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Meet Jonas Olsen

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonas Olsen.

Jonas, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started my career in 2005 when I was only 12 years old. I was cast in a TV-show named “Boys will be Boys”, as the lead. The show went on to be nominated for an Emmy-award, as well as winning several awards back in my home country of Norway. This led me to pursue a career in Acting, and after working on various productions in Norway, I decided to move to Los Angeles at the age of 20. I moved by myself and started a Bachelors degree at the New York Film Academy. My degree was based on Acting for Film and Film History, and it taught me everything I needed to know about acting, the industry and the art of being an artist. I met people from all over the world, and within a couple of years I had signed with an agent and started auditioning for movies and commercials. I booked a Motorola commercial with Ashton Kutcher, which certainly led to a lot of other opportunities, and helped me move forward in a very tough industry.

So far I have been part of productions in Mexico, England, USA, and Norway, and hopefully, I´ll have the opportunity to travel all around the world, doing what I love

Has it been a smooth road?
It´s been a rollercoaster, like anything else in life, but a rollercoaster I wouldn’t change for anything else in the world. All the traveling, meeting new people and adapting to new cultures has not only taught me a lot about the industry but a lot about myself. I am sure a lot of actors, or entertainers in general will agree when I say that the financial struggle while “making it” is extremely tough. I have worked as a nanny, server, cleaning personnel at a nightclub (Yes, this was the worst job by a mile), dog walker, personal trainer, clown in birthday parties, and the list goes on. Whilst working at jobs like these, you start developing a whole other perspective and relationship to money. You realize how crucial it is for survival, but also how far you might have to go just to pay rent. Balancing a stable financial income, with working hard as an actor can be very difficult, and I have gained a lot of respect for people who manage to do it on a daily basis. Myself included.

Another difficult part of being a young actor is having to do projects you don´t really want to do, just so you can meet new people and build a larger network. I have played characters that I never thought I would have to, just so I could stay busy and stimulate my acting abilities, extra work included. And though it´s always fun being on set, it takes it´s toll when you constantly try to book the parts you want, but always end up with the parts you hoped you wouldn’t have to do.

Though it might seem as if I´m only complaining about how hard it can be, it is also the most rewarding occupation in the world. To express yourself through art, to learn to trust yourself and believe in yourself, is the most beautiful thing out there. It hurts me so much when I see someone with the potential to change the world with their art, quit because of their environment and all the stigma that comes from the industry. Nothing should ever stand in the way of you expressing yourself, through art or not. And that is the most important and powerful message I have learned from living in Los Angeles.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Jonas Olsen story. Tell us more about the business.
As an actor, I believe you need to have a very strong mind. You can´t be easily influenced by others, and you need to stay true to the path you’ve chosen. It´s easy to say, but hard to do. I have put in a lot of work to get to a point where I don´t care about other people´s opinion, and it took a long time to get there. And I now realise how crucial that mindset is if you want to move forward, both in acting and in life. Living in LA gives you a look into the thousands of people working towards becoming an entertainer. The struggle is real, trust me. The hardest part is to stay true to yourself and the believes you have, and not let anyone tell you that it can´t be done. But it´s hard… Being alone in one of the biggest, most terrifying cities in the world isn’t easy for everyone, and most of my friends and colleagues give up within a couple of years. There´s a saying amongst actors in LA that says “If you manage to not give up within the first three years, half the job is already done!”

Though the saying might have more of a comforting and inspirational meaning to it, it says a lot about how hard it can be. Like I said, most of my friends couldn’t handle the constant pressure, the “you´re not good enough”-attitude, and the extreme competition. And it doesn’t mean they weren’t good enough, or that they didn’t want it enough; they might not believe in themselves enough. Luckily, I do. And hopefully, it´ll pay off soon enough!

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I believe the industry is slowly moving towards a shift, as Netflix and other streaming services are literally taking over. I certainly hope that the movie theatre will never go away, but I also know that with Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc, the opportunities are becoming greater. There are hundreds of movies and tv shows out there, way more than there were 10-15 years ago. And with more productions comes more jobs, which is great news for anyone in my position. I am excited to see what will happen over the next ten years. I mean, Netflix won it´s first big Oscar this year, which leads me to believe that the industry is slowly accepting these new ways of making and distributing movies.

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