Today we’d like to introduce you to Bonnie Gillespie.
Bonnie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
In 1999, I was an actor in Hollywood, having moved *back* to LA to give the dream “one more shot” after the Northridge Earthquake had me rethink grad school… back east.
One of my pledges: “No golden handcuffs!”
See, in 1993, I’d taken on a really spectacular job in the recording industry — as lead assistant to the president of a small record label and not-small management firm — and that’s part of why leaving Los Angeles in 1994 became such an easy choice.
Golden handcuffs meant I was working all the time, making really great money, but no longer hustling for my own dreams to come true. Sure, they told me I could leave for auditions, take days off for shoots… but when was that happening? Golden handcuffs. Never again.
Cut to 1999 and there are a dozen “crap jobs” making up my strategy for pulling together rent. There’s pet-sitting, there’s tutoring SAT-prep for high school students, there’s teaching people in assisted living how to use their computers, there’s improv comedy traffic school, and there’s writing for actors.
As a columnist for Backstage, I interviewed hundreds of casting directors, and actors wrote in with questions about the RULES. “This casting director would say this; that casting director would say that. What are the rules?” So, I used my love for data and my two degrees in journalism to find out. The result was (and is) “Self-Management for Actors,” a book that is now curriculum, an online membership, and a textbook at colleges all over the world.
Who knew there was an empire to build there? That the questions emailed in from actors as far back as 1999 would somehow lead to the curriculum upon which so much of “how we approach showbiz” is now built?
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I’ll never forget my first piece of hate mail. It was a physical letter, mailed to our PO Box, no return address, no signature, hand-written, with a PS that these measures were taken so as not to have me blacklist the actor who had written the letter. (I found this hilarious because the letter was filled with mentions about how I am “nothing” and “no one” and “a joke” in the industry; so if I’m so “nothing,” how could I ever have enough power to blacklist anyone? Right?!?)
What garnered that hate mail? I had written an article for Actors Access in 2006 about this new thing I was seeing actors start to do when auditioning for me. See, I had started casting in 2003 and I would always put the character breakdowns out in front of actors (not just agents and managers) because I love actor submissions. I love seeing how actors pitch themselves!
Well, for a film I had just cast, an actor in Philly had downloaded the audition sides, self-taped an audition, and uploaded it to this new website called YouTube. He sent me a link to his audition and told me he could work as a local hire in the place the film would be shooting. I was SO impressed at the proactive hustle this actor had and I was mesmerized by this new website where people could upload video content for free!
So, I wrote an article about the potential for doing “pre-prereads” (basically, self-taped auditions, BEFORE ever being called into the room for an audition with a casting director). The hate mail was all about how lazy casting directors like me must be if we’re encouraging actors to do their own auditions from home. It was filled with rude and cruel comments as if I had invented this concept myself.
And of course, rather than see that as an attack on me personally (even though the words very much would indicate that it WAS), I saw it as an indicator that this self-taping thing was polarizing and REAL. As I updated the next edition of “Self-Management for Actors,” I made sure to include an entire chapter on how actors could start getting out ahead of trends like this so there’s no stress about the empowering option to self-tape, to self-produce, to build a brand and a fanbase without having to ask for permission to do so.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Self-Management for Actors – what should we know?
Our work is about enoughness. Creatives get rejected every day and the ability to still know, at our core, “I am enough” is an important muscle to build. For sure, in more than two decades of this work, there is something so clear about the value of having that sense of centeredness. It’s the foundation of resilience that we all need right now.
I’ve always joked that my pragmatic, data-backed tools and tactics for navigating a joy-filled showbiz journey are sprinkled with a bit of woo. The truth of it is, it’s more than a sprinkle. Over the years, my highest-achieving clients have consistently been asking me about the less nuts-and-bolts and the more-woo-woo elements of how I run my business and my life.
As the woo-curious folks out there have gotten wind of this secret weapon (stuff like only shooting new headshots under a Leo moon and wrapping up old projects in a nine years, for example), a formalized brand has emerged alongside my “Self-Management for Actors” work: The Astrologer’s Daughter.
I am having so much fun shifting between the nuts-and-bolts and the intuitive flow in my work and it’s bringing some really exciting new levels of achievement to my clients as well. We’re always centered on fortifying enoughness in our work — meaning, that core resting state of knowing “I am enough,” even as we’re facing rejection or disappointment or struggles far greater than those in showbiz — and to be able to align practical methods like targeting a hell-yes agent with planetary mythology is just a joy I never imagined possible!
When my first client booked a session with me not to help her figure out her most castable brand but instead to learn what her astrological chart said about her brand, I had an a-ha moment… because OF COURSE, we have strengths we are born into! Leaning into those strengths is actually a spectacular way of lowering the friction in any of our creative pursuits! It’s a bit shocking how *easy* defining an actor’s brand umbrella becomes when we invite in the new layer of analysis.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Without question, my husband deserves a lot of credit. He is my partner in all of this, yes, but also without him, I don’t know if “Self-Management for Actors” would even exist. He was a 35-year-old guy facing a divorce, downsizing in his corporate job, and suddenly had all this free time on his hands and an idea that maybe it would be fun to be an actor.
We had met online (this is way before dating apps; we met through an online humor magazine column I was writing back in 2001) and at this point, I had interviewed a hundred casting directors and was seeing patterns emerge. I told him I had a theory about what it takes to make it as an actor and he was the guinea pig for what became “Self-Management for Actors.” He had no concept of what would work and what didn’t, so he never second-guessed any of the methods. He just tried them… and he was a recurring character on the top-rated drama series of its time within a few years of following my methods.
He encouraged me to put all of this into a book. I fought that! I was certain no one would be interested in all of this… and here we are two decades later with SMFA not only a textbook but an actual college course in some places! So, thanks to Keith Johnson for encouraging me to put everything into book form all those years ago.
My mentor is Judy Kerr, the author of “Acting Is Everything.” She showed us that it could be done — and done *our* way, with joy and freedom and fun — at a time when I was sure I had to follow some corporate rules or something. Still to this day, Judy plays a big role in my life and not just because of her leadership in authoring and publishing books for actors; she is a giving and loving soul and I am so grateful to her for all she shares with me.
I am also eternally grateful to everyone who has ever been a member of my team. We’ve had interns, assistants, freelancers, virtual managers, all sorts of support from our ninja community and I’ve learned so much from everyone who has been a part of our growth over the years! I go into each relationship eager to learn and to share what I know in return. We’re not curing cancer over here, but maybe in helping creatives live out their dreams, they’re building entertainment that gives someone a moment of levity while on chemo drip. That’s not nothin’!
Our work as artists IS important. We create things that allow for those who struggle to be heard to have a voice somehow. Our creations have the potential to change lives. There will always be art and artistic expression. The work of the artist is essential and I know we are always #CreatingTheHollywoodWeWant (wherever we live) by taking our roles — whether we’re actors or writers, casting directors or talent reps, showrunners or publicists — seriously… while having an awful lot of fun.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bonniegillespie.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/bonnie.gillespie
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/groups/SMFAninjas
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bonniegillespie
- Other: https://youtube.com/user/CricketFeetCasting
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