Check Out Maxime Bos’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maxime Bos.

Hi Maxime, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I am originally from The Netherlands. I was always very focused on school. I went to university to get a bachelor’s degree in Artificial Intelligence and I was always known as ‘the smart girl’. But a couple of years prior to uni I discovered acting. I took classes at school and met my best friends there, many of whom I’m still very close to, and I found something I felt a true passion for. I started working as an extra in Dutch tv shows and films and slowly but surely I met more and more people in the industry. Eventually, I stumbled upon the New York Film Academy, a school focusing on the film industry, that offered an acting for film program. It sounded too good to be true but I did my research and it turned out to be an opportunity I never thought existed. So I registered for their two-month acting program at their LA campus. Because of covid, my plans to go got pushed back and I became more focused on my degree again. Since covid shut down the film industry for a while I started forgetting the feeling I got when I could act and I almost decided not to go to LA. But then, in September of 2021, my younger brother passed away unexpectedly. That shock really put things into perspective for me and taught me that you need to make the most of life and that you can’t just wait around for things to happen on their own, you need to go out and put in the work to get what you want.

So I got my visa, booked my flight, got an apartment and in April of 2022 I was in LA. I cannot express in words how grateful I am for my time at NYFA. I met the most amazing people, formed incredible connections, and best of all I got to learn and study acting in the film capital of the world. I learned a lot, both good things and bad, but each lesson was something I will take with me for the rest of my life. So when the program was over, I knew I needed more time. Since I was so close to completing my AI degree I decided to go home, finish it and come back to LA as soon as I could. While I was home I continued acting and also started modeling next to my degree and found that I love the balance between the rational approach of my degree and the emotional connection of acting. Currently, I am back in LA following an acting program at UCLAx, I am still working on developing my skills as a software developer, I am a semi-finalist in Top Model Europe and I will be playing the lead in an awesome short film that I am so excited to share with everyone soon. I am very excited to see where this path is going to take me and I am forever grateful I was able to find what I am so passionate about.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I wouldn’t say it was a smooth road. Covid obviously threw a wrench in everyone’s plans and for me, it was no different. It shut down the film industry and my university and made it hard to see my friends and family, who are such a huge motivation and inspiration to me. I struggled with my brother’s passing in more ways than one. It made it hard to focus, and even harder to leave my family. And as any actor will know, acting is a highly emotional thing to do and sometimes certain scenes or monologues would trigger me and I struggled with finding a way to access those emotions when I wanted to, but also come back when a scene was over.

It was hard for me to leave everything I knew behind, to move to the other side of the world to a city where I barely knew anyone, I barely knew the culture or the customs, a place where even something as simple as grocery shopping is so different it took me a month to finally get the hang of it.

Being an international student also comes with its fair share of difficulties. Attending university is more expensive, rent is more expensive and life, in general, is more expensive than where I come from. And since I am on an F1 visa, I am not allowed to do paid work yet until I finish my program at UCLAx. So you can imagine that it does not make things easier. But I am making the most of my time here and I will not let these struggles get in the way of me working toward what I want to achieve. I see them as stepping stones and obstacles I learn from that I believe will help me immensely in my future.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I think of myself as a creative person. I love acting, I love creating new things I can share with people and that make them feel things, I love to be a part of something bigger than myself. But I also love science. I just graduated from my university with a bachelor’s degree in artificial intelligence and I really enjoy programming or working in robotics and problem-solving. I think this love for both fields sets me apart because it gives me different insights I can apply to both aspects of my life. For example, acting has really helped me with my presentation skills and people skills which is very useful in a field like programming where a lot of people can be introverted and it helped me with sometimes finding more creative solutions to a problem. As a woman in this male-dominated field, it can be hard to be noticed or taken seriously sometimes and the skills I learned through working in the film industry have helped me immensely with this. On the other side, the analytical thinking that I was taught during my AI degree really helps me with, for example, scene or character breakdowns. It helps me think outside of the box and see or imagine details that others might not think of as fast. I am probably most proud that I found a way to balance these two very different fields and made them complement each other instead of work against each other.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
I don’t have one particular memory that I would state as my favourite, but something I always think back to when I get this question is how I and my family always used to travel. My brothers were always busy with sports, I was busy with school and my parents were busy with work, raising three children and making sure everything runs smoothly at home, but during the vacations, we would all take the time to really be with each other. We would go on adventures and experience things that were sometimes a bit crazy and it always made me feel so happy. It really sparked my love for traveling and experiencing life outside of the bubble I grew up in and it allowed me to be able to slow down and really enjoy life. One of my favourite trips was probably when we went to the Seychelles when I was like eight years old. I remember it being so warm that when it rained it felt like you were standing in a huge shower. One day we went to go swimming in the sea and my dad got absolutely wiped out by this huge wave and his sunglasses went flying. Me and my brothers were dying laughing and my dad will never live that down!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://maximebos.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maxime_bos/

Image Credits
Skystone Digital Media (Priscilla Runion) Miguel Gmo