We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennings Rice a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jennings, 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.
Confidence is something that built up over time with me. Even to this day, I can feel myself shy away from a choice because I am afraid Casting won’t understand it or think I’m weird. Confidence in myself came from training and persistence. When I’m in LA, I’m always studying and working on ways to improve myself. My persistence comes from working hard and not stopping until something is exactly how I want it. There are weeks I have one audition and weeks I have ten and you have to have confidence and persistence in each one. Then you get a callback but don’t book. Or an avail check or pin and don’t book. But you have to keep moving forward no matter what, I don’t focus on the disappointment of the loss. I try to move forward and make the next audition better. There’s always been a drive inside me to work hard and continue forward no matter what– I love a good challenge.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I would describe myself as an actress, a writer and a comedian when the moment strikes. The truth is I’ve always loved telling stories and impersonating people. I love to make people laugh. I really try to specialize in telling the truth of a character no matter what that may be. I like to allow them to tell their story through me. I first began my solo writing journey when I penned “Next” in 2021. That film has brought me such joy and sorrow for many reasons and is about to end its festival circuit. We had the World Premiere at the Virginia Film Festival back in October and it was so heartwarming to see how many people related and enjoyed my work.
Next year, I’ve got two feature films coming out, in one of them I am the leading lady. I hope for my next year to audition more and book even more, perhaps even create more work of my own. I have my eyes on the prize and am hoping to hear back from one very exciting project in particular.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Oh man, probably resilience, wit and humor. Resilience is important in anything one does because it sets the tone of your character. Wit because you have to be so on your game whenever you act, things go crazy sometimes. I was recently shooting a big scene in a movie, tears streaming down my face, and we had to hold for a garbage truck. Afterward I just picked it right back up and continued. Humor, I am nothing without laughter. I think in this world you have to be willing to laugh things off. There’s nothing a good joke can’t fix.
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
I think the most important thing at the end of the day is to do what is true for you. I used to focus so much on the “box” I needed to be in for agents or castings or whatever and it was truly a waste of time. I like to think to myself: What do I want to do? Then develop a plan of attack. I love the show “Killing Eve” and I’d love to play a character like Villanelle, so I wrote a scene fand shot it. The simplicity of just doing what you want to do without flinching seems to be the biggest successful action of mine. I had an audition over Thanksgiving and I found myself looking up paintings in Versailles since she was a religious woman. Then I was able to draw inspiration for my character in that and I booked the job. I think whatever weird or funny ideas I have if I follow them down, they always end up being correct.
When I feel less strong about a skill in my life, I work on it. But only if I myself feel I need more work on the area, I don’t let others opinions dictate what I need to work on. Been there, done that, got a tee shirt, not doing it again.
Contact Info:
- Website: jenningsrice.com
- Email: jennings.rice2@gmail.com
- Instagram: @jenningsrice
Image Credits
Jonny Marlow Photography, Joel Grimes Photography
