July 30, 2025 • 33 mins
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Tatiana Piper's path to the DC Universe began not on a Hollywood soundstage but in a Russian classroom where creative aspirations were met with skepticism. "When is this phase going to fade out and you're going to go be a doctor or lawyer or build spaceships?" her family would ask. Despite her natural theatrical talents, Tatiana initially compromised by pursuing architecture and interior design, bringing her to America for college. In the episode we explore how her creative outlet evolved from design to acting.
Sponsored by Jana McCaffery Attorney at Law. Have you been injured? New Orleans based actor, Jana McCaffery, has been practicing law in Louisiana since 1999 focusing on personal injury since 2008. She takes helping others very seriously and, if you are a fellow member of the Louisiana film industry and have been injured, she is happy to offer you a free consultation and a reduced fee to handle your case from start to finish. She can be reached at Have you been injured? New Orleans based actor, Jana McCaffery, has been practicing law in Louisiana since 1999, specializing in personal injury since 2008. She takes helping others very seriously. If you have been injured, Jana is offering a free consultation AND a reduced fee for fellow members of the Lousiana film industry, and she will handle your case from start to finish. She can be reached at janamccaffery@gmail.com or 504-837-1234. Tell Her NOLA Film Scene sent you
Follow us on IG @nolafilmscene, @kodaksbykojack, and @tjsebastianofficial. Check out our 48 Hour Film Project short film Waiting for Gateaux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5pFvn4cd1U . & check out our website: nolafilmscene.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, guys, hi, I'm Tatiana Piper.
I'm an actress, I'm a model,I'm an influencer and recently I
became a mom.
So that's another super rolethat I have and what I'm feeling
right now for NOLA Film Scene.
I feel happy, I feel nervousand excited.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Welcome to NOLA Film Scene with TJ.
Plato I'm TJ and, as always,I'm Plato.
Yay, excellent, excellent.
We're back on NOLA Film Scenewith TJ and Plato he's TJ.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
He's Plato.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
And we're here with our super friend Tatiana Piper
hey how you doing, Hi guys.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Hi, thank you so much for having me, yeah thanks for
joining us.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
You're welcome, hi guys.
Hi, thank you so much forhaving me.
Yeah, thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
You're welcome.
Tatiana and I have known eachother since the pandemic.
We did online improv togetherwith the class oh.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So many people are afraid of like I've talked to
some big stars.
Like I don't like doing itonline.
It's the same thing.
You just have to leave pausesfor lags in the communication
pauses for lags in thecommunication.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Absolutely, I think it definitely helped to meet you
guys all in person first andthen kind of transition into
this Zoom world.
But we had an amazing teacherand an amazing team, so it was a
safe place.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Nice David Hamilton from Anubis Improv is great, but
I don't think we've met inperson.
I took the class after you did.
Really, it's all right, we are.
I'll start that over.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
We are.
Hey, brian, if you could trynot to bump your desk, because
it yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Brian, we can leave that in.
We can leave that all in, Imean here in all of you.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I'm seeing we're like don't bump our desks, okay.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Because if you bump your desk, I'll bump you TJ, we
can use this as a bumper for theyou know commercial.
This evolved quickly, which isalways the best.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
So funny.
We never met in person, but itfeels like we did.
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
We spent months and to describe the class is just
like people will see when werelease the video.
This a group of people, maybesix or seven.
Our teacher would talk aboutimprov and some of the I don't
want to say strategies, butlessons, and then everyone would
pair up Okay, you two do ascene, then you two and
everybody would get to do twoscenes and then at the end we'd
(02:26):
do the round table and go around.
What did you learn?
What did you feel?
The amazing part of that to mewas because of the pandemic, and
it was the first anyone hadever experienced that in our
lifetimes we were all stressedout.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Most of you remember that.
Maybe some of you are young,don't even oh boy, young people.
But you were just a bundle ofnerves.
We do our improv.
You touch the creativity inyour heart and everyone who went
around that table said I'm sode-stressed now, I'm feeling so
light.
It was beautiful, it wasamazing.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
That was really good.
Yeah, for sure, I remember that.
Remember that, like I said, itwas a safe place to be silly and
to be just who you are whennobody's looking.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
But everybody was looking yeah, that's right Bring
on the looks yeah.
And you and I have a connectionthrough a mutual friend of
Olivia Peck.
Olivia, we both were inOlivia's movie Todd's Popcorn
Paradise.
We just filmed at differenttimes and didn't get the
opportunity to meet in person,but it's nice to finally meet
(03:29):
you.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Nice to meet you.
What a small world.
I love Olivia.
She's creative, talented and sosilly, I love that the silly
silly.
I love silly people.
I need more of those in my life.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Well, let's jump back and it's my favorite question
what started you down this roadof acting, influencing any part
of that?
Where did you start?
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Growing up, I was always very artistic.
I did not know acting as acraft yet, but I was already
acting my boots off.
Anywhere I would go, I wouldpretend to be somebody that I'm
not I mean not a liar, of coursebut just loved established
different characters and lovedbeing silly and I loved
(04:14):
observing people.
And until this day, I thinkthis is the quality that I
really try to nourish in me Ilove to observe people and I
take some things for myself andthen I act like that right.
So I didn't know back then thatit's such a valuable thing for
an actor to notice things,little things.
So when I was small, I wasalways that I was loving to read
(04:37):
poems and read in general anddo little silly characters.
When I grew up, I was like,okay, I actually want to be an
actress.
This is a path for me.
This is just comes naturally.
But unfortunately, growing up,as you know, I'm Russian.
Growing up in Russia, it's alittle bit different.
Over there.
(04:58):
Creative professions they'renot as I would say that people
don't look at them as oh my God,that's amazing.
You know like, go, go you.
They'd be like okay, when isthis face going to fade out and
you're going to go and be adoctor or a lawyer or go build
spaceships.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
My whole family.
They were I love my family butthey were not really encouraging
that part of me.
They were like, okay, she's toomuch, but you got to stop
singing in the class.
Stop, you know, doing this.
Just go study to university,get a degree, and then we'll
talk.
And of course I'm a good girl,I'm not gonna go against my
(05:40):
family.
So I was like, okay, I'm gonnago get a degree in equally
creative area and not ascreative as acting, but not as
expressive as acting, butequally creative.
So I chose architecture andinterior design and went.
I was like you know what?
I'm actually going to removemyself a little bit further away
from my family.
Let me just go to likedifferent country or something.
(06:02):
So I ended up in georgia, inamerica, and went to college
here, graduated and worked alittle bit in my field of
architecture, interior design.
I loved it uh, loved parts ofit, but didn't love it enough to
know that I can die happy.
Now you know I can climb theladder and I'm just going to be
(06:25):
amazing.
I was like I just something inmy life is missing and I started
taking acting classes.
I was back then, I was livingin Atlanta and I started taking
acting classes and justsomething in me was like a small
part of me was just like,finally let me come out and I
started to feel alive.
(06:45):
Every time I would exit actingclass I was like that was
amazing.
Right, I didn't really, youknow, build a house or anything
like that or plant a tree, but Ifeel nourished.
I was like this has always beenmy path, I feel like.
So eventually I moved toLouisiana.
Been my path, I feel like.
(07:07):
So eventually I moved toLouisiana.
That was, because ofcircumstances kind of brought me
to Louisiana, to New Orleans,where I met you.
Brian and Olivia.
But honestly, I didn't want tomove to Louisiana, I wanted to
stay in Atlanta, but that waskind of not up to me at that
point of my life.
And pandemic happened.
So I was already taking classesin Louisiana with Jim Gleason
(07:30):
Amazing, amazing teacher, actor,mentor and at some point I
signed with an agent, actiontalent agency.
I signed with them.
That was like a bigbreakthrough for me.
I was like, yay, this ishappening, I'm doing it.
And pandemic happened.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
And I was like yay, this is happening, I'm doing it.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
And pandemic happened and I was like, what am I going
to do?
Like what people do now at thispoint?
And I was like, well, I guess,good thing I have my degree.
But the funny thing, evenduring pandemic, unfortunately
even my degree profession wasn'tsomething that I could like
lean onto.
So I was like, interesting, sowhat am I supposed to do now?
And this is how I foundinfluencing.
(08:09):
I love fashion, I love allthings styling, so that was my
little channel of creativity.
Another channel Didn't come out, didn't go into it as like
making money opportunity, justwent there.
Just you know, I felt like Ineed this creative outlet.
And eventually, during pandemicI guess that was the right
(08:30):
thing to do Everybody kind ofleaned on internet, shopping and
fitness online and all thosethings where I found a lot of
collaboration with companies who, would you know, send me
clothes and eventually I startedworking with them for them.
And this is how I kind ofserved through pandemic and,
after pandemic, moved back toAtlanta and signed with my agent
(08:53):
, amt.
Now, and this is my story, thisis what brought me to my
biggest to date role yet.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Ooh, could you tell us about that role, biggest to
date role yet, ooh, could youtell us about that role.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
So I am absolutely blessed, grateful, happy, to
book an amazing movie calledSuperman.
I am just, I'm still.
I'm still like pinch me,everybody pinched me, because I
don't feel like it's reality.
It feels crazy because even inmy home country they can watch
it.
They can watch it with like,not subtitles but like a
voiceover dubbing, a dubbing,yeah, yeah sound like some
(09:34):
russian person is like talkinglike me, and that was surreal,
just surreal you know.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
So yeah, and I saw it this past weekend.
You did a phenomenal job and Ikept nudging.
My wife was like, I know thatperson I know that she was like
shut up, let me watch the moviethat's funny what was your
experience like on set?
Speaker 1 (09:58):
it was.
It was incredible.
In one word, it felt like a bigfamily that I lost in a way.
Everybody was just so up foranything.
They were kind, everybody alsovery, very talented, extremely
talented everybody.
As soon as the camera's on,everybody's just switched on and
(10:20):
working camera stops, jokes andlittle dances and silly
something.
It was really nice to be a partof that little family, even
though it was only for two weeks.
I was on set for two weeks.
Well, I say only, you know howit is, brian, sometimes like two
hours or something, but it was.
(10:40):
It felt like a home away fromhome, if that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
And it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Did you have any scenes with the real star of the
movie?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Crypto.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
No, no, no, no, david's all right.
James Gunn is cool.
Did you get to meet Crypto?
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Oh, my goodness, crypto.
Funny enough, we had a dog thatwas on set.
It wasn't like obviously theactual creep dog, right, but he
would come in and they wouldjust shoot him for a little bit
and, yeah, he would leave and welove that dog.
I forgot his name unfortunatelybut oh my god, I just love dogs
(11:19):
and you know, like trying tostay in characters between takes
, just to kind of gather mycharacter is I don't want to do
spoilers, I guess right, rightsure my character is supposed to
be reserved and I'm notreserved.
I'm like anything but reserved.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
So when I would see a dog.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
I'm like I got dog on dog right there and I was just
just wanted to just just hug adog and when the camera is just
off and you're like can I hugyour dog please?
And the person this is verysweet woman.
She was the owner of thatbeautiful white dog.
She would always like let usplay with you, and it was nice
(11:57):
so you got to live that meme.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Can I pet your dog?
That's right.
You know the one I'm talking.
The little girl wants to pet abear.
There's a bear outside herinner yard.
Can I pet you?
Speaker 1 (12:06):
I want to pet that dog.
Oh, I saw it in this littleskit.
It's on TikTok.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yep, yep, that's funny.
(12:34):
It just takes a couple of daysto oh.
You know what I mean.
I left the movie set once and Iwent back to my janitorial work
and I'm sweeping.
I'm like man.
So how was it when you left theset?
Speaker 1 (12:45):
That's a great question.
I think the way I woulddescribe it is you have this big
, big energy inside of you andyou put it out.
Put it out every single dayright inside of you and you put
it out.
Put it out every single day,right when you are on set.
You have to multiply thatenergy sometimes because you
(13:08):
have to make sure you are notonly listening directions, you
are absorbing what's happening.
You have to remember your lines,of course, you have to be in
character, you have to believein this world, so you spend so
much energy existing in thisworld.
And don't get me wrong, it's anamazing feeling that when this
world, so you spend so muchenergy existing in this world.
And don't get me wrong, it's anamazing feeling that when this
world is gone and you are homeand you just wake up and you're
about to have a breakfast andyou're at your table, that you
(13:30):
already seen so many times thatenergy has nowhere to go and you
have to have meditation.
You have to have some sort ofways to help your mind to calm
down and get back to your normalroutine, and especially getting
auditions for, like a smallerprojects or commercials or
anything like that, and you like.
Okay, you just put this worldthat was a part of you and all
(13:55):
that energy, and don't be scaredto step into something new,
because you're gonna lose yourmind if that energy keeps like
bursting out and you havenowhere to place that energy.
So it was bittersweet, for sure, and don't get me wrong, it
wasn't like out of the world.
I was happy to finish withsomething because I wanted to
(14:17):
see eventually what's theproduct will be and also it was
very early hours all day on set.
We were all tired right it was,um, it was nice to like sleep in
, but at the same time wasdefinitely bitter, sweet bitter
part, because you just misseverybody and you have this like
warm feeling inside of you thatjust you know we might never be
(14:38):
in the same.
Well, we will never be in thesame place and the same capacity
as a team, ever, ever again.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Oh, yeah, small movie , big movie, when things are
going well and you sync withpeople like you're talking about
.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
And then you have to go home.
You miss that part of you.
Love my wife, love my family,and it's not that home is bad
yeah, it.
Love my wife, love my family,and it's not that home is bad,
it's just different.
Plus, you made it to DCuniverse, you know, you made it.
That's pretty much a pinnacle.
You know what I mean.
I've said this many times I'dlove to be rich.
Okay, I want to be a workingactor, be good at my job and I'm
(15:14):
not worried about awards, but Iwant to be an action figure and
I think you can do it.
You know what I mean and Idon't want to have to make it
myself.
So to me you hit the top of themountain.
I'm so proud of you, I'm happyfor you, I'm jealous, but you
know what I mean Good jealousy.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Thank you so much and I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
You're welcome.
I knew her when You're welcome,I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
I knew her when.
Yeah, I mean, it's honestlylike I am guilty in terms of
sometimes I don't celebrate mywins enough.
I kind of brush it off, even inmy acting class Numerous acting
classes actually.
A lot of people in the beginningof the class would share their
wins, right, and people would beexcited to share how many
auditions they had.
Oh, I applied for this and thisand this.
(16:01):
And I'm sitting here, I gotthree auditions, maybe a
callback, maybe booked something, and I'm like, should I talk
about it?
Like should I be that girl wholike show off?
I always had this like innervoice in myself, that like be
humble.
Like cover your own, Like don'tshare much.
And now this me, this part ofme I'm relearning this habit of
(16:24):
being too humble in a way.
Don't get me wrong be humblebut don't cover your journey.
Doesn't matter if it's you'redoing book anything for a month
or didn't get an audition for amonth or you were getting
callbacks back to back to backand projects here and other
audition there, because peoplewill be inspired by your journey
(16:45):
.
I had so many people reach outto me saying like thank you for
representing Southeast.
You know like I have a hope inme now.
I got so motivated I'm going togo take acting classes now and
I'm like, holy moly, I justinspired somebody to change
something about their life.
That's pretty big.
And yeah, I think I was like Ijust need to.
Well, I'm already doing it.
(17:06):
I'm sticking out my truth andwhat I've been through.
I mean acting wise, not, I'mnot going to lay out my life
onto you and what my journeylooks like.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Oh yeah, you're definitely.
I'm not responsible, but you'redefinitely able to share your
wins.
But I could see where, if youhave a audition or booking or
callback every day and puttingthat on social media, maybe,
maybe you can hold a few back.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
You know what I mean For sure.
So, but I don't think you are abraggart, right, you know what
I mean, so I try to share mine.
I get certain people like, oh,you're doing so good and you
know you're inspiring us.
I hear that a little bit lessthan you, but at the same time
(17:55):
like when I see my friends doingit, and I kind of said it
towards you waiting for a chanceto audition is an emotional
rollercoaster, absolutely, notto mention the emotional
rollercoaster of the role.
Yeah, I always say this isn'tditch digging, but it has its
own difficulties.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think the most difficult partfor me was always it's this
contradictory thing where, as anactor, you get an audition, you
have to care so much about thecharacter backstory, you have to
care about your relationship,your change in the script, the
contrast between beginning andthe end.
You have to care, you have toput yourself into this audition,
(18:32):
but when you submit, don't care, don't care, just forget about
it.
This is very hard, I feel, like, for any human being,
especially actors, because asactors, we're trained to be
empathetic and that's what ourcraft is all about.
We need to have this quality,like a really good human quality
(18:52):
, where we listen, we care, weunderstand, we respond
truthfully.
English is my not firstlanguage.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
It's my first language and I struggle just as
much.
Don't worry about it.
Like English yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
And that's the struggle is to kind of like, as
soon as you submit the audition,just stop and erase.
You're starting again Like itnever happened.
Just stop and erase.
You're starting again Like itnever happened.
And I think I'm finally in aplace where I'm actually
submitting now and I'm notexpecting For the long time.
It was just like especially,you know, you might both of you
(19:31):
might have something like thatwhen your friends or family will
tell you so what are youworking on now?
How was that?
Audition, did you get it?
And you're like no, audition,did you get it?
And you're like no, I didn'tget it.
No, you didn't get it.
Okay, it's okay.
You're not gonna go in intoexplaining how it works.
Sometimes you can be thegreatest actor in the world of
(19:52):
actors, but they need somebodywith hair because they don't
have wigs, you know.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
I feel seen.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Or like they would ask TJ, you got to shave your
beard and you're like, oh my God, for a commercial that I'm
going to get at I don't know athousand dollars for, and I grew
this beard forever.
Oh my God, Like all this littlething, sometimes it's not up to
you, really.
Sometimes it's up to big guys.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
You can have the best audition and they don't like
your look, exactly you can havethe worst audition and they love
your look.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
It's you, just always do your best.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
That's it.
That's.
All you can do is the bestleave it all in that room and go
on to the next one.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Yep, yeah, and do it all again.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
That's right.
How did you learn English?
Because I think your English isreally good.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
I'm going to cut out this part of this podcast and
I'm just going to give it to mypartner.
He was accusing me that myEnglish is well.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
We'll make you a ringtone, thank you, and then
keep calling you.
I know right.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
I studied English in school, the basic version of
English but to get intouniversity here in the US I had
to basically turbo all that.
So I started taking like very,very loaded classes of English
for six months and I just livedEnglish around me, movies and
(21:18):
everything.
And when I got in, even then Iknew how to speak and I mean I
knew how to write and how tolisten and everything, but
speaking part was always alittle bit.
I was a little bit shy, I wouldsay, just because in my country
, for example, if you have anaccent, people will just kind of
make jokes around and it's nota good thing.
(21:38):
It's not a good thing, it's nota good thing.
America, thankfully a littlebit more inclusive People were
always encouraging me to speakand they're like, oh, I love
your accent.
I'm like really Like what?
And sometimes I would getnervous and just change the
order of the words and booktable put it there, you know,
like just crazies, whatever, butpeople would never make me feel
(22:00):
bad for it.
And eventually, of course,entering acting world, I started
to take lessons with my dialectcoach and started to sort of
working on my accent, not in away to completely remove it I
will never do that, hopefully,not because I love my accent the
way it is, but to be able tohave a little bit more diversity
(22:20):
in my casting.
So yeah, but for russian role,russian or slavic inspired roles
, I have to turn my accent appup just a little bit more that
that makes sense you gotta letit loose, right.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
If I try to speak a foreign language, I knew at one
time it's kind of faded away.
I had a little bit of Spanish,I was conversational with
Spanish and I was conversationalwith French and I understand
what you're saying about beingself-conscious about speaking it
around native speakers.
I was always self-consciousabout making a mistake and
saying something, but people forthe most part seem to be pretty
(22:59):
forgiving.
If they understand the gist ofwhat you're saying, they're
pretty forgiving and they moveon with it.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Kudos for anybody who were in that place and were
forgiving.
Thank you, guys.
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Excellent.
What would you tell someoneabout either getting into acting
or influencing a young person,person like me who started at
their old age where to start?
How would you inspire them?
Speaker 1 (23:22):
That's a good question.
First of all, anything that youare starting, I would say you
just have to do it.
Doesn't matter what you'restarting out, you just have to
do it, because the best way tolearn is experience With
influencing.
It's a little bit differentfrom acting.
You just have to like my.
In my case, I am styling andbeauty influencer.
(23:46):
You know, just grab things thatyou have in your house.
Style a dress that you lovestyle.
Of course, the market is waymore saturated right now, but if
you love it actually love ityou're not going to care.
And you have so many times Imean so many minutes in your day
and anybody who will tell me Idon't have time for it, well,
you don't love it enough.
(24:06):
So just start shooting,whatever I don't know.
You have a hairbrush.
Show me how you use it.
You know, talk about it andthat's basically influencing.
Yeah, of, of course, it's abasic version, but you have to
start somewhere.
You are going to look silly.
You are not gonna look perfect,but eventually you will get
collaborations.
(24:26):
You will get people who will belike hey, we also have a brush.
We love that video about thatbrush that you did.
Can you please do the same forour brush.
And all of a sudden you're likeoh, are you also paying me?
Okay, let me just get a lightor something like more
professional.
Okay, kind of make it look waymore presentable.
And this is how you do it.
And with acting, acting is anever ending learning process.
(24:49):
Whether you are taking classes,whether you are shooting movies
with your fellow actors,whether you are watching movies,
you have to do something everysingle day towards that.
You want to be in the movie,learn what it's like to be in
the movie.
Go take a background role.
It's really easy to get cast toget a background role.
(25:09):
I'm not taking it in a way thatmaybe some people find
extremely hard.
I'm not taking away anybody'sstruggles, but if you want it,
hard enough, you have toexperience it.
You have to take time, have tomake time for it.
So I would say, first thing, gotake acting classes.
Acting classes is like, oh, ifyou don't have time completely,
(25:30):
watch some recordings ofsomebody's acting class and see
if it's for you or not.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Definitely, and look for a teacher who actually books
roles.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Who has experience.
You have to watch out for that,yep.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah, and never pay for casting for agent.
Until you make money, don't payfor casting.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Don't pay for an agent.
They get a percentage once youbook.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Don't pay for real Yep.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Don't go to a company that will make you real right
yeah, unless you just like alister and you just don't have
time, you can always make alittle real for yourself, for
sure, yeah it's better to gomake a youtube video with your
friends.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
You've written it out where you feel it, which the
ones I've seen, where peoplehave paid for it.
Their energy is low, it's.
A lot of people say it's awaste of money.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
I'll leave it at that and it comes across as homemade
.
It doesn doesn't come across as.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
I mean honestly nowadays I've heard multiple
casting directors talking aboutsometimes people submit
self-tapes like previousself-tapes of similar roles.
Don't take my word for it, buthonestly I personally feel like
if you have a badass self-tapethat booked you something or
that you are so proud of andthat character is very similar
(26:38):
with the character that youauditioned for and you don't
have a reel, I mean ask youreither agent or just you know,
go submit that.
Some casting directors evenwill tell in the breakdown
submit a clip or submit like aprevious self-tape.
Make sure that self-tape islike, not under NDA or anything
like that.
But yeah, there are always waysaround it, always ways around
(27:01):
it.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Right For background.
Look for mycastingfilecom andyou can sign up for free If you
don't have an agent and you wantto get into acting.
If you just jump in, it mighttake a while, but actors access.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
That's how you can start learning about roles near
you or across the country, orwhatever section you click on,
without having an agent.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yeah, I remember in my time when I started out I'm
not sure how good this websiteis now, but I used to use
Backstage.
Backstage gave me quite a fewlittle indie projects and like
school projects.
That's another good way to getgood footage.
Go and ask local universitytheater program if you guys cast
(27:43):
anything anytime soon.
When I was in louisiana I was Iwas checking out tulane website
all the time and they once toldme they're going to be casting
something pretty soon.
So I showed up.
I had live auditions withstudents and that was amazing.
This is I got my first leadrole that way and first
(28:04):
supporting role that way, anduntil this day I'm still in
contact with like I on Instagram, with those amazing talented
humans and they usually alwayshave theater programs, usually
have a really good qualitycameras and good quality sound
and they also want to succeed.
So they would want you tosucceed too.
So I think it's a really greatway to make some sort of a reel
(28:29):
and experience.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
The first role I ever booked was from backstage.
It was a paid role.
It wasn't very much, but I didthe same thing.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
I used backstage in the beginning as well yeah, yeah
, and don't be scared, even ifit's not paid for a person who
start out.
It's like, think about it likethat.
It's like imagine you weretraining to be a surgeon and you
come to the hospital for thefirst time in your life and
somebody comes and be like, oh,I need a heart transplant.
(28:59):
And you like'm a surgeon, butyou don't have any experience
and you want to get your handsdirty right away and you want to
get, you know, good money to dothat and all that stuff.
It doesn't work like that.
You have to get experience, youhave to keep walking to
different doors and stuff andmake sure it's all kind of
aligned.
One day and you're there doingthings.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Pay your dues.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
That's right, that's right.
Yeah, you're going to work forfree in the beginning.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
And with influencing.
I've seen some of your videos.
You can look on trends of whatpeople like, how they hold up
the clothes, and then they're onyou or you split screen and
you're like this or that.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
You can watch and learn and then start Absolutely
Kind of the same thing withacting.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
It's a place to start and then you study and you need
someone who knows.
I feel like we almost got intothe weeds on this subject, but
we love it so much and that'sthe key component Absolutely you
have to love it, you have toneed it, Like Tatiana was saying
how it nourished her to be onset and that creative energy was
able to come out where it can'tin a normal life, you know, in
(30:02):
normal situations, because thisbusiness will kick you in the
teeth every chance it gets, andnot even meaning to be me Like
we say, we audition, we don'thear anything about it.
Somebody else gets it and yousee it and you're like man.
I could have done better thanthat.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
And a great thing is don't take it personal for sure.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
That's another thing that I'm just spitting out there
, things that I went throughpersonally.
Sometimes it's easy as a humanbeing to take something
personally.
Oh, they didn't invite me tofilm this project.
I thought we're friends or theydidn't tell me there is.
This workshop is happening.
Like five of them, that peoplethat I know went and I didn't
(30:39):
like what's happening.
Don't take it personally Ifpeople how would I put this?
I don't think there is a lot ofpeople who would want you to
fail.
If there are people like thatin your circle, you should be
careful with your circle.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Take them out for sure.
But people who are genuine andkind and they're understanding
the path that you are on, theywill never make you purposefully
feel like you are less than youare.
And, as I said, if there arepeople like that in your circle,
(31:17):
be careful, be very careful andselective.
But we're all in the same,we're all starting from
somewhere.
I wouldn't say we're allstarting from the same plateau
because there are differentbackgrounds and different skill
sets and different circumstancesand environments, but we're all
starting somewhere and peoplewho actually make it I would say
(31:38):
95 of those people are kind,genuine and actually care about
other people.
Otherwise, you can sense it onthe screen.
You're like, oh, this person isfull of themselves.
They don't even give an energyof like.
Here we go, I'm listening to mypartner and on the scene, like
they just take all the attentionon themselves and you kind of
sense that right away.
(31:59):
I mean I always like, I love toobserve people and I always
sense those sort of things.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Very cool.
Tatiana, we're coming to aclose here.
Do you have any socials thatyou'd like to plug?
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Sure, my Instagram is Tatiana Piper with a dot.
After Tatyana, my TikTok isalso Tatyana Piper without a dot
, I believe, and my website isTatyanaPipercom.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
If you don't mind, I'll ask you if you could close
this out in Russian.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
whatever you'd like to say, Okay, sure, Thank you so
much, guys.
Спасибо большое, NOLA FilmScene for having me, За то что
вы меня пригласили.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
My friend, it was so great having you on.
I'm so happy for your successand I can't wait to see where
you go next.
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Thank you so much, пока-пока.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
До свидания.
Okay, guys, hi, I'm Tatiana Piper.
I'm an actress, I'm a model,I'm an influencer and recently I
became a mom.
So that's another super rolethat I have and what I'm feeling
right now for NOLA Film Scene.
I feel happy, I feel nervousand excited.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Welcome to NOLA Film Scene with TJ.
Plato I'm TJ and, as always,I'm Plato.
Yay, excellent, excellent.
We're back on NOLA Film Scenewith TJ and Plato he's TJ.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
He's Plato.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
And we're here with our super friend Tatiana Piper
hey how you doing, Hi guys.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Hi, thank you so much for having me, yeah thanks for
joining us.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
You're welcome, hi guys.
Hi, thank you so much forhaving me.
Yeah, thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
You're welcome.
Tatiana and I have known eachother since the pandemic.
We did online improv togetherwith the class oh.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So many people are afraid of like I've talked to
some big stars.
Like I don't like doing itonline.
It's the same thing.
You just have to leave pausesfor lags in the communication
pauses for lags in thecommunication.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Absolutely, I think it definitely helped to meet you
guys all in person first andthen kind of transition into
this Zoom world.
But we had an amazing teacherand an amazing team, so it was a
safe place.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Nice David Hamilton from Anubis Improv is great, but
I don't think we've met inperson.
I took the class after you did.
Really, it's all right, we are.
I'll start that over.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
We are.
Hey, brian, if you could trynot to bump your desk, because
it yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Brian, we can leave that in.
We can leave that all in, Imean here in all of you.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I'm seeing we're like don't bump our desks, okay.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Because if you bump your desk, I'll bump you TJ, we
can use this as a bumper for theyou know commercial.
This evolved quickly, which isalways the best.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
So funny.
We never met in person, but itfeels like we did.
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
We spent months and to describe the class is just
like people will see when werelease the video.
This a group of people, maybesix or seven.
Our teacher would talk aboutimprov and some of the I don't
want to say strategies, butlessons, and then everyone would
pair up Okay, you two do ascene, then you two and
everybody would get to do twoscenes and then at the end we'd
(02:26):
do the round table and go around.
What did you learn?
What did you feel?
The amazing part of that to mewas because of the pandemic, and
it was the first anyone hadever experienced that in our
lifetimes we were all stressedout.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Most of you remember that.
Maybe some of you are young,don't even oh boy, young people.
But you were just a bundle ofnerves.
We do our improv.
You touch the creativity inyour heart and everyone who went
around that table said I'm sode-stressed now, I'm feeling so
light.
It was beautiful, it wasamazing.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
That was really good.
Yeah, for sure, I remember that.
Remember that, like I said, itwas a safe place to be silly and
to be just who you are whennobody's looking.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
But everybody was looking yeah, that's right Bring
on the looks yeah.
And you and I have a connectionthrough a mutual friend of
Olivia Peck.
Olivia, we both were inOlivia's movie Todd's Popcorn
Paradise.
We just filmed at differenttimes and didn't get the
opportunity to meet in person,but it's nice to finally meet
(03:29):
you.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Nice to meet you.
What a small world.
I love Olivia.
She's creative, talented and sosilly, I love that the silly
silly.
I love silly people.
I need more of those in my life.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Well, let's jump back and it's my favorite question
what started you down this roadof acting, influencing any part
of that?
Where did you start?
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Growing up, I was always very artistic.
I did not know acting as acraft yet, but I was already
acting my boots off.
Anywhere I would go, I wouldpretend to be somebody that I'm
not I mean not a liar, of coursebut just loved established
different characters and lovedbeing silly and I loved
(04:14):
observing people.
And until this day, I thinkthis is the quality that I
really try to nourish in me Ilove to observe people and I
take some things for myself andthen I act like that right.
So I didn't know back then thatit's such a valuable thing for
an actor to notice things,little things.
So when I was small, I wasalways that I was loving to read
(04:37):
poems and read in general anddo little silly characters.
When I grew up, I was like,okay, I actually want to be an
actress.
This is a path for me.
This is just comes naturally.
But unfortunately, growing up,as you know, I'm Russian.
Growing up in Russia, it's alittle bit different.
Over there.
(04:58):
Creative professions they'renot as I would say that people
don't look at them as oh my God,that's amazing.
You know like, go, go you.
They'd be like okay, when isthis face going to fade out and
you're going to go and be adoctor or a lawyer or go build
spaceships.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
My whole family.
They were I love my family butthey were not really encouraging
that part of me.
They were like, okay, she's toomuch, but you got to stop
singing in the class.
Stop, you know, doing this.
Just go study to university,get a degree, and then we'll
talk.
And of course I'm a good girl,I'm not gonna go against my
(05:40):
family.
So I was like, okay, I'm gonnago get a degree in equally
creative area and not ascreative as acting, but not as
expressive as acting, butequally creative.
So I chose architecture andinterior design and went.
I was like you know what?
I'm actually going to removemyself a little bit further away
from my family.
Let me just go to likedifferent country or something.
(06:02):
So I ended up in georgia, inamerica, and went to college
here, graduated and worked alittle bit in my field of
architecture, interior design.
I loved it uh, loved parts ofit, but didn't love it enough to
know that I can die happy.
Now you know I can climb theladder and I'm just going to be
(06:25):
amazing.
I was like I just something inmy life is missing and I started
taking acting classes.
I was back then, I was livingin Atlanta and I started taking
acting classes and justsomething in me was like a small
part of me was just like,finally let me come out and I
started to feel alive.
(06:45):
Every time I would exit actingclass I was like that was
amazing.
Right, I didn't really, youknow, build a house or anything
like that or plant a tree, but Ifeel nourished.
I was like this has always beenmy path, I feel like.
So eventually I moved toLouisiana.
Been my path, I feel like.
(07:07):
So eventually I moved toLouisiana.
That was, because ofcircumstances kind of brought me
to Louisiana, to New Orleans,where I met you.
Brian and Olivia.
But honestly, I didn't want tomove to Louisiana, I wanted to
stay in Atlanta, but that waskind of not up to me at that
point of my life.
And pandemic happened.
So I was already taking classesin Louisiana with Jim Gleason
(07:30):
Amazing, amazing teacher, actor,mentor and at some point I
signed with an agent, actiontalent agency.
I signed with them.
That was like a bigbreakthrough for me.
I was like, yay, this ishappening, I'm doing it.
And pandemic happened.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
And I was like yay, this is happening, I'm doing it.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
And pandemic happened and I was like, what am I going
to do?
Like what people do now at thispoint?
And I was like, well, I guess,good thing I have my degree.
But the funny thing, evenduring pandemic, unfortunately
even my degree profession wasn'tsomething that I could like
lean onto.
So I was like, interesting, sowhat am I supposed to do now?
And this is how I foundinfluencing.
(08:09):
I love fashion, I love allthings styling, so that was my
little channel of creativity.
Another channel Didn't come out, didn't go into it as like
making money opportunity, justwent there.
Just you know, I felt like Ineed this creative outlet.
And eventually, during pandemicI guess that was the right
(08:30):
thing to do Everybody kind ofleaned on internet, shopping and
fitness online and all thosethings where I found a lot of
collaboration with companies who, would you know, send me
clothes and eventually I startedworking with them for them.
And this is how I kind ofserved through pandemic and,
after pandemic, moved back toAtlanta and signed with my agent
(08:53):
, amt.
Now, and this is my story, thisis what brought me to my
biggest to date role yet.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Ooh, could you tell us about that role, biggest to
date role yet, ooh, could youtell us about that role.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
So I am absolutely blessed, grateful, happy, to
book an amazing movie calledSuperman.
I am just, I'm still.
I'm still like pinch me,everybody pinched me, because I
don't feel like it's reality.
It feels crazy because even inmy home country they can watch
it.
They can watch it with like,not subtitles but like a
voiceover dubbing, a dubbing,yeah, yeah sound like some
(09:34):
russian person is like talkinglike me, and that was surreal,
just surreal you know.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
So yeah, and I saw it this past weekend.
You did a phenomenal job and Ikept nudging.
My wife was like, I know thatperson I know that she was like
shut up, let me watch the moviethat's funny what was your
experience like on set?
Speaker 1 (09:58):
it was.
It was incredible.
In one word, it felt like a bigfamily that I lost in a way.
Everybody was just so up foranything.
They were kind, everybody alsovery, very talented, extremely
talented everybody.
As soon as the camera's on,everybody's just switched on and
(10:20):
working camera stops, jokes andlittle dances and silly
something.
It was really nice to be a partof that little family, even
though it was only for two weeks.
I was on set for two weeks.
Well, I say only, you know howit is, brian, sometimes like two
hours or something, but it was.
(10:40):
It felt like a home away fromhome, if that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
And it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Did you have any scenes with the real star of the
movie?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Crypto.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
No, no, no, no, david's all right.
James Gunn is cool.
Did you get to meet Crypto?
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Oh, my goodness, crypto.
Funny enough, we had a dog thatwas on set.
It wasn't like obviously theactual creep dog, right, but he
would come in and they wouldjust shoot him for a little bit
and, yeah, he would leave and welove that dog.
I forgot his name unfortunatelybut oh my god, I just love dogs
(11:19):
and you know, like trying tostay in characters between takes
, just to kind of gather mycharacter is I don't want to do
spoilers, I guess right, rightsure my character is supposed to
be reserved and I'm notreserved.
I'm like anything but reserved.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
So when I would see a dog.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
I'm like I got dog on dog right there and I was just
just wanted to just just hug adog and when the camera is just
off and you're like can I hugyour dog please?
And the person this is verysweet woman.
She was the owner of thatbeautiful white dog.
She would always like let usplay with you, and it was nice
(11:57):
so you got to live that meme.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Can I pet your dog?
That's right.
You know the one I'm talking.
The little girl wants to pet abear.
There's a bear outside herinner yard.
Can I pet you?
Speaker 1 (12:06):
I want to pet that dog.
Oh, I saw it in this littleskit.
It's on TikTok.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yep, yep, that's funny.
(12:34):
It just takes a couple of daysto oh.
You know what I mean.
I left the movie set once and Iwent back to my janitorial work
and I'm sweeping.
I'm like man.
So how was it when you left theset?
Speaker 1 (12:45):
That's a great question.
I think the way I woulddescribe it is you have this big
, big energy inside of you andyou put it out.
Put it out every single dayright inside of you and you put
it out.
Put it out every single day,right when you are on set.
You have to multiply thatenergy sometimes because you
(13:08):
have to make sure you are notonly listening directions, you
are absorbing what's happening.
You have to remember your lines,of course, you have to be in
character, you have to believein this world, so you spend so
much energy existing in thisworld.
And don't get me wrong, it's anamazing feeling that when this
world, so you spend so muchenergy existing in this world.
And don't get me wrong, it's anamazing feeling that when this
world is gone and you are homeand you just wake up and you're
about to have a breakfast andyou're at your table, that you
(13:30):
already seen so many times thatenergy has nowhere to go and you
have to have meditation.
You have to have some sort ofways to help your mind to calm
down and get back to your normalroutine, and especially getting
auditions for, like a smallerprojects or commercials or
anything like that, and you like.
Okay, you just put this worldthat was a part of you and all
(13:55):
that energy, and don't be scaredto step into something new,
because you're gonna lose yourmind if that energy keeps like
bursting out and you havenowhere to place that energy.
So it was bittersweet, for sure, and don't get me wrong, it
wasn't like out of the world.
I was happy to finish withsomething because I wanted to
(14:17):
see eventually what's theproduct will be and also it was
very early hours all day on set.
We were all tired right it was,um, it was nice to like sleep in
, but at the same time wasdefinitely bitter, sweet bitter
part, because you just misseverybody and you have this like
warm feeling inside of you thatjust you know we might never be
(14:38):
in the same.
Well, we will never be in thesame place and the same capacity
as a team, ever, ever again.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Oh, yeah, small movie , big movie, when things are
going well and you sync withpeople like you're talking about
.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
And then you have to go home.
You miss that part of you.
Love my wife, love my family,and it's not that home is bad
yeah, it.
Love my wife, love my family,and it's not that home is bad,
it's just different.
Plus, you made it to DCuniverse, you know, you made it.
That's pretty much a pinnacle.
You know what I mean.
I've said this many times I'dlove to be rich.
Okay, I want to be a workingactor, be good at my job and I'm
(15:14):
not worried about awards, but Iwant to be an action figure and
I think you can do it.
You know what I mean and Idon't want to have to make it
myself.
So to me you hit the top of themountain.
I'm so proud of you, I'm happyfor you, I'm jealous, but you
know what I mean Good jealousy.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Thank you so much and I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
You're welcome.
I knew her when You're welcome,I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
I knew her when.
Yeah, I mean, it's honestlylike I am guilty in terms of
sometimes I don't celebrate mywins enough.
I kind of brush it off, even inmy acting class Numerous acting
classes actually.
A lot of people in the beginningof the class would share their
wins, right, and people would beexcited to share how many
auditions they had.
Oh, I applied for this and thisand this.
(16:01):
And I'm sitting here, I gotthree auditions, maybe a
callback, maybe booked something, and I'm like, should I talk
about it?
Like should I be that girl wholike show off?
I always had this like innervoice in myself, that like be
humble.
Like cover your own, Like don'tshare much.
And now this me, this part ofme I'm relearning this habit of
(16:24):
being too humble in a way.
Don't get me wrong be humblebut don't cover your journey.
Doesn't matter if it's you'redoing book anything for a month
or didn't get an audition for amonth or you were getting
callbacks back to back to backand projects here and other
audition there, because peoplewill be inspired by your journey
(16:45):
.
I had so many people reach outto me saying like thank you for
representing Southeast.
You know like I have a hope inme now.
I got so motivated I'm going togo take acting classes now and
I'm like, holy moly, I justinspired somebody to change
something about their life.
That's pretty big.
And yeah, I think I was like Ijust need to.
Well, I'm already doing it.
(17:06):
I'm sticking out my truth andwhat I've been through.
I mean acting wise, not, I'mnot going to lay out my life
onto you and what my journeylooks like.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Oh yeah, you're definitely.
I'm not responsible, but you'redefinitely able to share your
wins.
But I could see where, if youhave a audition or booking or
callback every day and puttingthat on social media, maybe,
maybe you can hold a few back.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
You know what I mean For sure.
So, but I don't think you are abraggart, right, you know what
I mean, so I try to share mine.
I get certain people like, oh,you're doing so good and you
know you're inspiring us.
I hear that a little bit lessthan you, but at the same time
(17:55):
like when I see my friends doingit, and I kind of said it
towards you waiting for a chanceto audition is an emotional
rollercoaster, absolutely, notto mention the emotional
rollercoaster of the role.
Yeah, I always say this isn'tditch digging, but it has its
own difficulties.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think the most difficult partfor me was always it's this
contradictory thing where, as anactor, you get an audition, you
have to care so much about thecharacter backstory, you have to
care about your relationship,your change in the script, the
contrast between beginning andthe end.
You have to care, you have toput yourself into this audition,
(18:32):
but when you submit, don't care, don't care, just forget about
it.
This is very hard, I feel, like, for any human being,
especially actors, because asactors, we're trained to be
empathetic and that's what ourcraft is all about.
We need to have this quality,like a really good human quality
(18:52):
, where we listen, we care, weunderstand, we respond
truthfully.
English is my not firstlanguage.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
It's my first language and I struggle just as
much.
Don't worry about it.
Like English yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
And that's the struggle is to kind of like, as
soon as you submit the audition,just stop and erase.
You're starting again Like itnever happened.
Just stop and erase.
You're starting again Like itnever happened.
And I think I'm finally in aplace where I'm actually
submitting now and I'm notexpecting For the long time.
It was just like especially,you know, you might both of you
(19:31):
might have something like thatwhen your friends or family will
tell you so what are youworking on now?
How was that?
Audition, did you get it?
And you're like no, audition,did you get it?
And you're like no, I didn'tget it.
No, you didn't get it.
Okay, it's okay.
You're not gonna go in intoexplaining how it works.
Sometimes you can be thegreatest actor in the world of
(19:52):
actors, but they need somebodywith hair because they don't
have wigs, you know.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
I feel seen.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Or like they would ask TJ, you got to shave your
beard and you're like, oh my God, for a commercial that I'm
going to get at I don't know athousand dollars for, and I grew
this beard forever.
Oh my God, Like all this littlething, sometimes it's not up to
you, really.
Sometimes it's up to big guys.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
You can have the best audition and they don't like
your look, exactly you can havethe worst audition and they love
your look.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
It's you, just always do your best.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
That's it.
That's.
All you can do is the bestleave it all in that room and go
on to the next one.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Yep, yeah, and do it all again.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
That's right.
How did you learn English?
Because I think your English isreally good.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
I'm going to cut out this part of this podcast and
I'm just going to give it to mypartner.
He was accusing me that myEnglish is well.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
We'll make you a ringtone, thank you, and then
keep calling you.
I know right.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
I studied English in school, the basic version of
English but to get intouniversity here in the US I had
to basically turbo all that.
So I started taking like very,very loaded classes of English
for six months and I just livedEnglish around me, movies and
(21:18):
everything.
And when I got in, even then Iknew how to speak and I mean I
knew how to write and how tolisten and everything, but
speaking part was always alittle bit.
I was a little bit shy, I wouldsay, just because in my country
, for example, if you have anaccent, people will just kind of
make jokes around and it's nota good thing.
(21:38):
It's not a good thing, it's nota good thing.
America, thankfully a littlebit more inclusive People were
always encouraging me to speakand they're like, oh, I love
your accent.
I'm like really Like what?
And sometimes I would getnervous and just change the
order of the words and booktable put it there, you know,
like just crazies, whatever, butpeople would never make me feel
(22:00):
bad for it.
And eventually, of course,entering acting world, I started
to take lessons with my dialectcoach and started to sort of
working on my accent, not in away to completely remove it I
will never do that, hopefully,not because I love my accent the
way it is, but to be able tohave a little bit more diversity
(22:20):
in my casting.
So yeah, but for russian role,russian or slavic inspired roles
, I have to turn my accent appup just a little bit more that
that makes sense you gotta letit loose, right.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
If I try to speak a foreign language, I knew at one
time it's kind of faded away.
I had a little bit of Spanish,I was conversational with
Spanish and I was conversationalwith French and I understand
what you're saying about beingself-conscious about speaking it
around native speakers.
I was always self-consciousabout making a mistake and
saying something, but people forthe most part seem to be pretty
(22:59):
forgiving.
If they understand the gist ofwhat you're saying, they're
pretty forgiving and they moveon with it.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Kudos for anybody who were in that place and were
forgiving.
Thank you, guys.
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Excellent.
What would you tell someoneabout either getting into acting
or influencing a young person,person like me who started at
their old age where to start?
How would you inspire them?
Speaker 1 (23:22):
That's a good question.
First of all, anything that youare starting, I would say you
just have to do it.
Doesn't matter what you'restarting out, you just have to
do it, because the best way tolearn is experience With
influencing.
It's a little bit differentfrom acting.
You just have to like my.
In my case, I am styling andbeauty influencer.
(23:46):
You know, just grab things thatyou have in your house.
Style a dress that you lovestyle.
Of course, the market is waymore saturated right now, but if
you love it actually love ityou're not going to care.
And you have so many times Imean so many minutes in your day
and anybody who will tell me Idon't have time for it, well,
you don't love it enough.
(24:06):
So just start shooting,whatever I don't know.
You have a hairbrush.
Show me how you use it.
You know, talk about it andthat's basically influencing.
Yeah, of, of course, it's abasic version, but you have to
start somewhere.
You are going to look silly.
You are not gonna look perfect,but eventually you will get
collaborations.
(24:26):
You will get people who will belike hey, we also have a brush.
We love that video about thatbrush that you did.
Can you please do the same forour brush.
And all of a sudden you're likeoh, are you also paying me?
Okay, let me just get a lightor something like more
professional.
Okay, kind of make it look waymore presentable.
And this is how you do it.
And with acting, acting is anever ending learning process.
(24:49):
Whether you are taking classes,whether you are shooting movies
with your fellow actors,whether you are watching movies,
you have to do something everysingle day towards that.
You want to be in the movie,learn what it's like to be in
the movie.
Go take a background role.
It's really easy to get cast toget a background role.
(25:09):
I'm not taking it in a way thatmaybe some people find
extremely hard.
I'm not taking away anybody'sstruggles, but if you want it,
hard enough, you have toexperience it.
You have to take time, have tomake time for it.
So I would say, first thing, gotake acting classes.
Acting classes is like, oh, ifyou don't have time completely,
(25:30):
watch some recordings ofsomebody's acting class and see
if it's for you or not.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Definitely, and look for a teacher who actually books
roles.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Who has experience.
You have to watch out for that,yep.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah, and never pay for casting for agent.
Until you make money, don't payfor casting.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Don't pay for an agent.
They get a percentage once youbook.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Don't pay for real Yep.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Don't go to a company that will make you real right
yeah, unless you just like alister and you just don't have
time, you can always make alittle real for yourself, for
sure, yeah it's better to gomake a youtube video with your
friends.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
You've written it out where you feel it, which the
ones I've seen, where peoplehave paid for it.
Their energy is low, it's.
A lot of people say it's awaste of money.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
I'll leave it at that and it comes across as homemade
.
It doesn doesn't come across as.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
I mean honestly nowadays I've heard multiple
casting directors talking aboutsometimes people submit
self-tapes like previousself-tapes of similar roles.
Don't take my word for it, buthonestly I personally feel like
if you have a badass self-tapethat booked you something or
that you are so proud of andthat character is very similar
(26:38):
with the character that youauditioned for and you don't
have a reel, I mean ask youreither agent or just you know,
go submit that.
Some casting directors evenwill tell in the breakdown
submit a clip or submit like aprevious self-tape.
Make sure that self-tape islike, not under NDA or anything
like that.
But yeah, there are always waysaround it, always ways around
(27:01):
it.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Right For background.
Look for mycastingfilecom andyou can sign up for free If you
don't have an agent and you wantto get into acting.
If you just jump in, it mighttake a while, but actors access.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
That's how you can start learning about roles near
you or across the country, orwhatever section you click on,
without having an agent.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yeah, I remember in my time when I started out I'm
not sure how good this websiteis now, but I used to use
Backstage.
Backstage gave me quite a fewlittle indie projects and like
school projects.
That's another good way to getgood footage.
Go and ask local universitytheater program if you guys cast
(27:43):
anything anytime soon.
When I was in louisiana I was Iwas checking out tulane website
all the time and they once toldme they're going to be casting
something pretty soon.
So I showed up.
I had live auditions withstudents and that was amazing.
This is I got my first leadrole that way and first
(28:04):
supporting role that way, anduntil this day I'm still in
contact with like I on Instagram, with those amazing talented
humans and they usually alwayshave theater programs, usually
have a really good qualitycameras and good quality sound
and they also want to succeed.
So they would want you tosucceed too.
So I think it's a really greatway to make some sort of a reel
(28:29):
and experience.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
The first role I ever booked was from backstage.
It was a paid role.
It wasn't very much, but I didthe same thing.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
I used backstage in the beginning as well yeah, yeah
, and don't be scared, even ifit's not paid for a person who
start out.
It's like, think about it likethat.
It's like imagine you weretraining to be a surgeon and you
come to the hospital for thefirst time in your life and
somebody comes and be like, oh,I need a heart transplant.
(28:59):
And you like'm a surgeon, butyou don't have any experience
and you want to get your handsdirty right away and you want to
get, you know, good money to dothat and all that stuff.
It doesn't work like that.
You have to get experience, youhave to keep walking to
different doors and stuff andmake sure it's all kind of
aligned.
One day and you're there doingthings.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Pay your dues.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
That's right, that's right.
Yeah, you're going to work forfree in the beginning.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
And with influencing.
I've seen some of your videos.
You can look on trends of whatpeople like, how they hold up
the clothes, and then they're onyou or you split screen and
you're like this or that.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
You can watch and learn and then start Absolutely
Kind of the same thing withacting.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
It's a place to start and then you study and you need
someone who knows.
I feel like we almost got intothe weeds on this subject, but
we love it so much and that'sthe key component Absolutely you
have to love it, you have toneed it, Like Tatiana was saying
how it nourished her to be onset and that creative energy was
able to come out where it can'tin a normal life, you know, in
(30:02):
normal situations, because thisbusiness will kick you in the
teeth every chance it gets, andnot even meaning to be me Like
we say, we audition, we don'thear anything about it.
Somebody else gets it and yousee it and you're like man.
I could have done better thanthat.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
And a great thing is don't take it personal for sure.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
That's another thing that I'm just spitting out there
, things that I went throughpersonally.
Sometimes it's easy as a humanbeing to take something
personally.
Oh, they didn't invite me tofilm this project.
I thought we're friends or theydidn't tell me there is.
This workshop is happening.
Like five of them, that peoplethat I know went and I didn't
(30:39):
like what's happening.
Don't take it personally Ifpeople how would I put this?
I don't think there is a lot ofpeople who would want you to
fail.
If there are people like thatin your circle, you should be
careful with your circle.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Take them out for sure.
But people who are genuine andkind and they're understanding
the path that you are on, theywill never make you purposefully
feel like you are less than youare.
And, as I said, if there arepeople like that in your circle,
(31:17):
be careful, be very careful andselective.
But we're all in the same,we're all starting from
somewhere.
I wouldn't say we're allstarting from the same plateau
because there are differentbackgrounds and different skill
sets and different circumstancesand environments, but we're all
starting somewhere and peoplewho actually make it I would say
(31:38):
95 of those people are kind,genuine and actually care about
other people.
Otherwise, you can sense it onthe screen.
You're like, oh, this person isfull of themselves.
They don't even give an energyof like.
Here we go, I'm listening to mypartner and on the scene, like
they just take all the attentionon themselves and you kind of
sense that right away.
(31:59):
I mean I always like, I love toobserve people and I always
sense those sort of things.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Very cool.
Tatiana, we're coming to aclose here.
Do you have any socials thatyou'd like to plug?
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Sure, my Instagram is Tatiana Piper with a dot.
After Tatyana, my TikTok isalso Tatyana Piper without a dot
, I believe, and my website isTatyanaPipercom.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
If you don't mind, I'll ask you if you could close
this out in Russian.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
whatever you'd like to say, Okay, sure, Thank you so
much, guys.
Спасибо большое, NOLA FilmScene for having me, За то что
вы меня пригласили.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
My friend, it was so great having you on.
I'm so happy for your successand I can't wait to see where
you go next.
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Thank you so much, пока-пока.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
До свидания.
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