Meet Anastasia Barkow

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anastasia Barkow. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anastasia below.

Hi Anastasia, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

Resilience is a big topic of conversation, especially in the acting world. The story everyone hears, the one every actor knows, is that of rejection. You can go out on so many auditions and really feel like you nailed them and you did your best work. And then weeks pass, months pass, you never hear back from casting. Then one day, you’re walking down the street and you see a one sheet movie poster for the project you auditioned for outside your local cinema and you see the face of the person who got that role instead of you. Honestly, if you don’t have resilience for moments like that, it can feel devastating. Of course, I’ve been there! That’s not a speculative story that actually happened about two months ago. For me, establishing a strong base in reality is so important. Before you start thinking I’m crazy, let me explain: it can be so easy as an actor to let your abilities, accomplishments, and failures define you. If you fall into that trap, there’s really no getting out. For a long time, I only saw myself through that lens. And when I would go through periods of not booking any roles, that would translate into a very poor self image. I had tied my personal worth as a human up into my job. So what I mean when I say a strong base in reality is needed, is that as a human, I needed to understand that I had a worth, value, purpose outside of my occupation. For me, I found that grounding source through my faith. Understanding and really getting it in my head that I was created on purpose and that I’m good enough simply by existing is my source of resilience. I can weather the highs and lows of the entertainment industry because I have this firm foundation in my life to lean on. When rejection comes, I can take it in stride and move to the next thing. The great thing about Jesus is that he’s working things out for the best. It might not look the way I want, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of trust that goes into that way of thinking! But it does make it easier for me to let go of the disappointments in life that might otherwise keep me down.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I went to NYU Tisch School of the Arts to study drama. I’m a SAG actor and a writer. I played Chelsea Clinton in Ryan Murphy’s “Impeachment: American Crime Story.” I love film and tv work as well as live theater. I’ve worked with my sister, Talitha Barkow, on a number of short films and web series projects which can all be found on her YouTube channel, talihtaTV. As a writer, I tend to focus my time and energy into writing features. I really enjoy delving into niche stories. If I’m writing a story about folkloric creatures then I make it my business to have a self-awarded honorary degree in folklore studies. If I’m writing a story about hockey, then I start watching hockey, understanding the rules, and learning to play myself. (That’s not an exaggeration. I started playing hockey because of a script I wrote. The script is finished but my career as a hockey player is only beginning!) Getting to throw myself into my projects, acting or writing, is such an incredible joy and it’s a great way for me to continue exploring and learning about the world around me.

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

I think one of the most important abilities, one I maybe haven’t quite mastered yet, is not taking things too seriously. Like I said, it’s so easy to get caught up in accomplishments and failures, but it’s not life or death. It’s great to be passionate about things and sincerely want to accomplish your goals, but it’s another thing entirely to beat yourself up along the way when you make a misstep. Make mistakes, learn from them, and let them go. That brings me to my next quality: contentment. Simply enjoying life. Everyone says “stop and smell the roses,” but who’s actually doing that? It’s important! Okay, so you have allergies, it doesn’t have to be plant related! Find something in life that brings you joy and don’t monetize it! I know we live in a culture that promotes the grind but finding something that takes you away from that mentality and brings you toward the perspective of just enjoying life is a game changer. It can be a sport, a craft, or just anything that makes you feel peaceful or energized. And lastly a skill that is extremely important: maintaining positivity. It’s okay to be sad and have other feelings. I’m not saying you can only ever be happy all the time. But when the difficult things in life happen, being able to still see the positive is of paramount importance. Positivity is one of those things that keeps you going but it’s also a daily practice. Remembering the things you’re grateful for, counting the blessings in your life, these are things that keep us grounded and looking forward to the future rather than assuming the worst is yet to come. My advice for folks early in their career is to do exactly what they’re doing. Start early with these habits! Practice them and don’t get down on yourself if you don’t get them perfect (remember: don’t take things too seriously). Be patient and let yourself grow!

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

It can be easy to become overwhelmed in life and the most important advice I can give is probably not the advice people want to hear. Put the phone down and turn the laptop off. (After you finish this article, of course. This is very important.) We think scrolling or watching a show will help us decompress but it doesn’t. It’s a distraction from being overwhelmed but it doesn’t fix things. What scrolling does, in my experience, is it just distracts us for a few hours then when we’re done, it’s back to ruminating and digging ourselves into an even deeper hole than before. When I’m feeling overwhelmed, I journal. Journaling helps the mind slow down, it gives you a chance to focus on the feelings you are experiencing and put them into words. It declutters the mind. Instead of letting the mind run a mile a minute with all the content online, this creates a step back. You can only think as fast as your pen can move on paper. It’s important to journal with a pen and paper. Typing can be pretty fast and that’s not the point of this exercise. Write it out to get it out! If you’re able, delete the social media apps you have off of your phone. This has made a huge difference for me personally! I still have social media, but it’s not at my beck and call. In consuming less content, I find myself less overwhelmed, more focused, and consequently, more grateful for the life that I have.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @anastasiabarkow