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Chapter 1: The Beginning of a Tatted Asian Actor

What am I thinking? To want to become an actor.

By Jade LastimosaPublished 5 years ago 3 min read
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What are you thinking? That question seems to fly around freely in most of our parent's or friend's mouth. Especially from a family that is Asian, Filipino to be exact. What am I thinking? To want to become an actor. Why not a nurse, a banker, or lawyer, as my future was already set for me. To those Filipino families or even if you take notices when going to hospitals, you know what I'm talking about.

For years, I have struggled with my identity as soon as I knew I wanted to pursue acting. I knew I wanted to embark in the journey at the age of 13. From then, I had to struggle with the thoughts of not becoming what my family wanted me to become (dad's side to be specific) and the backlashes of discouraging talks. They sought me to not become successful, to be rebellious. At that time, our elders seemed to have the power to read the future. As a Filipino American, and to take the step to just say "No" to your Dad and his family wishes, has opened a new realm for me. A blueprint they have designed for me on the day I was born, was torn into shreds. So, I began this journey to really find what I wanted to do for my life and not what they wanted. That beginning called for many mistakes, but mistakes are only stepping stones to greatness.

I am a true believer to this day that I cannot rely on prehistoric thinking. That we must constantly develop ourselves for a changing future. What we learn from our parents are only foundations of surviving. They cannot provide you with self-happiness. Not many will understand, and it may seem I am going against anything my mother has taught me and having had raise me, that is not the case. It's truly taking the step to find myself and figure my happiness without any restrictions or the belief of what I do, is validation from my family or friends. This means that I have left also the necessity of my cultures religion both in being Catholic and Christian. (Yes, we attended both churches). And having created my spirituality through my experiences and being heavily rejected from family values.

What does this all have to do with my acting? Everything. I knew I was going to be highly observant and cautious of how anyone was going to perceive me as. It was known to be a "rebellious" act. The black sheep. I felt everything I did was never going to be praised or congratulated at any point of success. So, I accepted it. I was clearly a Thanos, a character with purpose and belief, but with many costs. Excluding anyone turning into dust. This is where I started to fit into the characters that I play today. The disturbed, villains, the bad boys. I began to sympathize with the ones who wanted to be great at something, but where treated unfairly. I found comfort of embodying them and giving them justice. Which this lead me to Method acting (I will be talking about my views and experiences in Method Acting in my next writings).

Follow my journey as I have completed my studies in acting of eight years, officially signed with an Agent and my experiences in the industry. As I hope it'll inform those to aspiring actors/ actresses no matter what ethnicity to learn and share their knowledge. I will also tackle past experiences that got me to this point ex; tattoos, family, theatre, film, racism. These experience will hopefully help those struggling with their passion and their journey to achieve greatness and make a difference.

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About the Creator

Jade Lastimosa

I started my journey as a professional actor at the age of 28, but studied acting for 8 years, 4years theatre arts at the Jean and Knox theater, and 4 years in film acting at the Academy of art University.

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