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Why Talented Actors Sabotage Their Own Careers—The Psychology Behind Success & Failure · All About The Joy

• 0:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Hi everyone.
• 0:05
  Carmen Lezeth: Welcome to All About the Joy In the house is Cynthia Ruiz Lopez, rick Costa and our wonderful guest, albert.
• 0:14
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm going to say your name wrong, so let me just see if I did it right.
• 0:17
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, albert Bramante.
• 0:20
  Albert Bramante: Bramante.
• 0:22
  Carmen Lezeth: Bramante.
• 0:22
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm so sorry.
• 0:23
  Carmen Lezeth: Albert Bramante, it's so nice to meet you.
• 0:26
  Carmen Lezeth: I always tell people where I meet them so that our audience knows.
• 0:30
  Carmen Lezeth: I've never met you, your people or you reached out to me on an email.
• 0:34
  Carmen Lezeth: I kind of did a little Google search and I was like, oh, here's a Hollywood insider, let's have him on the show.
• 0:41
  Carmen Lezeth: So we're not big Hollywood people.
• 0:43
  Carmen Lezeth: I work here in the industry.
• 0:44
  Carmen Lezeth: Rick and Cynthia are fans.
• 0:49
  Carmen Lezeth: Is that fair?
• 0:49
  Albert Bramante: enough guys.
• 0:49
  Carmen Lezeth: I think that's fair, yeah, and we criticize every movie and television show that comes out.
• 0:53
  Carmen Lezeth: So there's that, okay.
• 0:55
  Carmen Lezeth: I really want to talk to you first about why you found your way to Hollywood, why talent manager and why psychologist.
• 1:06
  Carmen Lezeth: So let's first talk with why Hollywood.
• 1:09
  Albert Bramante: Well, I was always interested in creativity.
• 1:13
  Albert Bramante: I don't like to use the word black sheep, but I'm the white sheep of the family.
• 1:19
  Albert Bramante: So I was, uh, I'm the youngest of five, so I have three brothers, one sister, and everyone in my family my father, my cousin, my uncle, my siblings were all athletes.
• 1:37
  Albert Bramante: You know that wasn't more football coaches, baseball coaches.
• 1:41
  Albert Bramante: I had zero athletic prowess, ability or interest.
• 1:46
  Albert Bramante: Okay, I loved books that was my sanctuary books, and so what led me to.
• 1:57
  Albert Bramante: But I was always interested in creativity as well and sort of performing, not necessarily as a, an actor, but I was interested in just you know, the whole thing about creativity.
• 2:10
  Carmen Lezeth: So in high school, so you enjoyed molding other people, or you were also an actor when you were younger.
• 2:17
  Albert Bramante: Sort of I was an aspiring actor for when I was younger.
• 2:22
  Albert Bramante: Okay, I really wasn't a full-time actor, I loved being around actors.
• 2:26
  Albert Bramante: Now I was in high school, I was in a drama club in college.
• 2:30
  Albert Bramante: During my undergrad I majored in psychology, modern communications, and I took, you know, three you know theater classes as electives.
• 2:39
  Albert Bramante: Two of them were actor-related, One was on the theater in general and I really enjoyed it.
• 2:44
  Albert Bramante: Those are like my favorite classes.
• 2:46
  Albert Bramante: And then I went to grad school and after that I found myself working in New York City around the time of 9-11.
• 3:00
  Albert Bramante: And so I did some volunteer work with some people.
• 3:04
  Albert Bramante: I was working also in the social services nonprofit sector, but I was also doing some volunteer work and I found myself working with some artists, foundations and artists groups and advocacy groups and I really enjoy being in, you know, being around them.
• 3:18
  Albert Bramante: You know I remember what's always should be an actor and I I did it for two years.
• 3:24
  Albert Bramante: I was in a couple of commercials, a couple short films, okay, and but what I found was I really didn't enjoy it, but I enjoyed being around actors.
• 3:36
  Carmen Lezeth: I totally understand I understand creatives.
• 3:40
  Albert Bramante: It was just.
• 3:40
  Albert Bramante: It was like this these are my people, this is my tribe, and felt I feel comfortable with actors and creatives rather than academics, because I did the academic conference route for years and I always found them to be boring and snooty, elitist Okay, which I'm not.
• 4:01
  Carmen Lezeth: Totally agree.
• 4:03
  Carmen Lezeth: We don't want any emails.
• 4:05
  Carmen Lezeth: You can send them all to albert watching our show.
• 4:11
  Albert Bramante: It's all good yeah so and and I just I yeah, I didn't feel I was a part of that, but I felt such at home with these actors and and just even creative people who like, like filmmakers and and you know, and non-actors, but you know, people that were in the industry, writers I just felt that you know at home and so I wanted to still work with them, but not obviously not being an actor myself.
• 4:40
  Albert Bramante: When I was also acting, I would meet actors, you know, befriend actors on set and I would actually be showing them casting calls and saying that I think you'd be right for this role oh okay, so people in our audience who don't know what a casting call is.
• 4:59
  Carmen Lezeth: I know it might sound very obvious to those of us in the industry, but basically it's a notice that you get from the studios or from whoever's doing a film, or if you know New York, you're in New York, right.
• 5:10
  Carmen Lezeth: So it'd be like whatever Casting call would be a sheet that comes out and says all of the shows that are available and all the actors they're looking for and you should come in to audition is pretty much the gist of it.
• 5:22
  Carmen Lezeth: They want everyone who's a brunette five, six or above or something like that and you know if you can sing and tap, dance or something like that and everyone should do that.
• 5:32
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: They did that here in Boston when they were looking for extras for Walking Dead.
• 5:38
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, so extras are a little bit different.
• 5:40
  Carmen Lezeth: So casting calls can be both, but usually they're looking for he's talking about, like principal actors or people who character actors, so people coming in to do a role, probably on a TV show, yeah, it was, and you know none of them were not open calls but you still had like were places.
• 5:57
  Albert Bramante: You had to submit your ad shot and resume and then you were invited to audition, if they thought that you were a match.
• 6:03
  Albert Bramante: But I was finding it was like, oh, you should submit for that, you should submit for that.
• 6:06
  Albert Bramante: And a couple of actors said, wow, you could be my unofficial agent.
• 6:12
  Albert Bramante: And that made my wheels start turning.
• 6:13
  Albert Bramante: Okay, so, and then I started helping you know behind the scenes.
• 6:19
  Albert Bramante: I volunteered at a film festival.
• 6:20
  Albert Bramante: I was part of the inaugural Rebecca Bloom Festival in New York.
• 6:26
  Albert Bramante: I really just enjoyed it.
• 6:29
  Albert Bramante: I was put together on acting panels at different film festivals.
• 6:32
  Albert Bramante: Wow, I realized I love actors.
• 6:36
  Albert Bramante: The natural question is why don't I rep them?
• 6:40
  Albert Bramante: This is 2004.
• 6:43
  Albert Bramante: I started my first company.
• 6:46
  Carmen Lezeth: Was that Emerge Talent?
• 6:48
  Albert Bramante: Emerging Talent.
• 6:49
  Carmen Lezeth: Yes, emerging Talent Okay.
• 6:51
  Albert Bramante: So I did that up until about 2020 during the pandemic, and at that time I started partnering with another agent and we combined companies and became Bonafide Emerging Artists which I had for three years after that.
• 7:09
  Carmen Lezeth: So I'm going to interrupt a little bit, because can you tell people what a talent agent does?
• 7:13
  Carmen Lezeth: Because I think people get confused by talent agent and manager.
• 7:17
  Albert Bramante: Sure, they you know the lines have blurred a little bit over the years.
• 7:24
  Albert Bramante: But agent is does day-to-day work, so like we'll find that the you know breakdowns, like the casting calls or professional things to film tv, theater, commercial projects.
• 7:35
  Albert Bramante: Basically they're filming in the new york area or that are casting out of new york and then we we match our actors for those roles.
• 7:43
  Albert Bramante: Now, a manager is someone who's more hands-on, so they're the ones that would be the consigliere of the actor the confidant, the one that helps them with choose classes, choose headshots, branding materials and all of that stuff.
• 8:07
  Carmen Lezeth: They do more big picture career stuff.
• 8:10
  Carmen Lezeth: The agent actually hustles to get you the actual job and audition.
• 8:15
  Carmen Lezeth: So you would be like Carmen, you need to go.
• 8:18
  Carmen Lezeth: This is, you know Steven Spielberg, blah, blah, blah, whatever.
• 8:21
  Carmen Lezeth: And you would send that out and I would go to that audition.
• 8:22
  Carmen Lezeth: A manager would be like we don't know if you want to work with Steven Spielberg, blah, blah, blah, whatever.
• 8:24
  Carmen Lezeth: And you would send that out and I would go to that audition.
• 8:25
  Carmen Lezeth: A manager would be like we don't know if you want to work with Steven Spielberg, which in that moment I would fire the manager, because who would it work with?
• 8:33
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Look ahead, albert, yeah, or?
• 8:36
  Albert Bramante: they would at least say, okay, they would work with you and say, okay, you want to work with Steven Spielberg?
• 8:40
  Albert Bramante: Here's what you need to do, right, here's the steps you need, here's the portfolio you need, here's the materials you would need.
• 8:46
  Albert Bramante: It's more of a, like you said, the big picture, and they sometimes will communicate with the agent, whereas myself, I mean, we do a little bit, we do a lot of career consulting.
• 8:59
  Albert Bramante: Not as much because, again, my focus primarily is to find work, right, right and which for the actor right.
• 9:13
  Albert Bramante: So if I had conversations all the time and did more of the handholding, I wouldn't have enough time to be an agent, which would then take away the bottom line right, right, which makes total sense.
• 9:24
  Carmen Lezeth: So I'm sorry, I just wanted to make sure because you know I didn't want this to become just all about acting.
• 9:28
  Carmen Lezeth: I really want you to get into how you got into becoming a phd in psychology.
• 9:34
  Albert Bramante: But I digress, I'll let you keep going so it was like, kind of like, because my partner had modified artists, I, then you.
• 9:42
  Albert Bramante: We merged together for three years.
• 9:44
  Albert Bramante: We did that and then, you know, there were a couple of other reasons besides.
• 9:50
  Albert Bramante: I just wanted to change.
• 9:51
  Albert Bramante: So that was during the writer's strike and the screen actor's strike of 23.
• 9:55
  Albert Bramante: I decided to rebrand my agency, go back on my own and I started Bramante Artists, which was founded January 1st 2024.
• 10:06
  Albert Bramante: And I did that to be a little professional, because while the emerging umbrella worked for me for many years, that was not the message.
• 10:15
  Albert Bramante: Anymore I'm not working with established artists and most agencies operate out of their name, the names of the owners.
• 10:24
  Albert Bramante: So that's why I was like that was my decision to, you know, change it to Vermont Artists.
• 10:30
  Albert Bramante: You know, for many years I worked with emerging talent and most of the people now that are on my roster are not new actors.
• 10:37
  Albert Bramante: They look like character actors.
• 10:40
  Carmen Lezeth: It seems like you have a proficiency to work with up and coming talent and character actors.
• 10:46
  Albert Bramante: Yes, yeah, I work with all types, I mean, but I would say 80% of my roster are character actors, right, however, the character actors aren't more in demand now.
• 10:58
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, of course they are, I mean, but maybe we have to and, albert, I'm so sorry.
• 11:03
  Carmen Lezeth: I just really like to make sure our audience, who doesn't really know, this is not to act like my audience is dumb because they're not.
• 11:10
  Carmen Lezeth: Our audience is amazing.
• 11:11
  Carmen Lezeth: No, they're not, I'm also just trying to get a refresher for myself.
• 11:14
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm just using the audience as an excuse.
• 11:19
  Albert Bramante: I work too.
• 11:21
  Carmen Lezeth: So can we just distinguish between what a leading actor would be and a character actor and why those two are so important?
• 11:28
  Albert Bramante: and what you mean by the character actor is probably more in demand now Bob Schell, or even the attractive brunette, or the leading man, you know the attractives.
• 11:47
  Albert Bramante: Brad Pitt, you know, you know, like Tom Cruise, you know those types would be considered leading or Hollywood actors.
• 11:57
  Carmen Lezeth: Leading actors are tend to be someone who supposedly can carry a film or a TV show on their own.
• 12:05
  Carmen Lezeth: Yes, they tend to be someone who, like, is a Denzel Washington, right, or you know, he's older but still kind of that whole they can carry a film and a TV show on their own.
• 12:16
  Carmen Lezeth: You probably know their name, you know.
• 12:19
  Carmen Lezeth: So that's a leading actor, so go ahead, albert.
• 12:20
  Carmen Lezeth: Character actors.
• 12:21
  Albert Bramante: Yeah, now, character actors are those that are, you know, maybe offbeat, quirky.
• 12:27
  Albert Bramante: You know, average can be overweight, average can be everyday people.
• 12:33
  Albert Bramante: Everyday people, but they're becoming more and more in demand, and an example that I think your audience can relate to is Steve Buscemi.
• 12:41
  Carmen Lezeth: Yep.
• 12:42
  Albert Bramante: Steve Buscemi.
• 12:43
  Albert Bramante: If you look at him, he's a definite character actor.
• 12:45
  Albert Bramante: Very specific, very niche type of actor or George.
• 12:52
  Carmen Lezeth: Wentz, who we just lost from Cheers.
• 12:54
  Carmen Lezeth: He was absolutely a character actor.
• 12:59
  Albert Bramante: Not only that, but Farley, for instance, would be a character actor, and it's those types of actors that are starting to become more in demand.
• 13:08
  Albert Bramante: Like you know, steve Buscemi is not a character actor, he's a leading actor.
• 13:14
  Albert Bramante: He carried, you know, tv shows.
• 13:17
  Carmen Lezeth: Or how about Jennifer Coolidge?
• 13:19
  Carmen Lezeth: She's you know she's a character actress who now is kind of in demand ridiculously.
• 13:27
  Albert Bramante: Yeah, and there was like an expose I forget which publication, but she was saying she found much more success in later life than she did in her earlier years.
• 13:38
  Albert Bramante: So it's really about capitalizing on that.
• 13:43
  Albert Bramante: So I like working with all types.
• 13:46
  Albert Bramante: So if you look at my roster, I have every ethnicity covered.
• 13:50
  Albert Bramante: I have, you know, from kids to you know, performers over 80.
• 13:56
  Carmen Lezeth: I saw your roster.
• 13:57
  Carmen Lezeth: I went on IMDb, I did my research.
• 14:04
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: I have a quick.
• 14:04
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: I have a quick question.
• 14:05
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: So do you only look for talent for movies and TV or do you also work for like Broadway, or is that separate?
• 14:13
  Albert Bramante: no, I do.
• 14:14
  Albert Bramante: Broadway national tours, cruise ship entertainment, entertainers.
• 14:19
  Albert Bramante: A lot of times there's Broadway shows that are on cruises as entertainment.
• 14:27
  Albert Bramante: I book some of those.
• 14:28
  Albert Bramante: I currently have two clients right now.
• 14:31
  Albert Bramante: One is on a tour of the Added to Family musical, another was on tour of Annie the musical, a national tour.
• 14:39
  Carmen Lezeth: That's really fun that you're doing that.
• 14:41
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, the way you're talking about being a talent agent makes it actually kind of fun, because usually in this town I'll just let you know, in this town we don't love our agents Because we're always like why aren't they getting us to work Well?
• 14:56
  Albert Bramante: you know I get a lot of that.
• 14:58
  Albert Bramante: I'm not going to lie, but I think you know.
• 15:04
  Albert Bramante: The one thing now is the industry has changed yes, you know, drastically In the past 10 years and five years completely, yeah, to a point where it's totally different than what it was five years ago.
• 15:21
  Carmen Lezeth: Right.
• 15:22
  Albert Bramante: So there's a you know, kind of a recession right now we're in, and I think that's where a lot of actors are getting frustrated with their agents and their managers because we're struggling too Right, right now, right.
• 15:38
  Carmen Lezeth: Right.
• 15:38
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, you have no idea about this because you don't know me, but now we're going to be best friends.
• 15:43
  Carmen Lezeth: I work for a lot of production houses, right?
• 15:46
  Carmen Lezeth: So a lot of my clients own the production houses, so we don't have a lot of work.
• 15:51
  Carmen Lezeth: The work we're working on is work we booked a while back, because one place is post-production, so you start to see the dwindling when you're not seeing the work coming in because the movie's finished, right Cause we're at the back end of things.
• 16:06
  Carmen Lezeth: So it's really fascinating to see.
• 16:09
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, when you say we're in a recession, you're talking about the film industry.
• 16:12
  Carmen Lezeth: It's.
• 16:12
  Carmen Lezeth: It's really on its legs.
• 16:14
  Carmen Lezeth: It's like everyone's trying to pivot, everyone's trying to do something different because Hollywood's changing.
• 16:20
  Albert Bramante: Yeah, it's changing, especially when we yeah, it's changing, especially when we have you know, for those of you who don't, you know again, not in the industry 2023 we had two major strikes.
• 16:29
  Albert Bramante: Yeah, we had the writers guild strike and the screen actors guild strike, right, and they lasted a lot longer than we anticipated and they also the fact that they were together made it even like kind of like a double punch there, and also there was a lot of talk when it was, when it was coming down to it, oh, there's going to be a bunch of work because it's going to be, everyone's going to open their doors, it's going to be.
• 16:56
  Albert Bramante: You know, be prepared.
• 16:58
  Carmen Lezeth: And unfortunately I haven't seen that right, and that there's a lot that happened too.
• 17:04
  Carmen Lezeth: So I'm SAG, so everyone.
• 17:06
  Carmen Lezeth: I wore my shirt on the show every other time, right.
• 17:09
  Carmen Lezeth: I think we were protesting, but I think also so we came off of COVID, right.
• 17:17
  Carmen Lezeth: So the industry had a little painful, like every other industry, during COVID.
• 17:21
  Carmen Lezeth: Then we had the strikes the writer strike, the actor strike and all the other little strikes that were happening along the way, and then after that, ai jumped in.
• 17:33
  Albert Bramante: Yes, yes, this is.
• 17:36
  Albert Bramante: You know.
• 17:37
  Albert Bramante: You mentioned AI and it's interesting because, especially if they're voiceover, industry, that feel is really threatened right here, because you now have companies that are doing AI-generated audiobooks, right, and voice cloning, and where's the legality behind that?
• 18:04
  Carmen Lezeth: It's a tough one.
• 18:05
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, I just spoke to a friend of mine yesterday, rob who was he actually had a different take on AI and voiceover work.
• 18:13
  Carmen Lezeth: He had mentioned that he's like what, if you are licensing your voice and every time they're using it you're getting paid for it, but you don't have to do the work?
• 18:23
  Albert Bramante: I'm like, yeah, but we're not there yet, like it's not actually what's happening that would be in an ideal world and that's where I'm kind of hoping that you know that sag.
• 18:35
  Albert Bramante: You know really they the end.
• 18:38
  Albert Bramante: The union has to lobby this, otherwise they're going to get out of control, right.
• 18:44
  Albert Bramante: And now you know we're talking.
• 18:47
  Albert Bramante: I'm hearing chatter about oh, you're going to make ai movies although I'm doing it.
• 18:52
  Carmen Lezeth: I just saw a clip on it on tiktok, google has just introduced I think yesterday, the ability to to make.
• 18:59
  Albert Bramante: They're making shorts and movies already with crowds and yeah, it's scary, sorry, I just saw that to me and, and I think what's also threatened is, like you know, if you're, if you're an extra, you know a background actor, because now they're talking about, well, you can just cgi, crowd seats right and therefore it's it saved the production lots of money.
• 19:26
  Carmen Lezeth: Here's the argument I'm going to argue with you because, again, I had this conversation with Rob.
• 19:30
  Carmen Lezeth: Here's what he said he's like the movie Ben Hur is a great example of how they didn't have thousands and thousands of extras right?
• 19:41
  Carmen Lezeth: We've been manipulating crowd scenes forever in movies.
• 19:45
  Carmen Lezeth: Ai is just making it easier how do I argue?
• 19:48
  Carmen Lezeth: That.
• 19:49
  Carmen Lezeth: How do I argue that with him?
• 19:50
  Albert Bramante: because well, it may be making it easier, but at the same time, uh are they?
• 19:56
  Albert Bramante: You know what is that?
• 19:57
  Albert Bramante: Why are the studios using ai?
• 19:59
  Albert Bramante: Are they doing it?
• 20:00
  Albert Bramante: If they're doing it, the same money.
• 20:03
  Albert Bramante: What you know and I'm not, I, you know, I, I don't really have a stake in this because I don't work with background actors you know, so I can't but I what I you know, I am concerned about that when I because I even heard, like you know, companies saying that, oh, we don't really have to hire background actors anymore right, no, no, hey, I'm on team albert here.
• 20:23
  Carmen Lezeth: I agree with you.
• 20:24
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm just saying I had this conversation yesterday.
• 20:28
  Carmen Lezeth: It was fascinating because, on the one hand, I love AI Okay, they've heard me on the show with my AI.
• 20:34
  Carmen Lezeth: I love AI, yeah.
• 20:36
  Carmen Lezeth: On the other hand, we're in a place where we don't know how it's going to fit in and where is creativity and how does that work?
• 20:46
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, how do we, as human beings who are creative artists, still be creative artists in lieu of ai?
• 20:54
  Carmen Lezeth: You know?
• 20:55
  Albert Bramante: yeah, and, and I my position is I love ai, but we definitely need to have some sort of break, a little bit like some breaks on on it or controls on it.
• 21:06
  Albert Bramante: Or regulations there should be, regulations yeah, regulations yeah.
• 21:11
  Albert Bramante: Before it can get out of control.
• 21:13
  Albert Bramante: That's not going to happen.
• 21:14
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, wait, I want to shift back for a moment, because we lost our way into Hollywood and we got a word from Albert how did you get?
• 21:22
  Carmen Lezeth: Into getting your PhD in psychology and how does that help you and your actors and what you're doing?
• 21:28
  Albert Bramante: today.
• 21:29
  Albert Bramante: So you know I already had my master's by the time I, you know, started with the whole acting world.
• 21:36
  Albert Bramante: And you know, even in high school, I always wanted a PhD, you know, and and that was like my goal and so, and I think I wanted to well, I mean, part of my motivation was to complete it, you know, just for my own, my own, you know senses of the fact, but also to kind of, I guess, please my family a bit, you know, like, okay, I am not neglecting this.
• 22:03
  Albert Bramante: And also, at the time I was also a college professor too, okay, so I, you know I kind of needed that too.
• 22:10
  Albert Bramante: So I was like maybe we'll just complete it.
• 22:12
  Albert Bramante: I'm already like halfway there.
• 22:15
  Carmen Lezeth: Right.
• 22:15
  Albert Bramante: So I enrolled in an online program, walden University, and this is back in in 2005 and initially was going to go for a PhD in clinical psychology.
• 22:25
  Albert Bramante: And then, you know, other things happened and I just switched to straight psychology, educating more than educational psychology.
• 22:35
  Albert Bramante: Okay, so how I pitched it to was when I started my agency, I was right around the same time I was starting the PhD process and I kept running into an issue with actors, and the issue that I kept running into, or the concern I was having, was money, was self-sabotaging.
• 22:59
  Carmen Lezeth: Self-sabotaging.
• 23:00
  Albert Bramante: Okay, that's not just for actors though, but yeah, go ahead.
• 23:02
  Carmen Lezeth: Right, we all self-sabotaging.
• 23:03
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, that's not just for actors, though but, yeah, go ahead, Right.
• 23:05
  Albert Bramante: We all self-sabotage everyone you know from all walks of life but I was noticing prevalently with actors that somebody in them were like blowing off auditions, not showing up for auditions, Are you serious?
• 23:18
  Albert Bramante: And I couldn't figure that out because I was like somebody acts what kills for this audition, you just go off.
• 23:24
  Albert Bramante: So I couldn't figure it out, but it was.
• 23:26
  Albert Bramante: It was happening a couple more times the, the and I was like I need to investigate this.
• 23:32
  Albert Bramante: And the biggest one of the.
• 23:34
  Albert Bramante: I think the one incident that happened to me that had an audition for somebody who had a serious regular role, for it was one of the I think it was nickelodeon, it was a series regular role.
• 23:45
  Albert Bramante: An hour before the audition I get a phone call from her saying I can't do this and she just hung up and I never heard from her again and I I when I was then so fast forward to back to the PhD when we started to play, we went to an in-person retreat and we had to do our dissertation like topic idea because part of being a PhD, you have to almost write a book.
• 24:13
  Albert Bramante: Essentially, yeah, it's a large-scale research study and our advisor said you should do it from something that concerns you, a question, and at that time I was like what's wrong with these actors?
• 24:27
  Albert Bramante: That's great, I love it.
• 24:28
  Albert Bramante: So I went into my advisor's office and I was like this is going to go either two ways Either I'm going to get laughed at or they're going to like it, yeah.
• 24:39
  Albert Bramante: So I walked in there and they were like this is great.
• 24:42
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah.
• 24:44
  Albert Bramante: And that's where that was born.
• 24:46
  Carmen Lezeth: Is that where the book Rise Above the Script came from?
• 24:50
  Albert Bramante: Yes, it was based on the outline and, you know, on the dissertation.
• 24:54
  Albert Bramante: I wanted to write a book for years because you know, it was like nine years after my dissertations when I published a book.
• 25:03
  Albert Bramante: So, as for you readers to know, dissertations are great but they're not readable easily, Right?
• 25:11
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: right right.
• 25:12
  Albert Bramante: You know my family and friends who were very supportive of me.
• 25:15
  Albert Bramante: You know like, oh, we wanted to do it.
• 25:17
  Albert Bramante: I want to read it and I think they were the first page and they were done.
• 25:19
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Like I can't.
• 25:23
  Albert Bramante: Understood, because to read it and I think they were the first page and they're done like I can't understand because if you're not in the field that reads like serio instructions, right much it's like over your head.
• 25:28
  Albert Bramante: So I was like okay, I want to take this in from the knowledge that I got gained from it and put it in a readable format right, so let me just also for the audio.
• 25:40
  Carmen Lezeth: um, the name of the book is rise above the script.
• 25:42
  Carmen Lezeth: There's a subtitle to it, though, too, I didn't write it down Albert.
• 25:46
  Albert Bramante: Sure it's confronting self-doubt and mastering self-sabotage for performing artists.
• 25:52
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, so rise above the script and you can get that on Amazon.
• 25:55
  Carmen Lezeth: I have not read it yet, but I am going to read it.
• 25:57
  Carmen Lezeth: It has a lot of good reviews on Amazon, so I'm excited to check that out.
• 26:03
  Rick Costa: I did read it.
• 26:05
  Carmen Lezeth: I have a question Wait wait.
• 26:07
  Carmen Lezeth: You already read it.
• 26:08
  Carmen Lezeth: Audiobook yeah, okay, go ahead.
• 26:13
  Carmen Lezeth: Cynthia, you have a question?
• 26:14
  Carmen Lezeth: Go ahead.
• 26:14
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm sorry, wow.
• 26:16
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: So you speak about self-sabotage and you know the psychology and everything.
• 26:21
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Sabotage and with you know the psychology and everything.
• 26:26
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: So I know someone who will put excuse me, put everyone else out there and like, say this person is great, they should be in this role, blah, blah, blah, but they will not do it for themselves.
• 26:36
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Oh my god, you know what's so weird.
• 26:39
  Carmen Lezeth: I wonder why, the minute you started talking, I'm like what I already knew where you were going.
• 26:46
  Carmen Lezeth: You think I'm not going to fight with you on here because we got a guest?
• 26:49
  Carmen Lezeth: No, I'll just sit back on the popcorn wait, wait she's confused, albert.
• 27:00
  Carmen Lezeth: I'll let Albert answer and then I'm going to put it in my because.
• 27:03
  Carmen Lezeth: This is not about me, it's a good question.
• 27:05
  Albert Bramante: Here's the thing, though, and I think this may be related to what you were talking about we're very good at promoting other people than ourselves, you know.
• 27:13
  Albert Bramante: We're very good at telling other people, you know the accomplishments of other people, and it's like okay, now talk about you and people freeze up.
• 27:21
  Albert Bramante: That's one of the hardest stop interview questions that usually are asked is tell me about yourself right but wait, cynthia, you think I freeze up.
• 27:29
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: That's what you think is happening with me I don't think you freeze up but I don't think you give yourself the.
• 27:35
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: You know that whole like oomph that you give other people yeah, I, I think so, al.
• 27:43
  Carmen Lezeth: I just, I just feel like this is weird, but I'm going to have this conversation right now.
• 27:47
  Carmen Lezeth: We're going to do this.
• 27:49
  Carmen Lezeth: Here's the thing I think you keep you.
• 27:51
  Carmen Lezeth: You keep confusing my um, not wanting to oversell something, like you guys are such, you guys hype me up so much and I appreciate it, but again, I'll say it again those are accomplishments that you think are accomplishments.
• 28:10
  Carmen Lezeth: To me that's just been survival.
• 28:13
  Carmen Lezeth: I have things on my list that I want to accomplish that I haven't been able to accomplish.
• 28:17
  Carmen Lezeth: So, albert, they get upset with me because I'm like I still haven't done my you know six things on my list that I want to do and they're like, oh, but you've done all this, oh my God.
• 28:27
  Carmen Lezeth: And it's like I'm not saying all that stuff isn't valid.
• 28:30
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm saying all that stuff is what you think is amazing and great.
• 28:35
  Carmen Lezeth: That's nothing that I went to do.
• 28:39
  Carmen Lezeth: Does that make sense?
• 28:40
  Carmen Lezeth: I feel like I'm about to get a therapy session.
• 28:42
  Carmen Lezeth: Went to do?
• 28:43
  Carmen Lezeth: Does that make sense?
• 28:43
  Carmen Lezeth: I feel like I'm about to get a therapy session oh, my God yeah.
• 28:46
  Albert Bramante: I'm a little worried about the answer no, I'm just like, because I'm like, I'm inclined to agree with them actually.
• 28:57
  Albert Bramante: Albert, it was nice to have you on the show.
• 29:00
  Albert Bramante: But no, I think again, we downplay the accomplishments too, like, for example, even actors like, oh, congratulations, you booked the role.
• 29:10
  Albert Bramante: And they're like yeah, I think they just gave it to me.
• 29:12
  Albert Bramante: No, you booked the role.
• 29:15
  Albert Bramante: I see that happening a lot with like, oh you know, you won this award.
• 29:19
  Albert Bramante: Well, they give an award out to everybody.
• 29:20
  Albert Bramante: No, you won an award.
• 29:22
  Albert Bramante: Well, they give an award out to everybody.
• 29:23
  Albert Bramante: No, you won an award.
• 29:24
  Albert Bramante: Take stock in that.
• 29:24
  Albert Bramante: Now, there's nothing wrong with having a list of wanting to do more you know and not settling.
• 29:31
  Albert Bramante: I think that is definitely valid to talk about not settling and having that list of six.
• 29:37
  Carmen Lezeth: You know six things, but do celebrate what you do achieve and then say, okay, now I'm, now I'm going to set up to do this on my list next time.
• 29:48
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, great.
• 29:49
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: I want to know that this isn't his last time.
• 29:52
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm just going to push back because it was.
• 29:53
  Carmen Lezeth: It was, you know, towards me, I know, not you, albert, but I'm just going to push back on my situation just a little bit.
• 29:58
  Carmen Lezeth: Just a little bit.
• 29:59
  Carmen Lezeth: I think there's also a difference.
• 30:01
  Carmen Lezeth: Right, living here in Santa Monica, I, I live here in Hollywood.
• 30:04
  Carmen Lezeth: I work in this town, right, not, I.
• 30:06
  Carmen Lezeth: I am an actor, but I don't work as an actor.
• 30:09
  Carmen Lezeth: I haven't done it for a long time, okay, and as much as I would love to still be performing, there's a difference between being the talent and the business end of things.
• 30:21
  Carmen Lezeth: And if you don't have the and, if you don't have the right connections, if you don't have the ability to, you know, go out to audition three, four times a week and, you know, have a roof over your head.
• 30:30
  Carmen Lezeth: Sometimes you got to make a decision, and that's a decision I made was to work.
• 30:34
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean, the way I work.
• 30:36
  Carmen Lezeth: So, in this town, because I work for so many high level celebrity executive types, what ends up happening is you see the actors that come in who are so pompous and so conceited, people who walk like there's the other extreme.
• 30:52
  Carmen Lezeth: And and I have to tell you what ends up happening when, when they leave the room, the casting office, when they walk out of the office, whatever it is, people hate these people.
• 31:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Like you hear the discussion, so it's a really fine line.
• 31:08
  Carmen Lezeth: Like Cynthia, I know you want me to walk around and be like you know what.
• 31:12
  Carmen Lezeth: Hey, hollywood, I got you First of all, not my style and secondly, it's just because I cringe at the others, and you see that more so than not.
• 31:23
  Albert Bramante: I mean, albert, you tell me what you think, because maybe I'm wrong, but I can see what you're saying there and I think what that comes is you know, there's a chapter in the book where I talk about toxic high self-esteem, and that's what I think.
• 31:37
  Albert Bramante: What you're describing right now is the pompousness, theness, the inauthentic.
• 31:43
  Albert Bramante: That's why it's inauthentic, yeah, and it's fake and it's phony and we can, anybody can see right through that.
• 31:50
  Albert Bramante: You know the fake and phony is and that's why it's not attractive.
• 31:55
  Albert Bramante: And and I the reason why I have a chapter in the book is because I kind of correlate that to self-sabotage oh okay, so, cynthia, that's why I'm not doing it.
• 32:05
  Carmen Lezeth: I don correlate that to self-sabotage.
• 32:06
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh okay, so, cynthia, that's why I'm not doing it.
• 32:08
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't want to self-sabotage, and that's her answer.
• 32:12
  Carmen Lezeth: She's sticking to it.
• 32:13
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm sticking to it.
• 32:15
  Carmen Lezeth: We finally got there.
• 32:16
  Carmen Lezeth: No, I'm just kidding.
• 32:17
  Carmen Lezeth: How did this become about me?
• 32:20
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, let's move on to something.
• 32:23
  Carmen Lezeth: Rick.
• 32:23
  Carmen Lezeth: Don't you have a question for Albert?
• 32:25
  Carmen Lezeth: Don't you got something to say?
• 32:27
  Rick Costa: One thing I love about the book is that it's a beautiful fusion of acting tips and stuff and psychology stuff and it puts it all together.
• 32:36
  Rick Costa: But also a lot of the stuff could be applied to anybody like, not just that Right.
• 32:41
  Rick Costa: Exactly, I think anybody could benefit from reading the book and and that's why, even though I get written the book with actors in mind, it was I wanted to put stuff in there that really anybody can benefit from yeah, and actually there was a section, because we were just talking about this I don't know how many broadcasts ago about introverts and extroverts and I was like, oh, I'm listening to this part because we just talked about that and I was like yeah, well, I'm excited to read it okay yeah, and the one you know to kind of, uh, piggyback off that.
• 33:11
  Albert Bramante: The one thing that I don't, I don't want to say surprise me and I think kind of surprises people who are not in the industry is how introverted many actors are.
• 33:20
  Albert Bramante: You know they can have the larger-than-life personalities on stage, on screen, but yet when the camera's not rolling, they can be even shy and self-spoken, or even very reserved.
• 33:34
  Rick Costa: Michael Jackson.
• 33:35
  Albert Bramante: Yeah, michael Jackson is like that, you know, and a lot of singer-musicians are like that too, where it's just they when they're not performing.
• 33:47
  Albert Bramante: You know, they're, you know, very soft-spoken, very quiet, and you may not see them at the parties and all that you know, in the limelight.
• 33:56
  Albert Bramante: They don't like to be in the limelight, even though the performers you know they're doing it.
• 34:01
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: For why do you think that is, though, like, why do you feel like when they're on stage or performing they can technically be themselves kind of, but once those cameras are gone they're like so reserved?
• 34:15
  Albert Bramante: Because they're performing, it's like being in a state of flow.
• 34:18
  Albert Bramante: We call this, in psychology, a flow state.
• 34:20
  Albert Bramante: When you're in a state of like eu, in psychology, a flow state, when you're in a state of like euphoria, when you're doing something you love.
• 34:27
  Albert Bramante: So it's, you know, and there's, in this sense they're performing or creating art, and for them, that's what they love doing.
• 34:33
  Albert Bramante: So in their mind, they're all about the creative process and not so much about the audience feeding off the audience.
• 34:42
  Albert Bramante: They're about really just doing what they love, which is performing.
• 34:45
  Albert Bramante: And when they're not performing, it's like they're not really at home anymore.
• 34:51
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, can I?
• 34:52
  Carmen Lezeth: Just I have to.
• 34:52
  Carmen Lezeth: So I was a dancer as a kid and I'm smiling because I was trying not to talk, but we all know it's going to happen.
• 35:00
  Carmen Lezeth: I let you speak for a minute, albert.
• 35:02
  Carmen Lezeth: But it's true, when you get on stage, it's like something takes over you and you're just in that mode of creativity.
• 35:13
  Carmen Lezeth: You're not even thinking about it.
• 35:13
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean.
• 35:14
  Carmen Lezeth: You have the butterflies beforehand, maybe thinking about it because you're about to go on, but once you are there, it's a whole other thing and it's magical.
• 35:23
  Carmen Lezeth: It's so magical like, as he's talking, I was like, oh my god, yes, I love it, I broadcast every day and I broadcast right after work and I take care of my mom who has dementia, so that's a whole struggling of itself.
• 35:41
  Rick Costa: And here it is like about to go on and I've had a horrible day.
• 35:45
  Rick Costa: But when that thing goes on, ding, now you're gonna get happy rick, pleasant rick, um.
• 35:51
  Rick Costa: And it's not that I'm like, oh, you're being fake.
• 35:53
  Rick Costa: No, this is who I want to be and I'm trying to just drop the other stuff and then it actually helps me to become the happier person.
• 36:02
  Rick Costa: I'm doing it, you know.
• 36:04
  Rick Costa: So it's not fake, but it's just something that, yes, I can just turn it on.
• 36:08
  Rick Costa: But it's not because it's fake, it's just because, you know, I can just set compartmentalize, like men love to do their compartmentalize bad day, put it aside and then smile by the camera, you know yeah, of course it's.
• 36:20
  Albert Bramante: You're developing a persona.
• 36:22
  Albert Bramante: It's like the musician is doing a persona, Acting is doing a character.
• 36:27
  Albert Bramante: You know a persona, but the real you can just be.
• 36:32
  Albert Bramante: You know, soft-spoken and quiet.
• 36:36
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, or crazy.
• 36:37
  Carmen Lezeth: Rick is acting all demure and quiet today, don't know why.
• 36:42
  Carmen Lezeth: Very interesting to see, all right.
• 36:46
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, what is something about your work that people misunderstand?
• 36:53
  Albert Bramante: that's a very good question.
• 36:54
  Albert Bramante: I think a lot of people either two things, either think we're jerks like we're all about the money because you see, like the, you know the ruthless agent, um, or that we, we go to parties all the time and that word and I would say maybe I'll go to one or two events a year.
• 37:13
  Albert Bramante: The other time I'm working, you know, 10, 12 hour days.
• 37:16
  Albert Bramante: So, uh, I think that's the the biggest misconception.
• 37:21
  Albert Bramante: Misconception is how hard we work.
• 37:23
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, I think the other thing about agents, just from my point of view, is like first of all, every actor that comes to Los Angeles wants an agent and it's the hardest thing to get an actual legit agent.
• 37:35
  Carmen Lezeth: And a legit agent means someone who actually knows the business, can actually get you work and doesn't charge you more than the standard.
• 37:44
  Carmen Lezeth: Isn't the standard 10 or 15 percent?
• 37:46
  Carmen Lezeth: 10 for an agent and 15 manager for manager.
• 37:50
  Carmen Lezeth: Yes, right, but if you don't know, then you know.
• 37:54
  Carmen Lezeth: People are scamming you and you know, telling you all these things and and and.
• 37:57
  Carmen Lezeth: They're saying you need new headshots.
• 37:58
  Carmen Lezeth: You have to go to my friend the photographer over here and get the back end stuff so of course yeah, so they kind of get the sleazy reputation, but the fact of the matter is you can't work in this town without an agent.
• 38:12
  Carmen Lezeth: You really really need one, unless you are, you know, the daughter of steven spielberg or somebody you actually really do know somebody in this town.
• 38:20
  Carmen Lezeth: You really need an agent.
• 38:22
  Albert Bramante: Um, so I think there's a bad reputation for agents, but agents are actually the reason why you see a lot of actors on television, the right people and we are caring, and we are working, and I think that's probably the biggest misconception you know about that is that we're called icy people, you know, because you see, like you know, like shows, like entourage for instance, kind of demonize us a little bit well, I think you are kind of icy.
• 38:51
  Carmen Lezeth: That's what I'm getting from this whole conversation yeah, and the cruelty is just coming right I know it's bothering me a little bit, but you know we'll work with it.
• 39:03
  Carmen Lezeth: We'll work with it.
• 39:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, what do you think is the biggest challenge facing actors today?
• 39:10
  Albert Bramante: I think what we just talked about the industry, uh, the changing industry, changing landscape of the industry, and just you know the the instability of the profession.
• 39:20
  Albert Bramante: You, you know it's not a nine-to-five job.
• 39:23
  Albert Bramante: There's no guarantee of employment.
• 39:24
  Albert Bramante: You know there's no.
• 39:27
  Albert Bramante: You know we were working in the gig economy, from gig to gig in a sense, so you're only as good as your last gig.
• 39:34
  Albert Bramante: So it's like you still have to audition, keep auditioning, and no matter how talented you are as an actor, you're going to hear more no's and yes's yeah, every day, every day.
• 39:45
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I told these guys the reason why I stopped pursuing acting.
• 39:48
  Carmen Lezeth: First of all, for me, dancing and performing is very different than acting, and so everybody was like, oh, just go be an actor.
• 39:56
  Carmen Lezeth: And I was like, you know, it's not like you just go and you just start becoming an actor.
• 40:01
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, know, but I did study it, I did study with the best of them or whatever.
• 40:05
  Carmen Lezeth: But I think it's really hard to shine for me, like going into an audition, like if you call me and you're like you have to go to an audition and I have like an hour to get there and I'm in traffic and then you get there and all you do is you get these sides being able to turn that on, that's a skill all in and of itself.
• 40:24
  Albert Bramante: Sure is.
• 40:24
  Carmen Lezeth: That I don't have.
• 40:25
  Carmen Lezeth: I admit it.
• 40:26
  Carmen Lezeth: Right now I just don't.
• 40:27
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean.
• 40:28
  Carmen Lezeth: But the places that I and Cynthia I'm not saying it to dismiss myself, it's just not my skill set.
• 40:35
  Carmen Lezeth: I did it for so many years.
• 40:36
  Carmen Lezeth: And the thing is, it's not the rejection.
• 40:40
  Carmen Lezeth: I grew up being rejected.
• 40:41
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm good with that.
• 40:41
  Carmen Lezeth: What I wasn't good with was not being able to be my best because I didn't have the material for enough time, or not being secure about it, because I'm not that fast with the material.
• 40:54
  Carmen Lezeth: But that's a whole other skill set.
• 40:56
  Carmen Lezeth: But what's your thought process on that, Albert?
• 40:58
  Carmen Lezeth: You?
• 40:58
  Albert Bramante: can yell at me.
• 40:59
  Albert Bramante: Yeah, I mean, there is sometimes a quick turnaround time.
• 41:02
  Albert Bramante: That was also part of SAG contract.
• 41:07
  Albert Bramante: The last round of negotiations was to give the actors enough time to prepare, but that was just recent.
• 41:14
  Albert Bramante: Yeah, that was recent, but I'm saying it's because of that.
• 41:18
  Albert Bramante: So that's definitely you know.
• 41:21
  Carmen Lezeth: I've had.
• 41:22
  Albert Bramante: Sometimes actors will get the same day appointment and it would be like eight pages of sides.
• 41:27
  Carmen Lezeth: Crazy, whoa, that's crazy so eight pages of the script.
• 41:30
  Carmen Lezeth: Cynthia, I don't know if you know what sides are, but sides are what you're given as an actor, um, to go into an audition.
• 41:38
  Carmen Lezeth: So they'll take eight, eight pages.
• 41:40
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, they shouldn't do eight pages for like, if you only have an hour.
• 41:44
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, I mean, they can't do anymore but they used to do that like you would get a call from your agent and they'd be like carmen, you have an audition like in two hours.
• 41:52
  Carmen Lezeth: Can you make it?
• 41:54
  Carmen Lezeth: If not, can you go after work and wait, or you know they because they want you to get in, because it might be, you know, it might be a one line on friends or seinfeld or whatever it is.
• 42:04
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean.
• 42:05
  Carmen Lezeth: Like so, but you would get the or a movie for me it was always a movie and I'd end up get.
• 42:10
  Carmen Lezeth: I'd be like sure I can make it.
• 42:12
  Carmen Lezeth: I'd get there and they would hand me because, remember, we're talking about hate to date myself, but I'm about to, but we're talking about when I got here was like what, so we're talking about?
• 42:21
  Carmen Lezeth: When I got here, it was like what, so we're talking 96, 97, 98, you know what I mean 2000, whatever, it's very different ball game.
• 42:29
  Carmen Lezeth: So you would get your side, you drive across town and then you would have to deliver this performance without having any background really on who the actor is.
• 42:38
  Carmen Lezeth: You'd have to really be on your toes and I'm really one of those people that loves to like get into it, like I love the whole best part of being an actor in this town for me has been when I have booked a role and then the whole studying of the background and who that person is, so that you can really do it justice.
• 42:58
  Carmen Lezeth: You know and find that part of yourself, and for me it was the theater performances that I did here.
• 43:02
  Carmen Lezeth: You know and find that part of yourself, and for me it was the theater performances that I did here.
• 43:03
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, I did the performance of Nickel and Dined here at the Hudson Theater and it was, you know, I played eight different characters and we had a huge cast and it was so much fun.
• 43:17
  Carmen Lezeth: We're all still friends, the cast, we're all still friends.
• 43:20
  Carmen Lezeth: But I had the ending monologue, standing ovation every night.
• 43:24
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm still proud of that today, see, you see the thing I'm giving myself up.
• 43:29
  Albert Bramante: There you go, there you go.
• 43:32
  Carmen Lezeth: But that's the difference To be an actor in any town, but especially here in LA, you really have to have some skills that I just don't have those.
• 43:42
  Rick Costa: I don't have that skill, and I know that you know, so as far as your business, forgive my ignorance, cause I don't know, but is it more people seeking you out or are you seeking them, or both?
• 43:59
  Albert Bramante: It's more of them seeking me.
• 44:01
  Albert Bramante: You know as far as like.
• 44:02
  Albert Bramante: You know as far as like.
• 44:03
  Albert Bramante: You know as far as like, seeking talent, like getting clients, usually actors are finding the agents.
• 44:10
  Albert Bramante: Um, as far as the, the jobs, there's a for agents and managers, there's a service called breakdowns that comes out every day, you know, and that has all the projects they're casting, and then they have all the roles that they're trying to build.
• 44:24
  Albert Bramante: So that comes out daily to us.
• 44:26
  Albert Bramante: It's like a thing that we subscribe to and it's on a website.
• 44:32
  Albert Bramante: We log in and we get the day-to-day breakdowns.
• 44:37
  Rick Costa: Do you ever have to refuse somebody that comes to you?
• 44:41
  Carmen Lezeth: Yes, oh, they refuse.
• 44:42
  Carmen Lezeth: A lot of people here's the thing.
• 44:46
  Albert Bramante: It's not that we don't seek that out.
• 44:48
  Albert Bramante: It's not like I'm trying to refuse.
• 44:49
  Albert Bramante: I can only pick so many people on before, otherwise I'm not.
• 44:55
  Albert Bramante: If I had thousands of people on the roster, then all I'm doing is saying well, there's a phone, speaking against the wall and seeing what sticks, which is not a really good job of an agent to do.
• 45:09
  Albert Bramante: So we have to cultivate the roster and we also have to be selective, that we don't want to have five people looking like each person, five of the same type.
• 45:21
  Carmen Lezeth: That's going to be intercom the worst the worst is going to an audition and seeing everybody who looks exactly like you and then realizing that four of the people there have we all have the same agent.
• 45:33
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 45:34
  Carmen Lezeth: It just feels, like because your agent and you have a relationship.
• 45:38
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean.
• 45:39
  Carmen Lezeth: Like it's it's all about relationships.
• 45:41
  Carmen Lezeth: So, yeah, that does stink.
• 45:42
  Carmen Lezeth: I hate that.
• 45:43
  Albert Bramante: Yeah, and, and it's again that that reminds me about saying, throwing spaghetti into a hole in that stick Cause.
• 45:49
  Albert Bramante: Then the agent is saying, well, I have one of the five book, you know, and that's not a good approach to have.
• 45:55
  Albert Bramante: So we have to be very selective and that, you know, and typically, like for myself, I get about a hundred, you know, that are submitting for representation and I might meet with, like you know, five or ten of those out of that.
• 46:14
  Albert Bramante: Maybe, you know, and then I might sign one or two out of that, you know.
• 46:20
  Albert Bramante: If that so, it is unfortunately very saturated.
• 46:25
  Albert Bramante: You know industry, and it's even more so in la than new york, you know industry, and it's even more so in LA than New York.
• 46:32
  Albert Bramante: Yeah, so we do have to, unfortunately, say no.
• 46:35
  Albert Bramante: And you know, what I often say is, like it may, it's never really a no permanently, unless of course you get on my bad side, you know.
• 46:45
  Albert Bramante: But other than that, it's never really a no permanently.
• 46:46
  Albert Bramante: It may just be not right now, but you don't have enough credits or I have again.
• 46:55
  Carmen Lezeth: I have too many people of your type and that may change in a year, and also there are ways for people to get auditions.
• 46:57
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I got one of my biggest roles, the one that I was cut out of after I filmed it.
• 47:01
  Carmen Lezeth: But that was one of the most devastating blows of my life, but I'm not bitter.
• 47:07
  Carmen Lezeth: But my point is is I got that role on my own because actors access is an offshoot of breakdowns, which is what he gets as an agent.
• 47:15
  Carmen Lezeth: So agents get breakdowns and then actors access.
• 47:20
  Carmen Lezeth: They send us the stuff they couldn't book with an agent, or stuff that doesn't matter or stuff that they're still looking for, and then, if you have a subscription as an actor, you will submit yourself and you can do that without an agent, you know 100 and I did that and I I booked quite a few roles by myself and then the agents come.
• 47:42
  Albert Bramante: That's a great position to be in.
• 47:44
  Albert Bramante: You know like as an actor and and I do seek people out, though sometimes what I'll seek people out is um, I'll go to a show that a client is in a theater show, and then there'll be a couple other people that are like oh, I really like this person, right.
• 47:58
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: And.
• 47:58
  Albert Bramante: I'll ask my client do you know if this person's wrapped and if not, can you make an introduction Right?
• 48:04
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Yeah, you mentioned credits.
• 48:06
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: What do you mean by credits?
• 48:07
  Albert Bramante: They didn't have any experience.
• 48:08
  Albert Bramante: What I mean by credits is having experience, speaking roles in film and TV.
• 48:14
  Albert Bramante: Even if they're little films that no one would ever see, it's still a speaking role that you got from auditioning or stage, even if it was a Blackhawk theater.
• 48:27
  Albert Bramante: The fact that you have credits or experience, you know experience on the resume, that you're not just handing me a blank resume.
• 48:33
  Albert Bramante: Or another thing that I get sometimes, unfortunately, with union members is I'll get you know a union member who has like 20, you know 200 credits.
• 48:44
  Albert Bramante: I'm not joking, somebody actually had 200 credits, but they're all background.
• 48:49
  Carmen Lezeth: Right, there's nothing wrong with background, I just want to be nothing wrong a lot of people who make a really good living being background actors.
• 48:57
  Carmen Lezeth: But when you're submitting to an agent and when you're showing someone your resume, you want to show them that you've done work at actually speaking and acting in a more viable way than a background actor does so it's just like a like a regular job interview, like you didn't get the job because you don't have enough experience.
• 49:20
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: But if I don't work in that, how am I going to gain the experience?
• 49:23
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: That is the trick and that is.
• 49:26
  Albert Bramante: That is definitely a paradox.
• 49:27
  Albert Bramante: I'm'm not going to lie, but my answer to that would be okay.
• 49:31
  Albert Bramante: Then that's when you do these student films, these short films, these web series, these, you know, black box theater things.
• 49:39
  Albert Bramante: They may not be glamorous and they may not, they're not going to make you rich but at the same time, they're going to get you that experience and those connections that you're going to need and sometimes, most times, they don't even pay.
• 49:52
  Carmen Lezeth: It's not like they're not going to make you rich.
• 49:56
  Albert Bramante: Yeah, I mean, that's the truth.
• 49:58
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, look, I came out here.
• 49:59
  Carmen Lezeth: I had no credits, I had never done any acting.
• 50:02
  Carmen Lezeth: I performed on stage you know what I mean as a dancer and whatever, but I had never done any acting.
• 50:07
  Carmen Lezeth: But I set up a little resume and I started applying to, you know, usc, afi, which is the American Film Institute, you know, like all of the student films, and that's how I started.
• 50:19
  Carmen Lezeth: And here's the thing that people don't, people forget this stuff.
• 50:23
  Carmen Lezeth: All of the students at the American Film Institute or anybody studying film at UCLA or USC, those are the directors of tomorrow.
• 50:32
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean.
• 50:34
  Carmen Lezeth: 100%.
• 50:35
  Carmen Lezeth: Treat them like gold, because they're the ones who are going to come back and call you, which has happened to me twice.
• 50:40
  Carmen Lezeth: Carmen, I'm doing a feature.
• 50:42
  Carmen Lezeth: You were in my student film.
• 50:44
  Carmen Lezeth: Will you be in this?
• 50:46
  Carmen Lezeth: Yes, no problem, you know, what I mean.
• 50:49
  Carmen Lezeth: That's how it just takes a long time and I say this I know you're going to cringe, I'm nobody in this.
• 50:52
  Carmen Lezeth: Yes, no problem, you know.
• 50:52
  Carmen Lezeth: That's how it just takes a long time and I'm I say this I know you're gonna cringe, I'm nobody in this town, nobody, and I have credits, you know.
• 50:58
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I have decent credits, you know.
• 51:00
  Carmen Lezeth: So, um, and I, I haven't worked in a long time this time, but you see what I'm saying.
• 51:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, there.
• 51:07
  Albert Bramante: There was a um an article that just came out.
• 51:10
  Albert Bramante: I forget the site of it, but there was someone who was a recurring guest star in several cable and NBC shows who her last job was February of 2023.
• 51:24
  Albert Bramante: She hasn't worked since, so it really is affecting a lot of people, the down tick and normally it's hard, like normally for an actor normal times before the strikes, before all this, it was hard anyways to get work right.
• 51:41
  Carmen Lezeth: I think the statistic is what 3% of SAG actors are working on a regular basis 3%.
• 51:48
  Carmen Lezeth: So that means most actors are not making a livable wage to get health insurance.
• 51:54
  Carmen Lezeth: I think you have to make I think it's $26,000 a year on SAG to get health insurance.
• 52:00
  Carmen Lezeth: So most actors are not even making that kind of money to get health insurance.
• 52:05
  Carmen Lezeth: So they all have second jobs like waiters and whatever bookkeeping, whatever it is right.
• 52:09
  Carmen Lezeth: Second jobs like waiters and whatever bookkeeping, whatever it is Right.
• 52:12
  Carmen Lezeth: So it's it's.
• 52:13
  Carmen Lezeth: It's a hard business, but here's the thing If you love it, you figure it out.
• 52:16
  Albert Bramante: You will figure it out and you will, and you will keep doing it and you'll make it work.
• 52:21
  Albert Bramante: I think that that's with anything If you really love it, you know nothing can stop you.
• 52:27
  Carmen Lezeth: The reason why we have this show is because I love this town so much Like and I want to be a part of it.
• 52:32
  Carmen Lezeth: But I had to figure out my skill set.
• 52:34
  Carmen Lezeth: I had to figure out how I could do it because I didn't want to be homeless.
• 52:37
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean.
• 52:41
  Albert Bramante: Again.
• 52:41
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah.
• 52:42
  Carmen Lezeth: So I was like, okay, I'm just going to.
• 52:45
  Carmen Lezeth: But, like Albert, I have to say we have this in common I love being around creative people I love.
• 52:51
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean sometimes I get jealous and upset.
• 52:53
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm not going to be mad because I'm like I am so much better than you are.
• 52:56
  Carmen Lezeth: Why are you making all this money when I know I'd be better at it?
• 53:01
  Carmen Lezeth: But I do love being part of this town and so there is an energy here.
• 53:06
  Carmen Lezeth: So that's what I mean by you will figure out where you fit or where you want to be in it.
• 53:10
  Carmen Lezeth: And because this industry is changing, everyone is pivoting.
• 53:16
  Carmen Lezeth: This is my talk show right here.
• 53:20
  Carmen Lezeth: This is my Oprah talk show right here that I've always dreamed of doing.
• 53:22
  Carmen Lezeth: Go ahead, rick.
• 53:25
  Rick Costa: Here's a random left field question.
• 53:27
  Rick Costa: Have you ever had to deal with a child actor whose parents were nightmares?
• 53:28
  Rick Costa: A random left field question.
• 53:29
  Rick Costa: Have you ever had to deal?
• 53:31
  Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: with a child actor whose parents were nightmares.
• 53:32
  Albert Bramante: I don't work with too many child actors.
• 53:34
  Albert Bramante: You know I won't.
• 53:37
  Albert Bramante: You know that's the case.
• 53:39
  Rick Costa: I won't.
• 53:40
  Albert Bramante: And I can kind of tell it like even in the first meeting.
• 53:43
  Albert Bramante: You know, usually the problems I run into with parents is they sometimes want it more than the child does and I'm like you know.
• 53:53
  Albert Bramante: I can almost tell the child doesn't want to be here, right, and I won't work with anybody like that because I can't find myself doing that.
• 54:01
  Albert Bramante: But I do have a handful of children in my roster not a lot, you know.
• 54:05
  Albert Bramante: But a handful uh, and you know it's beautiful because it's the parents that have been getting away.
• 54:13
  Rick Costa: I was just listening to Will Wheaton and he was like I didn't really want to do this.
• 54:17
  Rick Costa: My mother especially pushed me to do this.
• 54:19
  Rick Costa: He was like I was miserable.
• 54:20
  Rick Costa: He did it, he did the best he could, but he didn't really want to do it.
• 54:26
  Carmen Lezeth: This is about parenting.
• 54:27
  Carmen Lezeth: At this point, If you don't know what your child wants to do and you're exploiting them.
• 54:31
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't care if you call it Hollywood and paying for their college, you're still exploiting them.
• 54:35
  Albert Bramante: Of course, and a lot of times, these parents that are doing this are living out their own dream, not their child's dream.
• 54:42
  Carmen Lezeth: Exactly, yeah, exactly.
• 54:44
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, looking back on your career, what is the most valuable lesson that you have learned?
• 54:54
  Albert Bramante: That's a very good question.
• 54:55
  Albert Bramante: I would say persistence is the key, that is so important.
• 54:59
  Albert Bramante: I mean very persistent in doing what it is you do and have the tenacity to do it.
• 55:05
  Albert Bramante: Because even as an agent, you know it's very tough, you know, for us, and it took me a lot of years to make some of the connections that I did with Gatsby and I could easily say after one or two years I'm not going to do this anymore and I think most people would have understood me walking away.
• 55:23
  Albert Bramante: But I didn't do it, I just kept being persistent and it started paying off.
• 55:28
  Albert Bramante: It took a while, didn't do.
• 55:28
  Albert Bramante: I just kept being persistent and it, you know, started paying off, took a while and I'm still, you know, working hard to this day and you know, and trying to get my clients, you know, day to day.
• 55:36
  Albert Bramante: So I think the biggest lesson I would say is persistence, persistent.
• 55:39
  Albert Bramante: Do you see things changing for the better or for the worse in?
• 55:50
  Albert Bramante: the next three to five years.
• 55:50
  Albert Bramante: I can see kind of both.
• 55:52
  Albert Bramante: You know there's part of me that's saying, okay, it can get worse because of the whole AI threat.
• 55:58
  Albert Bramante: You know, because even if the unions say, okay, we need these negotiations, we're going on strike.
• 56:02
  Albert Bramante: When I give AI, it's like, okay, well, where's the threat?
• 56:08
  Albert Bramante: That's what concerns me there.
• 56:10
  Albert Bramante: But also on the other side there's, you know, a lot of people are making stuff on cell phones now.
• 56:14
  Albert Bramante: There's a lot of studios that are being built in new jersey and new york even now, so maybe that'll be good.
• 56:23
  Albert Bramante: More stuff can be made.
• 56:24
  Albert Bramante: You know, on the lower cost now, the only downside with lower cost means lower wages for actors.
• 56:29
  Albert Bramante: Yeah, exactly, can you tell me a little?
• 56:30
  Carmen Lezeth: bit about your website.
• 56:30
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, and again I'm gonna mess up your cost.
• 56:30
  Carmen Lezeth: Now.
• 56:30
  Carmen Lezeth: The only downside with lower cost means lower wages for actors.
• 56:31
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, exactly, Can you tell me a little bit about your website?
• 56:33
  Carmen Lezeth: And again I'm going to mess up your name.
• 56:35
  Carmen Lezeth: So I don't want to say it.
• 56:36
  Carmen Lezeth: Albert, how do you say it?
• 56:37
  Carmen Lezeth: Last name again.
• 56:38
  Albert Bramante: Bramantecom.
• 56:39
  Carmen Lezeth: So it's Albert Bramantecom I noticed there's a lot of AI-generated images, but this is more sound stuff.
• 56:48
  Carmen Lezeth: What is your website?
• 56:49
  Carmen Lezeth: These are recordings.
• 56:50
  Albert Bramante: So right now my website's under construction, so you're only seeing maybe like 30% or 40% of what's going to be there.
• 56:56
  Albert Bramante: So I have hypnosis recordings from everything from about anxiety to sports performance.
• 57:03
  Albert Bramante: So these are like 15 to 17-minute sound clips that when you buy, you download them and you can listen to them on a daily basis.
• 57:14
  Carmen Lezeth: Can you?
• 57:14
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't know anything about hypnosis.
• 57:17
  Carmen Lezeth: So what is hypnosis and why would that work for an actor or performer or anyone in general?
• 57:24
  Albert Bramante: Hypnosis works by targeting what we call your subconscious mind, the part of you that really programs your day-to-day life, your brain.
• 57:35
  Albert Bramante: You know your actions and it's stuff that you're not fully aware of, but that's where all of your motivations come in.
• 57:41
  Albert Bramante: So what we do is we kind of put you in a flow state or a state of light relaxation or light trance, and work in reprogramming some of the beliefs that you have, limiting beliefs that you might have, so that you can be a better performer.
• 57:58
  Albert Bramante: Now, it's not going to make you a better actor, it's not like, because it doesn't replace acting training.
• 58:04
  Albert Bramante: Nothing will except acting training.
• 58:06
  Albert Bramante: But what it will make you do is get you out of your head and stop second-guessing yourself, so that you'll become a much better you than you'll ever be, you know, than you ever were.
• 58:22
  Albert Bramante: So I can guarantee you that's going to help an actor book more work.
• 58:28
  Rick Costa: Another thing in the book you talked about was affirmations which, on my broadcast, I literally do it every single day.
• 58:34
  Albert Bramante: that's going to help an actor book more work.
• 58:35
  Albert Bramante: Another thing in the book you talked about was affirmations which on my broadcast, I literally do it every single day.
• 58:38
  Albert Bramante: Yeah, and that's also another thing we do in trance is several affirmations we'll put affirmation on loop.
• 58:44
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't know how I feel about all that stuff.
• 58:46
  Rick Costa: I'm not into hypnosis.
• 58:48
  Carmen Lezeth: I think I'm a little bit afraid of it.
• 58:49
  Carmen Lezeth: So that'll be.
• 58:51
  Albert Bramante: I will say this you know, and this is what I tell a lot of people who are afraid of hypnosis.
• 58:54
  Albert Bramante: You've already experienced a thousand times already, so that's going to be a writer.
• 59:00
  Carmen Lezeth: Wait, how?
• 59:00
  Carmen Lezeth: How have I already experienced it a thousand times?
• 59:03
  Albert Bramante: So let me ask you a question.
• 59:04
  Albert Bramante: You do drive, so do you ever get, sometimes when?
• 59:13
  Albert Bramante: You start the car and then you get to your destination and wonder where the time went.
• 59:16
  Albert Bramante: Yeah, yeah, that's, that's what hypnosis is.
• 59:17
  Albert Bramante: It's like a state of um, if you ever get enthralled into a movie where you get lost, stay in time.
• 59:22
  Albert Bramante: Or you read a book and you get lost in the in the book or you listen to music and you get.
• 59:28
  Albert Bramante: you know you'd be transported to a memory.
• 59:30
  Albert Bramante: That's what hypnosis is.
• 59:33
  Albert Bramante: If you ever meditate, that's what hypnosis is Okay that's fair.
• 59:39
  Carmen Lezeth: I've never heard it explained that way.
• 59:41
  Albert Bramante: That is and that's what you know saying to people who say that they're scared of them, like there's nothing to be afraid of.
• 59:47
  Albert Bramante: You already did it thousands of times already.
• 59:49
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, the reason why we're afraid is because we've watched every ridiculous TV show where they hypnotize people and then they do weird bad stuff to them.
• 59:56
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, yeah.
• 59:58
  Albert Bramante: Yeah, no, and I will definitely say a movie reference that didn't really help us and that was Get Out which I was like no oh.
• 1:00:06
  Albert Bramante: That's definitely not it.
• 1:00:10
  Albert Bramante: But you know it's that it is.
• 1:00:12
  Albert Bramante: Your people are scared of it because of that, you know.
• 1:00:15
  Albert Bramante: Oh my God, make you look like a chicken.
• 1:00:16
  Albert Bramante: And that's be fun to watch.
• 1:00:24
  Carmen Lezeth: But no, that's not what I'm going to do.
• 1:00:26
  Rick Costa: It's not what I'm going to do.
• 1:00:27
  Rick Costa: Yeah, yeah, I hypnotized at all, is it true?
• 1:00:31
  Albert Bramante: No, no, because, like I said, you hypnotize every day.
• 1:00:33
  Albert Bramante: Now what is true?
• 1:00:35
  Albert Bramante: That you can't make someone be hypnotizing in their will?
• 1:00:37
  Albert Bramante: So if you're not willing to like, if we're closed off at the moment, it's not not gonna work.
• 1:00:46
  Albert Bramante: It's what you're waiting?
• 1:00:48
  Albert Bramante: Because the one thing is, we cannot change free will of another person.
• 1:00:52
  Rick Costa: Something you would never ordinarily do.
• 1:00:53
  Rick Costa: You can't force somebody to do.
• 1:00:55
  Albert Bramante: Exactly.
• 1:00:55
  Albert Bramante: We're morally opposed to doing it.
• 1:00:57
  Albert Bramante: No, yeah, but usually the people that are seeking out of services want to change their life.
• 1:01:02
  Albert Bramante: You know they want to change something and sometimes they're like the last resort.
• 1:01:09
  Rick Costa: Right.
• 1:01:11
  Carmen Lezeth: Interesting, all right, well.
• 1:01:12
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, I'm going to close this down.
• 1:01:14
  Carmen Lezeth: It has been an interesting conversation that was much more fun than I thought.
• 1:01:21
  Albert Bramante: This has been one of the most interesting podcasts I've been on.
• 1:01:25
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm sorry, rick, what did you say?
• 1:01:26
  Rick Costa: I said, I almost feel like this is part one.
• 1:01:28
  Carmen Lezeth: I feel like this is part one too.
• 1:01:29
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean I I almost feel like this is part one.
• 1:01:31
  Albert Bramante: I feel like this is part one too.
• 1:01:37
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, I'm open to you know.
• 1:01:38
  Carmen Lezeth: Whatever I feel like we should have you come back, we'll do it soon so we can have a part two and kind of get more in depth.
• 1:01:41
  Carmen Lezeth: Is that fair?
• 1:01:43
  Albert Bramante: That sounds great.
• 1:01:44
  Albert Bramante: I'd love to.
• 1:01:45
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, well, everyone, thank you so much.
• 1:01:47
  Carmen Lezeth: Please remember that we have our show on Friday nights.
• 1:01:51
  Carmen Lezeth: At what time, rick, I always forget 6 pm.
• 1:01:57
  Carmen Lezeth: Pacific 9 pm Eastern.
• 1:01:59
  Carmen Lezeth: And then, always on Sundays, our private lounges, air at 12 o'clock Pacific 3 pm Eastern.
• 1:02:05
  Carmen Lezeth: And remember, at the end of the day, it really is all about the joy, all about the joy, albert's going to be back, so we ain't saying bye to him, forever Bye, and remember at the end of the day.
• 1:02:10
  Carmen Lezeth: it really is all about the joy, All about the joy.
• 1:02:11
  Carmen Lezeth: Thank you, Albert.
• 1:02:12
  Carmen Lezeth: Albert's going to be back, so we ain't saying bye to him forever Bye, thank you.
• 1:02:14
  Carmen Lezeth: Thanks for stopping by.
• 1:02:16
  Carmen Lezeth: All About the Joy Be better and stay beautiful.
• 1:02:19
  Carmen Lezeth: Folks have a sweet day.