Off Script: A Catchup with Eva Grzelak

Navigating the actor's odyssey of self-marketing and visa mazes, we're joined by the delightful Eva Gelak, whose tales from the frosty stages of upstate New York bring warmth to our latest Offscript adventure on the Late Bloomer Actor podcast. While I take you through the eerie twists of a Malaysian Halloween escapade, Eva and I peel back the curtain on the essential, yet often overlooked, art of keeping one's casting profile polished—a tool as crucial as any performance piece in your repertoire.

The spotlight then shifts to the elusive O-1 visa, the golden ticket for "Aliens with Extraordinary Ability," and we dissect the formidable process of proving one's exceptional talent in the industry. We offer a glimpse into the unexpected immigration challenges faced by celebrities, exemplified by Gary Newman's story, and contemplate the green card lottery's promise of American dreams. As industry strikes and SAG-AFTRA talks unfold, we lay the groundwork for future episodes to tackle these evolving narratives, ensuring you're equipped with the insights to navigate the ever-changing tides of an actor's life.

Chapters

• 0:00 Balancing Side Hustles for Acting Success
• 14:45 Visa Process for Actors Explained

Transcript

David John Clark: 0:45

Hi everyone. The following Offscript episode was initially recorded with the intention of it being a separate podcast to the Late Bloomer Actor podcast. However, in hindsight, I believe it better accompanies the messaging of my show by being part of the primary podcast and, as such, I'm now including my Offscript episodes within the Late Bloomer Actor show. So please excuse any referencing in this recording of it being a separate podcast and I hope you enjoy the Offscript format which will, I believe, enhance and contribute to the monthly primary episodes. Cheers and I'll see you on set.

Eva Grzelak: 1:20

By the way, this is like the first one that you did with me was here, I was here.

David John Clark: 1:26

I thought I'd look familiar.

Eva Grzelak: 1:28

Yeah.

David John Clark: 1:29

And it's the very first episode since my introduction on the Offscript series and you're the first guest, so I love it.

Eva Grzelak: 1:36

People are going to be sick of me, man, they're going to think something's going on? No, never.

David John Clark: 1:42

We are here for the very very first episode since the introduction episode of the late blo Rector off script.

Eva Grzelak: 1:51

Bravo, woohoo Yay.

David John Clark: 1:54

Now, I don't know how much I've told you, Eva, but I wanted to do something a little bit more relaxed.

Eva Grzelak: 2:01

A lot of podcasts are yeah, I love it. I don't have to take my clothes off, we're fine.

David John Clark: 2:07

No, I'll have to change the rating.

Eva Grzelak: 2:08

How much more relaxed can you get?

David John Clark: 2:11

I'll have to change the rating. How much more relaxed can you get?

Eva Grzelak: 2:13

I'll have to change the rating of the show.

David John Clark: 2:15

Sorry, kelly, my view count will go up by dozens.

Eva Grzelak: 2:21

Or down, maybe down.

David John Clark: 2:24

No, you can't go down. So the show that I run monthly I wanted to keep that formality of it, so I'm very episodic. It's got its distinct monthly episodes and it's something that you can go back to and listen to at any time. If new viewers can come on at any time, it's pretty much a an educational thing and quite formal and process and congratulations on two seasons as well.

David John Clark: 2:50

I know how amazing is that, so I love it. I did cut the second season down. I decided to go with the 10 episodes a year to not swamp everyone with the late bloomer actor and to have me those two months off. And then what do I do? I go and start a weekly one. So, which is good, in the two months that I'm off I can do the weekly ones. And then when the show comes back in 2024, this podcast will be probably three weekly, because I won't release an episode on the week that that one comes out. So how have you been? Eva Gelak, yeah, I said your name.

Eva Grzelak: 3:29

No, you did and you said it right, thank you.

David John Clark: 3:32

If anyone's listened to the first episode, after all the practice of making sure I had it down right, I said Eva's surname wrong.

Eva Grzelak: 3:40

That's the way it goes. I don't think I even say it right, so I'm going to stress about it. I love it Grew something Polish somebody came up with. I thought that's fine, just say grew something Polish.

David John Clark: 3:52

And I can spell it every time now too.

Eva Grzelak: 3:54

That's great. You can order pizza with that surname now. Remember when you used to have to like when you rang up to order a pizza and you had to give the surname, and I hated having to spell my surname. And my sister married a Jones, so she got it easy after that. Now you don't have to do it. You just order it online. Pizza for Eva G Eva G how do you spell G? So where are you at the moment, Eva? I'm in upstate New York spending the holiday season with the family.

David John Clark: 4:24

Awesome, is it cold yet.

Eva Grzelak: 4:27

It's bloody cold. It's like around about 30 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about freezing, and below oh no, no, it's great.

David John Clark: 4:37

No, I'm there with my family over Christmas, as you know, and so we're watching the temperatures and I think it's like two to three degrees during the day, so I love the cold.

Eva Grzelak: 4:49

You're going to have an amazing. You're not even going to notice the cold. You're just going to love Christmas in Manhattan and it's going to be like you'll forget about how cold you are.

David John Clark: 4:56

It really is magical, beautiful, beautiful. And what have you been up to?

Eva Grzelak: 5:03

I've been working. We just finished packing up our Halloween event that we do in Malaysia. It's the biggest Halloween event in Southeast Asia. It's probably second only to Singapore Studios, but we do more walkthrough attractions than Universal Studios Singapore. So we just finished that and I finally get to sleep and I'm like looking at the sorry state of my website and my YouTube page and my Casting Networks page and thinking I'd better update some stuff here and get back into it. You know how it is? No, you don't, because you keep yours up to date all the time.

David John Clark: 5:43

I'm sending out some emails at the moment looking for a new agent and I realised I was a bit behind on some of my documents, so I've updated my CV and stuff. But no, I am pretty on top of most things. But then you know it doesn't matter how much you're on top of something when you really look into it, especially when there's so many different sites. And you've got casting networks and Showcast and Altai I've got now and then you've got Star now, which I'm not using at the moment but may go back to, and you've got to. I wish you some way to have them all see.

Eva Grzelak: 6:13

I know just one big conglomerate where you just put all your information in one and it shoots it out to everywhere. But but that, I mean that's part of it, isn't it? It's not just acting, it's not being the show, just being the show pony, and you know, what some people want is the fame. Forget it. It's about being a good business person and you are selling yourself and marketing yourself and you have to be on top of that as much as you are your lines and your character development.

David John Clark: 6:36

Exactly.

Eva Grzelak: 6:37

That's yeah, it's go on.

David John Clark: 6:42

No, you're talking.

Eva Grzelak: 6:44

Oh, I'm talking because it's all about me. No, it's. The largest part of what we do is to be goodness, be goodness, be good, business partners to ourselves by having that material ready and to be on top of not just the marketing materials to sell ourselves, but also the politics and everything that goes along with it. We need to be across the board.

David John Clark: 7:15

And you were talking about your Malaysian experience during the. I've forgotten the thing. Halloween, that's the word I was looking for. Yes, now, that sort of goes to something that we talk about a lot. Is that your side income? So trying to balance feeding yourself and making acting work? Would that be what you call your side hustle?

Eva Grzelak: 7:41

A big chunk of my side, yeah, and what I find trickier is that because my side hustle involves a lot of traveling, and being away from Adelaide for long periods of time makes it really difficult to be able to put myself forward for things and really makes it even more difficult for my agent because, like, well, when are you in town? This thing's coming along, can you be in town? Nine times out of ten I'm. I can be my boss here is pretty good. Um, when I was in bands previously, if I had a gig coming up, he would you know let me leave and go do the gig and then come back. And it has been the same with, like the, the films that I've made and the productions that I've been in. Uh, but it does make it harder to forecast. And then I forgot what the question was. So, yes, again I'm talking about Side hustle Side hustle, yeah, side hustle.

Eva Grzelak: 8:36

So I think I definitely and I mentioned this before in my very first podcast episode with you that I do need to pull myself back in and go no, this is what you really want to do. Yeah, I'm good at this and I need to stop myself feeding the people that rely on me to do what I do. And that could be a bit of ego in me talking, but I've got to let that go and put that energy back into myself.

David John Clark: 9:05

I've got to let that go and put that energy back into myself and that sort of leads to what I brought up in my introductory episode. I came out of the gym and quickly threw my camera on. I was talking about something that had happened in South Australia with the death of a young teenager, and it happens a lot and you see these things on the news and you just go. Life can change so quickly. And a big thing that's talked about on the podcast is that, especially with late bloomers is I wish I'd done this when I was younger. I wish I'd done this because it's the love I want. So you were sort of alluding to that there about making it happen. So how do we as actors force that and make it happen? When you've got to pay the bills and you've got to, you've got to do the side hustle. It's that balance, isn't it?

Eva Grzelak: 9:51

it absolutely is that balance. But a key thing that you said, there was people thinking I should have done this when I was younger, I should have done this before. You shouldn't be thinking that, you should be thinking I should be doing this now so yeah, it's all well and good to go.

Eva Grzelak: 10:05

Oh, yeah, yeah, I should have done it when I was young. I can only do it when I was young. No, you can do it now. You can do it now. There's nothing stopping you from doing it now nothing at all. The only person that's stopping you is you, and I think I said that in an interview once and I'm glad I did, because it's in print now and remind myself of it. It's like there is nothing stopping me from doing it now. My bills are paid. That's great. I can do this now, and that, like I've said, now is my big focus, now that I'm here and I'm not working is I'm pouring everything I've got back into this craft that I love so much.

Eva Grzelak: 10:38

But I just would like people to know don't think I should have done this before. Don't think that I had to be younger to do this. You think I should have done this before? Don't think that I had to be younger to do this. You can do it now. You can do anything now. You can make your own content. Now you can join a theatre club. Now you can make up your own theatre club. Now you can go do an acting course. Now you can go study online now. There are so many utilities. I'm not sure I've got the top of my head unscripted the right word to use, but there are so many tools available to us to be able to do it now.

Eva Grzelak: 11:09

So, what's our excuse? There's no excuse.

David John Clark: 11:12

Exactly, exactly. I mean TikTok. Tiktok's a big one. I mean some of the videos you put out with your TikTok about what your process is and what you've been doing in Malaysia just how I built this scary fireplace. One was brilliant. Just watch that. Oh thanks. Now that's content. That is about putting yourself in front of the camera and getting people to see you and I love doing those.

Eva Grzelak: 11:36

I love doing those little snippets because everybody's attention span now, particularly on social media, is like last five seconds, 10 seconds. Unless you're engaging, they're flicking through. If you think of that like a casting director, you know like a casting director does exactly the same when they're flicking through self-tapes and everything. If you don't grab them in the first few seconds, they're going to be swiping through to the next one. So I find that good practice and I love making those little bits of content to entertain, not necessarily to put myself forward and to say, hey, look at me, look at what I'm doing, I'm in Malaysia, blah, blah, blah. I like to think that I am appealing to something that people want to see, appealing to something that might make people go oh, I'm going to watch this for a few seconds more. Do you know what I'm saying? I mean, I like to entertain.

David John Clark: 12:24

And you never know when someone sees that and goes. That's the character I wanted for my show.

Eva Grzelak: 12:30

You know who knows, I don't know. I've yet to experience that, but I'm hoping.

David John Clark: 12:37

That was. Some of your videos out of your COVID lockdown were just so well thought up. Well, they came across as there was a lot of work in them, but I think you just threw them together like nothing while you're locked down.

Eva Grzelak: 12:50

Well, that was the beauty of quarantine, and I wish I had taken advantage of that more to make that type of content. And I have to. I've got to give credit to the are you talking about the Halloween ones? That I did.

David John Clark: 13:01

I did a different one for each scary movie you did a variety, but it was all. While you were in your hotel room, I was in quarantine so many times. Yeah, I was in hotel quarantine so many times.

Eva Grzelak: 13:12

I've lost track.

David John Clark: 13:13

There was a bit of both, but all of them were very, very good. But I remember just some of them were just like so weird that they were great. You know what I mean. Thanks, something so different. That's what I enjoyed about them, thank you. So, talking about the acting and you coming back, how is it for you being in and out of America all the time? Do you have any ability to work there, or are you completely on a tourist visa while you're there?

Eva Grzelak: 13:43

100% on a tourist visa here. I limit my time here so that I can still enjoy it with family Well, my partner's family who very graciously have accepted me as part of their family. So my time here is limited, but not so much because of the visa but because I have to go on to the next job.

David John Clark: 13:59

Yes.

Eva Grzelak: 14:01

But so no, legally I can't do anything here, but I have done some workshops here, which I think I've mentioned before is just a big eye-opener. It's a completely different game and it makes you up your game. If you ever get a chance to do a workshop here, do it. Don't come here for fame or fortune. Come here to learn, because these guys are living it and they're doing it and it's a wealth of knowledge that I recommend anyone to do. So when I am here, I try and get in on that and use it to inspire me to push forward and keep going.

David John Clark: 14:37

And so you still have that opportunity to network and meet out and, if the right opportunity to come along, they'll sponsor you and you can go and get your visa Now. I found this very interesting. I was looking up the visa information the other day as I approached my retirement and looking at traveling the world and stuff. But did you know that the visa for actors is an O-1 visa and it is what's it called Aliens with Extraordinary Ability. That sounds like a movie.

Eva Grzelak: 15:07

It does. It does. That's actually pardon me, oh gosh, my ginger tea is repeating on me, my ginger tea with vodka. It is one I'm actually aspiring to. You need to have a lot of material to submit yourself for the O1. When they say alien with an extraordinary ability, they mean extraordinary ability, and I think the proof that you need to put through or something that I've learnt is proof that you are able to sustain yourself and not, you know, roar it off the system. And yeah, it's tough, you've got to be well. I'm finding for myself. I need to prove that I'm not just that I'm good, but that there's publications on me. I'm very lucky that I've won several movie-making awards here on the short film festival circuits, so that's a big plus. I've written some articles for some industry magazines and that's a plus. So you really it's a lot of work to get that visa and you need a lot of material to be able to do it.

Eva Grzelak: 16:08

So it's not just to say it. I think it would be very rare to find anybody to sponsor you to come over here as an actor. You've got to show that you've got the work. Like a lot of I know gary newman, like gary newman. If you don't know gary newman, then I'm not talking to you I'll look him up.

Eva Grzelak: 16:31

You know who gary newman is but he is um, I mean what he's in his 60s and he only maybe less than 10 years ago finally got his green card and he was an award-willing, well-celebrated musician. He inspired, like Trent Reznor, like a lot of that goth metal, goth music era. Gary Newman, he did Cars that's the only song I can think of the top of my head. That's kind of mainstream, but that was like 70s, early 80s.

David John Clark: 17:07

My wife will know him.

Eva Grzelak: 17:09

Yeah, because she's cool, unlike me. So for somebody like that of that caliber, who, if you're in the UK or Australia, you know who Gary Newman is, but he had to prove to the US who he was and that he was an alien of extraordinary ability, and it took him like 20, 30 years wow, well not not the whole process, but like his 20, 30, 40 years of back catalog work wasn't just enough.

Eva Grzelak: 17:38

So I mean, but then again it depends on the lawyer that you have that's helping you out with it and and who you probably get behind the desk that signs the paper, so exactly and a lot of people saying I want to get to america.

David John Clark: 17:49

I think the biggest thing, especially with the amount of work we have here in Australia, I think you need to focus on getting that quality work. If you can't get it here, then you shouldn't even be thinking about America.

Eva Grzelak: 18:00

But you do hear of actors that yeah, you do hear of Australian actors that have done really well over there and nobody knows who they are in Australia. It's just how they got over there and nobody knows who they are in Australia. Australia, that's true too, it's just how they got over there and how they did it.

David John Clark: 18:11

Yeah, it's just one of those things that you've got to give it a try, I suppose, but know that it's not as easy as you'd think.

Eva Grzelak: 18:17

Correct. You've got to put in the hard yards like everything else.

David John Clark: 18:20

I think what I'll do is, when I'm about 18 months, two years out of my retirement, which is fast approaching, I might put in for the green card lottery. So, um, and then, that way it's much easier, because then if you win that, then you, my partner, gets it as well, and then we'll just go over there and buy a camper van and travel around and follow the acting work, as they call. Hopefully, but um, obviously for me is still trying to build up that quality of work, that body of work here in aust Correct. That's why I'm reaching out to agents in the eastern states now to try and get that next level up, as they say. Well, that's very interesting, eva. As I said, we do want to keep these episodes really short, so it's just more of chats and ramblings and stuff like that. So this won't be a once-off.

David John Clark: 19:10

We'll have you back on and we'll do some live stuff and some multiple people and stuff like that. So we'll get other people in so we can have some arguments and fights. But quickly, I wanted to step on the strike actions over in America at the moment. How much have you been following that and what's your understanding of where it's ended up?

Eva Grzelak: 19:31

yeah, the big chunk of that was at my busiest time when I was in malaysia. So the only thing I I mean, I have been keeping tabs on the sag after website and uh, not so much social media posts, because that's if you want opinion, go there. Well, if you want to go opinion, you go to anything online, really, don't you? Um? But a very good friend of mine and I might actually put you in touch with him because he did the green card lottery and he's a SAG AFT member and he's from australia and he's living in la at the moment, so love it.

Eva Grzelak: 19:59

I'll put you two in touch. So I've had a lot of conversations with him about it, but funnily enough, I was reading about it last week, uh, when they had the. It's not the preliminary. It still needs to be voted on the agreement that they finally settled on on november 9th.

David John Clark: 20:15

I think it was yeah, and I don't know when the vote's on. I think it's before. It's before christmas.

Eva Grzelak: 20:21

There we go, yeah I think it's december 5th here, which is december 6th there, and there's still a lot up in the air. A little bit. And one thing because ai scares the crack out of me, says the girl who's on social media all the time, anybody who says AI is scary and blah, blah, blah. Stop using the filters on your social media, because where do you think AI? Ai plays in everything we do. But one thing I found interesting was that the AI component like the scanning of you to use an ai further on yes, that is negotiable. So what is stopping a studio from not hiring you because you say you don't want the ai scanning? I'm curious that that is one thing. That was one of like a lot of little holes I'm kind of seeing. Even though I'm not SAG-AFTRA and I'm not part of the industry here, I think it's important to educate myself on what's going on around the world. Definitely that was just one thing that kind of stuck out to me.

David John Clark: 21:23

Yeah, I think I've seen a lot of discussions about that that people are a bit upset that they've let the networks get as much as they did in the agreement. So I'm wondering where the vote will go, based on that sort of stuff. So it certainly sounds like it's a lot better than what they wanted. They wanted to pay you $125 and have your image in perpetuity.

Eva Grzelak: 21:45

So talk of that.

David John Clark: 21:46

I've talked about it in a couple of previous episodes with Tiffany Lindle-Knight and Audrey from.

David John Clark: 21:52

Audrey Help Actors. It was about the amount of money that these companies are making off movies and especially off streaming now, and the actors aren't getting it. That's the problem, but that's a problem across the world is big business is making all this money and in Australia we saw it during the vote for reconciliation, everything like that. There was a big reason why a lot of people voted no was because of the push from big business telling you to vote yes and people go hang on a sec. What's going on here? We're all struggling to feed ourselves, we're struggling to pay the bills, cpi is forcing up interest rates, yet you're sitting here on your billion-dollar profits and you're telling us how to vote. And that's why things went down the no vote, because people were just going. What's going on here? What's all these big business doing? And today it's still the same. Interest rates keep going up. We're going and getting broker and broker, but the Commonwealth Bank announces a $1.6 billion profit. Well, how's that? That's not fair.

Eva Grzelak: 22:57

We will never know. We will never know the inner workings or who's actually pulling the strings on what's going on. That's the trouble.

David John Clark: 23:05

I don't know.

Eva Grzelak: 23:06

That's fucking depressing.

David John Clark: 23:08

Bringing it back to acting. I mean, they've made plenty of movies about the future and stuff, and let's hope that it's one of those really good movies where the future is rosy and everyone's happy and everything like that. Well, there you go, folks. That's Unscripted for you. We've had an internet glitch there somewhere between New York and Adelaide, South Australia, and Eva has dropped out just as we were about to say goodbye. So I waited a couple of minutes to see if she could get back in, and no doubt she probably will, just as I'm saying this. But there we go, folks. Thank you very much for coming along.

David John Clark: 23:44

That's a nice quick chat with Eva just about where she's at and some random thoughts for acting, et cetera, et cetera. I hope you like that. If you enjoyed that and you want to hear more, let me know through my Facebook social media. So the Late Bloomer Actor on Facebook, Instagram, or you can contact me at thelatebloomactor at gmailcom. Just let me know anything that you'd like to talk about and, as I said, I'd also like to bring some guests on in the background if you want to ask some questions. Live for future episodes. So if you want to do that, just let me know and we'll make it happen. So thank you very much. It's been an awesome pleasure to have Eva back on. She is a very, very good friend and we get on really well together for our acting and we're on very similar journeys, so it was wonderful to chat with her. So until next time, guys, we'll see you on set. Well, Eva, thank you very much.

Eva Grzelak: 24:41

I've lost you. John David, John Clark, I've lost you.

David John Clark: 24:46

That's what I like to hear. You're frozen. I don't know if you can still hear me.

Eva Grzelak: 24:52

You're frozen for a second. Come back to me. Is it my internet? I can't hear you, david hello. I'm so sorry, I ruined your podcast come back.

David John Clark: 25:18

I feel like a fool because I'm talking to nobody, but hopefully your internet comes back can't even see you, babe. Well, there you go, folks. That's unscripted for you.