Today we’d like to introduce you to Tara Alexandra Brown.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Tara. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Okay…where to start? To say I’ve been a performer my entire life isn’t an exaggeration. I got the acting bug in preschool when I played “The Cow” in “Are You My Mother.” I had one line and it was spectacular—if Mayberry Preschool had hosted the 1999 Oscars, Gweneth Paltrow would have been in trouble. I remember discovering costumes, make-up, and pre-show jitters at a very early age. That mix of adrenaline and euphoria was the greatest feeling in the world and I was hooked. The idea of playing a character, of learning lines, and connecting with an audience appealed to me so strongly that I knew, almost immediately, I could have no other career. Performing was where I felt most comfortable. It was never something that frightened me, which was a strange thing to realize since I consider myself a bit of an introvert.
Acting made me unique. Everyone who knew me growing up knew me as an actor—yes, I’m a ham and yes I did a one-woman show for my sixth grade talent show—but that was just who I always was. So it was never a question of if I’d make the big move to LA and do it for real, just when… We’ll get to the when in a minute. I grew up in Reno, Nevada (Nuh—vaaaaaa—duh). Only Nevadans understand how important the pronunciation is. And when you come from a small city, even the “Biggest Little City,” preparing for a film career is no easy task. To be honest, there is no film industry in Reno. And, to answer the unspoken question, Reno 911 was not filmed in Reno. But, there is theater! Thank God for theater. From first grade to college, I was always in a show. Sometimes 2 or 3 shows a year, sometimes 2 or 3 at the same time. I’ve played witches, damsels, old women, old men, villains, dolls…currently I am in a show that gives me the opportunity to portray various types of trees.
But, through all of it, I have been extremely lucky to have a family that supported me from the beginning. They are my rocks. My mom helped me learn lines for every show and even lived with me in LA for three months when I was 14 to see if I was really serious about an acting career. My dad has never missed a show and has built numerous sets. My sister was and still is my wing-man—both on and offstage. It’s extremely difficult to have a career in the arts, but I know it would have been almost impossible without them. I also have to thank some amazing teachers who encouraged me and who took pride in performing arts. It was their seriousness and professionalism that made me respect acting as a craft and shaped me into who I am today.
So, the when… It wasn’t until I was 19 that I finally made the move to LA. By then, I’d performed in professional theater, had won awards for my work, and had starred in over 30 plays. So an acting career? Cake. Nothing could be less similar to cake. As everyone in the business knows: making it to LA isn’t the same as making it in LA. There are always warnings that it will be hard, but until you actually live and bleed the struggle, nothing can prepare for the amount of determination and resilience that is required to really pursue an acting career. It takes time and it takes energy and yes, the process is soul-sucking. It has to be worth it—always — or it isn’t the right career. So after playing my fair share of murder victims and soccer moms—I’m looking at you Chuckie Cheese—I am finally “making it.”
In the last year, I joined the union, booked a co-star, returned to the stage, and was cast as a series lead in a comedy – but the struggle has been constant and all-consuming. I’ve spent hours sitting on the floor of a casting office in a mini skirt and stiletto heels because there weren’t enough chairs. I’ve memorized lines in traffic on the 405 between work and auditions. And I’ve driven 2 hours to an audition that turned out to be for an eight years old casting director. #Goals.
But this is the job. This is the dream. And, in spite of the struggle, I love it the same, if not more than before. But, most importantly, I’ve realized that to “make it” as an actor isn’t the goal: “making it” is the goal. The art of “making it” continues for an actor’s entire career, because the career is always changing and because you have to constantly strive and improve in order to create a performance that’s worth watching. The journey is everything.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
There is nothing smooth about acting and I knew there would be challenges, but there was one, in particular, that I didn’t plan for. About five months after I moved to Los Angeles, I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Since high school, I hadn’t been particularly healthy and already knew I had an autoimmune deficiency which made it hard for me to fight illnesses. So, when I came down with a bad strep throat virus a few months after moving to LA, I didn’t realize anything was abnormal. Something was definitely wrong. I began losing weight rapidly and I was thirsty all the time no matter how much water I drank. No one in my family is diabetic so I knew virtually nothing about the disease, nor what to look out for. But I got very lucky. I happened to be in Reno, visiting my family for a week and went in for a regular doctor’s appointment. The following morning, my doctor called and told my mom that I needed to go to the emergency room, that I was diabetic, and that my sugar levels were at 577. For anyone who isn’t familiar with normal levels – 80 to 100 is the target range.
What I didn’t know then was that I had slipped into something called DKA, which is what happens when your blood becomes acidic and is extremely dangerous. I remember racing to the hospital and being asked strange questions about my fruity breath and what my A1c was —the emergency staff just assumed I was already diabetic. I later discovered that my autoimmune deficiency, made worse by the bad strep throat, stopped my body from producing insulin and triggered my diabetes. I had no idea it was possible to just become diabetic out of nowhere, nor that Type 1 is irreversible and requires life long treatment. But, I had to get back to LA. I couldn’t just put my career on hold after I’d waited so long to get to the right city. So, I received a crash-course in diabetes management—I learned about counting carbs, injecting myself with insulin every time I ate, that stress and sleep and exercise (good thing actors don’t deal with any of that) are all factors that affect blood sugar and have to be managed or I could lose my sight among other things — and this was just after I’d just made the biggest step towards my career.
I’ll be honest, I resisted the idea. It took years for me to accept that I was diabetic and that I had to make a major change to my life. At first, I couldn’t find the right treatment. Generic brands of insulin made me feel sick and sluggish and brands that worked costed more than 1,000 dollars a month out of pocket. Did I mention I’m a starving artist and that I work as a tutor five days a week? The pressure of auditioning, working, and staying healthy became too much at one point and I didn’t take care of myself. It wasn’t until I almost died and was hospitalized for three days in the ICU that I had a major wake up call and knew I needed to make the change. So many people are diagnosed with diseases that have no treatment. This isn’t to make light of what diabetics deal with everyday, but it is an important distinction and I am lucky that there are solutions. I feel for those people who don’t have those options yet.
Now, I’m healthier than I’ve been in a long time. I’ve had help from a great doctor and, of course, the support of my family. I am stronger because of this struggle, more resilient. I had to decide whether I was going to let this illness keep me from my goal. It hasn’t kept me from my goal, there are always ups and downs, but again, this is all about “making it.” I am definitely “making it work” with diabetes. For a while, I was feeling like a diabetic who was acting, but now I feel like an actor who happens to be diabetic. It’s still a challenge, but it’s no longer a struggle.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
Acting is a business—probably the strangest business there is because you are the product. Advertising yourself is a full-time job and requires you to constantly improv and adjust your materials to keep up momentum. Also, when you’re the product, you have to be prepared to open the door to harsh criticism. When I was 14, I visited LA with my mom and acted in a workshop with casting director, Fern Champion. Fern, not knowing I lived in Reno, enjoyed my performance and set up a couple of meetings with managers. I’ll never forget the first manager I met. I was led into his office and he was on the phone… he remained on the phone for 5 minutes while I sat and waited. When he finally hung up and looked me over, he asked me to tell him about myself. I wasn’t more than a sentence in before he stopped me and said, “Your eye contact really freaks me out.” Okay…? He said, “I want you to stand up, walk out of the office, and come back in again like a 14 years old.” In my head, I remember thinking, but I am a 14 years old.
Long story short, he wanted me to enter again with less confidence, to not look him in the eye, and to seem like a moody teen. It was the first time I experienced a casting—a real one—the first time I was sized up in a matter of seconds, judged, and assigned to a type based solely on my appearance. Even though this experience bothered me a lot at the time, I have come to see it as extremely helpful in understanding the business side. That kind of critique prepared me for what was to come. You can’t be sensitive and you have to know what your type is. The real work is finding out how to be interesting as that type. I’ve learned that (appearance wise) I fall into the quirky, girl-next-door category, but my comedy skills and character ability is what sets me apart. Comedy is my specialty. I’ve always been able to get a laugh and laughter in an audition room has often been my key to booking projects. I love drama, of course, and relish the tension it brings, but there is something about comedy that just clicks and makes an impression.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Okay, first I have to warn you that this is really ridiculous. One of my favorite memories has to be when my sister and I spent hours running around our house with this inflatable toy hammer we got at a craft fair. It was yellow and had a smiley face, but if you don’t understand the appeal by now, let me explain: when you would hit it against something it made a little squeaking noise…need I say more?
So, naturally we used it on each other. Another fun fact about me is that I’m unusually good at sneaking up on people. It didn’t matter where my sister hid in the house, my hammer always managed to find her head. Needless to say, we spent hours that night running around our house in the dark, hitting each other with this thing. We hit so hard and so often that we ended up popping the hammer toward the end of the night. I can’t remember the two of us laughing harder over something so dumb, but we still talk about it today because that craft fair…so worth it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://taraalexandrabrown.wixsite.com/actress
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @taraalexandrabrown
- Facebook: @tarabrownactress
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TaraBro19852652
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3563426/?ref_=pro_nm_visitcons
Image Credit:
@bkheadshots
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