Q+A Edwin LaCroix
By Rachael Jones
Edwin LaCroix dreams of winning an Oscar in filmmaking one day. He first has to finish the last few classes for his degree at the University of Georgia.
A third-year entertainment and media studies major at Grady College, LaCroix has big goals ahead of him. Passionate about the entertainment industry, he wants to move to Los Angeles after college to pursue a career in talent recruiting. He hopes to gain exposure to the entertainment industry here and views working for a talent agency as “a medium for me to get where I want to go in the end.” That end, ultimately, is filmmaking.
Ever since he toured the campus his freshman year of high school, LaCroix knew he wanted to go to UGA. His path to Grady was a little less clear. Originally a biology major when he started college, he quickly discovered his passion and drive belonged somewhere else.
“My whole life I was geared to becoming a doctor. I was fed this whole doctor scheme, you know. Go to school, do biology, come out, go to med school, and I didn’t know any other career paths or opportunities,” said LaCroix.
The way LaCroix describes it, he didn’t find Grady; Grady found him. He knew he had a passion for content creation, and Grady provided him with a method to manifest his passion and dreams into a career. Grady has set LaCroix on a path to expand his horizons, make connections with new people and craft a living out of doing something he loves.
Interview Questions:
Rachael Jones
Why did you want to be a bio major?
Edwin LaCroix
My whole life I was geared to becoming like a doctor. I was like, like fed, this whole doctor scheme, you know. Go to school, do biology, come out, go to med school, and I didn’t know any other career paths or opportunities. I wasn’t looking at anything else, like in high school I was like, Okay, this is all I know, I’m going to do this. So being in college helped me to like, explore it and to find new passions and find new things I never knew existed
Jones
So, what would you say your dream job would be after college?
LaCroix
Dream job? I want to do a lot. for the longest I wanted to be a filmmaker. And I had a goal of winning an Oscar for the longest, but that dream hasn’t completely gone away like that’s not a job, per se. It’s like a, I guess career field or something. But after college my goal is to work at a talent agency, like CAA or WME or UTA. I plan to work for a year after I graduate and move on to the west coast and apply for these jobs, probably work in the mailroom for a year so hopefully and move my way up to a desk or be an assistant somewhere.
Jones
So I don’t know if this is like why you’re in this, but would you consider yourself an artist or entertainer in any way? Like what makes you interested in wanting to represent talent?
LaCroix
Um, the reason why I’m interested in this field is because in talent agencies, in mailrooms period, or in that field, you come into contact with a lot of people. Right, from directors to producers to entertainers. So, being in that space will put me on to different people and to help me feel my other passion so if I’m writing a script behind the scenes, and I meet somebody who can put me on with a gig somewhere, I can slide myself in there. Because, like being an agent is not my main goal. It’s a medium for me to get where I want to go in the end.
Jones
What’s your favorite movie, then? I feel like you probably get asked that a lot. Or favorite filmmaker, or what interests you about film?
LaCroix
The hard thing is when you see so much. There’s a lot of good movies out there. In my room I have posters of movies on my wall, my wall isn’t big enough to hold all the posters that I want to put on there. But um, a lot of great movies, great movies. The Unusual Suspects with. I mean, Kevin Spacey is in it but he’s not really a hot topic right now. Mad Max Fury Road. If you’ve seen that is a great movie. Of course Inception is a classic. A quiet place is a great movie, a great movie actually currently I’m watching Annihilation on Hulu. Arrival. A lot of great, I don’t have a top movie.
Jones
Okay, I was gonna say is [photography] more of like a hobby or is that where you want to take your career?
LaCroix
So I picked up photography, I want to say, towards the latter half of my junior year. At my church they had a camera sitting in the back and I picked it up and started shooting with my friends at the services. And then I was like okay cool I can get into this, and then senior year of high school I asked my high school counselor to sponsor me and buy me a camera, so she bought me a camera. And I had to pay her back in increments like every month or so. Then I got my first camera, and I loved it. Right. Then I realized photography is very expensive. So, I did it to make more money to buy more things. It was a hobby, because I was good at it, and I wanted to see how far I could go with it. And so it was like a side job kind of thing. Okay. I had to stop because for one my camera body started stopped working properly. So I wasn’t taking as much pitches. And then I had to sell a couple lenses to pay for schooling. So it kind of like forced me to stop doing what I wanted to do. I can’t take this is without lenses.
