They brought courage, skill, and intuition: I was working at the front desk of 24 Hour Fitness in North Hollywood, CA. “Made for Love” season one was out and I was becoming known at the front desk for bringing the vibes. I made a lot of friends at the gym and someone came to me with an opportunity to do this big commercial and I had no idea what it was about.
I had to remember about two long pages of dialogue with no reader. I studied and I went over my scenes with my acting coach. She said to me, "Let’s look at the other commercials and see what you can take from there. Before that, I performed this thing like I was a little Common Sense.
After I performed the piece on camera, I could hear my coach from across the room say "That's it!"
I watched the tape back, edited it, and sent it back to casting, and from there I waited. I remember my tape being late. Before we figured it out, I just couldn't step into the role because I had no character. I had to find myself.
Two days after I sent my tape, I had a callback. The thing was, I STILL had to go to work at the gym. That day I packed up all of my self-tape things, tripod, camera, and backdrop and I set everything up in the break room at work. Once I got relief a couple of hours later I went up to the break room and prepared and got ready to do a live callback on Zoom, hoping none of my co-workers would walk in.
I remember moments before I went on camera thinking to myself that, this role could be anyone’s role in this waiting room (virtually), and then I thought immediately after that, this is my role and I am the perfect person to do this. The energy shifted. I was confident, I was ready.
When I found out I booked the role, I'd already flown back to Ohio. My little brother called me as he sat next to our dad. Pops was fighting cancer. He wasn't doing too good and bro called me to suggest that I come home. So I booked my flight and went home to spend time with my dad. The moment I walked into his hospital room, his face lit up. He smiled from ear to ear and I returned a smile.
I sat next to his feet and he fell right asleep with that smile still on his face. I put on wrestling and we just enjoyed each other’s company. A couple of days go by, and I'm with my dad, going to his appointments. During one of them, I remember getting a congratulations email from casting and it was the last booking I received in the presence of my dad. He and I were excited about the message it sent. I had no clue how important it would become until it was all done.
I stayed with my dad for about a week after the call. The day it was time to leave, I broke down because I had this overwhelming feeling that it would be the last time I'd see my pops.
I shot 'They gave us game' and called my pops while I was on set to show him around. He couldn't talk at this point, but he smiled and pointed around excited that this was all for me.
I lost my dad Sunday, March 6th. “They Gave us Game” aired days later and my niece was born the day after that. That week made me get clear on exactly what I need to do.
I had so many dreams to accomplish with my dad by my side and so many things that we had planned to do. “They Gave us Game” was dedicated to my pops in a way. Thank you for always believing in me.
