Becoming a successful, self-sufficient working actress aint easy, but Julie Ann Emery has been doing it professionally since the age of 16. Most known for her role as Eve Mendes’ lovelorn best friend in the hit film Hitch, she has appeared in a long list of television shows and films, which include Steven Spielberg’s Taken, ER, Line of Fire, Commander in Chief, Army Wives, and Dexter. Last year, she took a step in a new direction– writing, co-producing and directing the award-winning web dramedy, Then We Got HELP! DCTV asked Julie to talk about the transition from taking direction to giving direction.
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A year ago at this time, SAG called me an actor. Now SAG calls me a multi-hyphenate. This still feels strange to me. I am the Writer/Director/Actor/Executive Producer of Then We Got HELP!, and though I always saw myself moving beyond being an actor, that’s a lot of hyphens all at once.
I am not unusual in the Web Universe. Particularly amongst women it seems. Actresses are taking the creative and producing reins and powering guerilla-style TV onto the Web. This is good news for women viewers and creatives alike. It means more female centric programming. More young female writers and directors with a place to cut our teeth and grow into tomorrow’s female filmmakers. But it still feels strange to me.
As an actor, I have had the great fortune to work with some of the brightest writers and directors in the business. To move from calling myself an “Actress” to a word that includes me in their ranks…multi-hyphenate…is something I’m still grappling with.
My own psyche aside, what does this transition mean? For me, acting requires a singular focus and an almost obsessive responsibility to my character. Being a multi-hyphenate requires juggling layers of split focus and an obsessive responsibility to…everyone else. And I like that. I like powering a project through to completion, instead of leaving the set on the last day of the shoot and wondering if it will all come together. But I won’t lie, the stress is not small. Even for a little show like ours.
In a lot of ways, I really enjoy ‘the buck stops here’ aspect of multi-hyphenating. I love creating an actor-friendly and actor-centric set. I love digging into the scenes with the cast, watching everyone’s work come together and collide, and desperately trying to make certain it all winds up on camera before the day comes to an end.
And because our budget is small, I’ve added Editor to my hyphens. And I like sitting in a dark room till all hours painstakingly piecing the story together. Because I admire what our cast has brought to the table, I feel an immense responsibility to their work, and to the time they have given to us. I am honored by our small but dedicated following. I feel a responsibility to them for each episode to be better than the last. It is stressful, exhausting, exhilarating, satisfying, and completely worth it.
The hardest part for me? Remembering to put my Actor hat back on before “Action”.
Julie Ann Emery
Creator, Then We Got HELP!
How inspiring! Thanks so much for sharing this.