at the time I had a day job & would run to Daddys house to be there @ 6p.m. I remember Jennifer Lopez coming through, fat joe & Mario Winans was always there. I truely believed that this was going to be an outcome for me. Yeah wright, shortly after i got fired & you will never guess why? So meaning that i had made some contacts, that following summer i started working at Benny Medinas office as Jonathan Cohen’s assistant partners of Handprint Entertainment. Since i was so new to the bussiness & inexperienced I dind’t say anything about my inspiring acting career, just studied every minute of it realizing that these people were not going to do anything for me until I proved myself. At this point im like its not as easy as I thought it was, I mean I would do music videos thinking that it could adhance my career & was dying to be in magazines but men just wanted a piece of ass & I was already working in the industry so I pretty much didnt’f fall for the fucking bullshit & I always believed in my talent, & knew I had it. I just had to find a strategy. Im not gonna lie i didn’t want to study, cause i saw it was like long path & i was horrified of the acting classes, I knew that in order for me to succeed I was gonna have to leave the scenary & focus on acting classes & boy was it a struggle to brake that barrier I remember going to a few classes In sept 1999 @ black Nexxus, Inc. Susan Batson teaching the class I never went back like for three years. Susan said i had it that i was a natural, & just had to develope my craft.

http://www.johannaestevez.com
http://www.myspace.com/johannaestevez

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No short cuts

So i swore @ the time that i didn’t have to study, im thinking oh if i move to New York City all i have to do is be in the mix & network & shortly after I will meet someone that will put me on. I mean I do have a swagger to me, come on in 1997 I met a few NBA players & one of them i dated, hard to believe but never sexed him!. My mom always told me you should go to acting school if you want to get somewhere, i said to her, mom i know what im doing, im thinking that since i was traveling to NY meeting people in the industry it was just matter of time before I got on. If i can turn back & do things defferently i would. i want to guide you & tell you about my past experiences how i did things wrong, so that you dont make the same mistakes. The bottom line is there is no short cuts to this business, unless your uncle, aunt, husband bestfriend is an agent or producer etc… from the beginning I should’ve stayed in acting school & did my mailings Or probably would’ve of been in a hollywood movie by now. Im greatful though because if i would of not gone through it I wouldn’thave the knowledge i have today. I have gone through alot in life since a young age I have been kind of stubborn always did things my way & also did things i wasnt suppose to I mean im not a saint. I sure have always believed though that i do not have to sleep with anyone to get to the top, i will be a hipocrate if i said i never have gone out with someone in the industry once but i learned from it that chapter you can read in my book will be published one day. I can say proudly since then I have met numerous of your favorite entertainers that have even flown me to there homes & I did not have sex with. I will continue to do my thing without having to fuck my way to the top.

http://johannaestevez.com
http://myspace.com/johannaestevez

1996

since a little girl i have always wanted to be a performer but since i come from a small town didn’t think it was possible so it stayed in back of my head. In 1996 was when it really hit me after meeting a young gentlemen @ a staffing company in which i was a receptionist. Anyways this young guy came in bragging about being in movies in NYC, I was curious, asked him how to find these auditions & the rest is history, Ihave been at it ever since. The passion just kicked in it was a dream becoming reality. January 1997 i went on without having any experience & auditioned in Boston for a few student films, out of four auditions I got two, I realized i was a natural to this,i just needed to learn how to master the craft. I have graduated from High School went to college worked in various office jobs but even though, i knew something was missing, it wasn’t what i wanted to do for the rest of my life. at times i would get depressed & dindn’t know how i was going to end up. Learning of acting was a release in my life, i truly believed since then that i can make it. I have alway been a hard worker, ambitous & dedicated, I have always been defferent. My whole life i have had the artist in me.

http://www.johannaestevez.com
http://www.myspace.com/johannaestevez

http://www.youtube.com/johannaestevez234

 

Moving to NYC

moved here for a bigger apportunity! Moved here with tax money, gave ththree months notice from my job @ the time was a swithcboard opperator at a medical center. when moved here didnt even know what my next income was going to come from. Before i moved here i put $1,500 down payment for an apartment that my cousin helped me find by the way the only peson i knew in NYC. I had an apartment back home & left my mom with my son there, just in case things didn’t go wright. A month an half went by my funds were runnung low , didn’t know what to do, wouldn’t get hired anywhere. I remember crying desperately asking for blessings & sure have been blessed. I knew a young assistant directore i had met on prior music video sets, he said his sister was hiring & I started working @ chase manhattan in the central proof research department. It was really hard in between family,jobs & auditions. My son is what has kept me going in life. My message is if you can see it, you can dream it, if you can dream it, you can sure believe it!

Http://www.johannaestevez.com
http://www.myspace.com/johannaestevez

http://www.youtube.com/johanaestevez234

 

struggles

I want to be a role modeling to the community I want you to know that you are not alone, i was born with nothing hoping that one day i will have a brighter future, sometimes i dont even believe that i have remained positive in the entertainment this long, i am going to take you through my journey, all i have to say is that i have been in the acting world learning the inside out for the past 12 years. I’ve been through ups & down @ times i did not think i was going to be able to keep going, i went through a big deppresion about two years ago. I have also met lots of people in the industry that are your favorite producers, actors, casting directors, hollywood directors but will not put them out there because i still believe that i dont need them to come up in this bussiness. To alot of you ladies that think that is about networking & meeting the wright person yeah to an extend is true but what about if you meet the person & that very well known director wants to sleep with you what do you do? you got to believe in yourself & alway have a plan b. cause the truth is nobody will do nothing for you, you gotta do it for yourself. Train work on your craft & believe me in do time noone can take that away from you. You gonna be hearing of me, i will be giving tips & tell you about my past experience in the Entertainment industry.

 

http://www.johannaestevez.com

http://www.myspace.com/johannaestevez

http://www.youtube.com/johannaesteve234

 

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