Up Close & Personal With Giovannie Espiritu

Actress and filmmaker Giovannie Espiritu was nominated alongside Academy Award Nominees Alfre Woodard and Amy Irving for Best Supporting Actress at MethodFest for the Mynah Films feature film Fiona’s Script. Her primetime credits include PERFECT HARMONY (NBC), a recurring role on ER (NBC), Bones (FOX), Gilmore Girls (ABC), and Trauma (NBC). She can be seen as the lead in the Amazon series, “D*Central,” which was featured in After Ellen, BuzzFeed, Bust Magazine and Curve Magazine as a top LGBTQ series to watch. As a filmmaker, she was featured in Elizabeth Banks’ WhoHaHa Media for her parody song, “An Introvert’s World,” and her storytelling has been featured in Ms. Magazine. A three-time Outfest Fusion Filmmaker, her short film, “Ultra-Feminist,” was awarded Honorable Mention. Her film, “Ally3000,” just won Best Screenplay at the Culture and Diversity Film Festival in Los Angeles.

She coaches kids/teens online nationwide through HollywoodActorsWorkshop.com and was just named as one of the top 40 Audition Coaches in Los Angeles by the Hollywood Winners Circle founded by Wendy Alane Wright, a top talent manager. Her students are represented by the top agencies in the Bay Area and Los Angeles and notable student alumni include William Lipton (Daytime Emmy Nominee, Cameron on General Hospital) and the Espina Sisters (Hosts of Dreamworks’ “Life Hacks for Kids on the Road”).

In her spare time, she rock climbs and advocates for Domestic Violence Awareness/Prevention and LGBTQ equality. She has served on the Board of Directors for C.O.R.A. (a Bay Area domestic violence hotline and agency) and been awarded a Certificate of Recognition from the Senate for her community service.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I started acting through voice-overs in the Bay Area. It’s kind of a weird long story thought because I was a member of a fundamentalist Christian cult and I would try to keep the telemarketers on the phone as long as possible because they were the only link to the outside world. One day, a telemarketer said that I should try voice-overs because I had an interesting voice. My “husband” at the time had quit his job to prepare for the “Second Coming of Jesus” and was unemployed, so he allowed me to send in a really ridiculous (now that I look back at it) recording to Stars Agency in SF. (They were the first ones that I looked up). They called me into an agency audition, signed me on the spot and sent me on my first audition for a video game. I booked and recorded it that very same day. I took it as a sign from God to continue this career path. (Just for the reader FYI, I’m no longer in the cult today.)

I started as an acting coach when one of my former teachers asked me to teach for her studio. Eventually, I opened up my own school in 2008 and have had numerous students success stories since then including Emmy nominee William Lipton and the Espina sisters who hosted the Dreamworks series, “Life Hacks for Kids.”

Can you share your story of Grit and Success? First, can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?

I feel like the first half of my life was hard. So hard that the Philippine Networks even made a movie about it (Not kidding. Rufa Mae Quinto played me and Jaclyn Jose, who won Cannes Film Festival Best Actress in 2016, played my mom).

Here’s a cliff’s notes version: I was born to a teen mom in the slums of Tondo, Manila and immigrated to the United States when I was 2. My parents remarried and my first stepfather was abusive. When I eventually told my uncle, who told my mom, she decided to stay with him and I lived with my grandparents. When my grandfather’s illness became worse at the beginning of my Sophmore year of high school, my mom moved us back to the Philippines where I found out she had another husband and family. In the midst of huge upheaval in my life, I guess I was looking for family and a place of belonging when I joined a fundamentalist cult youth group. I came back to the United States to “help” some brethren in the mountains and they “married” me to an elder in the church and I had a child. The marriage eventually became abusive and I took my kid and left. The acting class that I joined after beginning voice-overs kind of helped me see that my situation was kinda janky. Someone slipped me the pamphlet, “Free Yourself From Abusive Relationships,” and I marked down nearly everything on the list except for three or four items.

That’s why I threw myself into helping Domestic Violence Awareness campaigns when I first started taking baby steps into regular society.

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

My kiddo. He is my heart outside my body. It was (and is) difficult making ends meet as a single mom without outside support. It is even more difficult as an artist who depends on gig work and doesn’t have a steady income. I did have some support when I first left the relationship from my mom who had at that time brought the husband from the Philippines back to the US and I stayed with them as I got back on my feet. And I had friends and family who would help watch my kid when I had to work, but it was still pretty crazy. The situation with my child’s father was exhausting since he didn’t want to pay child support for the first 11 years but it made me work extra hard to provide for my kid. Acting was the only thing I knew how to do since I didn’t complete my education, so I just threw myself into the industry and learned as much as could. The great thing is that my kiddo is wonderful and got two college scholarships, so at least I don’t have to worry about that for now.

What are you currently working on?

I’m a student at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater (founded by one of my favorites — actor/writer Amy Poehler), and my film, “ALLY 3000” is still making the rounds on the film festival circuit. I was supposed to be directing a short film, but the producers canceled the shoot because of the COVID craziness. I just had a short film that I wrote and directed, “Mirror Mirror,” premiere at Outfest Fusion and I’m working on creating more short film content. I’m in development on a martial arts action comedy that I’m excited about. I’m working with the same team from the first feature film I helped produce, “Unlucky Stars” (which can be seen for free online at unluckystarsthemovie.com). I’m also seeking funding for my feature film, “Dis-Graced,” which is a satire/dark-comedy loosely based around my experiences coming out of the fundamentalist Christian cult. I have supermodel/super-activist Rain Dove attached to that one.

As an actress, I just wrapped a supporting role in a feel-good holiday movie called, “There Will Always Be Chrismas,” where Eileen Davidson plays my boss. That one was really fun because I got to work with Eileen, who is a badass, but I also met Anzu Lawson, Micheal Paré, Trevor Stines, and the next-gen of superstars Michael Varde and Kennedy Tucker.

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?

When I was first starting, there was an audition where the chair in front of the camera was facing the side of the wall. I sat in the chair and did my whole audition like that. I didn’t know that you could move the chair. Lesson learned — own the space in front of the camera. If you don’t need the chair, don’t use the chair. You can move it out of your way.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

Every three weeks, I go through an existential crisis in this industry… a lot of “What am I doing with my life?!?!?!?” kind of thoughts, which I think is par for the course as an artist. But I try to remember the “why” of acting and what I love about the process.

I love being able to teach empathy in action and being able to move people emotionally. I’ve been thinking more and more about the types of fils that I want to create since they have such power to change the world. I want to tell stories of hope. I think the world needs it. Especially now.

I also think that creating the stories and the roles that we want to tell are particularly important. It’s disheartening as an actor to go on countless auditions and constantly be told that you aren’t right for a number of reasons, many of which have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with your level of talent — so it helps to be able to be on the creation side of the equation.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

I definitely have had mentors along the way who have been a resource and a guiding hand. I always believe in the quote “when the student is ready, the teacher appears.” At this moment I am particularly grateful for my producer Suzanne DeLaurentiis who has shepherded over 100 film projects throughout her 35+ year career. I started helping her out from time to time behind the scenes after working on “D-Railed” (a sci-fi monster thriller with Lance Henriksen). She is such a powerhouse and was called, “the hardest working woman in entertainment” in a time when it was the super boys club of Hollywood.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started” and why?

1) What people think of you is none of your business.

You are going to have haters, even if you have the best intentions.

2) Access to your energy is a privilege.

You don’t have to spend time with people who devalue you or put your down just to make themselves feel okay. You don’t have to work with people that you don’t like.

3) Anger just points you to what is important. It is a gift.

I used to be afraid of anger a lot. Because of my cult life, feeling angry was looked down upon especially as a woman. Casting Director Amy Reece used to teach at my studio in the Bay Area and she really helped me out with a breakout moment with my anger with a particular Meisner exercise that she put me through. But that being said, anger is a great signpost and fun to play with in scenes, but in real life, people have to choose what to do with their anger and find ways to healthily express it.

4) People will try to use FOMO and scarcity to try to push you into doing what they want you to do. Don’t buy into it.

Learn how to distinguish the real opportunities from the self-created scarcity mindsets that people live in.

5) Everything will work out.

This is more of a mantra that I have been practicing. So far, so good… but I want to know this deep in my bones and have unshakeable faith in it.

As you can see from these answers, I think I’m going through a learning/transition time in my life. LOL. LA is weird. It is teaching me how to grow claws.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start 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.

Right now, I think I just want people to be kinder and learn how to channel their anger into healthy ways that does not perpetuate the cycle of hurt.

I watched the documentary on Mister Rodgers and I think he was a great role model. I want to be him, but like, a bad ass… LOL.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Coaching website: www.hollywoodactorsworkshop.com

Actor/Filmmaker website: www.giovannieespiritu.com

IG: @giospirit2

Twitter: @giospirit