You Rock My World.....

Minute 6 was my dance...Also Marlon Is in the video!

      My first really big job was playing the part of Linda in the Bollywood film Badmaash Company. This was a giant Studio Blockbuster for them. Doing this film opened so many doors for me. Just to show how hard you have to work i'll share how I got this part.
       I saw on actorsaccess a listing that fit my description. I submitted for the roll to Rita Powers Casting. She happened to be very good friends with my Manager at the time Ingrid French. She brought me in for the audition. I worked with my acting coach and on my own for hours to find the character in me. I drove out to Philly for the 1st call. I had a great audition! They were very impressed with me and called me back! The callback was set the same day that I was getting my wisdom teeth extracted! There was no way around it so I went in for surgery and had a friend drive me with my bags packed, with my outfit and makeup for the character ready. My mouth was extremely swollen and I was in a lot of pain because I didn't want to take medicine that would make me loopy. When I got to the audition I explained to the Director that I was swollen but can still do the part. I had a great audition even though I was a little slurred. I didn't hear anything back though.
    About 1 week later I get my actorsaccess feed with the listing of Linda. wahwahwahhhh........Okay so they are still looking for the role, this means I didn't get it, but this also means no one else did either. I called my manager immediately and said "You need to get me another audition, Please! I know I can get this role, I feel it. I can do better." 5 minutes later she called me back and said they'll see you again in NY next week. WOOOO now I thought I gotta rock it!
   The character was Michael Jacksons backup dancer, so I studied him like crazy! I found a dance from one of his songs, burned the song on a cd, and learned the dance from the music video. I drove an hour to NJ where a friends of mine was going to help me in her gym after hours to learn the dance. (This wasn't required for the audition.) We stayed up till 4 a.m learning this extremely difficult dance. The rest of the days leading up to the audition I danced and worked on my scene with my coach.
   When I walked in to the audition the Director wasn't there yet just the casting director. I brought my stereo with me to play the song and do the dance. She said "well they really don't have time to see the dance but that was a nice thought." Boooooooo! I asked her, "Well can I show you? I spent so much time learning it, I'll be quick before they get here." She said yeah thats fine. I rocked it in front of her and halfway through they came walking in the doors and I just kept going. After I was out of breath and ran up to shake their hand and thank them for seeing me again. We did the scene and I left. I felt great, but still no call.
   Literally a month later my manager calls me and tells me I got the role! It was the best news I could have heard. I danced and cried like a mad woman. I worked so hard on my character even though she wasn't a lead she was very important.  I learned- always play the part like its the last time you'll ever work. Go hard or go home! I even got Rosetta Stone to learn Hindi just to make small talk on set and impress them.
    This experience had me shooting in Philly, NYC, Atlantic City, Thailand, and Mumbai! I traveled around the world and got the A-List treatment. I did my work and always delivered. My Director Parmeet Sethi told me during the wrap party, "Do you know why I hired you? There were a lot of great reads. You were very talented but my final decision was because of your energy. You worked so hard and had such a positive light that I thought thats the kind of person I want on my set." I'll never forget this!
   This audition was about 2 years ago and last night I was in dance class and guess what song we were dancing to? You Rock My World, by Michael Jackson. This threw my sense memory back to that day and I welled up with tears. The journey I have taken to get to where I am today has been endless hard work. Blood sweat and tears constantly. Then I realized, wow it's only just begun.......