Sara Quiriconi Of Live Free Media On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Entertainment Industry
An Interview With Eden Gold
Don’t wait for the agent, the callback, or the knock — just create. Make noise. Attract the eyes and ears of agents. Don’t chase. No one in any relationship likes chasers. It feels icky.
As a part of our series about pop culture’s rising stars, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Sara Quiriconi.
Sara Quiriconi is a New England born actress, host, creative producer and entrepreneur with a deep passion for storytelling. She’s had the opportunity to act in and co-produce a variety of films and series in both Los Angeles, Miami and internationally, respectfully. Studying in various acting schools in Boston, New York, Miami and Los Angeles, Sara started at a young age in front of the camera, returning back years later to dedicate her life to acting and storytelling.
Sara thrives in portraying characters who are confident, strong, beautiful and intelligent with an inner conflict of lightness and darkness. As someone with experience in many creative angles in addition to acting, she brings to set skills in writing, directing, and producing, along with a calm, confident and profession demeanor. The youthful soul of a storyteller is something Sara played vivaciously as a child and has now dedicated her life to as a conscious-driven career as an adult.
In addition to acting and creative production, Sara is a 20-year cancer survivor, author of “Living Cancer Free”, podcast host of Never Settle and creator of “Be The Lead Planner.” She is incredibly athletic, taught yoga for nine years, business-minded with a high caliber of professionalism and worked as an art director along her career path graduating Magna Cum Laude in Communications and Journalism
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
Cinderella. Scrooge McDuck. Maleficent. The Little Mermaid. School teacher. Figure skater. Richie Rich. I played them all,, since I can remember at a young age. Dress-up, make believe, accents, story creation, set design, building and creating sets out of were in my nature since I was a young child. I did take up some acting classes in college, but ended up deciding to be an Art Director out of college, majoring with high honors in communications and journalism. Life turn a turn for learning and teaching yoga, and later focusing on production and expertise in well-being and travel.
However, all of this led me back to one thing: story. I realized all of the characters and skillsets I was taking on and learning were like different tools for each character I was building. Naturally performing on camera for the “role” that was presented, and knew it was time to fully step into that “skin” as an actor pursuing a career in Hollywood.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
Cinderella. Scrooge McDuck. Maleficent. The Little Mermaid. School teacher. Figure skater. Richie Rich. I played them all,, since I can remember at a young age. Dress-up, make believe, accents, story creation, set design, building and creating sets out of were in my nature since I was a young child. I did take up some acting classes in college, but ended up deciding to be an Art Director out of college, majoring with high honors in communications and journalism. Life turn a turn for learning and teaching yoga, and later focusing on production and expertise in well-being and travel.
However, all of this led me back to one thing: story. I realized all of the characters and skillsets I was taking on and learning were like different tools for each character I was building. Naturally performing on camera for the “role” that was presented, and knew it was time to fully step into that “skin” as an actor pursuing a career in Hollywood.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
It has been said that mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I personally don’t think you CAN act (well, at least) if you’re not making mistakes. It’s part of the discovery of character and trying out the personality, and be OK to make mistakes. So, in that regard, I make mistakes daily!
However, to go deeper into some of the bigger oops: I’ve gone into a virtual casting without fully knowing the lines. I had gotten the monologue the night before and I was still pretty green to the industry and game. Nowhere did it require I was off book (meaning, have your lines memorized); however, it was an inferred given that it was mandatory to. When the audition came, the director was pretty irritated that I needed to look down at the monologue to reference some of the lines and started cutting me off mid-dialogue to correct if a word was incorrect. Was he right for doing so? Was I wrong for know memorizing? It’s not about either. It’s about the lesson, and perhaps this wasn’t something I wanted to work anyway. And, perhaps I did need to work on memorizing quicker and faster. I learned.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
I’m currently working on a TV pitch called Becoming Whole. In this series, we aim to challenge, inform, and entertain audiences, pushing them to think deeper into their own health choices and uncover what could work better for themselves to BECOME WHOLE in a more natural way.
In addition to castings and auditions coming up weekly, I’ve been working on quite a few of my own projects as a producer, writer and actor. I recently launched my first short film titled, “SOLA PERSONA — A Woman’s Journey Back To Freedom” and working on two other films at the moment that will be shot through summer wrapping up in the fall.
https://filmfreeway.com/SolaPersona
As a rising star, you’ve likely faced challenges along the way. How do you stay motivated and overcome obstacles in your career?
Know your WHY. When you know your WHY in life, it’s a challenging thing to wake up in the morning and not want to give it your all to make it happen. Perhaps, however, it’s part genetic and the environment you grew up in and part lifestyle and mindset. I can owe a large part of my resilience to the life circumstances I’ve been challenged with and have overcome, such as being a 20-year cancer thriver. That taught me so much in life about living your best each day, never settling and seeing the lessons in every obstacle to built you up stronger and wiser.
We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?
When I see humans, I see energy, and how we are so much more similar than different. I think back to when I had cancer, and relate that cancer doesn’t know a race, an income, or a ZIP Code. I find this a tricky question to answer, being a white American growing up fairly well. It’s not to say I haven’t had my struggles where I felt injustice or treated different. That I can speak to. So on that note:
I’m a believer in energy, that humans, emotions, creations, acting, and (in a longer sense) filmmaking are intrinsic with energy exchanges. Having diversity and equal opportunity given to the best ENERGY for any set and role is key in every aspect of the industry, and universally.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why?
1. It doesn’t have to be as hard as everyone else makes it out to be — whatever art you’re pursuing, own your story and choose the narrative you run in your own mind.
2. Don’t wait for the agent, the callback, or the knock — just create. Make noise. Attract the eyes and ears of agents. Don’t chase. No one in any relationship likes chasers. It feels icky.
3. Invest what earn. Even when the big paycheck comes, I’ll still be investing in long-term assets that ensure I can act, produce and story tell for the rest of my life without having to be concerned where the next paycheck will come from.
4. Skills you have in other areas of your life can overlap and add tremendous value to what you’re doing in your respective category (editing, writing and filming myself make me a much better actor and producer).
5. The most successful actors are also producers and entrepreneurs, in addition to being an actor. Think as a brand, innovate.
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Have a secondary source of income, and when you earn, invest the earnings. Above all, invest in you, your health and well-being. An actor who practices meditation, yoga, or has a stress-relieving toolkit is a much better asset on a production when chaos or stress hits the set, or there’s a change in script or schedule, or your show gets cancelled after the pilot. Being able to manage your own emotions is crucial as a human, and especially as an actor (it’s in our job description).
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Be open to create your own work. Note that you don’t have to be one category, JUST an actor, or JUST a writer. You can merge and mix and write and host and podcast and paint…it’s what you feel that motivates you to create your art and movement in this world, less of the name or title
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Never Settle. Success to me is waking up every day and being able to choose my life pursuits, passions and agenda. The long-term goal is legacy. Neither will happen settling for average. The best stories out there never come from an average life lived — make it epic, you’re the HERO of your own story. The writer, the actor, the director, the producer, the creator, the visionary — edit out what weighs you down, produce daily step by step closer to your HERO’S overall objective.
How can our readers follow you online?
URL: livefreewarrior.com
Instagram: @livefreewarrior https://www.instagram.com/livefreewarrior/
YouTube: Live Free Warrior https://www.youtube.com/c/LiveFreeWarrior
Never Settle Podcast: https://neversettle.club/
Warrior University: http://warrioruniversity.org/
IMDb: https://www.imdb.me/SaraQuiriconi
Talent Portfolio: https://saraquiriconi.com/talent-portfolio/
Facebook: Sara Quiriconi https://www.facebook.com/livefreewarriortv
Vimeo: Live Free Warrior https://vimeo.com/livefreewarrior
LinkedIn: Sara Quiriconi https://www.linkedin.com/in/squiriconi
This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
About The Interviewer: Eden Gold, is a youth speaker, keynote speaker, founder of the online program Life After High School, and host of the Real Life Adulting Podcast. Being America’s rising force for positive change, Eden is a catalyst for change in shaping the future of education. With a lifelong mission of impacting the lives of 1 billion young adults, Eden serves as a practical guide, aiding young adults in honing their self-confidence, challenging societal conventions, and crafting a strategic roadmap towards the fulfilling lives they envision.
Do you need a dynamic speaker, or want to learn more about Eden’s programs? Click here: https://bit.ly/EdenGold
