Latest / Next Act with Jeff Ornstein / Beverly Brock - President & Owner, The Brock Agency, Inc.
Transcript
- 0:01Jeff Ornstein: Hi everyone and welcome to Next Act with Jeff Orenstein.
- 0:05Jeff Ornstein: I am Jeff, and on this show we celebrate people on the cusp of greatness.
- 0:10Jeff Ornstein: Those building on past successes in some of the curious and inventive and sometimes unexpected ways they have achieved those and stepping into moments that could define their legacy.
- 0:21Jeff Ornstein: We'll talk about current projects, lessons learned, and the extraordinary opportunities ahead.
- 0:27Jeff Ornstein: So the best is yet to come.
- 0:29Jeff Ornstein: Today's guest is Beverly Brock, president and owner of the Brock Agency Inc.
- 0:33Jeff Ornstein: Since founding the agency in 1990, Beverly has built a national business representing union and non-union actors of all ages, as well as screenwriters.
- 0:43Jeff Ornstein: With more than three decades in entertainment, Beverly has seen firsthand how casting representation and the business of acting have evolved.
- 0:52Jeff Ornstein: She brings a unique perspective on what agents look for, what separates successful talent, and what it takes to build a lasting career in an unpredictable industry.
- 1:01Jeff Ornstein: Never a more true word has been spoken.
- 1:04Jeff Ornstein: So welcome, welcome, Beverly.
- 1:06Beverly Brock: Thank you, Jeff.
- 1:07Beverly Brock: Thank you.
- 1:08Jeff Ornstein: We're delighted to have you here.
- 1:09Jeff Ornstein: So I mentioned a little bit in our pre-recording that we've had some other agency founders like yourself, and not a lot.
- 1:17Jeff Ornstein: And the insights that you share can mean a lot to the folks that are listening.
- 1:21Jeff Ornstein: Next Act is developed for people who may have had other careers and are thinking about joining our industry, or have had a series of overlapping complementary careers and sort of trying to make that meld into something bigger and better and be a legacy-defining jump for them.
- 1:38Jeff Ornstein: So I think you've been in this business in 1990.
- 1:41Jeff Ornstein: You've seen a lot, and you've seen a lot of changes.
- 1:45Beverly Brock: It's changed so much.
- 1:46Beverly Brock: I mean, I used to have what did you call that kind of fax machine?
- 1:49Beverly Brock: It was a roll, it came off a roll.
- 1:52Jeff Ornstein: Oh, yeah.
- 1:53Beverly Brock: I can't remember what you call it, but when I'd leave and go on a trip of any kind, I came back and that roll would be all the way out my office door into the other room.
- 2:02Jeff Ornstein: That slimy paper, too.
- 2:04Beverly Brock: Yes, and you had to cut it all apart, and then you had to read the breakdown.
- 2:08Beverly Brock: Then you got to call the casting director and say, Can I send you headshots in the mail?
- 2:13Beverly Brock: And that's how I used to cast.
- 2:15Beverly Brock: I'd pitch my people that way and send the headshots in the mail with their resumes attached, hoping that they would fit the role of Jackie or Joe or whatever.
- 2:24Beverly Brock: And I and then I'd call and follow up after it should have gotten there by the mail, which was a little faster than it is today, I have to say.
- 2:32Beverly Brock: So I don't use the postal service very much because it's so slow.
- 2:36Beverly Brock: I use the EPS store because it's pretty quick.
- 2:39Beverly Brock: But it's changed so, so much.
- 2:41Beverly Brock: And during COVID, it changed even more because there are no in-person auditions anymore, which actors really want.
- 2:48Beverly Brock: But I can see it never going back to in-person because it's so much quicker, so much easier.
- 2:54Beverly Brock: I tell them to just be yourself when you get on that Zoom call back.
- 2:58Beverly Brock: They want to see you.
- 2:59Jeff Ornstein: Yeah, tell me this.
- 3:00Jeff Ornstein: Do you think that directors or writers or anyone sitting on the casting bench is at a detriment by not having that face-to-face presentation by the performer?
- 3:11Beverly Brock: I think so.
- 3:11Beverly Brock: Yes, I do.
- 3:12Beverly Brock: Because when people are in person with you, you can kind of the director will read with them, and sometimes the casting agent will read with them, casting director will read with them.
- 3:22Beverly Brock: And then if the director's there, he'll read with them, which is really a big perk because they think you're good enough for the director to read with you.
- 3:28Beverly Brock: That's a really big deal.
- 3:29Beverly Brock: And or the casting director, that's both of them are a big deal.
- 3:32Beverly Brock: So people miss that.
- 3:33Beverly Brock: They really do.
- 3:34Beverly Brock: And because they can really be themselves, they can be more casual in person.
- 3:38Beverly Brock: You get to see their body language and not just on camera, because on camera, people get stiffer.
- 3:43Beverly Brock: They just do.
- 3:44Beverly Brock: And in person, you're just more relaxed.
- 3:46Beverly Brock: I tell everybody, don't shake hands, don't shake hands, don't shake anyone's hand, don't want to shake your hand, don't hug anybody, just walk in and say, Thanks for letting me come in.
- 3:54Beverly Brock: And that's the way I used to tell them all the time.
- 3:56Beverly Brock: There were certain casting directors who did not want you to touch them.
- 3:59Beverly Brock: And I don't blame them.
- 4:00Jeff Ornstein: Tell me this.
- 4:01Jeff Ornstein: So is it your belief that it'll never go back to live auditions?
- 4:05Beverly Brock: I don't think so.
- 4:06Beverly Brock: I mean, it is so much easier and quicker at once in their office, and talent doesn't they don't have to travel to the location.
- 4:14Beverly Brock: It could be across the country.
- 4:15Beverly Brock: They may be doing a nationwide search.
- 4:17Beverly Brock: And it really is simpler if you just learn to be casual and be yourself.
- 4:23Beverly Brock: Like you and me right now, we're talking.
- 4:24Beverly Brock: I could be all stiff and rigid, but what good would that do you or anybody listening?
- 4:29Beverly Brock: It doesn't do anyone any good.
- 4:30Beverly Brock: So you they have to learn not to be stiff and uptight.
- 4:35Beverly Brock: Because sometimes even in people's audition takes, they're stiff.
- 4:39Beverly Brock: I said, you've got to loosen up.
- 4:41Beverly Brock: Do your breathing and do your nose out through your mouth.
- 4:45Beverly Brock: One, two, three, four, five, six.
- 4:47Beverly Brock: I said, if you do that six times, you will loosen up.
- 4:50Beverly Brock: It mentally helps you.
- 4:52Beverly Brock: And breathing exercises work.
- 4:54Beverly Brock: And I try to get everyone to understand this will work for you.
- 4:57Beverly Brock: It works for me.
- 4:59Beverly Brock: It puts me to sleep at night.
- 5:00Beverly Brock: So it really works.
- 5:02Beverly Brock: But I don't think it'll go back to in-person because it's just number one, you don't have to travel.
- 5:08Beverly Brock: There's no gas out of your pocket.
- 5:09Beverly Brock: You don't have to get there on time to fight the traffic, get there late.
- 5:12Beverly Brock: And number two, why are you not spreading germs?
- 5:15Beverly Brock: That's a really important thing today, try to stay well and healthy.
- 5:19Jeff Ornstein: So tell me this.
- 5:20Jeff Ornstein: So many years you've been in the industry and preferences and taste levels and what viewers are expecting from their performers, a lot of that's changed over time.
- 5:29Jeff Ornstein: So when you're looking at new talent, what are you looking for?
- 5:34Jeff Ornstein: Or what stands out to you as someone, this person, someone I want on my roster?
- 5:39Beverly Brock: It's someone who really has that energy, who really wants to do it, because they have to get on the sites for me to pitch them.
- 5:47Beverly Brock: I can't just email casting the rep like I used to.
- 5:50Beverly Brock: They say, please do not email or call us.
- 5:52Beverly Brock: That's what it says.
- 5:53Beverly Brock: Because they get so many calls from agents like myself.
- 5:57Beverly Brock: I try to honor that and not call.
- 5:59Beverly Brock: I will email after they've sent the audition in, but there are many times it says, do not email us, do not call us.
- 6:05Beverly Brock: And that's so you have to wait.
- 6:07Beverly Brock: And when people, why don't you call them?
- 6:09Beverly Brock: Why don't you email them?
- 6:10Beverly Brock: Well, it says, do not call, do not email.
- 6:13Beverly Brock: And that's what it means.
- 6:14Beverly Brock: Leave us alone, let us do our job.
- 6:16Beverly Brock: Because we're all usually they're aren't going on to another job.
- 6:20Beverly Brock: So it's not that they're not interested in you.
- 6:23Beverly Brock: It's just that they have a job to do and it's hard.
- 6:26Beverly Brock: So I tell everybody, you just that what you need to do when you get in front of someone, a big casting director, there's so many wonderful casting directors, be grateful.
- 6:35Beverly Brock: You are blessed to be in front of that casting director.
- 6:38Beverly Brock: And if they thought you were good enough once, they'll think you're good enough again.
- 6:42Jeff Ornstein: Right.
- 6:42Jeff Ornstein: That's something we've heard before.
- 6:44Jeff Ornstein: Exactly.
- 6:45Jeff Ornstein: Don't be discouraged if you don't get one guy said he went before one casting director 10 times and he was about ready to throw in the towel, and then he got his 11th, and someone said, This is the lesson learned.
- 6:56Jeff Ornstein: You're being called back for a reason.
- 6:59Jeff Ornstein: So just go with the flow and don't take it personally.
- 7:02Jeff Ornstein: Tell me this.
- 7:03Jeff Ornstein: I was just gonna say, so we know what's changed with how you interface with the casting directors, how you get your clients in front of the casting directors.
- 7:11Jeff Ornstein: On the flip side, how has that part of the industry changed?
- 7:15Jeff Ornstein: Like, do they have different expectations other than the don't call me?
- 7:19Beverly Brock: I submit our actors access.
- 7:21Beverly Brock: Okay.
- 7:21Beverly Brock: Well, when I send you the message, I have to do a lot of legwork to get them to check your email.
- 7:28Beverly Brock: You've got an audition notice, and I get excited.
- 7:31Beverly Brock: I'll call them anyway.
- 7:32Beverly Brock: I sent you an audition or I'll text them.
- 7:34Beverly Brock: Then if they still don't accept it or decline it, then casting doesn't know if they've on tape or not, and neither do I.
- 7:40Beverly Brock: And I'll let them have four times of not accepting or declining, and then I'll give them that a call.
- 7:48Beverly Brock: It's time for you to do something else.
- 7:49Beverly Brock: But if this isn't working for you, it looks makes my business look bad, makes the company look bad, and it hurts my other talent.
- 7:56Beverly Brock: You've got to accept or decline.
- 7:58Beverly Brock: Sending on Casting Networks.
- 7:59Beverly Brock: All you have to do is log in, check that little check so it goes green, so casting knows you're going to take, or you have to decline, leave a note that then know why.
- 8:07Beverly Brock: I'm going to be out of the country during the shoot dates.
- 8:09Jeff Ornstein: So how many people are in your files?
- 8:11Jeff Ornstein: Is it called representation?
- 8:12Jeff Ornstein: So how many people are you representing now?
- 8:14Beverly Brock: Probably 625 across the country.
- 8:17Beverly Brock: And I have some overseas too.
- 8:18Beverly Brock: I have some in Melbourne, Australia, and in Venice and in London too.
- 8:24Beverly Brock: And then the rest of them are here in the United States.
- 8:27Beverly Brock: Some are even all across the United States, not just and in Mexico.
- 8:31Beverly Brock: I've got people everywhere.
- 8:32Jeff Ornstein: Is that a number that changes?
- 8:34Jeff Ornstein: You're stable?
- 8:34Jeff Ornstein: Are you always around the 600 mark?
- 8:37Beverly Brock: Or well, I've been dropping people because they don't respond.
- 8:41Beverly Brock: Because if you're not responding to my calls or my emails, it means you're not interested anymore.
- 8:46Beverly Brock: But I have people who've got out for a while because they started the business and they were trying to get it rolling and it was just so much they got out.
- 8:53Beverly Brock: And I tell them if you get out and go get another agent, you can't come back.
- 8:56Beverly Brock: It's because you lost faith in me, you closed the door.
- 8:59Beverly Brock: But I have a lot of people who didn't close the door on the agency.
- 9:02Beverly Brock: They just basically started the business, try to get it running.
- 9:04Beverly Brock: They said, I got my business running.
- 9:06Beverly Brock: Can I come back?
- 9:07Beverly Brock: I said, Did you get another agent?
- 9:08Beverly Brock: No, ma'am, I didn't.
- 9:09Beverly Brock: I trust you.
- 9:10Beverly Brock: And that that makes me feel really good.
- 9:12Beverly Brock: And I know they're not lying, so I take them back because I know they're marketable and they do work hard.
- 9:17Beverly Brock: As long as they work as hard as I do, that's what I expect because I work really hard for them.
- 9:23Jeff Ornstein: Yeah, it's a team effort.
- 9:24Jeff Ornstein: You both win if you both succeed it, but it takes an effort on both parties' part.
- 9:28Beverly Brock: Teamwork makes the dream work, and that's true statement, too.
- 9:31Jeff Ornstein: Right.
- 9:31Jeff Ornstein: Yeah.
- 9:31Jeff Ornstein: Tell me this.
- 9:32Jeff Ornstein: As someone who's relatively new in the industry, since I've started, and the industry had already sort of taken a dip to the not so positive.
- 9:41Jeff Ornstein: And the word on the street is very hard to get an agent, very hard to get representation, very difficult.
- 9:47Jeff Ornstein: Have your standards changed over the last five or six years while our industry is going through somewhat of a transition, transitionary period?
- 9:56Beverly Brock: I don't always expect people to have a long, lengthy resume.
- 10:00Beverly Brock: If they've done something in the past and they have a drive, and it's a new face.
- 10:06Beverly Brock: Sometimes new faces book right away.
- 10:08Beverly Brock: I have one actor in the Raleigh Durham area.
- 10:11Beverly Brock: As soon as I signed him, he booked like four jobs straight in a row within six months.
- 10:16Beverly Brock: This was a long time ago.
- 10:17Beverly Brock: And he's still with me.
- 10:19Beverly Brock: He was so shocked.
- 10:20Beverly Brock: And I even booked one with him and his young son.
- 10:23Beverly Brock: And he's always been so dedicated.
- 10:25Beverly Brock: He had to take a little leave because he went through an issue with his personal life.
- 10:29Beverly Brock: And he told me, I said, that's okay, we'll just book you out.
- 10:32Beverly Brock: I'll book you out in two or six months and you come back when you're ready.
- 10:35Beverly Brock: But he just booked New Faces Will Book because no one's seen them before.
- 10:40Jeff Ornstein: Right, exactly.
- 10:41Jeff Ornstein: So tell me this.
- 10:42Jeff Ornstein: With that being said, is there a flavor of the month right now for new faces?
- 10:47Jeff Ornstein: Is there a particular style or appearance of young actor-actresses that are catching the eye of casting directors and directors?
- 10:55Beverly Brock: Everyday people.
- 10:56Beverly Brock: And the mob look is kind of back in too.
- 10:58Beverly Brock: So older guys who love to wear a flashy suit, got a really good look and real good poise.
- 11:04Beverly Brock: That that's kind of a big thing too, with Tulsa King doing so well.
- 11:08Beverly Brock: And there's a lot of good TV series and some films.
- 11:11Beverly Brock: But then you've got Angle Studios bringing out so much stuff.
- 11:15Beverly Brock: And it's just everyday faces.
- 11:17Beverly Brock: Everyday faces.
- 11:19Beverly Brock: Line a lot of makeup, no jewelry, simple, plain.
- 11:23Beverly Brock: Like you look today.
- 11:24Beverly Brock: You look great today.
- 11:25Beverly Brock: Simple, plain.
- 11:26Beverly Brock: You look great.
- 11:27Beverly Brock: But you kind of look simple.
- 11:28Beverly Brock: You don't need to overdo, not a lot of makeup, not no flashy anything.
- 11:33Beverly Brock: But of course, they have to have people that look like a hooker sometimes in these TV series.
- 11:37Beverly Brock: But so if you want to do something that's kind of a little bit edgy, that's okay because I can't submit a girl who looks like the girl next door for that.
- 11:45Beverly Brock: But sometimes you have to be like in New York.
- 11:47Beverly Brock: They want New York local hire or New Jersey.
- 11:51Beverly Brock: And they think we I can be up there.
- 11:52Beverly Brock: I said, no, you don't live there.
- 11:54Beverly Brock: This happened to me with a very big casting director.
- 11:57Beverly Brock: And she said she could be there anytime.
- 12:00Beverly Brock: Well, she wasn't there.
- 12:01Beverly Brock: I said, if I tell Matthew, you better be there.
- 12:03Beverly Brock: And I told him they wanted to come in the next day for fitting.
- 12:06Beverly Brock: They want to book her right then.
- 12:07Beverly Brock: I can't do that.
- 12:08Beverly Brock: I'm in LA.
- 12:08Beverly Brock: I said, You told me you shouldn't have been, but you could leave set and be there.
- 12:12Beverly Brock: I said, He will never hire you again.
- 12:14Beverly Brock: And he told me, he says, Babe, you tell her I'll never hire her again.
- 12:17Beverly Brock: He's very big and I love working with him.
- 12:19Beverly Brock: I work with him now a lot.
- 12:21Beverly Brock: But he knew that I'd tell her and I did, because no one is gonna book a liar.
- 12:27Beverly Brock: Because that doesn't mean you're gonna show up.
- 12:29Beverly Brock: Will you show up?
- 12:31Beverly Brock: Will you be on time?
- 12:32Beverly Brock: Will you stay the full day?
- 12:33Beverly Brock: Not that someone's just a liar.
- 12:35Beverly Brock: They're just trying to book a lot of stuff.
- 12:36Beverly Brock: But you're still, and that's why I say New York local hire only.
- 12:40Beverly Brock: We mean it.
- 12:41Beverly Brock: They'll say that in the notices.
- 12:42Beverly Brock: Same thing in Atlanta.
- 12:44Jeff Ornstein: You're juggling so many things between the crew and locations.
- 12:48Jeff Ornstein: And the last film I worked on, which was a small film, had twice two or three times as many crew members as it did cast members.
- 12:54Jeff Ornstein: So there's a lot of organs, and you can't have like somebody who's sort of into it or sort of committed.
- 13:00Jeff Ornstein: That's pretty disrespectful to everybody involved.
- 13:02Beverly Brock: It is, it really is.
- 13:04Beverly Brock: So I don't take that from anybody anymore.
- 13:06Beverly Brock: And if you want to work, you better be in one location.
- 13:09Beverly Brock: I have one of my addresses.
- 13:10Beverly Brock: She lives in Los Angeles.
- 13:11Beverly Brock: I think she's from London.
- 13:13Beverly Brock: But she lives in Los Angeles.
- 13:14Beverly Brock: But she comes out to the East Coast and lives in New York from like July through the end of October.
- 13:22Beverly Brock: And she'll do it every year.
- 13:23Beverly Brock: She does it every year.
- 13:24Beverly Brock: She's great.
- 13:25Jeff Ornstein: She's reliable.
- 13:26Jeff Ornstein: Yeah.
- 13:26Jeff Ornstein: So in that respect, are there things that you recommend to young artists or people making the transition, young to the industry, let's just say, that they should focus on prior to trying to get an agreement to have a manager or an agent?
- 13:40Jeff Ornstein: Are there ducks that they have to get into a row?
- 13:43Beverly Brock: If they've never done anything, at least they can get into martial arts or to dancing.
- 13:49Beverly Brock: I tell a lot of parents that when they're new, and some one mother got mad at me really bad because Tal was five and she thought she could do everything.
- 13:55Beverly Brock: But she could.
- 13:56Beverly Brock: She'd never done anything.
- 13:57Beverly Brock: They don't want to hear that.
- 13:58Beverly Brock: And I understand that it's hurtful.
- 14:00Beverly Brock: Get your child into dance or into gymnastics or taekwondo, something.
- 14:04Beverly Brock: And then if they're older, they'd get them into horseback riding, get them something that they can have on their resume and get them into some theater.
- 14:10Beverly Brock: There's all this local theater, even theater at your church.
- 14:13Beverly Brock: You can do plays at your church, plays at the school, and that's something for your resume that shows you have something that shows you can get up in front of people and do it.
- 14:22Beverly Brock: You can bring it.
- 14:24Jeff Ornstein: Excellent.
- 14:24Jeff Ornstein: So we've talked a little bit about the change in the process since the digital world took over.
- 14:30Jeff Ornstein: You created Eagles Wings Entertainment to champion writers for whom I have to say I wish I could be a writer.
- 14:38Jeff Ornstein: I don't have that ability to see a story from beginning to end and then put pencil to paper.
- 14:43Jeff Ornstein: But what made you realize that great stories deserve just as much representation as great actors?
- 14:48Beverly Brock: Well, the sag strike.
- 14:50Beverly Brock: First it was COVID and then the sag strike.
- 14:52Beverly Brock: I thought, wait a minute, I'm not working.
- 14:56Beverly Brock: My people aren't working.
- 14:56Beverly Brock: What I got to do, something.
- 14:57Beverly Brock: So I started another company.
- 14:59Beverly Brock: And it's been it's been a blessing.
- 15:00Beverly Brock: And right now we're at the precipice of funding for some of these and for marketing in a different fashion that I feel very positive about.
- 15:10Beverly Brock: I'm getting positive feedback.
- 15:12Beverly Brock: I've got such a variety of screenplays and TV series that we are pitching.
- 15:18Beverly Brock: And I have a guy who's writing pitches that make it stand out.
- 15:22Beverly Brock: He's so talented and gifted.
- 15:24Beverly Brock: And then I have people that, you know, all across the country that help kind of meld this all together.
- 15:31Beverly Brock: Because I trust my writers a lot.
- 15:33Beverly Brock: I said, if you can't work together as a team, we can't work together.
- 15:37Beverly Brock: If we submit your stuff, let's say, I don't know, to MGM or something, and they say, no, we're going to pass on this.
- 15:42Beverly Brock: Okay, we've got contact there.
- 15:44Beverly Brock: So I'll use that contact to submit somebody else's stuff.
- 15:47Beverly Brock: If you can't say that's okay, then you don't need to be on board because everybody needs the shot.
- 15:53Beverly Brock: We all need to give everybody a shot.
- 15:55Beverly Brock: And it may not ever work for anybody.
- 15:57Beverly Brock: Maybe they're not looking for anything right now.
- 15:59Beverly Brock: We don't know.
- 16:00Beverly Brock: So, but I do know I know a lot of really good great producers.
- 16:04Beverly Brock: And they'll say, I really like that, but we can't sell that right now.
- 16:08Beverly Brock: It's just too much money involved in historical pieces.
- 16:10Beverly Brock: Okay, I understand that.
- 16:11Beverly Brock: But and there's too much involved in that series.
- 16:14Beverly Brock: But I like this.
- 16:15Beverly Brock: If you could turn this into a script, get it back to us, we might be serious about it.
- 16:20Beverly Brock: Ah, that just happened.
- 16:22Beverly Brock: That just happened.
- 16:24Jeff Ornstein: Congratulations.
- 16:24Jeff Ornstein: Well, this is a theme that comes up a lot.
- 16:27Jeff Ornstein: It's of course funding because of the sort of the ups and downs that our industry is in right now for getting funding.
- 16:35Jeff Ornstein: What's the sweet spot for fundable movies because of for the total budget?
- 16:41Jeff Ornstein: What it's transpiring easier than it used to in the past.
- 16:45Jeff Ornstein: But also what I'm curious to know from you, is there a storyline that's sort of on a roll right now?
- 16:52Jeff Ornstein: Is it the Western, which seems to be pretty popular, or love stories, or rom coms, you don't seem to see a lot of them.
- 16:59Beverly Brock: Christmas movies are always a winner, especially if they're written well and they've got to make their characters, they've got a roll throughout the whole script.
- 17:09Beverly Brock: You've got to make them believable.
- 17:12Beverly Brock: Did you ever read The Thornbirds back years and years that novel?
- 17:15Jeff Ornstein: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 17:16Jeff Ornstein: That's I was in high school.
- 17:17Beverly Brock: Well, I wasn't in high school.
- 17:19Beverly Brock: I was older than that.
- 17:20Beverly Brock: I'm sorry.
- 17:20Beverly Brock: Because I'm older than you probably.
- 17:22Beverly Brock: But I read that novel when I was pregnant, it was my first child.
- 17:25Beverly Brock: And I just love that.
- 17:26Beverly Brock: I laid in the sun and read that novel.
- 17:28Beverly Brock: I thought, oh yes, they made it to a movie, it's a series.
- 17:30Beverly Brock: It was a short series.
- 17:31Jeff Ornstein: Yep.
- 17:32Jeff Ornstein: Richard Chamberlain.
- 17:33Beverly Brock: Yes.
- 17:34Beverly Brock: And it was just like I envisioned the book.
- 17:37Beverly Brock: And that's what you have to write like.
- 17:40Beverly Brock: You've got to make those characters believable, and they've got to come alive on those pages when you put it together so people want to watch it.
- 17:50Beverly Brock: I was so sad when it was done.
- 17:52Beverly Brock: I was so sad.
- 17:53Beverly Brock: But it was so awesome.
- 17:55Beverly Brock: It was really an awesome.
- 17:56Beverly Brock: And it's hard to it's hard to do that.
- 17:58Beverly Brock: Pig Barn.
- 17:59Jeff Ornstein: It it made an impression on you, and that's good theater.
- 18:03Jeff Ornstein: I mean, you took something away.
- 18:05Jeff Ornstein: You wanted to be back in that world.
- 18:06Jeff Ornstein: That's very cool.
- 18:07Jeff Ornstein: A real tribute to the director, too, who was able to tell that story, you know, incorporating set design and costume.
- 18:14Beverly Brock: They should rerun that.
- 18:15Beverly Brock: It was so awesome.
- 18:16Beverly Brock: That was a phenomenal short series.
- 18:19Beverly Brock: I loved it.
- 18:20Beverly Brock: And I tell Ape, if you can make your characters come alive like they do in the Floon Birds, you've got something that's marketable.
- 18:28Jeff Ornstein: So if you could give an inspiring, well, the producers wrote actor, but I think we can include writers as well as this.
- 18:35Jeff Ornstein: One piece of advice before they walk into their audition or they walk in to pitch their script, what would it be?
- 18:41Jeff Ornstein: Is there one like basic fundamental advice you like to inspire people to kind of live by, use this as your foundation and then build upon it?
- 18:50Beverly Brock: When you get the opportunity to meet anybody in person, dress nicely and look nice, it's like an interview.
- 18:56Beverly Brock: Or you go to a job interview, you're gonna look nice.
- 18:58Beverly Brock: And so you want to look nice.
- 19:00Beverly Brock: And when you go in there, let them ask you questions.
- 19:03Beverly Brock: Don't talk about yourself.
- 19:04Beverly Brock: When you talk about yourself and you know one can get a word n edgewise, right there, that's gonna be a closed door for you.
- 19:11Beverly Brock: You've got to let them ask you questions.
- 19:13Beverly Brock: Just like I was I said, go ahead and ask me questions because I like questions, because I love to answer questions, and I like to talk kind of like you.
- 19:20Jeff Ornstein: I do like to talk.
- 19:22Beverly Brock: I do too.
- 19:23Beverly Brock: Uh I like just let them ask you questions and then answer them short and sweet.
- 19:29Beverly Brock: And then say, Well, can you elaborate on that some more?
- 19:32Beverly Brock: And then you do that, but remember, it's always short and sweet to the point.
- 19:36Beverly Brock: Don't talk about yourself, talk about what you're there for.
- 19:40Beverly Brock: You dare to push your script.
- 19:42Beverly Brock: I wrote this script because one of my friends went through a really bad time and they came out of it, and everything's great.
- 19:50Beverly Brock: And I wanted people to know how he worked this hard to get where he's at now.
- 19:54Beverly Brock: Kind of short and sweet and precise and condensed, because no one wants to hear a bunch of stuff about you.
- 20:00Beverly Brock: They want to hear about what you come to do.
- 20:03Jeff Ornstein: Right.
- 20:03Jeff Ornstein: They're asking questions, so there's things they want to know.
- 20:07Jeff Ornstein: You might want to tell them what you want them to know, and they might want to hear what they want to know.
- 20:12Jeff Ornstein: And at the end of the day, you're leaving and they're staying.
- 20:15Jeff Ornstein: So what's important to them is a little bit more important than what you want to get.
- 20:20Beverly Brock: That's why you need to let them take the steering wheel and ask you questions, and you answer the questions and let them manage the car.
- 20:28Beverly Brock: Don't try to put forth too much because some people like to talk about themselves too much, and that can hurt you.
- 20:36Beverly Brock: It can hurt you.
- 20:37Beverly Brock: They want to know about your script.
- 20:39Beverly Brock: How did you get there?
- 20:39Beverly Brock: How did you come up with this idea?
- 20:41Beverly Brock: Where did you get it from?
- 20:42Beverly Brock: They'll ask you all those questions, and you just got to answer the questions truthfully, and then that'll help them get more questions to ask you.
- 20:49Beverly Brock: And the more they can ask you and learn about your project or whatever you're bringing to the table, the more it's gonna open the door for you.
- 20:56Beverly Brock: I feel like it's gonna be a positive for you just to let them ask you the questions.
- 21:02Jeff Ornstein: Right.
- 21:02Jeff Ornstein: You know what's coming across loud and clear, Beverly, is you're no nonsense about authenticity.
- 21:08Jeff Ornstein: You've been very consistent.
- 21:09Jeff Ornstein: Be yourself, look nice, be presentable, which is a sign of respect to the people you're meeting with, speak when spoken to, answer the questions at hand, and don't just get up on a soapbox and tell your story willy-nilly and be yourself.
- 21:24Jeff Ornstein: And it sounds to me like that's your advice for a recipe for success.
- 21:28Jeff Ornstein: Well, that authenticity is going to be read by the people that you want to impress.
- 21:34Beverly Brock: I believe that's true because I try to be myself.
- 21:36Beverly Brock: I try to help people whenever they have an issue with their tile.
- 21:40Beverly Brock: I have a lot of people who have children and have got issues, and they tell me, and I try to help them come up with a solution to get I said, it's okay.
- 21:49Beverly Brock: Everybody has a malady, everybody has an issue they don't talk about.
- 21:53Beverly Brock: Even me, I have issues they don't talk about.
- 21:55Beverly Brock: So you have to overcome it.
- 21:57Beverly Brock: If you want to overcome it, you can.
- 21:59Beverly Brock: Don't ever Tell your child, um, you should have gotten that audition.
- 22:02Beverly Brock: You should have got it.
- 22:03Beverly Brock: You were the best.
- 22:03Beverly Brock: How do you know they're the best?
- 22:05Beverly Brock: You didn't see anyone else audition.
- 22:06Beverly Brock: You don't say that to your child.
- 22:08Beverly Brock: Say nothing to your child.
- 22:10Beverly Brock: Say, you did great.
- 22:11Beverly Brock: You know what?
- 22:12Beverly Brock: I'm glad you got in front of that that that director, because they'll call you back because you were so good.
- 22:16Beverly Brock: We'll just keep on going.
- 22:17Beverly Brock: And that's how you got to keep a positive attitude for that child.
- 22:21Jeff Ornstein: Beverly, what's also coming across loud and clear is it seems to me like you run your business like a family.
- 22:27Jeff Ornstein: So that there's got to be professional stability, but there's supposed to be emotional stability and there's got to be accountability and all these things that you kind of like lean on your family for, which is great.
- 22:37Jeff Ornstein: I mean, I would it doesn't surprise me that your folks are so loyal to you.
- 22:41Jeff Ornstein: That's not commonplace in any industry in this day and age, let alone our industry.
- 22:47Jeff Ornstein: So I have to ask this, but are there any ingredients you think that gives a performer longevity?
- 22:55Jeff Ornstein: Like is it changing with the times?
- 22:57Jeff Ornstein: Is it staying who you are, the core who you are?
- 23:00Jeff Ornstein: Is there anything that you think makes a career span three decades, four decades?
- 23:06Beverly Brock: I think staying yourself, staying true to yourself, being the character that you come out what's inside of you.
- 23:13Beverly Brock: I have a guy that's was on Sopranos, and he still looks like he could be on the Sopranos.
- 23:17Beverly Brock: He's awesome, and that's where he gets booked for mostly or that type of role, because he comes across like that.
- 23:24Beverly Brock: But he's awesome.
- 23:26Beverly Brock: I mean, he just he comes across that way, and he knows he does.
- 23:30Beverly Brock: That's what he likes.
- 23:31Beverly Brock: He does a good job, and he's an awesome actor.
- 23:34Beverly Brock: And if he doesn't get it, I'll get the next one.
- 23:36Beverly Brock: That's okay.
- 23:37Beverly Brock: He has that kind of mentality.
- 23:38Beverly Brock: I have another guy like that, and they're both in New York, and he's like that too.
- 23:42Beverly Brock: He's got a real unique voice, like the guy on Chicago PD.
- 23:46Beverly Brock: What's that guy Lee guy's name?
- 23:48Beverly Brock: I can't remember.
- 23:49Beverly Brock: Hank, he plays Hank Voigt, I think.
- 23:51Beverly Brock: And he's got that real raspy voice.
- 23:53Beverly Brock: He said something happened to his voice, and he's got a raspy voice too.
- 23:56Beverly Brock: I said, You're gonna get a big job one day because of your voice is so unique and so different.
- 24:02Beverly Brock: And they know that.
- 24:03Beverly Brock: They know they're special in a different way, and they stay steady.
- 24:08Beverly Brock: They stay steady.
- 24:09Beverly Brock: That staying steady to yourself and doing what you like is what's important because you're gonna do it the best.
- 24:16Jeff Ornstein: Right.
- 24:16Jeff Ornstein: And don't fight type, which is another topic that's come up on this podcast many times.
- 24:21Jeff Ornstein: There's a reason it's true, and it happens because it's valid.
- 24:25Jeff Ornstein: So if you're the raspy gangster, you're not gonna get the ingenue.
- 24:30Jeff Ornstein: You're gonna be the raspy gangster.
- 24:31Beverly Brock: You're not gonna get the guy next door.
- 24:33Jeff Ornstein: Right, right.
- 24:34Jeff Ornstein: We're just not.
- 24:35Jeff Ornstein: I love this.
- 24:36Jeff Ornstein: So just so I'm clear, Beverly, where are you located?
- 24:39Beverly Brock: I am in Hickory, North Carolina.
- 24:42Beverly Brock: Used to be the furniture capital of the world.
- 24:44Beverly Brock: I came here, my ex-husband and his family had a furniture company here, which after we were here, I forget how long, maybe 12 years, then a lot of the the furniture went overseas to China.
- 24:56Beverly Brock: And now it's coming back.
- 24:58Beverly Brock: So it's great because we used to have big furniture markets here.
- 25:01Beverly Brock: I used to cook for a restaurant here in Hickory.
- 25:04Beverly Brock: During Furn Dim Market Week, because I'm a great cook.
- 25:06Beverly Brock: I love to cook.
- 25:07Beverly Brock: And and then I used to have dinners for all our sales reps and their wives.
- 25:11Beverly Brock: And so I would cook with my mother-in-law.
- 25:13Beverly Brock: I love Hickory.
- 25:14Beverly Brock: I do that.
- 25:14Beverly Brock: That that company is no longer, but it was we sold it to Century Furniture a long time ago.
- 25:19Beverly Brock: But if that was the most fun, is coming to Hickory and meeting all this wonderful people that I know here that have made my life wonderful and joyful.
- 25:28Beverly Brock: They have.
- 25:29Jeff Ornstein: Isn't that great?
- 25:29Jeff Ornstein: Yeah, we there's no place like home.
- 25:31Beverly Brock: I mean Well, I'm not from here.
- 25:33Beverly Brock: I'm from Raleigh originally.
- 25:34Beverly Brock: I grew up in Raleigh, but I've been here longer than I was ever born in Raleigh.
- 25:38Beverly Brock: I was born and raised there.
- 25:39Beverly Brock: I left when I was 19 and came here.
- 25:41Beverly Brock: Got married at 19 and came to Hickory.
- 25:43Beverly Brock: And I have my two girls here, and now I have four grandchildren, and I am happy as a clam.
- 25:49Jeff Ornstein: Excellent.
- 25:49Jeff Ornstein: I actually I designed hotels in my day job, and I've done that for 46 years.
- 25:54Jeff Ornstein: So I'm juggling these two careers.
- 25:57Jeff Ornstein: And I just attended uh High Point.
- 25:59Jeff Ornstein: After High Point was over, they had a special showing just for hospitality designers.
- 26:04Jeff Ornstein: A lot of the showrooms that want to get into supplying for hotels.
- 26:07Jeff Ornstein: And so I was just down there, and where's the big chair?
- 26:11Jeff Ornstein: Is that where I was?
- 26:12Jeff Ornstein: Where's the big chair?
- 26:13Jeff Ornstein: Is that high point?
- 26:14Beverly Brock: They might be here in Hickory.
- 26:15Beverly Brock: You might have been here.
- 26:16Jeff Ornstein: And I've been in this business long enough to remember Hickory Craft Furniture.
- 26:21Jeff Ornstein: And there was a bunch of furniture companies with the name Hickory in it.
- 26:24Beverly Brock: Yep, yep.
- 26:24Beverly Brock: They're in the Hickory Wellcrafted.
- 26:26Jeff Ornstein: I can still see the logos.
- 26:28Beverly Brock: It was Habersham.
- 26:29Beverly Brock: Ours was Habersham.
- 26:30Jeff Ornstein: We have gone way over time because I talk a lot and you talk a lot.
- 26:35Jeff Ornstein: And that's a recipe for success.
- 26:36Jeff Ornstein: That's a great recipe for success.
- 26:38Jeff Ornstein: So I want to thank you so much for joining and sharing some of your insights.
- 26:42Jeff Ornstein: I'm sure it's going to generate a lot of buzz to our listeners and watchers because you can't buy experience.
- 26:48Jeff Ornstein: And your experience has been really, you've been really laser focused and consistent.
- 26:53Jeff Ornstein: So that's really helpful.
- 26:54Jeff Ornstein: People here are straight, pulling no punches.
- 26:56Jeff Ornstein: So thank you.
- 26:57Jeff Ornstein: Thank you so much for joining us.
- 26:59Beverly Brock: Thank you, Jeff, for asking me.
- 27:00Beverly Brock: I appreciate it.
- 27:01Jeff Ornstein: You're welcome.
- 27:02Jeff Ornstein: And you have a wonderful event.
- 27:03Jeff Ornstein: Good luck with your premiere in LA in the fall.
- 27:07Beverly Brock: Yeah, I'll let you know how it goes.
- 27:08Beverly Brock: I'll let you know.
- 27:09Jeff Ornstein: Okay, yeah, definitely.
- 27:10Jeff Ornstein: Give us a shout.
- 27:10Jeff Ornstein: Maybe we'll have you back on and you can tell me.
- 27:12Jeff Ornstein: I would love to.
- 27:13Beverly Brock: I would love to.
- 27:14Jeff Ornstein: All right, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.
- 27:15Beverly Brock: Thank you very much.
- 27:16Beverly Brock: All right.
- 27:17Jeff Ornstein: All right.
- 27:17Jeff Ornstein: Thanks for tuning in to Next Act with Jeff Orenstein.
- 27:20Jeff Ornstein: Follow, subscribe, and stay connected to your favorite socials at www.nexttackpodcast.com.
- 27:28Jeff Ornstein: Keep chasing your next act.
- 27:30Jeff Ornstein: The best is yet to come.