What made you become an actor?

It all started while I was in school. I never really had any friends to talk during my school days. I was experiencing domestic violence almost everyday; I could not find anyone to listen to me. I was getting bullied at school. All these experiences started giving me depression at that age and I was so helpless. But I always loved to watch movies and I liked portraying those characters I saw in the movies. Its hard to explain but when I used to portray the characters in front of the mirror I used to (kind of) become those characters from within which helped me for that short span of time to forget everything surrounding me. I found this to be a very helpful technique to stay away from my depression and the unwanted ambience. As time progressed, I just got hooked up with this acting.

Did you train and if so where?

Sounds weird but I must say my initial training started in front of the mirror. Being a commerce graduate I never had any formal acting qualification. Until 2013 when I started taking informal acting and accent removal classes in Sydney with some of the experienced actors.

Career Highlight

Instead of taking names of some of the projects that I have worked on, I would like to consider my career highlight to date being given the opportunity to go to Hollywood and perform in front of the film directors and casting directors. Also getting representation offer from one of the leading agencies in USA during my first week in Hollywood was something completely unexpected. (Well its a different thing that I could not accept the offer for having no work rights in USA)

Lowest Point

Those first days in Sydney when I did not have a place to live and was visiting Salvation Army to ask for food as I didn’t have any money with me. I don’t want to speak too much on my lowest points in life as I think people who want to pursue acting, want to become actors and have big dreams would get discouraged and scared listening to my past. So I would prefer to keep this point short.

Hardest thing about being an actor

1. Getting job – you can be an acting degree holder from the best acting university in the world and you might have the best acting talent but you might not get any acting job. If you ask me why, I don’t have that answer. It’s the way it is. 2. Uncertainty of the future – as an aspiring actor you never know where you will end up in the next 5 or 10 years time; you can end up with stardom or you can just end up with nothing. 3. No financial security – In the early stages of acting career, it does not pay you much, if at all to make both ends meet. It’s very likely that you might just end up with one meal a day as that’s all you would be able to sometime afford being an aspiring actor.

Do you make enough money from acting, if not, what else do you do?

At this stage of my career I do not make enough money from acting to pay all my bills. As such I have to do other stuff like working in supermarkets, gas stations, doing gardening work etc etc. I prefer these kind of odd jobs instead of a full time desk job because they provide flexibility to attend auditions and shoots.

Best and Worst audition

Best audition – When I had four days time to practice my lines which is quite unusual to get such a long time to prepare a script. I knew my lines and moves to perfection and was very satisfied with the way I performed in the audition room. The casting director appreciated my performance and I was so convinced about getting that role but guess what, I didn’t get the role.

Worst audition – I was driving to this audition and my car broke down in the middle of the highway. I had to get my car towed to the nearest gas station and then I got a cab and was able to reach the audition venue just on time. It was summer and I was profusely sweating. I went to the audition room and I couldn’t recall half my lines; I left the script in my car which made me look so unprofessional. I came out from the audition room dejected with no hope. Two days later my agent informed me that I got that role.

Advice for other actors

Firstly you should only pursue acting if you enjoy the actual art; If your reason to pursue acting is to become famous, you got a bad news coming – you are in the wrong business. Do not have a back up option because if you have a back up option you are basically preparing for failure. Acting is a business in which ‘YOU’ are the product that you sell, so maintain yourself (a good physique is always an asset in the acting business). When you are an aspiring actor you will get naysayers coming by default who will tell you that it cannot be done – just ignore them. Most importantly, you have to honestly believe in yourself that one day you will become a successful actor; Well, if you don’t believe in yourself, who else will.

What is the most important thing for actors to do to improve their career?

Practice Practice Practice! Practice your art, work on your art whole year, not just two days before going to an audition. Doesn’t matter if you practice lines in front of the mirror in your room, in the middle of the beach or in an acting school, but do something everyday to improve your confidence level.

Role Models

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Dwayne Johnson, Johnny Depp