She knew she was in the “Danger Zone.”
We’ve all received some bad advice.
Actress Monica Barbaro, known for her role as Lt. Natasha “Phoenix” Trace in Top Gun: Maverick, received hers on a set, she said at Entertainment Weekly’s Breaking Big panel at the Savannah College of Art and Design’s Savannah Film Festival.
“There’s definitely a lot of that. There’s just a lot of opinions and you just kind of have to filter through what works for you and not,” she said. “I remembered this the other day, the weirdest advice I ever got was the very first commercial thing I ever shot. There was a woman doing my makeup, and she told me I had really long eyelashes, and I should probably trim them. I didn’t take it like that. I mean, I was just like, ‘Oh, okay.'”
But she had a feeling it wasn’t right.
“And then in my mind I was like, ‘I’m not going to do that.’ And sometimes I just think it’s like when you hear advice that you’re just not sure of and you’re like, I don’t know, just trust that instinct. You could be told to do crazy s— like cut all your eyelashes off.”
Barbaro and several other up-and-comers — Austin Abrams (Wolfs, The Line), Nicholas Alexander Chavez (Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, Grotesquerie), Ethan Herisse (Nickel Boys, When They See Us), Ebony Obsidian (The Six Triple Eight, Sistas), and Savannah Lee Smith (Cruel Intentions, Gossip Girl) expanded their conversation to winning a spot on set in the first place.
She noted how much is outside of the actor’s control.
“They wanted you to be blonde or something, and that can be a factor too. Or you find out later that the producer actually wanted to hire their friend’s friend or something anyway, and I used to not really believe that. I felt like it was all within my control,” Barbaro said. “And it’s important to pay attention to what you can control, like your preparation and also your artistic vision and your connection with yourself. So important to have because it can be so impersonal. You have to know that you have to have familiarity with the artist that you want to be, but there’s so much about it that just also just has nothing to do with you.”
Barbaro, who portrays Joan Baez in the upcoming Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, previously appeared in TV’s Chicago P.D. and UnREAL. She advised others auditioning to developed a tough skin, especially when it comes to the tryout.
“Worst audition experiences were definitely for commercials…which I don’t tell someone to not do it. I think it’s maybe a rite of passage and also it’s a great way to earn money,” Barbaro explained. “I mean, it kept me afloat while I was trying to do an actual TV show. I don’t think I realized how rough they were until I started working in film and TV and then I went back to one and I was like, ‘Oh, this is brutal.'”