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My Journey as an Actor

It's still going.

By Don Anderson IIPublished 6 years ago 5 min read
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It's a long road but I know I'll get there

Back when I was nine, I lived with my dad for a year in Michigan and to be honest, I hated it. I barely got time with my dad, one of my cousins used to beat me up, the kids were assholes, going to school there even sucked, and I was even getting in trouble for stuff that didn't have anything to do with me but if there was something that found me to keep me from losing my mind entirely, it was movies and cartoons.

Some of my cousins would even try to take movies and cartoons away from me, I still don't know why. I was a kid in a screwed up place and I wanted to get out of there so I can see my mom again and stay with her. When I came back, I was happy but little did I know, my journey to be an actor was becoming a stepping stone.

In sixth grade, Madagascar with Ben Stiller and Chris Rock came out. My cousin was working at a Hollywood Video at the time and he was able to get his hands on movies that are coming out on DVD earlier before everyone else so he got that and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl. I ended up memorizing some parts in Madagascar. and I would quote them in class sometimes; of course, kids thought I was weird and I think my father figure thought I was weird too but I didn't care because that movie was a stepping stone for me.

At first, I was quoting Madagascar and then I would quote some episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants. Finally, I ended up sticking with High School Musical and there were times where I would sing parts of a song that I know. From there, so many kids thought I was weird, I ended up having a few friends, at least in my class, but the only people that stuck with me were a group of girls.

When seventh grade came, I was still ready to be an actor and I was almost always listening to the soundtrack to High School Musical religiously. I was also probably one of the last few kids to have a CD player before but anyway, when I wasn't listen to the soundtrack, I was listening to the theme song to Drake & Josh because I thought the song was catchy and I really wanted to be in the show. There were a lot of shows on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel I wanted to be on like Zoey 101, Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, iCarly, Victorious, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, The Suite Life on Deck, Wizards of Waverly Place, and even Hannah Montana. I wasn't a huge fan of the show but I wanted some of my friends who were fans of the show to be like, "OH DAMN! I know him!" and one of my friends was crushing heavily on Miley Cyrus as well.

When I got to high school, I've already been in a few plays but I still haven't gotten a chance to be in a movie or anything like that. However, I got to shine with plays, I did a play in my sophomore year but I did back to back plays in both my junior and senior year. My junior year, I discovered that I have a sharp skill in acting with comedy but I'm not a comedian and I've been doing that more than drama.

After my junior year, I did the musical Hairspray and I played Seaweed so I had to bring myself to the top with singing, dancing, AND acting. While I had a great time with the cast, I don't think I did well enough as Seaweed because when I watched myself, I found myself cringing because I saw myself slouching a lot which was bothering me a lot. Usually, I'm not a huge fan of musicals but I am a fan of a few; however, if I had the chance to play Seaweed again, I'd do it in a heartbeat because I had the dancing down except I needed to kill on the acting tip and sure, I can bring it with the singing.

After Hairspray, I did a dramatic murder mystery in my senior year, And Then There Were None.... and I played William Henry Blore. Looking back on it, I thought I was terrible but I ended up going back to comedy and I did The Nerd which was a struggle because the cast had a hard time and I came in since I only had a week to memorize lines. It wasn't easy and there were some bumpy roads in rehearsals but I did it.

After I graduated from high school, I got signed to a talent agency when I was 19 but I haven't been taking any of their opportunities because of two things: I don't drive right now and at the time, I wasn't done with college. So I made a promise with myself that I'd finish college first before I did anything but now that I'm done, I want to drive but I don't have anyone to mentor me. I also ended up realizing that I have depression and I caught a huge change in my personality.

I have a few friends who are on their way to living their dreams but I'm just sitting back right now since I'm not doing anything at the moment. My dream is still there though, I'm both afraid to keep going and I'm also happy to do it except I picked up different skills along the way in college. I've done films before but I did them in college, I haven't done anything major yet.

I do have at least an idea of how I want to go, I want to start by doing short films and work my way up to independent films to where I can get auditions for a TV show or even a movie and if I could get casted in some Marvel Studios type of movies, that'd be amazing but I'd still go back and do independent films because they showcase how good you really are as an actor so I may be down right now but I'm not throwing in the towel.

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About the Creator

Don Anderson II

Movies, memoirs, music lover, graduate of community college, and university

Quiet writer but I'm sure my stories from years ago are still of interest

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