The Hollywood Survival Guide for Aussie Actors

The Hollywood Survival Guide for Aussie Actors

With the success of the Hemsworth brothers, Sam Worthington, Abbie Cornish, and so many other Aussie actors in Hollywood these days, hundreds of young hopefuls board planes from Australia every month to try their luck in tinsel town ... but without understanding how Hollywood works, many run their bank accounts dry and return home empty handed.

Here, one successful Aussie actress, Kym Jackson, shares her vital Hollywood insider knowledge. Best known as -Officer Julia McLennan' in the recent feature film Iron Sky and appearing in Scooby Doo and Criminal Minds Kym has written a 308-page textbook that explains how aspiring Aussie actors can succeed in Hollywood.

With a foreword by former Hollywood power player and current top Aussie casting director Tom McSweeney (The Pacific, Sea Patrol), film industry members in Australia are taking the text very seriously. Kym's book has been added to the textbook list for the BFA (acting) course at QUT and is being recommended to students at several of the top acting schools throughout Australia.

After moving from Coogee Beach in 2004 Kym spent three years working as a PA, in development and financing, as a production co-ordinator and Unit Production Manager, casting assistant and casting director and purchasing co-ordinator for a post-production company. During this time, Kym's work leads her to attend the American Film Market and Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals amongst many others.

This awareness of how Hollywood works meant Kym found it easier than most to procure acting work. Since 2008, she has worked as an actress alongside A-listers such as Susan Sarandon, Dwayne Johnson, and Sean Patrick Flannery in over twenty feature films and TV episodes in Hollywood. The Hollywood Survival Guide is a comprehensive text book that explains everything an actor should know about living and working in Hollywood, for Australians.

The Hollywood Survival Guide for Aussie Actors
Dennis Jones & Associates
Author: Kym Jackson
Price: $39.95

Interview with Kym Jackson

Question: Why did you think it was important to write the textbook, The Hollywood Survival Guide for Aussie Actors?

Kym Jackson: The Hollywood Survival Guide for Aussie Actors is a textbook, there are no stories, it is information after information. I wrote the textbook because some of the celebrities in Hollywood would not have gone through the same type of journey, as I did. I worked in pre-production, production, post-production, casting and all the different parts of the industry and I have a broader view point. I've had the opportunity to see actors from a number of different perspectives from within the industry and that has helped to give me an idea of the things that actors do and don't need to know and should or shouldn't be doing at each stage in the process.


Question: Who did you speak to as research for The Hollywood Survival Guide for Aussie Actors?

Kym Jackson: There are about fifty people's names on the acknowledgement page. I gave every chapter of the book to nine or ten actors or filmmakers who I believed would have a good perspective on a specific subject matter and I asked them to tell me if there was anything I need to add in or take out. I wanted to make the book as good as it could be and I got great feedback and if someone told me to take anything out, I generally did and the majority of the information stayed because people would say 'you can't lose a single thing, it all needs to be there".

Question: Why did you make the book specific to Aussie actors?

Kym Jackson: I wanted to give Aussie actors the leg-up first and I will be releasing an American edition that is suitable for anyone going to Hollywood, next year. I have an attachment to Australia and being a little home sick this was an excuse to come home and do a book tour (laughing)! I love Aussies and I think it's especially daunting when you're coming from a country like Australia into a massive pond of actors like LA.


Question: How did you break into the Hollywood acting industry?

Kym Jackson: I was out in LA for six months working with a production company and they went under and I ended up living in a storage room for three months (laughs). I didn't know where to go for auditions and I wrote a script, day trading, from my basement storage room and I spent the next year asking around and getting little pieces of advice from people and I pieced it all together. I got decent representation and started getting the right auditions but it took a really long time. There was a lot of wasted time at the start of my time in LA and the point of the book is to save people that time.


Question: How did you survive before landing your first role?

Kym Jackson: It really was hard to survive; it's all about day jobs. I hate when I see these amazing talented actors and they're doing these jobs that they hate, during the day – they're artists and they need to be acting. I am very lucky that I haven't had to have a day job for the past four years and I don't want to have another one. I want to make it possible for as many actors, as possible.


Question: Can you share with us a story from your time in Hollywood?

Kym Jackson: At the start of last year I didn't know if I was going to go back to LA in January because I was shooting Iron Sky in February and at the very last minute my Dad jumped in and said -I'll pay for your airfares so you can go back and do auditions for three weeks before you come back and shoot Iron Sky". I went back to LA and I did five or six auditions in three weeks and during those three weeks I booked a role on Chuck and when I went back to Australia to shoot Iron Sky. I got an offer for a Lifetime Movie that I'd audition for and they needed me on Friday for a wardrobe fitting and I was shooting Iron Sky on Friday, in Australia. I put together a massive email to my manager showing that I'd changed my itinerary to go to the head of wardrobes house on the Saturday to do the wardrobe fitting and explained how much I wanted to do the project. The casting director sat down with the producers and the director to talk about the email I'd sent my manager that had been forwarded to them and apparently they said 'we have to hire this girl because she wants it so bad!" Initially they had been adamant that they wouldn't have me for the role unless I could make it to the Friday fitting. I ended up going straight from LAX to Universal Studios for the wardrobe fitting on the Saturday. It was a great experience and jobs kept coming from there.


Question: What do you think the readers will be surprised to find out as they're reading?
Kym Jackson: I think they'll be surprised to find out how many details matter. In an audition I guess you don't think of the little things such as in LA a lot of people don't like to shake hands and you shouldn't wear perfume in an audition room or smoke a cigarette prior to going in. There are a lot of little nuances that people aren't so aware of. It is daunting initially but once you get used to it, it'll come naturally such as on-set protocols; it's more important to be on time and know your lines than to do, just about, anything else.


Question: Have you ever contemplated giving up acting?

Kym Jackson: Never! No! Every actor has those days where they are down and wonder if they're doing the right thing but for me they are few and far between. Acting as been an obsession my whole life and I've never wanted to act more than in the past two weeks of my book tour, I've realised I love the acting and being on set or stage as a character (laughing)!


Question: Who or what inspired you to begin acting?

Kym Jackson: I was actually doing a play when I was five and I swore I knew the lines and I told my teachers that I knew my lines and I didn't need the script. Literally three lines in I forgot my lines and had to run to the side of the stage to get my script and I made some stupid jokes and witty comments to the audience and I guess they were laughing and from then on I realised I loved being on stage. I love the performing energy of the stage.


Question: What's the number one thing you'd tell an Aussie actor boarding a plane for LA?

Kym Jackson: Learn your American accent and make it perfect as well as having as much money saved as humanly possible because you will run out, very quickly!


Interview by Brooke Hunter