Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Valdes.
Hi Amanda, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was born in Illinois and have always loved movies and performing growing up. My dad grew up in theater and was very creative which I definitely get from him. Most of my performances were shows I would put on with my sisters for our family. I always had my dad’s camera and even taught myself how to edit and burn DVDs to create my own movies at eight years old. For the longest time, I was very shy and even though I knew I wanted to be an actor, I could barely raise my hand in class and would have many panic attacks when it came to public speaking and even just having any kind of attention on myself. In high school a lot changed for me, I was going through a lot of mental health issues and sought therapy for the first time my sophomore year of high school. It was the first time I was challenged to speak up, be vulnerable and be seen which was absolutely terrifying. I was in consistent therapy for five years healing through trauma and learning to love myself. This was the gateway to allowing me to find healing and build self-confidence enough to come back to the idea of being an actor. When I finished high school, I attempted to attend college and my mental health collapsed all over again, I lasted a semester and quit as soon as I left for break.
Fast forward a few years, I followed my sister to Arizona as she was going to attend school at the University of Arizona. I was still oblivious to what I wanted to do. I tried college again, which repeated the exact same thing. I was incredibly miserable being a full-time student and working full-time at Starbucks as a barista, I quickly became burnt out. I begged the God for a sign to pursue my acting career. I was desperate to have an excuse to finally be done with college once and for all. December of 2019 Dianne Keaton walks into the Starbucks I was working at. My co-workers and I were completely wide-eyed as we all took a moment to realize it was her. Out of all places, she was in Tucson Arizona! I instantly knew it was my sign. She was so sweet and even offered to take a photo with us, I remember standing right next to her and feeling her arm wrapped around me like a big hug. I have never felt more sure of anything in my life.
Fast forward to 2020 when the pandemic hit. My entire life changed. I had barely passed my classes, dropped out and quickly didn’t have a job as the lockdown began. The only thing I knew that felt right was to feed this passion for acting I had put on a back burner for so long. I watched countless videos online, bought acting books, found an acting coach, practiced recording monologues in my room. I got my first headshots and was eager to submit to find an agency because I was so hungry to do anything to work as an actor. I did some background on a few student and short films, I even got a few lines in a feature that that was my first paid gig, fifty bucks. Any chance to be on some kind of set was incredibly exciting for me. The beginning of 2021, I got my braces off and officially signed with my current agency in Arizona, Signature. I booked the first film audition I got and then did all the background work I could to fund my acting classes. All my acting classes were virtual so I really felt a disconnected from creativity so I decided to post on Tik Tok. I started posting trends and then started to share my journey and what I have been learning as I pursued acting from the very beginning. I gained a good enough following to feel inspired to keep sharing how I prepared for auditions, acting classes I have taken and even vlogging days driving to auditions and going on set. I wanted my content to inspire and motivate aspiring actors. After months of doing this, I felt the urge to want to connect and collaborate with filmmakers and actors which led me to my choice to move to LA. It felt like a calling, I knew I wanted to go and just see what there is. I didn’t care if I “failed” I just felt in my soul I had to go no matter what.
June 2022 I packed up my car and drove eight hours to LA. I will say everything quickly fell apart, my roommate’s situation didn’t work out after two weeks, my car got towed the second week I was there along with a parking ticket. I found a barista job and started my journey of couch hopping eager to make it work. I even was in my car for a while on an off. I continued to share this journey on Tik Tok honestly and more followers were invested and incredibly supportive of my journey. I met all my friends through my followers on Tik Tok, they offered their rooms and spaces for me to stay. I was incredibly grateful for my small Tik Tok following! I took in every opportunity to experience all the beauty there is in LA. I attended various movie premieres, went to a Jimmy Kimmel show, Kelly Clarkson show, was a seat filler at the PCAS. Los Angeles kept me motivated being able to experience the entertainment business firsthand and allowing myself to see myself in Hollywood. In the midst of all this, I landed a job at the Warner Brothers lot as a Barista. This was the most amazing opportunity I could have asked for. I got to see the lot and the beauty of the history it holds in filmmaking. My absolute favorite movie is La La Land, Emma Stone’s character Mia is a barista on the Warner Brother’s lot. I was experiencing the absolute highs and lows of being a starving artist in LA. My car got broken into, I had several parking tickets at this point, I was staying in and out of my car working 50 hours a week.
I started doing background on HBO’s Winning Time which was filmed on the Warner Brother’s lot which was another dream come true. I did background on that show for several months, taking in all the beauty of a big production and seeing it in real-time. I picked up another job working for Netflix at the Stranger Things Experience being a big fan of the show which was another dream come true. I got to see icons such as Hilary Duff and Christina Aguilera while working there. My struggles were diminished by how much bigger my dream and love for acting is. I collaborated and got to work on a short film, “Clothed Identity” with a group of filmmakers I met and was so grateful to work with! I was still a nobody but felt on top of the world. Living in Los Angeles is like running a never-ending marathon, after nine months of being in LA my exhaustion caught up to me, my car broke down and I had to come back down to Arizona for a chance to reset and give my soul a rest. It was an incredibly hard decision, I was devasted at my reality but I had to listen to my instincts. I started writing a feature film based on my entire experience of being a starving artist in LA which I am excited to one day be able to share with the world. I also have a book of poems I plan to publish from my journey of healing and navigating my life from being a teenager to understanding love. I am on this journey of learning to embrace and create through so many different outlets. I have so much support on this insane and incredible journey I am on. I feel so grateful for the aspiring actors who have reached to me at how much I have inspired them. I will continue to share this journey for as long as I can. I have a lot I want to do with my career, but I am just a little over two years of being an actor. I still have so much room to learn and grow as an actor and as I continue on this completely new journey, I am excited to see where life will take me next!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been a roller coaster of emotions! Tears of joy and complete devastation. Being an actor is embracing the broken and beautiful and choosing to showcase it to the world. It is so easy to compare your journey of life with people around you. A lot of people’s lives seem so much easer and it can be easy to think, “Why can’t that happen to me? What am I doing wrong?”. I constantly have to pick myself back up after every punch life throws at me, especially when I was in LA I was alone in a huge city. It was overwhelming fighting through the harshness of being an actor. It was easy for me to tell myself, “If I just had this much money If I had this opportunity..etc.”. The truth is we will never know what is best for ourselves. There is a reason a lot of things didn’t work out in my favor, but I have to remind myself of everything that did!!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am an actor and overall creative. I love everything from photography to editing to writing poetry. I am known for my Tik Tok account and sharing my acting journey and being my most authentic self. I am most proud of trusting my calling. I love acting but that definitely wouldn’t have held me down long enough on this journey, It is a deep-rooted calling I cannot shake. I fight for vulnerability and to be a light in every aspect of my life, I am known for my resilience and persistence in life. I seek beauty and adventure in every aspect of my life which keeps it exciting. I am proud of my feature film I am writing called Beyond The Silver Screen, I would have never thought about screenwriting and directing but Damien Chazelle’s movie La La Land is the blueprint for finding hope and beauty in being an artist. I am living as a struggling artist in real-time, I think it’s very cool that I have an audience that is following my journey as it is happening. A lot of times you don’t hear about how successful Hollywood actors had to struggle to get to where they are. I have nothing to hide, and I am embracing every rejection and hardship while being able to encourage aspiring actors and essentially create a big supportive family that wants each other to succeed!
What does success mean to you?
Success is choosing every day to work in the direction and calling of your passion. That is what it feels like to me currently. Not everyone has the courage to do so. Of course, I would love an Oscar one day, that’s an emblem of success, but if I were to see that now as my only way to know I am successful, it would diminish everything that has got me here. Success isn’t an end goal. It is something we are capable of every single day. I challenge myself to think, “What would make me feel successful today?”
Something that has stuck with me was something an acting coach has said, “Are you living an Oscar-worthy life?”. Success is living life against the grain, being your most authentic self, and embracing your differences. Let yourself be successful in your everyday life, you don’t need a certain number in your bank account or an award or certain status to feel successful. If you are persistent and choose to not give up in whatever that is for you, you are successful!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://amandasophiavaldes.wixsite.com/actor
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@amandasophiavaldes?_d=ckce848dge0bik&language=en&sec_uid=MS4wLjABAAAAFsGZz4lrjDOcQBO9lyJQPYPzTVxmnbGk5RLM-FqXFtB3W5f3d7HXC-D10WB5J21N&share_author_id=6754877358707377157&u_code=d959k1d45bmhbj&utm_campaign=client_share&app=musically
Image Credits
Headshots by Brandon Andre Set photos Joseph Lee and Tyler Disney
