Community Connection
This year, for COL Community Connections I chose to interview Ari Guzhel, she is an 18 year old student as well as a young actor, who has acted on the popular TV show Once Upon A Time as well as the short film Lifelines which has been played at over 13 film festivals around the globe, and has won 4 awards one being the Joey Award. Being an actor the responsibilities she takes are preparing for as many auditions as she can, as well as extensively researching the character and studying the script by memorizing and rehearsing the lines. In the past Ari has played the role of a foster child in a short scene from my favorite show Once Upon A Time, which was the first time I was introduced to her, the reason I chose to interview her was because attending school and being an actor is a lot to handle for one person especially for a student. Seeing what she accomplishes in her life through the acting world and school, continues to inspire me everyday to work hard and achieve what I believe in.
1) Why are you passionate about your job?
“I’ve wanted to be an actor since I was a kid, it’s always been my passion. I love acting because I love exploring different characters and worlds: I absolutely adore breaking down scenes and characters and finding new ways to connect to characters that may be very different from me.” – Ari
2) What obstacles have you faced to get you where you are today?
“The greatest obstacle, as cliche as it sounds, is being hard on myself. Being an artist, we’re most hard on ourselves and our work so the biggest struggle is continuing to pursue the career when it feels like it’s leading to no where.” – Ari
3) What advice would you pass on to someone interested in what you are doing?
“The best advice i could give would be to take as many classes as possible and branch out to meet local actors, everyone has a different method, and hearing everyone’s different input on auditions and creating a character is really interesting. With this industry a lot of research must be done into classes, agents etc. You also have to be willing to put in a lot of time and effort into auditions and your craft.” – Ari
4) Would you be open to further contact from Riverside students and if so, how can someone contact you?
“Sure! They can reach me on this account on Instagram. @ariguzhel” – Ari
5) What steps would you recommend someone on taking for starting a job in acting?
“Same advice as above, be willing to put in a LOT of time and effort. You’ve got to be resilient with all the rejection that happens.” – Ari
6) How do you prepare for a character role you are doing for the first time?
“I break down the characters in the scene, not just mine. What is the relationship between my character and the rest? Where are we? What are the stakes? Another important thing to consider is objective being “What does my character want?” and “What’s stopping my character from getting what they want?” – Ari
Photos on set from the scene Ari played on Once Upon A Time.
The Short Scene:
The photos and scene above is where a foster child (Ari) tries to disappoint the main character by bullying her to quit having hope because no one cares enough about her so she won’t get anywhere in life.
Photos from the scenes of Lifelines
In conclusion, during this interview Ari helped open up opportunities by giving advice on where to start, she suggested taking as many classes around my area for acting to see what works best as well as always keeping in mind that lots of time and effort is needed. When I finished the interview I learnt that working to achieve what you want when your struggling can be hard for you, but putting in effort, time, energy, and care. Will allow you to get where you want. What I learned connected to my interests because I play basketball and at times when I lose a game, get too tired, or see how much better another player is, I feel as if I can never play as good and I should just stop because I am wasting my time. Where if I put in effort to time practices with a positive energy I could get better shortly.
Cites of the photos I used from websites
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