We’re looking forward to introducing you to Jackie Dallas. Check out our conversation below.
Jackie, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
Traveling and spending time with my family! I love to travel and fortunately, I get to travel for my work often, but it is definitely a different experience having a random day off on your own versus getting to plan a whole itinerary with the people you love! Recently, I did a trip to South Korea with my husband, my sister and her husband and my parents who haven’t been to Korea in nearly 40 years! It was such a memorable and fun trip where we got to hear so many nostalgic stories about my parents that I’ve never heard before!
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am a TV and film actress best. known for my roles on The Hunting Wives, Stranger Things and over a dozen other hit TV shows! I’ve worked with Academy Award winners in films such as Morgan Freeman and Juliette Binoche! When I’m not working on a filming project, I am an advocate for women’s health. Before becoming an actress, I was a medical doctor and still have a passion to help people where I can, so I work with several medical professionals to help to empower women by educating them on their bodies and pelvic health during a time when the healthcare system doesn’t always offer the research and resources that we need to make informed decisions.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
Growing up, I had an entire eight years of childhood by myself before my sister was born and so I relied on a pretty vivid imagination to keep myself entertained. I didn’t watch a whole lot of television and our society wasn’t saturated by screens and smart devices back then, so I was a typical ‘imaginary friends’ and ‘go outside’ type of kid. I remember creating these entire worlds back then based off of Disney movies and wanting to be every type of character! When I got a little older and was asked in school what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer always changed. Sometimes it was a teacher like my aunt. Other times an architect like my grandfather. I also thought being an astronaut would be pretty cool. Then in junior high, I explored being a junior police cadet, JROTC and when I started learning different languages, I thought it would be pretty cool to work for the CIA or FBI. I also took a lot of theater classes and did drama club extracurricularly because I fell in love with performing! Ultimately though, I went to medical school to become a doctor like my parents. Pursuing medicine is an arduous path. It’s not only a lot of school, but clinical training and residency can entail long work hours under stressful and physically demanding conditions. It can be very challenging to nurture hobbies or other interests, and I found that many of the creative outlets that I once enjoyed, I no longer had time for. One of the most beautiful things to me about being an actor is that, not only is it creative, but it allows me to finally get to explore all of the lives and occupations that I could only dream about before! Now, depending on the project, I can be a teacher, a police officer, a CIA agent, and even a doctor on screen, and to me, that is the coolest thing in the world!
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
I firmly believe that we learn just as much, if not more, from our struggles than from our successes. When you succeed too soon, it can be easy to mistake fortune for hard work and you may develop the impression that what you achieved was easy. Alternatively, when thrust unprepared into a spotlight, you may suffer from imposter syndrome. However, when you fail at something, you are forced to reflect on what didn’t work and why. You learn to think critically and be resourceful in coming up with another solution to overcome an obstacle. In many cases, you become more self-aware, which can motivate you to learn new skill sets or etiquettes for new environments and better prepare you for new situations. It also teaches you how to cope with disappointment and build resilience when so many others simply give up. And finally, It teaches you the value of hard work and gives you a genuine appreciation for success when it happens.
In my journey as an actor, I did find success relatively early with a small role on Season 1 of Stranger Things. I didn’t realize at the time that many people spend years and years auditioning before booking their first costar, and I did it in 2 years on a hit show! Now, I recognize how lucky I was, but at the time, I thought that was normal and didn’t realize the impact that would have on my career. After the initial wave of interview requests, Instagram followers and red carpet invitations, it would be another two years of auditioning before I would book my next series on Criminal Minds. Now that I’m 10 years into my career, I acknowledge how fortunate I’ve been and I do believe that I am much better prepared to celebrate my success on the new number one Netflix hit show The Hunting Wives, than I was for Stranger Things. I have learned so much since then between the typical actor auditioning experience, as well as the pandemic and strikes, that I feel truly humbled and appreciative of where I am now. Not only can I enjoy the hype surrounding the show, but I feel like I can give myself permission to be proud of the work I’ve put in to get me where I am now.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What’s a belief you used to hold tightly but now think was naive or wrong?
I think a lot of people who move to Hollywood to pursue acting, myself included, believe that if they work hard and develop their craft, they will inevitably succeed. Others think that they can simply ‘network’ their way to the top. And while I do still think that skills, confidence and connections is critical to success, I think a lot of people approach it wrong. When I first moved to LA, I was so humbled by the number of beautiful and talented people I met. I became enamored by the social events that promised me access to exclusive people and opportunities. But I was also surprised by how many of them were still struggling to find an agent or book their first network role. In LA, there are networking events every night filled with ticket purchasing hopefuls. I’ve been to dozens of them over the years I’ve lived here and I can say that the vast majority of them never lead to anything substantial. Now, I realize that success in this industry requires more than just skills and networking. It is nuanced by HOW you network and WHO you network with. It is WHAT are you good at and HOW do you show that off? I would say focus on building real professional relationships, and you do that through years of consistency, dependability and reciprocation.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. Have you ever gotten what you wanted, and found it did not satisfy you?
Absolutely. Sometimes we get so caught up with getting to the finish line, that we forget to check in on ourselves along the way. The path to becoming a doctor is a long one. It’s 4 years of undergrad as a pre-med, then 4 years of medical school, 3-6 years of residency training, and another 1-3 years of fellowship if you want to subspecialize. And that’s not counting any years “off” taken to pursue clinical research or work in the field as a non-trainee. When I set out to do medicine, like many others, the desire came from an altruistic place. I wanted to help people. But becoming a doctor is much more complicated than figuring out the right diagnosis and treatment plan. It’s learning to navigate an increasingly complicated healthcare system. How to advocate on behalf of your patients over declined insurance coverages. It’s figuring out how to proceed ethically when financial, politcal and religious constraints conflict with what is standard of care. And most challenging, how to avoid burn out when there are increasing demands on your work hours, patient loads and hospital quotas, while support staff, resources and compensation become more limited. Along the way, I remember telling myself that ‘it would get better’. In premed, I told myself it would get more interesting once I could focus on the topics that appealed to me instead of physics. In med school, I said that I’ll really start feeling gratification when I start working with patients in clinical rotations rather than sitting in a classroom. In clinicals, I said that residency will be much cooler because then I’ll finally be a real doctor. Then at some point in residency, when I was exhausted, stressed and sleep deprived during a post call work day, something in my mind shifted and I realized that I would never be satisfied with a job that I would always have to compromise my liveliness for, I remember the moment it happened. It was late afternoon on a post call work day, and I was exhausted from not sleeping the night before when I saw one of the attending surgeons come in to scrub in for an emergency surgery. It was for a patient she had operated on a few days before and an unfortunate complication had arisen. I scrubbed in with her and during the case, she mentioned how she had planned a big sweet 16th birthday party for her daughter that evening, and was now missing it because of this emergency. And it made me think back to all the times that my parents had also had to miss events growing up because of their unpredictable schedules, and how disappointing it always made us feel. I realized right then, that being a surgeon was not the life for me. I made the decision to apply for a different specialty the following year, even if it meant I had to start my residency training over. And that’s what I did. I got accepted into a pathology program in Chicago, and for the next couple years, I buried myself in a different kind of work. The job was good and I didn’t mind it much, but I didn’t get joy from it either. Plus, I was living long-distance from my fiance and I found that the seasonal depression just hit a little harder when it was -20 degrees. When my fiance got accepted into a program in California, we hit a fork in the road and had to decide if we both continued on a trajectory towards our respective careers, or if one of us changes course to stay together. I had decided that after all of the years of working towards being a doctor, and testing out two different specialities, it was still not what I wanted to spend my life doing, and so I left medicine to move to California to be with my husband and try something new. I didn’t really know what that would be yet, and I was definitely nervous, but it was also really exciting! I felt a sense of relief and happiness as soon as I said my decision, and feeling that again made me know that it was a step in the right direction!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jackiedallas.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaxdallas
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/jaxdallas
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jackiedallas123
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/jackiedallas
- Other: https://www.imdb.me/jackiedallas
Image Credits
Main image in Olive Blazer: JSquared Photography
Screenshots: Courtesy of Lionsgate/Netflix
Gold dress on black couch: Brian Delfin
Denim jacket on floor: Brian Delfin
Blue tweed dress: JSquared Photography
Black Dress: JSquared Photography
White dress: JSquared Photography
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