Check Out Marian Mendez’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marian Mendez.

Hi Marian, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Oh the journey! Where does it begin and where does it end? I guess for me it started while I was in college studying Architecture in my home country: El Salvador. Even though I loved and I still love architecture, something inside me knew that wasn’t it. I knew that I needed to follow my heart and try acting even if that meant failing miserably. I couldn’t forgive myself for not making the attempt.

I was afraid to tell people about it since acting wasn’t a thing in my country at the time, there were some local theaters but filmmaking was almost non-existent. I remembered someone asking me once, what is your biggest dream? And I said: being an actress and living in LA. And he immediately bursted out laughing and said: c’mon something that’s not impossible! I knew it seemed unrealistic for some people in my hometown but I didn’t let it get to me. Also, there was something in me that knew that I wasn’t gonna live my life in San Salvador. I knew that I was either gonna move to New York or Los Angeles but NYC is too cold and my tropical body cannot withstand that. So I decided that I needed to make it to Los Angeles to pursue my dream.

At the time, I didn’t have the means to apply for a student visa or, even worse, to pay for international student tuition, so I figured I had to get creative. I asked around and a friend of mine mentioned that I could become an Au Pair, that I could get a visa, live in the U.S for a year, learn the language and figure out the rest while being there. So I did exactly that, but that didn’t take me to L.A. — it took me to the small yet beautiful city of Alpharetta, GA.

Fast forward two years and I finally moved to Los Angeles. Great! I’m finally here… Oh wait! I have zero experience and no connections…oh well… I guess it’s a fake it ‘till you make it kinda deal. So I made some stuff up and wrote it on my “resume” (this was the advice of a friend who is now a soap opera star in the Philippines) and I headed to my first… wait for it… background acting gig.

I was so bright-eyed, so nervous and had no idea what I was doing, but I was so excited to finally be on a movie set, even if my face was gonna be blurry in the final cut. By the way, I never got the movie credit I was promised. Which happens a lot when you work on indie films or student films. I did a few more background acting gigs, then student films, then a few plays, then I started taking acting classes, which was the real beginning of my acting journey, where I really understood what it meant to be an actor, where I learned to love acting, not for the red carpets or the money but for the process. Then I finally booked my first commercial. I finally got a good paycheck for my acting. I was thrilled, I couldn’t believe I was getting paid for something I’d do for free.

I was so excited to keep the ball rolling, but then, I fell in love and he wasn’t in LA, he was in Portland, OR. So I followed my heart and moved there. I got my first agent there and I found a beautiful acting/filmmaking community that helped tremendously in my development as an actor. It was in Portland where I got to fully experience life at the theater. I met the most talented and kind-hearted people there and some of my best friends now.

Even though it seemed like it was a bad idea to move out of LA when I wanted to become an actor, it turned out being a better move because it helped to be in a smaller market where I could collaborate with a smaller community, where it was easier to get together and create art, and where there’s less competition.

But eventually I felt like it was time to take the next step and so I recently moved back to Los Angeles. In a way it feels like I’m starting all over again. I’m far from where I’d like to be in my career but I’m hopeful that I’m taking the right steps to get there.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
(Sigh) It has been as smooth as a ride on a dirt road! I think most creative/ artistics pursuits are hard, because there are not many guarantees. It’s not an ABC kinda situation. Yes, you can definitely make it easier by going to a good school but it’s not always an option for everyone, at least it wasn’t for me.

Besides the usual struggles that come with acting — facing rejection and juggling two or more jobs — my legal status was something that created the biggest block in my personal and career advancement. Not having the right documentation meant not being able to apply for certain jobs, certain acting gigs, not being able to travel, not being able to apply for a scholarship and not being able to talk about it with certain people because of the stigma that surrounds the subject. It also hurt my self esteem and the way I saw myself as a person.

But I’m glad I endured that for years before I was able to fix it because during that time I was taken out of my comfort zone and I gained perspective, courage, humility and grit. And now I can look back on those hard times and transmute it and alchemize it into my art. I became an American citizen this past January and I feel so relieved now. After 12 years of living here and thousands of dollars spent on attorneys and legal fees, I’ll finally feel like I can live freely without worrying about it.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work.
I love dramas. I’ve been lucky enough to have worked on a few dramatic films and plays and I hope I can continue doing that. I’d love to play unusual characters, people that you don’t usually see represented on screen, and because I’m latina, those characters tend to be a stereotype so it is important for me to endow them with their full complexity. Ultimately I just want to be able to tell compelling stories and touch people’s hearts.

What role has luck (good or bad) played in your life and or business?
I don’t believe in luck as much as I believe in synchronicities created by your own state of consciousness. Like Seneca said: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” If I was waiting for luck to knock on my door, who knows how long I’d be waiting. I’d feel powerless not knowing when it’d come. So I rather take a proactive approach and prepare myself while the opportunity arises. I believe in being in constant evolution, to keep studying, to keep learning. I’m not sure if I’ll ever be where I’d like to be but at least I’ll do my best to get there. My effort is the only thing I have control of. So I hope when a stroke of luck knocks on my door, I’ll be ready.

Contact Info:

• Email: vivian@luxetalentagency.com
• Instagram: @mariandi

Image Credits:
Owen Carey