Native to Orange County, California, this promising young Asian-American talent has proven her tenacity both onstage and off. Starving student by day, starving actress by… day, Camille Mana completed her economics and theatre studies at UC Berkeley in just six semesters, while concurrently managing to build the foundations of a professional acting career. This arduous process led to many plane trips, many failed midterms, and many illegal stimulants. Kidding, mom.
Recently, Camille was selected by Cannes and Oscar-winning director Adam Davidson to appear in Naked TV—an innovative staged pilot series co-produced by Fox and the prestigious Naked Angels Theatre Company—sharing the bill with such talents as Melissa Joan Hart. She has appeared on the WB’s cult fave Angel and the Fox hit The OC, for which she was featured in Elle Girl magazine. Camille’s comedic credits include Comedy Sportz High School League and stand-up at the world-famous Improv in Hollywood.
An active contributor to the Asian-American artistic community, Camille is a member of both Lodestone Theatre Ensemble and East West Players. She appears in the indie film Harlequin, a selection in both the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Fest and San Francisco International Asian-American Film Fest.
She has accrued a handful of performance awards including the LAMDA Gold Medal with Distinction, honoring promising American high school students. Others include: Music and Arts Commendation for Youth, multiple honors from Southern California Educational Theatre Association, and Emerging Young Artist Award Finalist.
More comedy and the start of a writing career are next on her agenda. Currently, she’s launching an offshoot of an entertainment industry startup, but if she told you what it was she’d have to do kung fu on you. Unfortunately, she doesn’t do kung fu, so you’ll just have to deal. Aregato that, mister. More information on Camille is available at http://camillemana.com.
I decided when I was thirteen. I guess I was watching My So-Called Life and—that sounds really dumb now—watching that show, for some reason I just made a conscious decision that this was what I wanted. I didn’t start doing it until later because my parents were typical Asian parents. Typical parents, period, are not going to want their kids to go into this business, but Asian parents especially, this is like their worst nightmare.
So, I was thirteen and that’s when I started researching the business. I read How to Be a Working Actor under my pillow with a flashlight in the eighth grade. I didn’t want my parents to find out. I would go to the library and check out all of the industry books and read as much as I could. At that age, I had already absorbed somewhat of an understanding of how the business worked but I wouldn’t be able to apply it until later when I had my driver’s license and could actually do things on my own.
I started high school and I tried to get involved with the Drama program and my parents were not happy because when you can’t drive, you have to get permission for all of that stuff. They were never going to start driving me to LA from Orange County to get an agent. But I didn’t get into the first production my freshman year, after they’d let me audition for that. They felt sorry for me. Oklahoma! was on at my high school and they were doing Oklahoma! at the community theatre, like at the children’s musical theatre. My parents said, “Poor her. She didn’t get in it at school. We’ll just take her to the audition on Saturday at the community theatre because we feel bad,” and I got in and they were like, “Oh, no!”
That was the first show I did: Oklahoma! at the children’s community theatre in Orange County. After that, I started to be really active in high school, professionally. As soon as I turned sixteen, I got my license and I drove out to American Academy of Dramatic Arts and I did the summer program. By that point, I had already done a lot of shows at school and I was emerging as one of the main people of my year in acting. I had to get really good grades, of course. You know Better Luck Tomorrow? That was my high school. Literally. My school was sixty-five percent Asian and we were number nineteen in the nation for academics out of all of the public schools. I had to compete on that level to keep my parents happy.
I continued to do classes in LA after the summer program at the American Academy, like on-camera classes. So, I started wanting to act when I was thirteen, but it took all those years of constantly training as much as my parents would let me and reading online and reading all of the “how to act” books. I did like ten shows at school and my parents would come, but when I started winning awards, they would not acknowledge that. I would compete in drama festivals and place and they would still not accept it. When I won an award for acting, they said, “Oh, good. Maybe you can be a lawyer.”
What was your first paid gig?
My first paid gig was my first commercial. It was an Oakland A’s commercial. It was actually my first union audition and I got my SAG card on that commercial. I was pretty lucky, I guess. I was in San Francisco. I went to Berkeley and this was during my first semester. I knew that I wanted to have a normal college period and still build the foundations of an acting career. If I went to UCLA or NYU, I knew I would eat, sleep, and breathe theatre and I wouldn’t be able to study and have a normal college life.
I had an agent in LA pretty much the whole time I was at Berkeley. I used to pretend that I lived in LA. My agent didn’t find out until a long time in. I would fly down for my theatrical auditions. I never missed an appointment! One time I had to call from the plane to push back a few minutes, but I never missed one appointment, even coming from San Francisco. I got away with it forever! I had a really low-level agent in LA and there wouldn’t be that much stuff for me, so I knew it would only be once in a while. I was ready, when those times happened, to not get caught.
Of course, the last week of one semester, my last test, I was going to cram. It was seven o’clock at night and I had a test at three the next day and I was going to study until the test and not sleep since I was so behind in the class. This was an Econ final. I got an email that said I had a producer session in Santa Monica at 10am. I was going to go home right after the test for the semester break. I was going to be home free. At first, when I got the email, I thought, “At this point, I can’t possibly do it.” And then I said, “Screw it! I’m getting in the car.” I packed up my suitcase, I brought my test stuff, and I called my dad and said, “I’m coming to the airport right now. I’m in on the last flight. I have an appointment in Santa Monica and if you could just take me back to the airport right after, I’ll go straight to my test.” So, I got back and did really bad on the test. My grade dropped a whole letter for the class and I didn’t get the job. But I said, “Y’know what, I did the right thing. I made the right choice and I don’t regret it at all.” Two weeks later, they ended up booking me for another role in that same episode. It was my first non-crime-reenactment show role. This was Angel. I didn’t get the part that I read for, but they ended up writing in another part which had way more scenes. But even when I didn’t get it, I thought I made the right choice and I always knew that this was my first priority and that school would always be there.
Did you do any internships while you were in college?
I did a couple. I also thought I might go into the music industry, so I had an internship in a casting office and at Capitol Records. I really wanted to create an acting resume and also an entertainment work industry resume in case I ended up doing that. I worked for eight months at a feature film casting office in Venice during a break from school. I started out as an intern but I was hired on my third day. I was still an intern, but I got paid. I was nineteen and I wanted to finish school so I didn’t accept a long-term job there, but I learned so much from it! So much came out of that.
The most helpful thing about interning in a casting office is that you really see the big picture. I had a pretty good foundation of what the good agents were from what I’d read, but in the office, I saw which packages got opened. And that was a pretty name-oriented office too. That really taught me a lot. I used to sit in on the sessions. I would tape them. I got to watch all of these bigger actors come in. I realized how much less of a chance actors have if they’re not at big management companies or A-list agencies with celebrity clients. You have to get there in order to get anywhere in a casting office. That was a big lesson. Even the really small roles would come from the A agencies. And if they hadn’t cast something for weeks and weeks, they’d then go through the stacks and the boxes and boxes of Bs and Cs. It was really frustrating because it made me realize how far I would have to go to get anywhere.
How did you get your first agent?
My first agent was a referral from some on-camera class I was taking in LA. I had sent out tons of submissions throughout high school and I don’t know what I was hoping to get. I was still pretending that I didn’t really want to do it, but I was sending out a real headshot, resume, and cover letter—but, oh, that headshot was so horrible! I looked thirty in the picture!
My San Francisco agent was the one I had when I first started booking. I had an agent in LA and that was the logo on my picture. I submitted to the top agents in San Francisco—there are only about a dozen—and I got one on my first round. It was my second appointment that I scheduled. The problem was, I was never really in San Francisco. I was always home and trying to work in LA. They got annoyed with me because I would book stuff but I would never be available because I had a final or I was in LA for an audition or something.
Are your friends in the industry?
Most of my friends are musicians. I’m not the person who hangs out with actors on weekends. I love actors and I’ll keep in contact and hang out and talk business, but I don’t go to parties with them or anything. I kind of don’t like hanging out with actors. I’ve always been really into music. I’ve been to three hundred or more shows. I’ve always appreciated music, but never thought that I should be making music. But most of my friends make music. They’re just kids. I don’t even talk to my friends about my acting life, even though it’s probably the biggest part of my life. I keep it separate from my friends.
What is your favorite thing about being an actor?
I don’t even know why I knew I wanted to be an actor. It’s just the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing I’m still thinking about when I go to bed everyday: my acting career, wherever it is. I can’t stop! I have a degree, I could do a lot of things, but I couldn’t quit. I can’t stop. I don’t know what is my favorite thing; it’s just really exciting to know that you don’t really know what’s going to happen. There’s just so much potential and opportunity out there.
How do you handle rejection?
It’s still hard, every day. It’s not hard getting rejected on a daily basis; it’s hard when you’re not moving forward at the rate that you feel that you’ve worked hard enough to earn. That’s hard.
How would you describe the mentoring process?
I’m already a goal-oriented person, but having somebody keep me on track and push me more is really cool. I’m starting to look at people who are ten, twenty, thirty years older than me in the Asian community and think, “Well, if this person was working when there were less opportunities, then I can do it!” I look for people who are grounded in their lives and have been through it all. It’s inspiring to see that someone has done it and been happy and given something to the community—not necessarily broken through, but they’re working and they’re happy and they’re creating.
How do you reconcile the age issue?
I’m in a transition. I don’t know what side of me to show. It’s hard. I’m not even trying to be younger; I’m just me. When I go out for twenties, I never get called back! I know I have maturity, but I’m not enough of a woman yet. In class, I’m always working on older material but I’m in the middle right now! I’m with an agent in the youth department. I know they’re going to submit me for whatever I’m right for, but it’s really hard when I just went to producers for fifteen last week and a role for twenty-one comes up next week. “Dammit! I gave such a good young read, they’re never going to see me older.” I think that is the case with anyone in any transition between types or age or anything. It’s hard and I’m still grappling with it.
I don’t know what side of me to show—and there are so many sides to all of us anyway. It’s all a PR game! I don’t know if I can talk about it candidly because it does become the publicity you put out there. People don’t respond to me as the age I am. But I don’t know; am I allowed to hang out with people my age? I’m happy to go out older in my roles, but it’s hard and it’s going to be years before I can really be seen as my age. In the end, I go out for what I go out for one hundred percent.
What advice would you give to an actor starting out?
Give yourself permission to do a lot of different things in the business. I just started stand-up this year and I just started writing this year. I never thought that I could do those things. I’m just realizing that, putting in enough effort, I can do those things just as good as anybody who is doing them as their main thing. I realize I don’t fit the prototype for the Asian stereotype. I’m realizing I’m going to have to write the roles for myself. I’m doing stand-up so that I can put what I know I am “out there.” If I don’t fit into someone else’s storyline or whatever niche is already out there, I’m going to have to create that. I just wrote my first short film and since I have contacts with screenwriting people, I think I’m going to be able to produce and get funded my first short and be in it. I’ve written it for me. I don’t fit into the narrow Asian female niche. It sucks. I’ve seen friends who are totally that prototype take off because they looked it. So, if I want to book the lead, I have to write it first. I’m not afraid of that.
This interview was conducted on January 25, 2005, and it originally appeared in Acting Qs: Conversations with Working Actors by Bonnie Gillespie and Blake Robbins, available at Amazon.