Meet Jessica Woehler

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

Jessica, 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.

What a good question. I believe that confidence is something that is continually developed through different experiences that life brings to us. I am someone who has struggled with a sense of confidence throughout my acting career, and the longer I am in the industry to more I have learned that that is the case for nearly everyone. It can be so difficult to constantly be walking into audition rooms knowing that you’ll stand up there for your two minutes and be judged. I don’t mean that in a negative way, it is just the nature of the business. When we as actors don’t get the roles we audition for, it is rarely because we had a terrible audition or because we don’t have any talent. I have to continually remind myself that the “no’s” are not personal, and that every audition room I have the privilege of walking in to, that I could be the potential solution to this casting directors needs. If not, that is okay. As a Christian, I know that my true worth and identity comes from Christ, and that is the anchor of truth that I keep going back to no matter what season my acting career may be in. I know that I am made in the image of the Creator, the original Story Teller, so it is a gift whenever I have an opportunity to step into a story and help tell it, be it for a self tape or a professional stage production.

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

I am an LA native, grateful to be a working actor and published author. Last year I have the privilege of becoming a company member at Actors Co-op in Hollywood, CA. I had the true joy of being a part of the world premier production of the stage adaptation of The Human Comedy, written and directed by Thom Babbes. Most recently, I just concluded a nearly sold out run of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, where I was given the gift of playing Olivia opposite an incredible cast of truly hilarious and talented actors. In addition to acting at Actors Co-op, I also have the privilege of serving on the production committee. I earned my BA in Theatre from George Fox University, and I recently graduated with my MA in Professional Creative Writing from the University of Denver. Over the course of that program, I had four short stories published in various magazines. I am currently working on my debut novel.

When I am not in Hollywood performing, I am busy storytelling with a little blue droid named R2D2 at Disneyland in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. I have been a cast member in the entertainment department there for nearly six years and had the unique opportunity to be a part of the opening cast for Galaxy’s Edge. Working for Disney was a childhood dream of mine and I am grateful to have had the opportunities that I have had while working there.

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

In short: grit, gratitude, and grace.

Those three qualities have been woven throughout all of life’s mountain and valley moments for me. Having a certain level of grit has helped get me outside of my comfort zone and going after things that may scare me. Be it moving to Germany after undergrad, auditioning again and again for Disney until they said yes, or deciding to run my first half marathon after learning that my pelvis had been broken in a car accident, I have been able to (and have also failed to) say yes to Gods will and allow Him lead me to where He wants me to be.

Gratitude is one of the most important aspects of my life. It is truly incredible how being grateful for things, even the hard things, can radically change our perspective on things and settle our hearts into the present. I believe that not being grateful in the present can allow fear to keep us trapped in the past. I was first introduced to the idea of gratitude through Ann Voskamp’s book One Thousand Gifts. In it, Ann details a dare she was given by a friend to make a list of one thousand things she was grateful for and I was moved to do the same. Years later, I have journals filled with lists of a thousand. I can’t imagine my life without a lens of gratitude.

Grace. Always, always grace. Grace for myself, grace for those around me, grace to accept the doors God opens as well closes. That is easier said than done, and my heart can so quickly forget the beauty and the necessity of grace, but I am grateful to always hind my way back to it.

So if I would to offer any advice to others, it would would be to press on with grit, hold tight to grace, and remember that no matter what, there is always, always, always something to be thankful for.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

Okay, this isn’t an obstacle I am currently facing, but it is one I just recently overcame. Last weekend my most recent show I was in closed, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. As a long time lover of Shakespeare, I was absolutely thrilled to get to step into the role of Olivia. I was also absolutely terrified. For those unfamiliar with Twelfth Night, Olivia is described as this beautiful woman that all the men are fawning after. And that is the type of role I had not been given the chance to play. I was told by a professor in college that I would never play a romantic lead so when, ten years later, I was actually cast as my first romantic lead, all I could hear were those words saying that I couldn’t do this. But the director of Twelfth Night had seen something in me, a side of me that I knew existed but never entertained, and so I threw myself into the rehearsal process. After six weeks of rehearsals that were filled with joy, laughter, tears, and frustration, opening night came with an overwhelming sense of achievement. The show was a hilarious hit, and I will forever hold dear the memory of taking that opening night bow with my incredible cast. It’s so beautiful how God uses every aspect of life to shape us into who He created us to be. This whole year has been a year of tiling the soil of my heart, healing old wounds, and growing closer to God and my heart is grateful.

P.S. Don’t ever let someone else’s opinion of you dictate how you see yourself. Life is simply too short to not walk in the truth that you are here on purpose and for a purpose!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @jessica_woehler

Image Credits

Kassy Menke
Zak Shelby-Szyszko
Cosette Hatch