A native Texan, Samantha Droke was born on November 8, 1987, in Deleon. She is the daughter of Lyndon and Synthia Droke. Samantha possessed a love of performing from a very young age. She started out singing and modeling and then, after meeting with manager Kristi Martin, her interests began to move to acting. She truly believed that she was destined for the silver screen. Samantha began modeling and acting in plays and commercials locally. She was discovered by agent Nicole Conner at the tender age of fifteen.
Within two weeks, she landed her first independent feature film Truce directed by Matthew Marconi, co-starring alongside Buck Taylor (who played Newly in Gunsmoke) and Oscar-nominated actor George Kennedy from Cool Hand Luke. After wrapping Truce, she had then truly caught the bug. Her family packed their bags and moved to LA. This year, at seventeen, Samantha has begun to hit her stride. She landed a national commercial for Cingular Wireless and recently booked a guest-star role on the Hallmark Channel’s Jane Doe: The Wrong Face (directed by Mark Griffiths) and a starring role in the feature film Don’t Be Scared (directed and produced by Percy Miller and Li’l Romeo).
Samantha also performs at the LA Connection Comedy Improv Club. Not only beautiful and intelligent, Samantha has the kind of drive and determination rarely seen in actors her age. More is available at http://us.imdb.com/name/nm1534182.
When I first started acting, I was really, really young. My dad has been in bands since he was fifteen. So, I kind of started singing and performing—and I like taking pictures. So, my mom signed me up for some modeling thing. When I went to do modeling, they got me into acting. I was like, “I’ll try that out. That’s fine.” When I went to audition, they gave me a commercial and I loved it. It was really fun. That’s how I got into acting. I was ten. From then on, I started taking acting and modeling classes. I kind of moved away from the modeling and really loved acting. I’m from a really small town, Gustine, Texas. It’s about two hours from Dallas. My mom would drive me to Dallas every weekend—two hours, back and forth—for classes.
A lady that my mom had met at the classes had stayed in contact with her over the years. She told her about this lady in San Antonio that her daughter was with—she was a manager or agent. I went and saw this lady—her name’s Kristy Martin—and interviewed with her. She loved me. She told me that she had this showcase that she does here in LA called “LA 101.” It’s a showcase where she has maybe ten agents out here come and see her clients—who travel to LA—perform for them. She brought us out here to see these top agencies. We worked with her in Dallas for about three weeks and she worked with us on scenes and monologues. When we came out here, we would perform a commercial and a monologue for the agents. If they liked us, they would bring us in and interview us. I had about three agents interested in me out of the ten. I was fifteen when I did this.
I went with the agent I was real comfortable with and that liked me. While I was here for the showcase—I was here for a week—she sent me out on four things in two days. The day before I was supposed to go back to Texas, she had a producer of an independent film in her office. I came into the office that day and she brought me in to talk to the producer. The next day, they set up a meeting for me to come and audition for him and the director. The scene was a crying scene, so I had to cry. What I’d learned from my acting coaches was to think of things that were sad to me. Well, my grandfather had passed away, so that’s what I thought of. I cried and everything. They loved it. They wanted a girl with long hair—I have the long hair. So, I auditioned and the next day we went back to Texas—I didn’t think of it. Well, I thought of it maybe a little bit.
Over the years, when I was acting, my parents were wanting to move out here to LA. When I left to go back home, my mom was like, “If you get the movie, we can move back out and if not, we’ll go out for pilot season. And then we’ll see what goes on from there.” We had come out here before for a pilot season. Well, about a month later, my manager had called me and told me that I had booked the movie. I was so excited! It was the first big thing I had ever done. They sent me the script and everything. They told us what was all going to happen, where it was at. It was filmed in Stockton, California. A couple of weeks later, me and my mom came out here and did the movie. That made me SAG-eligible. After the movie was over, we went back home—this was Thanksgiving 2003—and then we moved out here in the new year, 2004.
What was it like going to LA for pilot season?
In my second pilot season, my first audition was for Judging Amy. I worked with a coach on it and everything. I went in, I was fixin’ to start. I looked down to get my first line and the casting director said, “Wait. Stop.” And I said, “What?” And she was like, “Look at me when you’re saying it. Don’t go down in your paper.” I was just going down to get my line! I was going to come up and then say it. That kind of threw me. This is my first audition of the pilot season, and I’m kind of nervous. I still went on, I did my best. Then I came out and I just bawled. It was the first time I ever cried after an audition. I was like, “Oh, my gosh!” But then, maybe two weeks later, they asked me to come in again! The casting director loved me! Then I went in for producers—the same thing. I kept going in, going in, going to producers, and then I’m thinking whatever happened in my first audition, now this lady loved me. You kind of learn from that. You can’t take anything too seriously.
How do you handle being a working actor while in school?
Ever since I started acting when I was ten, I did acting classes on the weekend, so my friends would always want me to go and do stuff with them and I couldn’t. I had to go to Dallas and work on my acting. I was doing sports too, and we’d have tournaments on the weekend and I couldn’t make it because of my acting. Then they kind of got like, “You think you’re better than us.” But it was just scheduling and something that I did. My parents and my sister would tell me, “Oh, they’re just jealous.” They were just always mean to me.
So, I’m homeschooled now. I’ve been doing homeschooling for about a year, ever since I got the movie and we moved out here. My mom didn’t want me to go to public school in LA. I would love to go to school, just to be around people and have the social life and everything, but I’m getting to graduate earlier. When I have auditions or classes or something, it doesn’t interrupt. My mom doesn’t have to pick me up from school or anything. It’s easier and my mom helps me with my school and everything. You can do work any time you want. I like it better.
Have you seen any part of the movie you did?
I have! Two months ago, we had an ADR for the movie. There was a scene in the movie that you couldn’t hear the talking—there might be a plane or traffic or something going by and you miss the vocals—so you go back in and you re-record over the film. You have to get in character again—like you’re really there, months later. I got to see little clips of the film then. When I first walked in and I saw myself on the screen, it was a crying scene. I teared up! I was like, “Oh my gosh! I made myself cry!” It was really funny. But I was kind of critiquing myself, like I should’ve done that a different way or something. But I guess every actor does that.
Are your friends in the industry?
Yeah. All my friends are actors. I hang out with my friends a lot. Mostly, we go out to dinner. One of my friends is on a Disney show right now, so we go sometimes on Tuesdays for the audience taping. We go watch some of our friends on set do their stuff. Or we go to movies, bowling, whatever.
I know a lot of young actors go through this: When you start acting, a lot of your friends are rude to you or mean or think that you think you’re better than them. “You’re better than me, just because you’re an actor!” Just blow that off. There’s so much more happening for you than them. They’re just mad because they’re not getting to do what you’re doing. I went through that. All my friends that I know went through it. Don’t let it bring you down. Find friends that support who you are and what you’re doing. I did that.
Are you the only one in your family who is in the industry?
My older sister is twenty-seven. She already has a family in Texas. My other sister is twenty-three. She’s in Texas too. It’s hard being away from them, kind of. I stay in touch with them. But it’s hard because my older sister is thinking about having a baby. I’m not going to be there all the time, so that’s sad. Also, when we did move out here, it was a struggle. When we came to move out here, my parents sold everything in our house. We sold everything we had. All we had was two cars and our clothes. That’s all we had. When we first moved out here, we lived in the Holiday Inn, in the suites, for about four or five months. My mom had all these things she could do for work, but she couldn’t do them out here, because she wasn’t licensed out here. She was a teacher, a technician, but she couldn’t do those things here without a license here. And my dad couldn’t find anything in construction because he had to have a license. So, we lived here, in the hotel, for like four or five months, and my parents didn’t have jobs. It was getting down to the wire. We did not know what we were going to do. Finally we went out and found an apartment, but my dad didn’t have a job, so he went back to Texas and worked there so that we could have money. So, me and my mom were just out here, living off of what my dad was making. I had been away from my dad sometimes, when I came out for pilot season or did acting stuff, but he was gone for five or six months, working in Texas. It was really hard. Now my dad is working out here in LA and my mom found some stuff she could do; home business stuff. Now it’s working out.
How stressful is it to be the breadwinner at such a young age?
It’s really stressful. I felt like I needed to book everything. It was really hard because, at the time, we didn’t have any money. We didn’t have anything. So everyone was in a bad mood. We were all down. It was just a lot of stress. I felt like it was my fault that everyone was in this position. I felt sad because my parents gave up everything that they had worked hard for. I’m sitting here going, “What am I supposed to do?” Friends helped me. My manager talked some sense into me: “You’re here for a reason. People like you. That’s why you’re here. You’re good at what you do. Your parents support you and they believe in you. They know that you can do something and you’re going to go somewhere.” That helped me. I’ve learned, when you’re in that situation, everything is going to work out for the best. It ends up working out in the end. When we were going through the whole thing of not having money, I was thinking, “I’m not getting anything. What’s wrong with me?” I went for maybe about eight months before I booked something. Everyone kept telling me: “When it’s right, it’s right. You’ll get it.” You just can’t have the thought that you’re not going to get something.
What is your favorite thing about being an actor?
Probably just the acting itself. Being another character. Being free to just be someone else and saying the lines. Coming out and seeing people like what you do. When I did this movie, I loved that people cried when I did this scene. I felt so good at what I did. That’s what I love about it, making people laugh or cry.
What is your least favorite thing about being an actor?
Probably standing around on set. Usually, I listen to music or I do school stuff. But now, I’ve learned how to knit. So, I’m knitting! I’m working on a scarf right now.
How do you prepare for a role?
I usually work with my coach. That’s all I really have to do. I don’t really have to think about it too much, because you can’t do that. I work with my coach on theatrical stuff, whenever I have sides. I really like drama. I don’t know why. It kind of fits me more. I like doing comedy too, but mostly I like doing drama. I like doing films. I kind of want to do a series. Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of commercial auditions—I’m getting really good at those.
How do you handle rejection?
What my manager—Kristy Martin, of Calliope—told me is to go into an audition and do your best and then when you get out, just forget about it. That’s what I do. There might be some that I really, really, really want and I can’t get that out of my head, but there’s always the next one. My thing is that everything happens for a reason. If I wasn’t meant to get it, there’s something better coming along.
Who are your favorite actors?
Johnny Depp! Because aside from the fact that he’s really hot, he’s a really good actor. Julia Roberts is such a good actor and she takes on so many different roles. Just like Johnny Depp. They take on the weirdest characters and it comes out awesomely. In every role Julia Roberts does, she is always herself. Not a lot of actors do that. I like her. I also like Brittany Murphy. She is really funny.
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.