Latest / The Purpose and Progress Podcast Show / No Agent, No Map: How She Cast Herself in Her Own Story with MariaCrystal Melo

Transcript

No Agent, No Map: How She Cast Herself in Her Own Story with MariaCrystal Melo · The Purpose and Progress Podcast Show

• 0:00
  MariaCrystal Melo:: Don't try to follow what other people are
• 0:02
  doing, because this is kind of thing that I never used to when
• 0:06
  I was starting out as an actor. People would be like, okay, so
• 0:08
  what kind of career do you want? Who is it that you compare
• 0:11
  yourself to, or who you're inspired to be? And I think
• 0:13
  there's nothing wrong in looking up to a fellow actor or an
• 0:17
  artist. You admire their work, but they're not me, and I'm not
• 0:20
  them. You have to really find your own uniqueness and your own
• 0:24
  path, because what may work for someone else may not work for
• 0:28
  you.
• 0:32
  Jim Price:: Hello, I'm Dr. Jim Price, and welcome to The
• 0:36
  Purpose and Progress Podcast. This is the place where we
• 0:40
  explore how purpose can guide our actions, and how growth can
• 0:44
  become a part of our everyday lives. On the show, I talk with
• 0:48
  amazing guests, from educators and creators to everyday people
• 0:52
  with extraordinary stories about the challenges they face, the
• 0:56
  lessons they've learned, and how to keep moving forward. My goal
• 1:00
  is to share conversations that inspire you to live
• 1:03
  intentionally, embrace growth, and take meaningful steps to
• 1:06
  your own purpose. Let's get started.
• 1:14
  Hello, and welcome to The Purpose and Progress Podcast
• 1:17
  show. I'm your host, Dr. Jim Price, where we show
• 1:21
  inspirational stories, motivational stories about
• 1:23
  leader industries who are doing so many fabulous things. And
• 1:26
  today, we have a guest who's no different, doing so many
• 1:29
  fabulous things, and bringing inspiration and motivation to so
• 1:32
  many. She is an award-winning actress, writer, producer,
• 1:37
  director of 520 Film. She's definitely a lot of accolades,
• 1:41
  and she is MariaCrystal Mello. How are you doing today?
• 1:45
  MariaCrystal Melo:: I'm doing well, Jimmy. Thank you so much
• 1:47
  for having me on your show. I'm really excited and honored to be
• 1:50
  here. This is amazing., thank you so much.
• 1:53
  Jim Price:: Thank you for willing to be a guest on the
• 1:56
  show. I know we touched base here and there before the show,
• 1:58
  and talked about a lot of different things and stuff even
• 2:00
  before the show, and talking about that story of inspiration,
• 2:04
  motivation, people making progress toward their goals and
• 2:07
  aspiration of things. We're just talking about that for the show,
• 2:12
  about how people always see the finished product, but they don't
• 2:14
  really get to understand the process of what happened to get
• 2:19
  there, to get where you're at, and to get all the accolades and
• 2:22
  stuff. I think that's something we could start off with. Where
• 2:26
  do you feel your journey started, and what influenced
• 2:29
  you?
• 2:31
  MariaCrystal Melo:: Yeah. It goes way back. I started out
• 2:34
  very young as an actor. Actually, just started out as an
• 2:37
  actor when I was probably in high school. I wanted to do
• 2:40
  theater, and I remember wanting to do acting even earlier than
• 2:44
  that. But my mom, my parents were like, you should wait until
• 2:48
  you're older. Didn't want me to do acting too early as a kid, so
• 2:51
  they just wanted me to go through school. And then as soon
• 2:54
  as I went into high school, and I did theater. I was in every
• 2:59
  production, and I wanted to do acting so badly. And then I
• 3:03
  remember after when I graduated high school, I wanted to pursue
• 3:07
  it very seriously. And at the age of 19, that's when I really
• 3:11
  went into it seriously. I started auditioning for small
• 3:16
  projects, student films, anything that I could do to try
• 3:19
  and build up my portfolio as a beginning actor. But I think my
• 3:23
  career didn't really progress. I think until maybe just after the
• 3:27
  pandemic, because I kind of went through an interesting shift
• 3:31
  where I had representation, I had an agent and a manager, but
• 3:36
  I felt like it wasn't really the direction that I wanted. I felt
• 3:39
  like I had more stories to tell. There were roles that I wanted
• 3:42
  to play where I didn't really see that were out there, and
• 3:46
  other themes and topics that I felt really passionate about. So
• 3:50
  I started writing and producing to not just to create my own
• 3:53
  work, but actually to create a versatility of work for myself
• 3:56
  as a performer, because I felt like there was so much more that
• 3:59
  I could show rather than just doing one liners. Not that
• 4:04
  there's nothing wrong with that, but I felt like there just
• 4:06
  wasn't enough versatility in terms of what I can express. And
• 4:10
  now that I've done already a couple of written, co-produced
• 4:14
  and directed a couple of short films already under my belt, I
• 4:18
  feel like now it's just been branching off to working with
• 4:20
  other creators and other directors, so I think it's just
• 4:24
  a matter of having that passion, that drive and knowing where I
• 4:28
  want to be, and having that direction as an artist and where
• 4:31
  I want to go in terms of what kind of roles that I want to do,
• 4:34
  and what kind of stories I want to tell.
• 4:36
  Jim Price:: That's so fabulous. People sometimes don't
• 4:40
  understand that. I remember when I was in my associate's degree,
• 4:44
  and I had to do undergrad, just pick some classes on it, and one
• 4:49
  of the classes was actually acting class. Did a little
• 4:51
  broadway play and everything, and I was in there. I was like,
• 4:54
  oh, my goodness, I couldn't believe how people think it's
• 4:56
  easy. It's hard. Very hard when you have to remember all the
• 5:00
  lines and all this stuff, and you're going through, I was
• 5:03
  like, oh, man, this is a lot. People don't understand. But
• 5:06
  that small experience I had when I was at junior college and
• 5:08
  stuff like that, I had selected that class, a theater drama
• 5:10
  class, and doing that kind of opened my eyes. This is not
• 5:15
  easy. You were doing a whole production, and like you're
• 5:18
  maybe a lead character and all that stuff, all the lines, and
• 5:22
  all the cues of when to speak. There's a lot to it. So people,
• 5:26
  they see the finished product, of course, but they don't
• 5:28
  appreciate all the work that goes behind a lot of the stuff
• 5:31
  that goes on with that, so thank you for sharing that. What do
• 5:34
  you feel were some of the obstacles that you faced, or may
• 5:38
  have challenges that you face as you were getting into the
• 5:43
  industry, finding your niche, and working your way through the
• 5:47
  process to get to where you're at today?
• 5:49
  MariaCrystal Melo:: Yeah. There was quite a lot. It's a stems
• 5:52
  from, I guess, what you call branding nowadays, the personal
• 5:56
  brand, which back then wasn't even like, when I first started,
• 6:00
  it wasn't even like a term. And even just logistics now, and
• 6:03
  being a producer, there were so many obstacles. One of them, I
• 6:06
  think I started out as an actor first before anything else, I
• 6:09
  was trying to find where I fit in because and a lot of actors
• 6:13
  struggle with it. Because when you go into the commercial side
• 6:16
  of casting, and that's when you deal with all the bigger
• 6:19
  productions, and you're dealing with passing directors and the
• 6:23
  networks, they have a specific type that they want, and that
• 6:27
  type can be very, it can seem like you're put in a box
• 6:30
  sometimes. And I'm not the kind of artist, like as a performer,
• 6:34
  I've always been very, I wouldn't say experimental, but I
• 6:37
  do like versatility. And I do tend to get casted for different
• 6:41
  looks, especially. So there was always that kind of conversation
• 6:45
  of like, okay, well, what's your ethnicity? Where do you fit? Do
• 6:48
  you even fit in at all? What do you come across as? So I kind of
• 6:52
  dealt with that as well growing up. And from my teens when I
• 6:56
  first started up until, I didn't really feel it until probably
• 6:59
  like five years ago when I was actively auditioning for real
• 7:03
  networks. And then that's when I noticed that there's definitely
• 7:07
  a struggle with finding out where do I actually fit in.
• 7:10
  Because I noticed that I would get rules for specific types,
• 7:14
  and I'm just like, I'm noticing a pattern here. There's nothing
• 7:18
  wrong with that. I don't mind playing that once in a while if
• 7:20
  I have to just get my foot in the door to just gain the
• 7:23
  experience, but there's more I know that I can do. So that was
• 7:27
  one issue, or one obstacle, I would say. And then it came
• 7:31
  coming down to producing, and then writing my own productions.
• 7:34
  There was always budgetary issues, there's always location
• 7:37
  issues. There's always figuring out, okay, well, if I ever want
• 7:41
  to get investors, what's that process like? And then I'm
• 7:44
  saying the business side of things, understanding
• 7:46
  distribution, eventually learning about that on the
• 7:48
  surface. So there's so many things that I'm still learning
• 7:51
  even now. But from my experience, I've learned a lot.
• 7:55
  And after understanding how the industry is constantly changing,
• 8:01
  now it's more about just publishing your work online and
• 8:05
  trying to build up your audience as much as you can. And that
• 8:07
  does take time, obviously, because nobody goes viral
• 8:10
  overnight. But I'm doing it gradually and slowly. The slow
• 8:14
  burn is kind of happening where people are starting to notice my
• 8:19
  work and the people that I work with, and work that's around, so
• 8:22
  I'm very honored and very proud that I've come this far and just
• 8:27
  keep going. That's it.
• 8:28
  Jim Price:: It's interesting because you've gone through this
• 8:32
  amazing journey to get where you're at. Like myself, I'm just
• 8:37
  getting into cartoon animated stuff for my books and stuff
• 8:40
  like that. I really been just learning on the fly how to
• 8:44
  really navigate a lot of that. And people really don't know how
• 8:50
  much goes behind a scene. Even when you talk about the casting
• 8:53
  roles and stuff like that and people ask about, hey, how do
• 8:58
  you fit? All these questions about everything, they're so
• 9:02
  particular about everything that it makes it seem like it's
• 9:05
  definitely tedious. There's got to be a lot of pressure when
• 9:08
  you're trying to navigate a lot of that. You're seeing all these
• 9:10
  things happen, and going in the direction of trying where you're
• 9:13
  going to go to, you probably see a lot of the other actors
• 9:16
  struggle too in the same way because this industry is big.
• 9:19
  The industry is big, and there's a plethora of avenues, and
• 9:25
  corridors, and paths that we all navigate toward getting to where
• 9:31
  we want to go and stuff like that. Thank you for sharing
• 9:33
  that, because people don't really know. They see the
• 9:36
  finished product, but they don't know about the journey, the
• 9:38
  purpose, the progress that goes behind everything. I think
• 9:42
  that's amazing, MariaCrystal. I would like to know, in terms of
• 9:48
  achievements, your personal achievements and stuff, what you
• 9:51
  feel have been probably some of your feeling, some of your
• 9:57
  premier achievements in terms of your journey along your purpose
• 10:00
  and your progress, and everything that you've done so
• 10:03
  far.
• 10:04
  MariaCrystal Melo:: Yeah. First, there's quite a few. I'm just
• 10:09
  trying to remember, but we go way back. I think the first
• 10:12
  short film that I've ever wrote and produced was called The
• 10:14
  Healer, and that one took me by surprise because I stir it up
• 10:18
  from nothing. There was no budget in that, like literally,
• 10:21
  I did it just to try and create something, and it was just after
• 10:24
  the pandemic. I was submitting it to small little film
• 10:28
  festivals, and then it got noticed by a film festival
• 10:32
  called the Lift-Off Global Network, and I submitted it
• 10:35
  under a category under the first time filmmaker session, which I
• 10:38
  was because I was a first time filmmaker. And there were these
• 10:42
  two individuals that ran a YouTube channel for this
• 10:45
  particular festival, and then they reached out to me. They're
• 10:47
  like, we really loved the film, and we'd love to interview you
• 10:50
  on a YouTube live stream for our festival. We want to showcase
• 10:55
  the film and ask you about how you made it. So that was a
• 10:58
  really cool experience, and I consider that as an achievement
• 11:00
  because it was my first time. You never think that your first
• 11:05
  project would be noticed by someone based in the UK. They
• 11:08
  saw, and they just felt connected to it. Then after
• 11:11
  that, I did another short film called Homebound, which touched
• 11:14
  on the subject of homelessness, and that was very, very cool too
• 11:18
  because it got some screenings in Toronto where I'm based.
• 11:23
  There were people that came up to us and wanted to screen it in
• 11:26
  small theaters and venues, and that was really exciting. We did
• 11:29
  it with my director, and it was like a finalist at the Athens
• 11:33
  International Film Festival in Greece. I won some pretty cool
• 11:38
  accolades, and it got some recognition, and then it got
• 11:41
  picked up by a small streaming platform called, it was a IMDB
• 11:46
  or streaming platform that just launched. But a few years ago, I
• 11:50
  did a small little short film called Blood Money, and that got
• 11:53
  actually screened in a real actual movie theater on the
• 11:57
  silver screen, and got picked up by a festival. I had like a
• 12:01
  little premiere, and it was the first time one of my films that
• 12:04
  I ever directed, which I acted, produced and directed it, and
• 12:08
  acted in, and it got screened in an actual Cineplex theater,
• 12:12
  which was really cool. And now, there was our newest film called
• 12:17
  Angel, which is directed by Lefty Quicken. Written and
• 12:19
  co-produced by your truly, and I'm actually the main actor in
• 12:23
  the film as well. I just got accepted to a really great film
• 12:26
  festival called the Toronto Nollywood International Film
• 12:30
  Festival, and it's being nominated under three categories
• 12:34
  for best director, best experimental short film, and
• 12:36
  best actress, so I'm very excited. I'm very excited about
• 12:42
  all those achievements. The slow burning moments are just great.
• 12:45
  It's coming together. I'm very happy.
• 12:51
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• 12:53
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• 12:56
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• 13:21
  blessed.
• 13:25
  Wow, that is incredible. Congratulations. I'm sure when
• 13:30
  you were getting the news, and sometimes you don't know what's
• 13:34
  going to happen with something, and then all of a sudden, you
• 13:36
  get the news, and you're overly excited. You're like, oh, my
• 13:38
  goodness, this is actually happening. Yu just have a level
• 13:42
  of excitement because you put all this work in, and to make
• 13:45
  things happen, and all of a sudden, you're seeing the fruits
• 13:47
  of your labor actually come to fruition in that way. I think
• 13:52
  that is fabulous when you're able to put in that work and
• 13:55
  everything, and then actually see the progress being made, and
• 13:58
  it's so fulfilling in so many levels. It boosts self-esteem,
• 14:02
  self-confidence, all those things that are part of that
• 14:05
  healing journey, and purpose and progress that we talk about in
• 14:09
  people's lives and stuff. Even here on the platform, we're
• 14:12
  talking about motivating people and stuff, and your story is
• 14:14
  definitely a motivational story that definitely is inspirational
• 14:18
  in a lot of ways. I congratulate you on all the success that
• 14:21
  you're going through, and I'm to continue to success that you
• 14:24
  will build upon, and stuff like that. People see the glitz and
• 14:27
  the glamor, but they don't know all the progress of how to get
• 14:31
  there. Thank you for sharing all this wonderful, inspirational
• 14:35
  message with our audience here. If you were to say like, for
• 14:41
  aspiring actors, producers and people in the industry that were
• 14:46
  trying to maybe get in the door and try to get a hold of
• 14:49
  themselves and probably have the opportunity, what advice would
• 14:53
  you give to inspiring actors, producers and people who want to
• 15:00
  get into the industry, in our audiences, what advice would you
• 15:02
  give to them?
• 15:04
  MariaCrystal Melo:: Yeah. I would never would want to place
• 15:06
  my own opinions because every person's path is so different.
• 15:10
  My path is so different from everybody else. I can only say
• 15:13
  that what may work for someone else may not work for you. I do
• 15:17
  have colleagues of mine who are successful actors, and they've
• 15:20
  done it the traditional way. They've done the union. If they
• 15:23
  have the manager and the agent, and they've booked through their
• 15:27
  agents, and they're booking, and they're doing great. And then
• 15:31
  they're actors, like myself, where that did not work out the
• 15:34
  best way in that direction. But yet they write, and they produce
• 15:38
  a script, they write something, the act in it, and then it gets
• 15:41
  noticed. And then before you know it, other directors want to
• 15:45
  work with them, and then they just kind of branch out. So I
• 15:48
  think what I can say is that, don't try to follow what other
• 15:50
  Jim Price:: That's so fabulous. And sometimes, people are
• 15:51
  people are doing because this is the kind of thing that I never
• 15:55
  used to like when I was starting out as an actor. People would be
• 15:55
  uncomfortable getting outside of the box. or they get comfortable
• 15:58
  like, okay, so what kind of career do you want? Who is it
• 16:02
  that you compare yourself to? Who do you aspire to be? And I
• 16:03
  in a certain place, and then they are almost afraid to go
• 16:05
  think there's nothing wrong in looking up to a fellow actor or
• 16:09
  an artist that you admire their work. But they're not me, and
• 16:09
  outside the box of their comfort level. And when you have those
• 16:12
  I'm not them so you have to really find your own uniqueness
• 16:15
  and your own path because what may work for someone else may
• 16:17
  kind of situations, sometimes, that could bring forth a lot of
• 16:19
  not work for you. And the one thing that I can say is that we
• 16:22
  have a lot more resources now,. There's this whole thing now
• 16:24
  stagnation where you're not really believing in your
• 16:26
  with YouTube creators being recognized online, which is
• 16:29
  phenomenal, but that might not work out for you that way. It
• 16:30
  abilities and your purpose being to move through the thing, do
• 16:32
  might work out in another way. It just means that we have more
• 16:36
  resources to be seen and to show our work, which is fantastic,
• 16:37
  the things you want to do. Everything is going to be work,
• 16:39
  whether that's YouTube, whether that's TikTok or Instagram,
• 16:42
  wherever the case may be. Or even if you do it through a
• 16:44
  but it's a matter of, are you going to have the confidence?
• 16:46
  traditional festival route, which that can happen as well. I
• 16:49
  know some people. They've done very well in that traditional
• 16:51
  Are you going to be okay with going outside the box of what
• 16:52
  way. It all depends. I would just say that it's very hard not
• 16:56
  to compare yourself. That's another thing that tends to
• 16:58
  maybe you're comfortable with to bring toward the success, or
• 16:59
  happen in acting. When you're just an actor, you always
• 17:02
  compare yourself like, oh, that person got the job, and I didn't
• 17:05
  meet those goals or aspirations that you're trying to reach,
• 17:06
  get it. And do they look like me? Do they sound like me? Do
• 17:09
  they take my esthetic? That kind of whole branding thing. At the
• 17:13
  just like you mentioned there. It so good when you put it all
• 17:13
  end of the day, the great thing about 2026 is that we have so
• 17:16
  many resources to be seen, and you never know where it might
• 17:19
  hit. It could be on TikTok, it could be on YouTube, it could be
• 17:20
  together and have things happen in a way and gravitate toward
• 17:23
  anywhere, really. And the great thing is there's so many
• 17:26
  festival venues too, which may or may not work out, but you do
• 17:27
  having everything work in the way it does, especially in your
• 17:30
  it anyway because that's just a way to get your work out there
• 17:33
  for people to see you in any capacity, which I think is
• 17:34
  case, MariaCrystal. You've definitely put in the work. And
• 17:36
  great. Just embrace your uniqueness, and don't try to
• 17:39
  follow what other people are doing. Do what makes you happy
• 17:41
  I mean you've been putting yourself out there even with the
• 17:43
  and what actually works out for you. And if you see the results
• 17:46
  and it's working, then stick to it.
• 17:48
  festivals and stuff. You've diligently been put in the work
• 17:55
  to do the things you need to do to put yourself in position
• 18:02
  where you can see success and things like that. And I'm
• 18:08
  waiting, definitely waiting to see any of your upcoming
• 18:15
  projects. I have been keeping up with you, and I love all the
• 18:22
  work that you're doing. I'm definitely a fan of the work
• 18:29
  that you're doing now. And just continue on, and I always say, I
• 18:36
  always cooperate prayer in everything I do. So as long as
• 18:43
  you're keeping a positive mindset, and you're looking and
• 18:50
  inspiring, and not being afraid to reach back and help somebody
• 18:57
  else who may be on their path, I'm trying to inspire them that
• 19:04
  way, and it's always a good thing. That's where a lot of
• 19:11
  times you get your blessings and stuff too through helping
• 19:18
  others. You're doing a fabulous job there. How would our
• 19:24
  audience be able to connect with you, your work and things like
• 19:32
  that? Let the audience know how they can connect with you.
• 19:39
  MariaCrystal Melo:: Yes. They can follow me on Instagram. I'm
• 19:41
  very much more active on there. It's mariacrystalmelo, all one
• 19:45
  name. You can find me there. And I do have a YouTube channel that
• 19:48
  I'm building up as well, and I post my blog, so just kind of
• 19:51
  like my experiences working as an actor and a filmmaker as
• 19:55
  well. And I will be posting some of my few projects on there as
• 19:57
  well soon. Eventually, I just searched up my name on Youtube,
• 20:00
  Maria-Crystal Melo. Like and subscribe, and follow my
• 20:03
  journey, and I will be posting my videos there.
• 20:05
  Jim Price:: Thank you so much. This has been such a fabulous
• 20:08
  conversation. I was saying before we started, we're gonna
• 20:11
  have fun with it, we're gonna do our thing. I'm gonna learn more
• 20:13
  about you, MariaCrystal, the journey, the behind the scenes
• 20:17
  of the success. It's been such a blessing and an honor to have
• 20:20
  you on the show. I'm hoping, I know our audience definitely
• 20:23
  pulls some nuggets and some gems out of there that's
• 20:25
  inspirational, motivational for them. And that's what this show
• 20:29
  was about, purpose and progress, about growing and nurturing your
• 20:32
  gifts and your abilities to be able to do things and make
• 20:35
  progress in a positive way. So thank you, MariaCrystal, for
• 20:39
  being a guest today.
• 20:41
  MariaCrystal Melo:: Thank you so much for having me. It was
• 20:43
  wonderful meeting you, and much success. And God bless. Thank
• 20:46
  you so much. I really appreciate your support. This was a
• 20:49
  wonderful interview. I loved it. Thank you.
• 20:51
  Jim Price:: Thank you so much. To our audience, this is The
• 20:54
  Purpose and Progress Podcast show. I'm your host, Dr. Jim
• 20:57
  Price. And once again, we are working with making purpose,
• 21:01
  making progress, doing the things we need to do to uplift
• 21:04
  others, inspire others in the best way we can. So until next
• 21:07
  time everyone, stay blessed.
• 21:10
  Thank you for joining me on this episode of The Purpose in
• 21:14
  Progress Podcast. I hope today's conversation gave you insight,
• 21:18
  inspiration, or a fresh perspective to help you move
• 21:21
  forward with purpose. If you enjoyed the episode, please
• 21:24
  subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who could
• 21:27
  use a little encouragement. You can also support the podcast
• 21:30
  through the donation link in the show notes. Every contribution
• 21:34
  helps us keep sharing stories that uplift and inspire.
• 21:37
  Remember, your purpose is waiting, and progress never
• 21:40
  stops. I'll see you next time.