When Fate Makes a Sudden Twist
Ever since Janine Holt was introduced to the hit television series “Beverly Hills 90210” by her older sister Polly, she confessed that after the first commercial break her mind became set on becoming an actress. “It was like a flash of light suddenly burst from the TV screen,” she mentioned when asked about her sudden epiphany. She was 13 at the time, and though one may call it a “youthful dream” Janine made every possible effort to keep her hopes alive.
At the age of 18 Janine grabbed the opportunity to start paving the long road ahead of her by competing at local beauty pageants. By the time she had reached the age of 20 she placed 2nd and 3rd runner-up out of four beauty pageants.
It was then after she decided to move to New York City in order to try her luck in acting, which was her main passion in the first place. There, she ran into a couple of odd jobs so as to sustain herself. “It was really hard, I usually got up three hours earlier so I could go downtown and check for casting calls,” she said about her daily routine. Long hours were spent standing in line for auditions, to which she mentioned seemed endless. Sometimes, she even confessed to calling in sick just so she could make it to a certain audition.
“No matter how many auditions turned me down, I always made sure to keep my head up.” It was an attitude that Janine was glad to have kept. Eight months after she moved to the big apple, things were looking grim. Janine’s job as a waitress was hardly enough to support her financially, and so she decided to give herself another six months before she packed her bags and headed home. “I cried myself to sleep every night. I didn’t want to come home defeated.”
However, fate always has a way of twisting when one least expects it. Janine had a regular customer who dined at the restaurant where she worked. “He sat at my tables a couple of times. He usually kept to himself, writing in a little notebook of his.” With just a month and a half until her said deadline, Janine’s plans suddenly came to a turn. “I brought him his usual salad, and then the next I noticed was he was looking at me funny.” The two sparked a small conversation and by the end of the week, Janine was on location during her first film. “His name was Michael,” and little did she know, prior to their conversation, that he was an independent film director. He had asked her to come in for a screen test, and after that the two immediately hit it off. Ever since 2002, Janine has starred in six independent films. Three were directed by Michael while the rest were done by different directors from as far as Los Angeles.
When asked about the two’s chemistry when it came to making movies, Michael had this to say: “She has this natural presence while on screen which makes you have this immediate familiarity with her.”
We had a chance to interview Janine Holt in a more in-depth manner, and this is what she had to say:
Was success in independent films something that you considered when starting out?
To tell the truth, No it wasn’t. I was young, so I naturally had this juvenile notion that being an actress meant acting only in big-budget movies. I guess it was something that I came to learn gradually.
What were these specific things that you learned?
I appreciated the craft more and more as I did it. There’s a whole lot more to acting than meets the eye. You tend to know a lot more about yourself when it comes playing different characters and adopting a certain method when it comes to acting. I eventually found and accepted that I wasn’t the “drop dead gorgeous” type. I was more like “the girl next door,” or the “common waitress type!” (laughs). I guess it’s a big hurdle for anyone to realize and accept that there are some things that a person can never be, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t special. Talent runs deeper than physical attributes alone. All you have to do is work with what you have, and then you’ll start to find that success is simply a byproduct of hard work and dedication.
How is your family backing you up in your career?
My parents thought I was crazy to leave home. Come to think of it, I think they never took me seriously when I declared to them that I wanted to be an actress. So you could just imagine their shock when I told them I was leaving in hopes to be one. My sister Polly was my bottomless well of support. She was always there to comfort me when I was feeling dejected, even if I would call her up at three in the morning. But after my first film, I took my parents to see it with me. I was more nervous that they were going to see it, more than the thought that there were a lot of people there who I didn’t know watching me on screen. My folks seemed to like what they saw, except maybe for the intimate scenes! (laughs).
So what’s in store for the future?
I’m actually going to Arkansas next week to shoot a film with Dennis Murray. I’ve read the script twice and it looks to be one of the most challenging roles that I’ll be playing. Hopefully, if we finish it in time, it could be a contender for Cannes. My fingers are crossed!
