Meet Rebecca Bartlett

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rebecca Bartlett.

Rebecca, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I fell in love with storytelling at a very young age. My mother would read to my brothers and me every night so stories were a large part of my life before I could even read them myself. When I was four, we were watching the movie Matilda and I told my parents, “I want to do that.” They assumed I meant I wanted to have magical powers like the character in the film but when they asked I said, “No, I want to be on the TV.” From that moment on, I knew I wanted to be an actress, so my loving parents put me in dance classes in the hope that it would satisfy the little performer in me. And man did it work! I remember seeing my first ballet, The Red Shoes, and softly crying in the audience. I was eight. The next day I began dancing twenty hours per week. I’d pack my various dance shoes in my school backpack and as soon as the bell rang I’d be off to the studio! My life went on like that. I danced constantly and read every single novel I could get my hands on. I watched old movies on TCM and directed little sketch comedy shows at my school. In high school, I became very bored. I had friends and did well in classes but I remember being at prom as a junior and thinking “Everyone here is having more fun than me.” I had been begging my parents to take me to Los Angeles since I was nine years old and had realized that this city was full of everything I loved. My dad responded the same way every single time saying, “You are going to have a normal childhood, graduate high school, and then you can do whatever you want.” The Monday after prom, I went to see my school counselor and arranged to graduate early. I made a few calls, sorted out a plan, worked as a hostess at a Chili’s to save up money, and then shared my plans with my parents to move to Los Angeles. I was 17 when I arrived in the City of Angels.

I was still focused on dancing at the time and I took as many classes and went on as many auditions as possible. It wasn’t until I was asked to audition for a short film that I remembered my very first dream. After that, I went on as many acting auditions as I could find but I quickly realized that I didn’t know what I was doing. I had spent years training as a dancer and while I loved it, I knew that I had to invest my energy into this new craft. I never intended for college to be a part of my journey but I knew it was the best place for me to hone in on my craft, away from the big city life. Later that year, I found myself at the Peggy Dow Helmrich School of Drama at the University of Oklahoma and felt immediately behind. It seemed all of my classmates had been doing community theater since they were kids and taking acting classes for the last decade. There were state Thespian champions and had read more plays than I’d even seen. I didn’t fit in and I didn’t have a lot of friends within the program, but I loved the curriculum. We studied technique from each of the greats – Stanislavski, Adler, Meisner, and, my personal favorite, Chekhov. I read and performed Shakespeare and Tolstoy and Tennessee Williams. I learned as much about history and empathy as I did about acting. From clowning to dialects to departures from realism and theater of the absurd – I loved it all. I even got to perform in a couple of shows with the dance department while I was there! Those years flew by and when they were over, I hopped back on a plane and found myself at home again in LA. This time, armed with another skill set.

It didn’t take me long to realize that there was a lot of talent and what felt like very little work. I had landed a commercial agent and was auditioning and getting called back steadily but waiting to be booked was like watching water boil on a broken stovetop. I watched people more skilled and talented than me leave before their first year was up. I watched dreams dry up and turn into bitterness. I became very afraid that would soon be me and I was tired of waiting for someone to hire me and give me permission to create. Competition was everywhere and community was nowhere. So one day I decided to contact everyone I knew in the city – dancers, actors, writers, cinematographers, vocal artists, visual artists, every kind of artist I knew – and gathered them together for a monthly Creative Circle. We played improv games and read each other’s scripts. We brought in lessons from our various classes and shared feedback on projects. We worked on each others’ short films and helped one another with self-tapes. We gave each other permission to create and encouragement to keep doing so, even when it felt hard. I was surrounded by all of these passionate creators and it inspired me greatly. I began writing and producing my first short film. Once it premiered, people began asking me to help them figure out how to make their films and it wasn’t until someone else referred to me as their “producer” that I realized what I’d begun doing.

Within a year of completing my first short, I had worked on feature films, short films, pilots, and music videos as an actress, director, producer, 1st AD, and choreographer. It all started with a few friends in my living room.

Has it been a smooth road?
When you want to be an actor or an artist of any kind, everyone tries to talk you out of it and they love to tell you how “hard” it is going to be. But no one ever tells you WHY or HOW it’s going to be hard. So when I arrived in LA, fresh off the boat and idealistic, as every young dreamer is, it didn’t take long for me to find out that it IS as hard as everyone says it is to be an artist. And to my fellow dreamers, here is why: It’s hard because you will lack stability and comfort while you watch your peers gather both. People will doubt you, and your own doubts will come for you even fiercer and meaner than theirs. You will constantly feel like you work so hard and it goes unnoticed. Sometimes you put in hours, days, months, and years of sweat, tears, and struggle, without a paycheck, acknowledgment, or even a pat on the back. But success is like an iceberg. What every one sees is just the tiniest glimpse of the work you’ve put in. You have to learn to pat yourself on the back. Learn to say “Hey you, you worked your ass off today and nobody knows it but you did and I am proud of you.”

For all intensive purposes, you are running your own business. You have to know your value and worth and be able to pitch or showcase it in under a minute. You have to learn how to promote and market yourself to the correct demographic as well as how to network and build relationships. It is a full-time job that requires time, money, research, and a lot of energy. On top of this, you have to foster your creativity daily and continue to find ways to be inspired. It is so important to keep your love for the craft alive!!! That’s the fun part, of course! You have to be prepared to work two full-time jobs – one being the pursuit of your dreams and the other to pay the bills. This means 60-80 hours per week usually. When I first moved to LA, I was working at a dance studio during the week. I would wake up at 8 am and start my day submitting for roles, filming self-tapes, and sending emails to agents and casting offices. After that, I would head to staff training from 11am-1pm and then I would run around from audition to audition all afternoon and return to the studio to teach from 6pm-10pm. After my lessons, I’d rehearse with my professional dance partner from roughly 10:30pm-12: 30 am. My weekends filled with 12-16 hour days filming shorts and concept videos for no pay.

It’s so funny looking back because a lot of those little projects with little money created relationships that down the road led to bigger projects and more money! You have to persevere at all costs because you may not see the pay off right away, but it does happen eventually. At the time I could never know that filming a commercial spec in a friends apartment for absolutely no pay would introduce me to a director that I now work with on films with great budgets. Persevere, persevere, persevere!

We’d love to hear more about your business.
This question is hard for me because it is such a wide variety! In 2019 alone I have been in several different roles on set – a lead actress in a horror film (The Entity), a producer for a sci-fi short (Impact), a choreographer for a music video (I Know A Gun by Kerry Hart), and a first Assistant Director on a feature (Tyger, Tyger).

When people ask me what I do, I usually say that I am an artistic collaborator. I learned through each of these processes that what I love most about making art is the collaboration with other brilliant creative minds and I am best at bringing people together and facilitating a work of art. I’ve worked with projection artists and poets and people I never expected to encounter. I learned that nothing worth achieving is achieved alone and that the most beautiful creations are a blend of many art forms. I am so passionate about helping artists do their thing and encouraging them to create because it is really hard sometimes. And what if, the greatest artists of our time hit obstacle after obstacle and decided…”I can’t do this anymore” and never shared their talents with the world? You never know what these creative minds are capable of and we all need support to reach our fullest potential. I think what sets me apart from others is that no matter what my job description is on a project, I always play the role of positive problem solver. I am never going to be on set and say to someone “That isn’t my job” because at the end of the day it doesn’t matter whose job is what it just matters that whatever needs to get done to make the best product possible gets done. I am most proud of my emotional intelligence and ability to communicate with my team.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
LA is the most amazing city for collaborators! I love it here and am so grateful for all the art and culture and inspiration this city has to offer. Sometimes inspiration strikes and you’re like “What about this moment could POSSIBLY bring forth all this creativity?” But that’s what’s cool. Beauty can be found even in the most mundane moments. It’s your job to be open to it. Literally, if you’re an artist of any kind, it’s your job to find beauty in average things. That’s great isn’t it?

Contact Info:

• Phone: 719.433.2620
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @rebeccamichellebartlett

Image Credit:
Ben Mitnick
Paul Smith
Eric Blackmon
Elizabeth Haener

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.