Sujata Day, Actor, Writer/Director: The HR lady who I had become friends with
she was really sad and disappointed that she had to lay me off and I was like…
Film Courage: To anyone working in the film industry Sujata
if they had to put a time limit on becoming a working professional what would that be?
Sujata: Never put a time limit on art I would say
because I have found throughout my years there have been a lot of my friends and acquaintances
that I've been in touch with or met in acting class or through writing and anyone who puts a
time limit on it such as if I don't do this thing within a year or if I don't do this particular
goal within two or three years then I'm going to go back to XYZ which could be anything which
could be in my case you know I have an engineering degree so if I were to say that okay I need to get
to direct a studio film within five years or else I'm going to go back to engineering I feel like
the universe hears that and listens to that and says okay you have this backup plan so
it won't give you that first thing that you want
and I just think it's a… everybody says this but it's a marathon not a sprint
and I've noticed that there are goals that I hope to have wished to achieve by this point which I
haven't achieved but I'm enjoying the journey and the journey has been so much fun. It's all about
waking up in the morning being excited that you actually get to pursue your dream
and enjoying the moment that you're in whether it's oh you get to go pitch to a certain executive
or studio or network today or whether it's you get to go have coffee with a certain writer that you
are inspired by and and just taking those little experiences and making that exciting and making
that a goal as opposed to I need to sell a show by this date or I need to be a series regular
by this date so I truly believe you can't put a time limit on your dreams when you were getting
that engineering degree was that your plan a at the time no that was always my plan B so
I’ll take it back to my childhood where I was always dancing, singing, writing, acting but I was
also really good at math and science it came easy to me and when I entered middle school I started
doing plays when I entered high school I started doing musicals and I was always dancing every week
and my parents were very supportive and they would come to Guys and Dolls every night and
bring a bouquet of flowers and cheer for me and it was always really exciting but then I
was also taking AP physics, AP bio, AP chem, AP calculus and killing it on those exams as well
so my plan my master plan I started thinking about when I was about 16 or 17 and I said to myself
okay I can't move to Hollywood at the age of 17. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to go get
this engineering degree and take it from there and then move out to Los Angeles after I graduate and
so I went to get my engineering degree and in the meantime continued to do plays and musicals and
continue to write in college I took a semester of screenwriting I took a semester of playwriting and
then I the summer before my senior year of college I interned at a company called Accenture which is
a global consulting firm really big name they're on par with Deloitte Touche and Ernst and Young
and had a fun summer interning there and at the end of that summer I was offered a full-time job
so this was even before going into my senior year so they asked me where I wanted to work what city
I wanted to work in and I said Los Angeles and I said Los Angeles and they said great that's
where we'll send you after you graduate so I went into my senior year already having a job and as
soon as I graduated I moved to LA on Accenture's dime and then I was on a salary so I was making
a load of money at the age of 20 pretty much and the thing about consulting is you never have to
work unless you're placed on a project so basically that entire year that I worked there
I was only on a project for about two weeks and I was the worst Accenture employee you
could ever think of and I just had all my phone calls go to my cell phone, never went into work
and in the meantime what I was doing was meeting with agents, I was going to acting class, I was
getting headshots, I was auditioning and at the end of that year working for Accenture
I got laid off which was also awesome because I got severance, I got unemployment
and for about eight to ten months I believe I was making money and that's when I
ramped up my auditioning and about I don't know months later I booked three national commercials
in a row so that's when my professional career started I believe and in the meantime I was
still writing scripts, still writing shorts, writing short stories, poems, songs, etc
and that's how I got into acting but it was all part of the master plan of like okay I don't
want to be a burden to my parents I want to be able to support myself what's the best way
I can do that okay let's take this job in this other field which is kind of the perfect day job
to be honest and then I moved out here and did it on my own how did you get word that you
were being laid off what was hilarious was I was like I told you I was a terrible employee
so it was a round of layoffs a bunch of employees were getting laid off at the same time
and I was one of them I came in and the human resources lady who I had become friends with
she was really sad and disappointed that she had to lay me off and I was like I'm good,
please don't waste your emotions on me and and it was it was a good day.
Film Courage: How many plan B’s have you had while you've been here in Los Angeles?
Sujata: I’ve had zero plan B’s. I've had the day jobs which have been really fun
actually I think there was always a dream of me even being an engineer the dream that you see
in tv and in the movies of an aspiring actor is they're working at a restaurant or they're working
as a hostess somewhere and that's what I did and I had so much fun because I was finally surrounded
by creative people because everyone working in the restaurant business in Los Angeles generally tends
to be an artist and that is their day job so I had a blast I worked at a diner I worked at a fancy
steakhouse and then I realized that I really loved hostessing so I was working the front of desk
at these places and it was really fun I was meeting all these people working at really hot
trendy spots in la and making friends and I never considered that a plan B that was always just me
making friends and making my home in Los Angeles surrounded by the people that I finally wanted to
be surrounded by. Film Courage: Yeah those can be fun jobs, I know they can be stressful though too.
Especially if you think that there is no time limit for them. I think they're romantic for
a while but there's also a trap of being in them too long. I think that can really
weigh people down. How do you handle or how did you at that time well-meaning comments maybe from
family and friends that we're like that's great you know we love that you're still pursuing like
you're dancing and acting but you're gonna need something more stable or you can't make real money
from this things like that? Sujata: Well coming from an Indian immigrant family you get those
comments a little bit more maybe than usual and I just handled it by I’d be like well this is the
money that I made on the commercial and so I’ll just book another commercial and we'll see what's
what happens obviously it's not that easy you don't just go out and book another commercial but
I was making steady progress so it did something that my my dad would say was why don't you go to
get a Master’s in acting or it's always about more education and and I was like well you know
I'm taking Upright Citizens Brigade classes and I'm taking really fun other drama type acting
classes and I'm taking sketch writing classes and everything I write like I get a little bit better
every script I write is a little bit better than the one before and so I just really had to explain
to my parents like this is what I'm doing, I'm continuously studying, I'm continuously growing
and I don't necessarily need to go do a Master's program somewhere. Film Courage:
So you showed them like here's a residual check or here's whatever the buyout check
that I got for this commercial and maybe that quelled some of their anxiety? Sujata: Yeah I
think it was more about can you pay the rent? Can you pay for your food? Are you eating healthy?
Are you out on the street somewhere and so it was mostly about just having a stable life as opposed
to I think their version of the Hollywood dream was more people living on the streets
and doing shady things to succeed and I was like you know that's in your soap operas that you watch
but that's not real life. Hollywood there's just a lot of people who are working really hard to
achieve their dreams and continuously growing in terms of their art and that's what I want to do.
What do you think about putting a time limit on your dreams?