Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole Javier.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Nicole. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I grew up in the Bay Area with my mom and my grandparents. My grandmother would always watch musicals on VHS (Sound of Music, South Pacific, Fiddler on the Roof), so performative story-telling was around me at a young age. As I got older, I found myself wanting to be a part of the “drama club,” and my mom convinced me to put theatre as my elective. Our first “gig” was the annual Emergency Drill Test, where the whole school reenacted emergency protocol, and the drama students were given several trauma scenarios to portray. My assignment was to be in a state of shock and dehydration, and I remember being jealous that I didn’t get something crazy like a broken arm or a huge gash with blood everywhere. So decided I was gonna milk that role- they had to bring me out on stretcher; I was crying, hysterical, the whole nine! The school medic was like, “someone gives this kid an Oscar- this is crazy!” And from then on I was hooked. I went on to get my bachelor’s in Theatre Performance at Chapman University and my masters in Acting at University of California, San Diego, and landed in LA about a year ago!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Absolutely not! The industry is so unpredictable, and the hardest part is that it often has nothing to do with me personally. I’ve chosen a profession where I have very little control, at least right now anyway, and the best thing I can do is keep my head in the game. Like so many other actors out there, I have had to get very creative with side hustles, how to self-tape at home, how to be available but not let the work take over my life, etc. Add a pandemic in which we literally cannot be in a space to create together, and bam – the struggle is real! The silver lining, however, is that the world continues to remind me how small it is, and the clearer I get on what projects I want to be involved in, the bigger and accessible that particular community becomes.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
As an actor and a teaching artist, I believe story is what brings us together. I think people are hungry to be seen holistically as the humans that they are- their gifts, their culture(s), their flaws, their desires, their quirks, all at the same time. I know I am, and that is the type of work I love doing. I gravitate towards new works as it feels more collaborative in that everyone in the room is trying to solve the same problem. I love discovering a new character, especially when they are a huge mystery to me because I have to find where we intersect.
My other big hat is being an educator. I hope to encourage young artists to collaborate with one another, explore their individual actor’s instrument, and to be curious about their own stories in order to discover the most satisfying way to connect through our diverse and varied backgrounds.
What were you like growing up?
Haha-well you got a little hint of younger Nicole in my intro! I was that kid who knew every Disney song (one of my mom’s favorite stories of me is dancing in the movie theatre aisles to the Little Mermaid) and had as many stuffed animals as I possibly could. They all had names, of course, and they had a rotation for who I would cuddle with every night. The MVP, who traveled with me and maintained her status, is Amy the Mouse.
I was always a people pleaser (it’s no wonder I would grow up to have a job that asks for an applause every time I show up to work), a rule follower, and liked to know I was doing the “right” thing. The arts ended up challenging me to ask myself what I thought was right instead of doing what I thought I should do. However, I think I still try to play “by the rules”- old habits are hard to break!
I loved hanging out with my cousins and friends as I got older. I hated being alone, probably because my parents got divorced when I was three. I was happiest when family was over (and they were over A LOT, holla at me Filipino families!), and would make sure “everything was ready for when they arrived.” I would make plans, set up their sleeping arrangement, get snacks ready- did I mention I loved when my family came over? That reminds of how much I liked to be prepared as a kid – I would practice earthquake drills and my escape route at home. And now we’ve come full circle with enacting emergency drills.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nicolejavier.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicjavi/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicole.javier.376
Image Credit:
Danielle Wineman Photography, Manny Rotenberg, Pak Han
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