Anne Alexander-Sieder: Actor and screenwriter in München, Germany.

Like a lot of mom‘s, I put my career and my dreams on hold when I got pregnant. My son is the most precious person in the world to me, so I don‘t regret it but I‘m not gonna lie… when he became a teenager and didn‘t feel like hanging out with me anymore (weird, right?) I realized that things were going to change.

All of a sudden, I had time to consider what I wanted and the answer was pretty unsettling to everyone — including myself. At 47, with a gaping 16 year gap in my resume, I wanted to give my dreams one more chance. But how? I didn‘t have any industry contacts and had no current showreel material. I had no idea where or how to start.

When I was younger I had been able to work enough to join SAG/Aftra and was working on my equity card. But none of that was repeatable. I didn‘t have a plan or a strategy I just kind of… got lucky. I knew that wasn‘t going to work this time around - not at my age. I needed to figure out how to show agents and casting directors my value even though I physically had no „proof.“

That was 10 years ago. Today you can see me on screens big and small around the world. If you have the Hallmark channel, you can catch me in the current Christmas movie, A Heidelberg Holiday, and this week I‘ve got a callback for a national beer commercial shooting for 10 days in South Africa.

Am I a big star? — definitely not (obviously), but I am a working actor. I don’t say any of this to brag, but so that whoever reads this will know that your dreams are worth pursuing but you need a plan and a strategy. There is no age limit on success. Actors are the most resilient, empathetic people on this planet and I truly believe that there is room for anyone who wants to fill it.

If you have your own journey to share, I'd love to hear from you. This is obviously a subject that is near to my heart. I’m actually working on a project that dives into all the challenges second-act actors face when trying to get their careers off the ground. If my story resonated with you I’d love to jump on a Zoom and hear about your experiences. Your insights would be incredibly valuable to my research and could even potentially help other actors who are also facing similar challenges. Just DM me and I’ll send you all the details.

P.S. That’s my sister pointing to me on the TV - I couldn’t resist.

We all have things we believe... One of my beliefs centers around the necessity to change the power dynamic between ourselves and the rest of the film industry because even though actors are above the line, they’re still the lowest element on the totem pole when it comes down to it.

One of the ways you can do this is by working your values and beliefs into your primal brand.

What does that mean in people-speak? Find something that you can get behind in an authentic way that will give you another point to talk about (besides begging someone to view your showreel) when meeting with industry professionals.

The best way for people to see you as an equal is to put yourself on equal footing and you can do that by showing them your “authority” in a certain area. For example, my friend, Angus McGruther, who I interviewed this week on the podcast, is an actor but he’s also the co-director of THE DOWN UNDER FILM FESTIVAL in Berlin.

This makes sense for Angus because he’s an Australian actor, based in Berlin, still with strong ties to his home country and its film industry.

For Angus, this was a game-changer on many levels. Those are just some of the ways that Angus is able to feel like he is an equal to the powers that be. Because, of course, we ARE all equal, even though it doesn’t always feel that way.

Make sure to tune into this week’s episode of Act Bold to listen to his journey. https://youtu.be/-JLeMCjVUe0

Maybe it will spark some ideas in that beautiful, bold head of yours.