Meet Betito LePelch

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

Betito, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?

A constant determination to succeed and a positive attitude! Humans are creative creatures, instinctively we strive for innovation. What keeps my creativity tanks flowing is the fact that in order for me to reach my goals, I need to constantly innovate my approach. A simple daily revision of desired goals can determine if the current steps taken will lead to the completion of that goal. Logically if something isn’t working, it will require you to tweak your approach. As you may be aware doing the same repetitive task will NEVER render a different outcome. If that outcome isn’t what you expected, logically you must start to think of creative ways to change what you are doing in order to reach your desired conclusion.

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

Hi Everyone! My name is Betito LePelch and I am an Actor living in Los Angeles!

Originally from Lima Peru, My family emigrated to the United States in the early 1990s. We had moved to the east coast of the United States where I essentially spent my childhood and early adolescent years.

My Acting Story is a truly unique one! I was never ever a drama student and couldn’t have cared less about being an actor. I was very shy and often nervous to present in front of large groups even if they were my peers.

In college I studied Business Management because the one thing I was completely sure of was that I was going to make it in the business world. Before graduating college, I was working hard as a server in one of the most popular restaurant chains in the United States (The Cheesecake Factory). This was because my education wasn’t going to pay for itself and serving allowed me the best flexibility to tackle both.

One fateful day, I served an older woman and her son. She kept complimenting me on my good looks, charm and witty personality. This was not new to me. I was an amazing server. Before she left however, she handed me a business card and told me to contact her after my shift so she could tell me more about what it was that she did.

I know what you are thinking and no it wasn’t a booty call. Honestly I thought this woman was trying to scam me out of some money but, I wasn’t born yesterday and I knew what to look out for. Despite my skepticism, I called her prepared to divert any requests for money.

Turns out she was a talent coach. She claimed that she had worked as a model in the early 1970s and was trying to break into the acting industry but, had a son which changed the course of her life. She claimed to have industry contacts out in Los Angeles and New York City whom she could introduce me to if I wanted to pursue acting/modeling. I remember saying something along the lines of “Lady, I’m a athlete, I’m no actor” to which she responded. “Honey, Hollywood needs all kinds of good looking buff/strong guys, look at The Rock or John Cena” she had me there.

After hearing her spiel, she hit me with the hard close. She said that she would train me in the art of acting/ modeling for 11 weeks straight all at a cost of $100/week. Total $1,100. At that point, I responded with “Lady, I’m a college student you found at a restaurant, you think I got that kind of money lying around? No thanks.” What happened next really changed the course of my story.

Naturally a saleswoman, the gal offered to train me for 5 weeks RISK FREE (a $500 value) so that I may trial her services. She instructed me to come to her office 2 days per week for a 1-2 hour session. After 5 weeks, I would make my decision to walk or continue with the last 6 classes at her current rate.

Well at that point I had nothing to lose so I gave it a shot! Over those 5 weeks she taught me Meisner, Stella Adler and Alexander technique. Not to mentioned she sprinkled in some Modeling lessons in there too. I fell in love with acting. Never in my wildest imagination did I think I’d like pretending so much but, acting really captivated my interest. Needless to say I finished with the free training and continued with her course.

After about a year with her she told me that I was ready for Hollywood and started pitching my headshots to her “industry contacts.” She booked me for a few meetings in New York City which unfortunately went no where but, it was exhilarating just being in front of people who were responsible for such big name artists. I had performed at acting roundtables, accompanied her to gala’s and even helped her move to a new condo but, nothing ever resulted in me gaining representation from her contacts.

Sadly we lost touch and I’ve never heard from her since.

Fast forward a few years later, I had eventually taken the leap of faith and moved to Los Angeles. Upon arriving I was fortunate enough to get casted on some of the most popular TV shows on the air! Nothing super astronomical but, little bragging rights here and there.

Today I’m still fighting for that dream to be a lead actor on a network tv show running at least 8-9 seasons. Acting is my passion!! Currently I’m working as an Independent Actor booking anything I can get myself on. I quickly earned my SAG Union Membership within a year and have been a prominent member of the Acting community ever since.

Everyday is a new push! New Goals to hit! New projects to start!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Three important qualities to posses in my opinion are Discipline, Perseverance and Intuition.

Discipline is the most important one in my book. Discipline is training your mind to focus on the goals you have set for yourself that day. It’s incredibly easy to give up. I’ve seen countless acting friends fall fate to the monster that is Hollywood. They say on average 90,000 people move to Los Angeles every year. Of those it’s safe to say about 1/3rd to half are here to pursue careers in entertainment. That means you are competing with at least 25,000 new faces every year.

Logically not everyone is cut out for this so within that year about 1/3rd of the people who moved here to act/model/sing will pack their bags and head on back to where they came from. Many of my friends met this fate.

Discipline forces you to keep going. I wake up every day and submit myself to no less than 50 projects per day. At that rate I submit to 250 -300 project a week and over 1000/month. That’s just what it takes! If you aren’t willing to do that don’t bother coming to Hollywood.

Perseverance is the bi-product of discipline. You will face more rejection in this business than any other one. I can’t tell you how many auditions I’ve gone to or video submissions I’ve sent only to get the big ole NO or them just never contacting me again. You just have to eat those punches and not get discouraged. All while trying to keep yourself afloat because of course Los Angeles is one of the most expensive cities in the planet to live in. That’s why most “artists” work at coffee shops, restaurants, bars and other service industry jobs to make sure they can survive out here.

Lastly Intuition is a must. There is no “handbook” to making it in Hollywood and to be honest people aren’t willing to help you because it could affect their personal gain. I’m happy to lend a hand or share what has worked for me but, I recall asking many cast mates to share their managers or agents phone numbers all for them to respond “I’ll pass them your contact” to which I know they are lying. You have to figure a lot of it out yourself. When I first came here, I needed headshots. Firstly I didn’t even know what that meant, secondly I didn’t know anyone with a camera and I didn’t have the means to pay $500 for a session with a photographer. What I did have was a nice white wall, plenty of sunlight and a sweet digital camera with a stand that I used to “fake” my own professional headshots.

You also have to find out where to submit your auditions and where to find casting notices. Remember, the competition is fierce and other actors would rather you move back home than figure it out in LA. They already know there is 20,000 more people gearing up to come next year and you are one less person in their way to stardom.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

The biggest challenge that I am currently facing is finding good representation. Even if you were as talented as Brad Pitt or Robert Downey Jr, you won’t go far without an agent.

Agents are the people who help connect actors to casting director. They are the ones who formulate the relationships and pitch their clients as if they were common goods. Think about it like this. A good agent will likely have studio contacts, those contacts would possibly have access to casting directors whom are in charge of finding the right actors for a project. They would have the insider knowledge of what’s coming up so that the agent can find the right actor in his/her rolodex to pitch to that studio executive. Thus, having the right agent on your team can open more doors that you didn’t have access to.

The unfortunate conundrum is the fact that for a good agent to even consider representing you, you must meet certain criteria. For starters they won’t even look at you if you aren’t a Union Member. Next you need to have a “reel” that demonstrates your acting prowess and you must have a padded resume of productions you’ve already worked on.

NO agent will accept a person who has freshly moved to LA unless they really see something special in you. Imagine you freshly graduated college and are looking for a professional job. Most jobs require 2-3 years of experience, references and you have to accept dogshit level pay. Yet being fresh out of college how will you even get the experience needed for an entry level position? Or obtain professional references that can attest to your skills.

It’s the same thing out here for acting! How am I supposed to get a Reel without being given the shot to act. That’s where the Perseverance and Intuition kick in. They say you got to get with film students and do a bunch of shoots for FREE in order to gain the footage needed to create a reel.

Bit of a vicious cycle but, even experienced actors like myself face this every day. I just choose to never give up.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @betitolepelch
• Youtube: @A4shizzle

Image Credits

All Images taken by Betito LePelch