Acting out.When I saw the musical Annie for the first time at age 5, I thought I was looking in the mirror--a loud, brassy redheaded red·head·ed adj. 1. Having red hair. 2. Having a red head: a redheaded woodpecker. Adj. 1. girl with curls singing and dancing all over the place. I ran to my mother and said, "That's what I want to do." I'll admit that was a big dream for a redneck little girl growing up in the mountains in Hendersonville, N.C., a small town where almost everyone was related. But I was crystal clear about what I wanted to do. Who I wanted to be with--now, that was a little cloudy. I had a boyfriend for a year and never kissed him. I must have really lowered his self-esteem. The minute I got to college and felt safe, I came out. My parents had a hard time dealing with it. They thought it was a phase because I was acting crazy and drinking all the time---it was college, after all. But as time passed they accepted me, and with their love and support, one week after graduating from the University of North Carolina North Carolina, state in the SE United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), South Carolina and Georgia (S), Tennessee (W), and Virginia (N). Facts and Figures Area, 52,586 sq mi (136,198 sq km). Pop. , Greensboro, I moved to New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. to chase my dream. These past two years have been good to me. I've auditioned for a number of musicals and films and got to work with Eve Ensler Eve Ensler (born 25 May 1953 in Scarsdale, New York) is a playwright and feminist activist best known for the play ''The Vagina Monologues. Personal life Ensler graduated from Middlebury College in 1975. She married Richard McDermott in 1978 and divorced in 1988. on The Vagina vagina: see reproductive system. vagina Genital canal in females. Together with the cavity of the uterus, it forms the birth canal. In most virgins, its external opening is partially closed by a thin fold of tissue (hymen), which has various forms, Monologues, two performances of which I helped produce this year. During auditions, my sexual orientation sexual orientation n. The direction of one's sexual interest toward members of the same, opposite, or both sexes, especially a direction seen to be dictated by physiologic rather than sociologic forces. is not a topic unless people ask about it. When they do I am not shy. I tell them I have a girlfriend. There have even been times when being a lesbian has been an advantage. Just the other day my girlfriend and I were asked to audition for a film because the script called for a gay couple. But I have come across ignorance in the business. Some casting directors and producers look at me and assume that because I'm a lipstick lesbian A lipstick lesbian is a slang term for a stereotypically feminine lesbian who is attracted to other feminine women, rather than a lesbian who is attracted to more masculine women, such as in a "butch and femme"-type relationship. I can't play butch roles. And then there are the reality shows. Once they find out you are a lesbian, their eyes get all big and you can see that they are thinking, Oh, this is going to be hot! I will not be a puppet performing "the lesbian show" or be forced into the closet by agents who feel that being out is a bad career move. I want to own my own image. Maybe it's easier for me to say that because at age 25 I'm not famous yet. But I am not in this business for fame; I am in it for the love of acting. --As told to Kellee Terrell |
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