Branch Your Ass Out Of The Box. {music video}
{Photo credit: Andrea Gabriel}
I am an actress, raised in NYC, and living in LA for the past decade.
One of the most mind-numbing contradictions about pursuing a career in the arts is that we are all drawn to it as a means of self-expression, but if we find ourselves fortunate enough to start making a living off it, we immediately come up against the knee-jerk reactions of people who can hire us to feel more comfortable if we kindly limit our self-expression to whatever we have done before.
I am, at heart, a character actress. My face is rubber-like and asymmetrical, and I can look like a downright weirdo in some shots and in others, quite pretty. No one can put a finger on my background.
I am a changeling who prefers shapeshifting to mere acting.
The first success I found out here was in a dramatic, heavily accented role. Do not get me wrong, it was a great role on a great show, and I was thrilled at the opportunity, but I figured everyone would know I was not really a prisoner at Abu Ghraib multiple times in my twenties.
Turns out, for the next several years, that is all I would be considered for.
Needless to say, I started limiting my own self-expression by waiting for an OK from the powers-that-be to allow me to express myself. Yes, I find a lot of creative juice in my darkness — but I am also a monkey-butt freak who loves to laugh.
So, instead of continuing to piss and bemoan everyone else’s lack of vision, I decided to branch my ass out of the box I had for some reason agreed to self-perpetuate.
I remembered one song I had written some years back. Not only was it a song (not a script), but it was funny — unlike the other he broke my heart to shards of splinters songs I had tortuously penned a decade or two ago. It was about a moment in time when I, to my own surprise, found myself dating a model.
At first I was flattered and surprised and insecure as to why he would want to be with me, but then I realized, we had absolutely nothing in common except maybe eye color. All that said, it was still difficult to leave the situation, and yeah, it had something to do with his face. And body. And, um, face.
So I decided to breathe some life into Clever Girl.
I consider it more as a comedic short than a music video. I do not consider myself a musician. I write songs, and play some functional guitar and piano. I have way too much respect for musicians to suddenly claim that title for myself — perhaps I am trying to karmically atone for reality celebs who are calling themselves actors.
I am still happy to whip out the drama whenever applicable, but I have been incredibly empowered by expressing my authentic self in the medium that I choose to express it. Still working on smashing that box on as many sides as possible for my own creative irrigation.
Maybe one day I will make a dramatic short for one of my sadder songs. But it will be about my own story. And in my own accent, which is standard Mid-Atlantic Freak Monkey-Butt.
I am sure we could understand each other.
[youtube]bLse65sV_Bg[/youtube]
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Andrea Gabriel is an actress, writer, creatrix, insatiable spiritual seeker, cheeky monkey, and certified spiritual life coach and guide. Her purpose is to reconnect humanity with its own intuition, authentic truth, and source energy. An intuitive empath since early childhood, her passionate intention is that everyone is able to experience the exquisite infallibility of his or her own true self, and her focus is to help facilitate individual connection with one’s innate intuition, power, and potential. She firmly believes that everyone has the ability to carve out the sweetest, most magical life imaginable, and her intention is to facilitate a spiritual community of like-minded light workers to spread kindness, love, and compassion throughout the world. She also loves the Muppets, beer, and very dark humor. Go figure. You could contact her via Gypsy Rogue.
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