Meet Bryn Mcauley

 

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bryn Mcauley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Bryn, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

Developing my confidence and self-esteem is a work in progress. I think one of my greatest assets and sources of self-esteem is that I have a growth mindset. There are so many things I cannot currently do, so many skills I don’t currently have, that I truly believe I will be capable of doing in the future. My inability to do something today is not an indicator of what I’ll be able to do next week or next month. This gives me a feeling of self-efficacy, a feeling that I can rely on myself to improve.

But I would be lying if I said my self-esteem was anywhere close to stable. It’s very in and out. I keep telling myself I am going to start morning affirmations or develop a practice around self-esteem. I believe self esteem comes from action, from making things, from giving yourself evidence that you can do hard things. I think of self-esteem as a practice, just like having courage or showing kindness to other people. It’s something we can get better at, but also something we need to foster.

I think we can make a decision or make a deal with ourselves to go into the world a certain way. Sometimes we will flop, but there are always lessons in flopping too. And coming back out of a flop is also an amazing source of self esteem.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I started voice acting when I was seven years old, playing the title role in what became a monster hit, the preschool kid’s show, Caillou. This was an extremely lucky break, that lead to an almost 30 year career as a voice actor. So many people dream of doing voices for cartoons, and I am keenly aware of how lucky I am to get to do this for a living.

I was an on-camera actor before I started voice over, and I worked consistently in movies as a kid. When I turned 13, I stopped booking roles and had the first of many crises of confidence as an actor. While I did some on-camera roles in my early twenties, I really struggled with confidence in my abilities and ended up quitting that part of the business and going back to school.

I got a BA in International Relations and my Masters in Global Governance. Throughout my undergraduate degree, I got very involved in the labour movement through my union, and I volunteered extensively with Syrian refugees. I became very passionate about migration and refugee issues. I moved to Johannesburg, South Africa for my internship and worked with human rights groups. The pandemic brought me back to Toronto, where I worked with a refugee law firm.

All of these experiences and all of this learning made me very focused on injustice, environmental devastation, corporate overreach, and the failures of contemporary governance. I was angry and felt very alone in this anger because I did not manage to ever connect with a strong activist community.

While I had an early start as an actress, I feel like I have done everything else late in life. I started school late, did my Masters late, and got into the 9-5 work life at the age of thirty. After all of that, I have returned to acting as my full-time pursuit! I’m 35 and hell-bent on getting back to on-camera and stage work. The odds say that this likely won’t happen, but I feel totally committed to this being my reality!

Currently I am back in the voice over booth working on shows for Mattel, Warner Brothers and more! I am the voice of Baby Bop in the new reboot of Barney, called Barney’s World! I am very focused on expanding my talents and abilities as a voice impressionist and voice actor.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I have been very lucky to work with people who are more talented and experienced than me. I was aware that I had a lot to learn from them and this is a quality I’m glad I have. Starting out young, I saw a lot of more experienced actors working in the booth. I noticed that they have incredible range, they really use their bodies to help convey their character choices, and they have wicked comic timing. This really pushed me to expand my own abilities. I became really focused on learning impressions and this has led to a lot more work and opportunities.

I took a clown class 3 years ago that really changed my life. If you can’t tell from my writing, I am prettyyyy A-type, uptight and have a wild perfectionist streak. These are boring qualities in life and deadly boring in acting. Clown is all about looking stupid and public failure. After this class, I went into an audition way less prepared than normal, but very prepared to play and look dumb, and that’s how I booked my first commercial campaign. This is probably not applicable to other jobs? I don’t know. Wait. Coming into any opportunity prepared to trust your talent and your abilities is definitely applicable!

I try to always express my gratitude for the people I work with. This has impacted my journey because it has meant people like working with me and it helps me stay in the ring.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

Currently I am trying to expand my abilities with voice impressions and writing. I do not have a talent for these things. I am not naturally good at either of these things. I am becoming good at being bad at them. I am realizing that sometimes you have entire days with zero progress on a skill set. But then two days later, you’ll take a leap forward. I’m learning to stay committed to the process. And to always try to enjoy the process is a big one too. It’s hard to be terribly bad at something you really love and want to be great at. But here’s a great quote: The master has failed more times than the beginner has tried! You gotta keep trying and keep failing. Fail as fast as you can.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Shlomi Amiga Photography
Sam Coyle Photography

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