Today we’d like to introduce you to MAUREEN KEDES.
Hi MAUREEN, 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?
Six years ago, I resurrected a career in the entertainment business that had been dormant for 22 years. My children’s father is an actor too and I wanted a more stable environment for them, so I focused on a home business and being a mom. When I re-entered, I had to start back at the very bottom. So, I began the quest to gather film clips by performing in almost anything, working for free, waiting in line to audition, volunteering my talents for students, etc. As I began to amass a body of work, I began to say no more often.
Now I find myself at another impasse. To to get to the mainstream level, I’m up against actresses who did not take off more than two decades and have already built bodies of work. And the top agents want to represent those people. (Most of my work I get myself). So now rather than focusing on getting work or signing with a power agent, I’m focused on creating work, for myself and others through my screenwriting. I’m lucky enough to have partnered with Keli Price of Price Productions on five of my original screenplays and we are in the midst of packaging them for investors.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The bold truth is that a good booking rate is 4-6%. That means 94-96% rejection rate. I’ve done something like 67 film projects in the past 6 years, so you do the math on how big my rejection pile is. And the ones I book are not necessarily the ones I wanted badly.
I have been in films that never get released. For some, I can’t even get my footage. I have been in films that will never be finished. I have been cut out of a film. I have been in films where the sound department has screwed up so badly, they can’t be used. I have been in films that get stuck in a legal battle. I was even in one film that they didn’t have back up drives, nor completion bond insurance, and all the footage was lost in a theft. So there are constant hurdles. I have a personal rule: I allow myself to sulk, cry, mope, get angry for 24 hours and then I move on to the next.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
I’m always open to reading a role that someone visualizes me in –as long as they have a shoot date and funding up front. I have enough reading and writing of my own projects, as well as trying to support friends’ and colleagues’ work, so finding time to just read is hard — because I’m also writing a lot. I have a support team and we read each others work, so that keeps me busy. Anyone with connections to Japanese or Romanian investors would be helpful.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.maureenkedes.com
- Instagram: @maureenkedes
- LinkedIn: @maureenkedes
- Other: https://www.imdb.me/maureenkedes
