Today we’d like to introduce you to Ozzie Jauregui.
Hi Ozzie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I signed up for acting school on a summer night in 2021. After watching Beautiful Boy and Call Me by Your Name, it felt like the most impulsive but instinctive decision I’d ever made. I had to pursue it; the feeling was eating me alive. I was captivated by the transformation in actors like Timothée Chalamet and Steve Carell, and how Carell could go from voicing Gru to delivering a heart-wrenching performance as a father dealing with his son’s addiction.
So that night, it was actually my best friend who signed me up, but I committed fully. I began driving four hours a day to the San Francisco just to attend acting school.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’ve always considered myself introverted, so the process of discovering who I was and then learning how to apply that to characters was uncomfortable.
Before acting school, I didn’t feel particularly creative. My sole wish at first was to be able to have a creative and original thought. I had lost touch with my inner child. But near the end of the program, I finally found that side of myself again.
At the same time, I was in the process of transferring to UC Berkeley. One day, while driving back from acting school with my sister, we were hit by a drunk driver going over 100 miles per hour. The car was completely totaled. By the grace of God, we walked away unharmed, but we were pretty spooked by the situation.
After the accident though, I started noticing blurs in my memory, sometimes forgetting things said half way through conversation. Thankfully just a concussion but that definitely didn’t help memorize my lines or my journey at Berkeley. But I pushed through by focusing even more. I feel good right now thank god.
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?
None of this would be possible by the grace of god and my family. So I’m proud of them.
I’m an actor, and one of the things I’m most proud of in terms of career is a short film I created that explores addiction.
Additionally, as someone who played soccer my whole life, it felt full-circle that my first SAG national commercial was for the best soccer league in the world—The Premier League—alongside Will Poulter.
I’m also excited to have a co-star role in an upcoming HBO series.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
This entire career is a risk. I spent two years commuting four hours a day, investing everything I had: time, energy, and focus. I poured countless hours of mental energy and personal capital into my short film and school.
For a long time, it felt like free work, but if you change the way you look at things then the things you look at will change. So, like an unpaid internship. But I treated it seriously, and luckily, it’s finally starting to pay off.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozziesinatra?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/yLm8XKSPF1o
Image Credits
All photos are from my short film Under Pressure, which I wrote, directed, acted in, and edited myself.
