The dream of acting.
Fall of 2002. Chanhassen, Minneapolis.
(Edit 15th July 2019)
The various posts you will see are mostly from right before going to Los Angeles and during the period there. You will see my journey as it progresses.
I grew up watching movies and became the characters while watching the movie progress. Movies have always been a major part of my life.
One of the first I faintly remember seeing I might have been 5 years old was the Wizard of Oz. Feelings of being afraid of the wicked witch, the flying monkeys and being happy when Dorothy spilled water on the witch making her shrink away. I grew up in the times when the first Star Wars movie was made. (I can even remember the first time I saw Star Wars on a VHS tape at a friends home in Chicago in 1980.) Along with Indiana Jones and Superman.
I was 10 and highly influenced by things going on around me. Movies was my way of expanding my universe to something more, something great, something magical.
The dream of becoming an actor was created when I was nine years old watching Superman. I was struck by how affected I became by the movie with a theme of being alone and different with supernatural powers I had a difficult time understanding. I wanted to become Superman, I felt I was Superman, and at the same time I also wanted to become Christopher Reeve to be able to influence people in similar ways as Christopher Reeve affected me. Suddenly I began for the first time looking at the actor playing a role and knew that I wanted to do something similar. A dream of going to Hollywood to become an actor was born in 1979.
The dream was put aside, as my upbringing with the people around me was not much of one that encouraged “acting foolish”. So the dream resurfaced briefly on occasion from I was nine until the time came for it to fully awaken in me.
That was many years ago.
In May of 2002 I heard on the radio an ad mentioning a Casting Call for a company that trains people for the acting and modelling industry. I felt I needed to call, and I knew that if I called and went that I would be picked out. My mind was saying “no that will not happen” but my intuition said yes it would.
I did not know if I really wanted to succeed as it would bring with it additional decisions I would have to make. Failure is easy, as it creates no real change but with success it forces one to look and decide where the next step leads. I could have decided not to call, but I wanted to and needed to, so I called.
Yes, I did get a “Call Back”. They called me back a few hours after the initial visit and I went in again the day after for a longer talk. I was struck when he told me that he could see me with a career in acting, and that I could perhaps work for Disney and Nicholoden channel. He went on about price for life time training which was basically drop by when I feel I needed some advice or help. In the end I decided not to train with them as my Student Visa would not allow me to work outside of school taking any assignments within acting etc in the Twin Cities that I was able to get. The dream had become to stir in me….
In the fall of 2002. I had a few months left of school and was almost finished with a Bachlor in Studio Art and Art History at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. I would receive a one-year work permit after I had graduated, and was not sure what to do with it. Going to Los Angeles to act seemed like it just would not happen, so I let it go.
I said inside to my inner being and God. “I don’t know what to do. I am open for your guidance.” (jeg vet ikke hva jeg skal gjøre. Jeg er åpen for din ledelse) I listened and let go. A month or so passed and suddenly it came to me. The feeling of wanting to become an actor hit me so hard that it stayed with me, and I began to plan on leaving for Los Angeles sometime in the following month or two after graduation. The sensation was so much stronger then it had been earlier. This time I just must follow it.
The closer I got to graduation the more I thought about going to Los Angeles.
I made a few self portraits. Meant to be used in Los Angeles.
