ARG Pro Member of The Month: Kris Ann Russell
We love when we’re able to give our ARG Pros a shout-out. Let’s be real – ARG Pros are just that: Pros. We are a solid community of actors who act like the CEOs they are. ARG Pros work every day toward furthering their acting careers, they understand how the industry works and what steps need to be taken, and best of all – ARG Pros work!
This month we’re excited to be able to showcase an amazing Pro Member, Kris Ann Russell!
Kris first began her career in New York in the 1970’s in New York City and has had an incredible journey, from singing at the United Nations World Peace Conference to co-writing and starring in two off-Broadway musicals!
I first met Kris at the Beverly Hills Playhouse years ago and am always in awe at the amount of work Kris puts into her career. She’s actually been an ARG Pro since the ‘Workshop Guru’ days! #throwback
She has tons to share about her career, how she got her start, what she’s learned on set, and more, so check it all out below!
We cut together the highlights of my interview with Kris, you can watch that here:
Huge shoutout to Kris Ann Russell, the ARG Pro Member of The Month! Learn how she got her start, her incredible journey and what she’s been able to learn while on set in her interview with @ActResourceGuru @Ajarae! #SavvyActors #Share
If you’re interested in reading the full transcript of the interview, you can read that here:
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Ajarae: So Kris, tell me a little bit about your background and why you decided to become an actor.
Kris: Oh, what a wonderful thought. Why did I decide to take on this life of becoming an actor? Why did I want to do this? When I was a kid, I was the kid who always pulled all the little kids aside during recess. And I wrote a play during study hall, and I would rehearse and direct the play, and I would want to put it on, and then the teacher would never let us. And it was interesting… When I got to New York back in the 70s and I was working there, my mother ran into my old fifth grade teacher and the teacher said, “You know, Kris Ann always wanted to to do these little plays that she had written and stuff and I’d never let her and I feel real bad about that now.” And my mother said, “Don’t worry about it. She just had her first off Broadway show produced and directed and she starred in it.” She said, “you didn’t stop her.” So that was the one thing about all of it. I have been doing this since childhood. I knew that’s what I wanted to do. I had to argue with my parents a lot about it. They hated the thought that I would move 1500 miles away from Oklahoma to New York and then to Los Angeles and do this. What made me decide to move to LA is I had been working in Denver for 17 years after having been in LA in 1987. And I had just a rough year. My mom passed away and I had a divorce, so I had moved back to Denver. And then I reached retirement age. And I said, you know, I’ve launched several careers, both in the music industry and with my students that were actors. And if I’m not going to do it now, when am I ever going to do it? So I came back to LA three years ago and started doing this again and jumped right into the middle of Los Angeles. When I was in Denver, I used the Beverly Hills Playhouse website for scenes for my students. And I went, well, let me look at the Beverly Hills playhouse. And that’s when I met you, Ajarae. Yeah, I remember that. And I took your class and that’s sort of launched this crazy bumpy ride that I’m on right now and love it. Oh, by the way, I had a young woman that I worked for the other day just doing some organization. That’s my side job. I was working for this woman and she was the sound mixer, for Grey’s anatomy. And she talked to me at length… She had been in town for nine years and she said, “Oh, you’ve only been here for three years.” And she said, “LA tends to haze you like you’re trying to get into a group in college. LA itself is a hazing process that you have to deal with. It picks on you. It’s a bumpy ride sometimes, but you stick it out, you stay there!” is what she told me. She said, “Don’t give up. Keep going. You get knocked down, stand up, keep going. And then things start to happen.” And it’s only been two or three years and some good stuff has happened. Through actually the help and guidance that you’ve given me. That’s pretty amazing.
Ajarae: So that’s awesome. So tell me a little bit about what you joined ARG hoping to address.
Kris: When I came out here again, the 70s was the last time I’d actually done much show business work. I went into teaching. So when I came out here, I realized the business had changed dramatically. My years in New York taught me almost nothing about how to handle the show business industry here. So I decided I needed help. At the Beverly Hills playhouse, I heard you talk and I said, okay, that’s what I need. I need to learn this business and how to do it this way. I haven’t successfully done all of it yet. I’m still working on my homework, but I’m getting there, you know.
Ajarae: Awesome. So tell us about something that you’re working on or some win or success that you want to share, something that you’re excited about.
Kris: What I’m working on now… It never fails that something wonderful can come from something you follow up on. You never know when something’s going to happen. You never know when a breakthrough is going to come and where it’s going to come from. That’s what’s really important. I had one thing happen in the last year just from being in a class at the Beverly Hills playhouse. A girl called me one day and said, “Listen, we’re shooting a commercial. Would you be interested? Someone referred you from a class that they saw you do at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.” And I said, “Can you tell me who it was? Is it somebody I know?” And they said, “we don’t remember.” And I said, “oh, well I’d be happy to audition for you.” And they said, “no, you’ve already got the part.” And I said, “how?” and they said “just show up.” So I showed up at CBS Studios. They said that we’ll do some billboards and kiosks. And it was this silly little thing called Soylent, as in Soylent Green, as in the old movie, soylent green is people. What was the name of that movie? I can’t remember, it was Charlton Heston.
Ajarae: I am blanking, but I know exactly what you’re talking about.
Kris: Yeah. Anyway, but I don’t know if they even knew about that. There were probably millennials that came up with the idea, but it is a soy-based protein drink in their concept. And we shot at CBS Studios on a subway train and there was this gurney that went from one end of the train to another. And their concept was ‘eat on the train’ and they had a line of people eating inappropriate things on the train. They had dressed me up in a red beret and red sunglasses and a white full length fur coat. And the minute I got in that, you know, I’m a character actress, I couldn’t help it. I turned into, you know, rich bitch, you know, crazy snotty, rich bitch and I had fun. And the director said, “God, you’re a riot.” And they took all these still shots. Well, they put us all on the train in a line and they had the Gurney that ran the camera all the way through and we were supposed to be eating the things. They plopped down a giant tray with a fake lobster on it. They had lots of red lipstick on me and they said “tear into the lobster.” So I proceeded to grab the lobster by the claw in my mouth and start shaking it and growling, you know, and came up and there was lipstick all over my face. I was just having fun, I was always having fun. I didn’t take it very seriously. So they did that and the director kept yelling at everybody, “stop laughing at her. You’re ruining the shot!” Then he sat me by the guy who is holding the protein drink, the soylent. And I went, okay, there it is. I just made my way into sitting by the guy with the product by being an idiot.
Ajarae: So fun.
Kris: Well that wound up on kiosks in all the subway systems in New York. The shot of me and it doesn’t even show the product, it just says “Soylent. Eat on the train.” It shows the guy looking at me. I just got an Instagram that said, “look at you!” I’m on the side of a bus. People have been texting me and getting to me on Facebook and Instagram saying, “we saw you in the airport in New York City”, “we saw you in the kiosks in New York City.” “You are on billboards all over New York.” And then somebody else has said, yeah, well we saw it in Providence, Rhode Island, so all up and down the eastern seaboard, you never know. It’s bizarre. Anyway, all of that was from just being in a class and doing a scene.
Ajarae: Right. Absolutely.
Kris: You never know when a break is going to come. I have followed what you’re teaching. I follow your teachings and get it together.
Ajarae: That’s great.
Kris: You said do your brands. Well, my brand is, I’m a character actress. I’m a chameleon. So what I did was I made, this is my comp card. It says Kris Ann Russell, SAG-AFTRA, chameleon character actress for hire.
Ajarae: Perfect.
Kris: I don’t know whether this is going to go, but I drop it off everywhere that I go. $35 for 300 of these.
Ajarae: Nice.
Kris: I’ve been trying to put together the Herb Garden idea that I told you I wanted to. To send things to casting directors and people so they know you. I’ll send a little sprig of rosemary or something from my herb garden and then say “hello from the Garden Goddess” and put my little business card on it, that kind of thing. So, you know, Ajarae has amazing creative ideas on how to get this thing going, get your business end of it going. I’m still working on my website, still working on a whole bunch of other things. And one last thing. I have a film. I have two films that I got supporting roles in. These two are features and I have supporting roles in them. They’re going to be opening this month. And I made it into the LA film festival with a short that I starred in. One of the producers, a lady named Diane Foster, said to me, she said, would you come and, just do a cameo in a little film that we’re doing. It’s a short called Shiri, uh, which is a takeoff on Siri, which is a riot. It’s really a funny film. So I just did a little cameo in that, but while I was there, I was talking with Diane about an idea that I had for a short and I just told her the first scene and she said, “I want to produce that.” She said, “write it.” So wrote it. In the midst of it, I thought, what I really want to do is a pilot, and it’s a memoir of my days in New York.
Ajarae: Oh, I love that.
Kris: And it’s, the working title is called Full Moon Over Sardi’s. Does anybody know what Sardi’s restaurant is? Ever heard of it?
Ajarae: No.
Kris: Sardi’s Restaurant is the place that you see in all the movies with all the caricatures on the wooden walls with the red banquettes. Sardi’s is the most famous restaurant in New York because it is the place where all the opening night parties are for the Shubert organization that owns almost all of the Broadway houses. I was one of the first 10 women that was hired by Sardi’s forced by the Equal Rights Amendment of the 1970s.
Ajarae: Wow.
Kris: So that’s a little claim to a notoriety. That I got there. So I waited tables at Sardi’s. I got to meet and goof off with the first crew of Saturday Night Live at Gilda Radner’s opening night party. As an actress!
Ajarae: Oh wow! That’s amazing.
Kris: I got to goof off with all of these people. Well, I’ve decided to write a pilot based on it and so it’s called… I’m an Oklahoma farm girl, so it’s called “Full Moon Over Sardi’s: Confessions of the Hayseed in the Big Apple.” They said that the title’s too long, so we’ve got to work on that. But I’ve got Diane to produce that and we’re working on the script right now for the pilot. All of it comes from connecting like you have taught us. Network, network, network. So I’m going to learn to network my butt off.
Ajarae: You already are, Kris. You already are. So let me ask you, um, what is a dream role or project for you besides maybe starring in your pilot?
Kris: Oh, dream role? Um, wow. I see there is a part of me that wants to be set a high goal and be practical about it. And then there’s a part of me that wants to just go yes, go to the top. Dream role… Practical but high goal. Have a recurring role and I’ve learned it’s not “reoccurring.” I used to call it “reoccuring,” but no recurring, a recurring role on a major network sitcom. I was shooting for Big Bang Theory. Uh, they’re gone now. Young Sheldon or something because that’s from Texas and my family is from Oklahoma. And I know I know a lot about that. Something that is recurring on a sitcom. I’ve done a little bit and I’m not supposed to say this, but I’ve done some extra work.
Ajarae: Oh that’s fine. Okay.
Kris: You know, I’ve heard “never tell anybody that you do extra work.” You know, I even, I wanna wear a disguise.
Ajarae: I guess the idea is to prevent people from counting you out for principal roles on the same show.
Kris: Yeah. Yeah. That’s basically it. But what happens is every time I walk on, I get featured. That’s not a good thing I found out! (laughs)
Ajarae: Right. Okay.
Kris: But I learned a lot from doing background work and the one thing that I realized from doing a Sitcom, they change everything all the time. If you make a mistake, everybody laughs and you get to do it over. It’s not like there is a lot of pressure on getting it right all the time.
Ajarae: Yeah, very true.
Kris: You work five days a week, maybe long hours during those days, but five days a week and you get lots and lots of money if you become a series regular. I’m sorry. Series regular. That’s what I want.
Ajarae: Yes. I gotcha.
Kris: Now I want series regular cause that pays like 22,000 an episode, right?
Ajarae: At least.
Kris: Depending on stuff like that. Yeah. So that’s what I want a series regular. So you can work a five day week and I wouldn’t do that to the point that now and then I can, I can call my own shots as in being able to get a production company together.
Ajarae: Right.
Kris: Produce my own stuff.
Ajarae: Right.
Kris: My own content.
Ajarae: And I just want to point out, Kris, that you’re already doing that. You are already writing your own content and you have this other person helping you produce. So I applaud you for starting all of this before you necessarily feel like your ducks are in a row. And that you have to have a series regular before all this happens. Because you’re really walking your talk, and it’s very inspiring.
Kris: That’s so sweet of you. Because I’m going, “I’m in a slump. What am I going to do? I’m in a slump. I gotta get out of this slump.” Because I had just moved and was trying to get situated. And everything just kind of petered out for a little while. Except films are coming out now. Oh. And I’ve got the new reel. I’d love to send it to you.
Ajarae: Oh, I would love to see it. Yeah, for sure. Thank you. So I’ll tell you, we as actors, we expect to be on at a certain level all the time in terms of bookings. But we have to remember that the nature of our work is cyclical. We do work, it’s produced, it comes out, we audition. I think that once we embrace that nature of the industry and of our jobs, we can kind of relax a lot more into what our lives are really like. You know, some people call it “feast and famine” and I don’t like that because “famine” is not good. You know, it’s “contraction and expansion.” I think, you know, where we’re out, we’re putting out a lot and then we’re allowing that to be made. It’s a creative process. So it’s fantastic that you have a few films coming out. That’s like the most exciting time of all. And so you can take this opportunity to share that that’s happening, and create more opportunities for yourself, which I love.
Kris: That is exciting. It is exciting. And I did have a bunch of good teachers in my earlier days. Never, never stop learning. Never stop studying. Oh my God, you need teachers.
Ajarae: Yes.
Kris: And even being a teacher, I need a teacher.
Ajarae: Oh, absolutely. Me too!
Kris: And the one thing that I found out that after 17 years of teaching, acting, voice, performance, songwriting…. Was that everything that would piss me off about what my students were doing… When I got into the training mode again, I was doing everything that they were doing! Procrastinating, not studying properly, not doing all of the shit that I was supposed to be doing. And I was going, “Oh, I should’ve had a lot more compassion.” And now I do have a few more students now and I do. I do have a lot more compassion for that.
Ajarae: And having compassion for ourselves is so important as well.
Kris: Yeah. That’s so important. You’ve got to really believe in yourself and love yourself no matter what. Yes. Yeah. And starting to meditate I’m finding is one of the most powerful things that I can possibly do.
Ajarae: I agree.
Kris: Yeah. And just being quiet, which is something I’m not good at doing. I didn’t even have caffeine today. I would’ve never been able to shut up.
Ajarae: Kris, I have to say, so much wisdom has come out of you today and I just want to thank you for being our featured Pro of the Month and for being willing to share this with your fellow actors, because I’m sure that many people are going to be inspired by this and feel like they have the strength to move forward and not give up, as you said. So thank you so much for sharing.
Kris: Thank you so much. This was so much fun.
Interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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