We recently connected with Kristine Kay Larsen and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Kristine with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
I owe it all to my mom and dad. They raised me to be very resilient, head strong and think about my choices. They both build up their careers from scratch and from an early age taught me and my siblings about the value of working smart. I remember when I started my first job in my early teens every price tag I saw I calculated it as hours I had to pay it off. So if I bought a $50 purse that was 4 hours of me working. Therefore I became aware of the value of money at a very early age. This helped me build up my work ethic. Being an actor I think it’s especially important to stay hungry and enjoy working hard. There are so many people depending on you as a working actor. This is why I’m so grateful for my parents teaching me to have a strong work ethic at an early age.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I started acting professionally in LA after graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 2023. Right after graduation I threw myself myself into the acting world. I went into it expecting to work my safety job for a while before I could live off of acting. When you tell people you want to become an actor the common question you get is always “how are you going to make a living?”. It is hard making a living as an actor and it takes some time to get a momentum, but once you do it’s all worth it. When I first started out acting I was working 5 days a week at my safety job. My routine was I would wake up early self submit to all the new casting calls, then go do my 8 hour shift and when I got off from work I would do 5 self-tapes. In the beginning i tried booking one acting job a week even if it was something small, just so I got the experience of being on set. So I would do small commercials, background work and sometimes even a PA. For me it was all about doing something that would help me get closer to having acting be my full time job. Slowly I started working less and less at my safety job and had more days on set. The 5 days a week turned into 4 days a week, then 2 days a week and in the end I had used up all my sick days and I had to quit, which was the best feeling ever. After 4 months I could proudly say I was making a living doing my craft and I didn’t want to lose that. So now I’m always hungry for the next job to keep my momentum going. Something that’s both exciting and scary about acting is that you can’t predict what’s going to happen. You can only work hard and believe in yourself. One thing I’ve learned from this is that you have to have a strong mentality.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
One thing my mom told me before I moved to LA was “don’t let people change who you are”. I think of this every day. Working as an actor people will tell you how to do your job, compete with you and it’s easy to lose yourself in the industry. Staying true to yourself and your values is important otherwise you’ll forget why you even started acting. Second advice I would give to people starting out, is stay open minded but know your boundaries. In the beginning I did a lot of projects just to build up a network. I met some amazing people on set they would recommend me to other people and that’s how I booked most of my jobs. Keeping an open mind about projects has helped me get consistent work but it’s also important to stay true to oneself and say no when you need it. My last piece of advice is to take a break. When I first started out I never took a day off I was so excited to work as an actor but now, when acting is my full time job, I have to remember to take a day off. Just like athletes need to rest their body actors need to rest their head so find something that makes you happy and relaxed outside of the acting world.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
Feeling overwhelmed in this industry is almost inevitable. So when I start feeling overwhelmed I do something nice for myself that’s not necessarily beneficial for my career. Sometimes I cook myself a nice meal, go for a hike, have a movie night with my friends or anything that will help me relax. Then when I’ve reset my brain I plan it all out. Everything I need to get done that feels so overwhelming I plan out when to do what and start with the things that are the most important. And if there’s something out of my control that’s overwhelming me I let it go. As an actor we have to take good care of ourselves. So my advice to anyone feeling overwhelmed by acting is to take a step back and breathe.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://tr.ee/9Kl52myEpF
- Instagram: @kristinekaylarsen
- Other: Management: Alpha model management
Contact for booking: kristine@alphamodelmanagement.com
Image Credits
Keith Mangione, Lucas Daniel, Anup Kulkarni, Philip Smith and The Black Box 2023
