Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Angie Lin of North Hollywood

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Angie Lin. Check out our conversation below.

Good morning Angie, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
Recently, I got rejected by someone I loved deeply, and I was over it right then and there — not joking, within 5 minutes!

I have always struggled with love, because I didn’t have the best models at home. I had to learn many lessons the hard way. Heartbreaks used to take constant back and forth or long periods of grief, wondering what went wrong and why I was not lovable.

Now, my motivation behind love is no longer the desire to fill a hole in my childhood.

I express my love for someone simply to honor my own intuitions. Life is so unpredictable. We only have power over the present, with such limited time. Out of respect for myself, I want to make sure my feelings are addressed, not lost in the tides, because they are worth being seen.

When my feelings are not reciprocated, I can let it go easily now, because I know what I am looking for in relationships, I know I am equipped to overcome any challenge, and I know I will be grateful for how things come full circle later.

In fact, I am already seeing someone else who I’m very excited about! Time and place… The universe works in mysterious ways.

I am proud of myself for the growth I’ve had. The confidence, self-awareness and self-care I’ve worked so hard on over the last few years are giving back to me now, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds!

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am an actress and a filmmaker. I can be seen in commercials, independent movies, short films and TV series.

You may also find me in articles or at film festivals for shorts that I wrote, directed, produced and edited.

Periodically, you will see me performing on stage at The Group Rep Theater or attending street dance events as a dancer.

In my free time, I train in martial arts to build my skillset for stunts.

I have many different identities!

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
In 2021, I went through a series of traumatic events in a short span of 5 months. Every support system I had was stripped away from me, one after another, in the most shocking ways. I felt extremely abandoned and isolated.

On a family road trip to Joshua Tree, I looked out the window and thought “What the hell? What is the point of living now, seriously? I have nothing left to live for.”

Then, I heard a voice that says “If you are still breathing, that means it’s not your time to go yet. So even if you can’t find a reason to live, just keep living anyway until you find one reason, and then ten, and then 100 more.”

That moment reshaped how I view life.

I had nothing more to lose, so everything became a plus. Sunsets and green leaves? Hidden gems in our everyday lives! People who are kind to me? So rare, must love them with my whole heart! Someone betrayed me again? Nothing I haven’t dealt with!

I realized that the only meaning of life, is just life itself.

I began to fill in the blank canvas with new colors, and it became an ever-expanding collection of snippets of life.

What fear has held you back the most in your life?
Fear of being seen as weak.

I constantly receive comments, especially from other women, saying “you’re so cool.”

While I’m grateful for the compliment, I also feel a little sad about it, because this image is essentially a trauma response.

As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t have the best models growing up. I saw emotional detachment as a safety measure, violence as dominance, control as power, and intelligence as credibility. Tears, love, joy, anything that opened me up to others were qualities I was ashamed of.

This mindset made me and people around me incredibly unhappy, because it blocked off any exchange of positivity and bottled up all the negativity in myself.

Acting is my savior. In order to become a better actress, I’ve been pushing myself to become a better person everyday.

I’ve been acting for 4 years now. Only recently, I had an epiphany that allowed me to truly release this fear of being weak.

I was playing the role of a woman who commits murders for self-preservation. While she presents herself as tough and independent, she yearns for companionship and acceptance. Playing my opposite is a woman who sees the good in everyone and follows her curiosity for adventures.

When casting was decided, I thought “This character is so me. I don’t even have to act” However, the professor said I was not believable in the role because I look too small and sweet, and requested that I switch role with the other woman.

At first, I felt offended, as if I was being put in a box for my appearance, and didn’t receive appropriate credits for traumas I’ve survived. I deemed it as another Hollywood cliché.

With many years of therapy though, I knew better to sit with the thought and explore why the comment bothered me. That’s when I realized, I just didn’t want to be seen as a weak girl!

But why did I see the other woman as weak? Because she cries a lot? Because she still holds an innocence, still believes in humanity and hopes for a better world? Because she openly seeks for joy and love? Those are all things I preach!

In that moment, my own bias became awfully clear.

I’ve healed my wounds for a while now, but I’ve been keeping the new, wholesome version of me under wraps, like some fragile flower that will be plucked if seen, and I put on an armor as a brooding, mysterious trauma survivor. That armor is familiar so I held onto it, so tightly that when someone saw through it, I got defensive.

The truth is though – Today, without the armor, I am just as strong. I can be a mess one day and jump back on my feet the next day. I cry, laugh, tell my friends how much I love them whenever the waves come. People worry about hurting me, or find me an easy target, when in reality, I am much more than they expected.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but choosing to move forward with the presence of fear, right? Resilience is a product of both highs and lows. Strength and weakness are just two sides of the same coin.

Having the courage to risk being hurt, experiencing those difficulties, letting them go, then choosing love again – That is resilience. That is strength.

If all of us could look past the fear of being weak, I think the world would be a much better place.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
That it’s all about the craft.

It’s politics. Sales. Boredom. Rarely about the craft.

The industry is starting to hire “real people” to play roles, cast influencers to boost their views, or use AI to replace certain artists. The value in training seems to be diminishing. While I see how this opens up opportunities for everyone, and can produce characters or actors that are more relatable, it is quite discouraging for artists who pour their time, energy and money into years of training.

Even when people do care about the craft, taste is subjective. There isn’t a universal standard of what “good acting” is. So many factors affect casting’s decision. As a filmmaker myself, when I cast for my own films, acting skill is pretty low on my priority list. Typically, I already knew the actor and find their vibe fitting for the character. That being said, our hard-work never equals our reward.

Some of us started in this industry because of our love for movies, others started so they can heal from trauma, and then some are simply attracted to the lifestyle. No matter why we started, we end up pleasing others in order to proceed in the industry and being roped into topics unrelated to our craft. Well, that’s entertainment. We are dancing monkeys after all.

My acting coach always says “You already fucked up when you decided to be an actor. You are all smart enough to do something else, but you chose this, so you might as well have fun doing it.”

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What light inside you have you been dimming?
The light I’ve been dimming until recently, is my sensuality.

Growing up in a conservative environment, I was taught that intelligence and sensuality cannot exist together – You can be hot, or smart. Choose one.

I was constantly shamed for wearing skirts, wearing makeup, hanging out with boys, posting “thirst-trap” pictures online, etc. If someone was sexuality attracted to me, that meant I’m in danger and it was my fault for stirring up their imagination.

When I became curious about sex, I was called “too mature for my age,” “bad influence,” someone who was “contaminated” and “needed help.”

These cultural norms prompted me to bury my sensuality during adolescence, out of my need to be accepted, wanted, and treated with respect.

Now, I am learning that sensuality is a perfectly normal and very important part of us, for both men and women. It is vulnerable, full of love and raw human expressions, with intentions of bonding with others. It is connected to our intelligence as our pelvis is connected to our brain, making us whole.

It is my goal for 2026 to embrace the sexual, sensitive and feminine side of me, to fully step into the power of being a woman.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://angielinofficial.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/angielinofficial/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@angielinofficial