Meet Ana K. Cruz

 

We were lucky to catch up with Ana K. Cruz recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ana, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

Before finding my true passion, my purpose, I did a few other things along the way, which ended up being steps on my journey to finding what I am meant to do. I studied design and landscape architecture for a while, worked as a babysitter in Ibiza, traveled, got a degree in Corporate Communications, and did so many things I’m thankful for, had many exciting experiences and gathered valuable memories. Yet, it was after I graduated from my undergraduate degree in Corporate Communications that I finally decided to pursue my dream of becoming an actress. I had been curious about acting since I was a child, but growing up I always had the idea and the pressure that I needed to do something more “serious”. I always had good grades in school and people would tell me I should become a doctor or a lawyer etc… so I tried to go the corporate route, and I studied in Vienna for 3 years, did a semester abroad at Columbia University in New York, and as much as I enjoyed my studies, I knew that something else was my calling, something creative, more artistic perhaps. I had always loved storytelling and as a child, as much as I feared it, I took every opportunity of being on a stage. I knew I wanted to tell stories, live them, go through all the motions and emotions and ultimately take people on a journey with me, inspire them, the same way I was inspired by actors and movies and the stories I got to experience through them. Finding my purpose was a journey and I’m still figuring everything out as I go, one step at a time.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

Sometimes people believe that acting is “pretending”, that it means to become something you’re not, to sell a lie, basically – but I couldn’t disagree more. To me acting is truth, it’s personal and it’s authentic. Acting is the freedom to be anything I want to be, anything I can be and it’s a ticket to exploring all the deepest corners of my existence. It’s the possibility of becoming everything I have the capability to be, to express who I am in the most versatile ways. Because nobody is just who they seem to be, no one is just one version of themselves, we all have different roles in our daily lives – the daughter, the friend, the sister, mother, employee, stranger, we are all so many things, and to me acting is the liberty to go further, to be unapologetically me, through the lens of a specific character. It’s emerging into a story, a narrative, a role and finding my own truth within it. It’s a way to approach this journey of live that gives me the freedom to find sides of me I had neglected or didn’t even know, and at the same time bring to life a character, a new perspective. I believe that so much about life stems from how we look at it, what we see and what we perceive, and that the ability to change perspectives and look at things from a different angle, another point of view, is truly enriching and eye opening, really. And nothing about it feels “fake” to me, in fact, I believe that viewing something from more than one perspective can only bring us closer to the truth. Acting to me is not about pretending to be something I’m not, but to expand myself and my point of view to that of a given character, authentically and truthfully, and that in itself is so freeing to me. The liberty to explore who and how I am in different scenarios and life circumstances, by stepping into someone else’s shoes and learning how to walk in them, is what I love the most about acting. There is much to be learned and understood, and it all starts with you. I have so much still to learn, to grow, to feel, and acting has been the key to giving myself permission and fully unfold who I am, it has brought me closer to myself.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I believe that curiosity is key to growth. The curiosity to learn, to explore different characters, different stories, different emotions. To wonder how they felt what they felt, and have the courage to get there oneself, it starts with curiosity, then courage and perseverance will get one through.

With acting specifically, I believe that sensitivity and empathy are crucial as well. The ability to feel and to relate are essential when it comes to conveying emotions. I used to think that being sensitive is really more of a burden, but I now believe that it’s a strength, a “super power”. To feel and to feel deeply and strongly is a virtue – I personally believe that to feel is to be alive, and what more could I ask for? Sometimes we live our lives monotonously, somewhat numb even, we might be living but we don’t feel alive. So having the capacity to feel deeply and giving ourselves permission to feel are crucial to bringing a character to life, and also to making the most of our time here, while it lasts.

Another skill I believe to be utterly important in acting is the ability to be present, to be in the moment. To get out of our heads and into our bodies, our senses, our instincts, pulls us right into the present moment. Being able to focus on the here and the now is something most of us aspire to accomplish, but often the present drifts away with burdens from the past or worries about the future. Focusing on what we see, hear, smell, touch, taste can be ways to connect to the now and I have found that being present takes practice too. Practice and perseverance, because it’s easy to just follow our thoughts and get lost in them, but the present is where we need to be, or else, time will pass us by and we won’t even notice…

Even though being curious, sensitive and present hasn’t always been easy, it has been rewarding and it has allowed me to grow and evolve, personally and as an actress.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

As rewarding as acting can be, acting is not a linear profession, it comes with a lot of challenges and I have often been faced with frustration.

From not hearing back about auditions, to trying to find representation and having to deal with rejection a lot, to booking a role only to then find out that a month into preparing for the character, production has decided to cast another actor after all – these are all experiences actors go through. All the time. And it’s not easy, an acting career doesn’t consist of constantly having the opportunity to act and dive into different characters, especially in the beginning it is a lot about how you market yourself, how to showcase your work and portray to casting directors and industry professionals what “boxes” and types of roles you fit into.

I personally tend to be a bit humble and I prefer to underpromise and overdeliver, but that doesn’t always help in convincing people I am what they’re looking for. I’ve been learning to be bolder, louder and bigger, to be unapologetically me. One thing you need in this career is belief in yourself and a lot of perseverance. And even though I do believe in myself, it has been an uphill battle, and I have learned to be patient, with myself and with the journey. I believe that falling down is part of life, but getting back up is living and I know I will be ok as long as I keep getting back up. I have understood that I need to learn how to deal with rejection, how to not take it so personally, and I need to learn to “lose” and lose well in order to appreciate the win.

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Image Credits

Toma Kostygina

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