Making It as an Actor in New York City Is About So Much More Than Fame and Money
A year and a half ago, I was introduced to Bella Kouds. She was working on a role for a short film, I was working on a profile about her.
A year and a half ago, I was introduced to Bella Kouds. Bella is, among many other things, a ray of sunshine. When I met her she was working on two short films and an off-broadway production of Hamlet. I wrote about that production and I wrote about her. On August 24th, the short film I met her over — The E’s — premiered at Diffs Film Festival. September 27th, the other one of these short films — If That Mockingbird Don’t Sing — premiered at the Soho International Film Festival. On Thursday, Sept 26th 2024, she will take the stage at Chain Theater starring as Debbie in a production of ‘Face Divided’ by Edward Allan Baker.
With every layer of Bella I got introduced to I felt more inspired by this young actress and her friends out to “make it” in New York City. I’m excited to finally share this profile (that’s been a sleeping beauty in my drafts folder since May 2023) with you. I hope it sparks the courage in you that I found in her!
Before she stepped on stage, Bella Kouds closed her eyes. Her long black hair framed her young, pale face. She locked her manicured fingers around the microphone. Within seconds, she transformed. She tapped into the energy of the character she hoped to embody. She was Carrie, the singer she is portraying in a short film that is expected to debut on the festival circuit later this year.
The young actress glowed, seeming fully herself. In tune with Carrie. It was her first time singing in a New York City nightclub. The crowd at ‘Berlin’, an underground bar in the East Village, cheered, danced, and sang along. Many of them her friends, fellow actors, and actresses supporting one another.
Production on the film – her very first production of that scale - was scheduled to begin in a matter of weeks. She had performed on national stages in her home country Zimbabwe and in Switzerland, she’d gotten all the lead roles in her off-Broadway performances in New York and had been in short films before. Still, this felt bigger than anything the 22-year-old actress had ever done. Would this be her big break? Would this catapult her career from school stages to big screens?
“It really does feel like a life change because the stakes are so much higher,” Kouds said of the film. The mentors and the companies supporting this team of young women, the equipment, and location raise the stakes. If this short gets traction, it could become a feature film.
“If you told me that two years ago, I would've thought you were absolutely kidding.”
Every year, thousands of fledgling actors try their luck in New York City, home to one of the most vibrant acting scenes in the country. The city’s density of performance schools and programs, as well as Broadway, TV, and film opportunities, attract aspiring performers from all over the world. The employment rate for actors is among the highest in the country, according to the Mayor's Office of Entertainment. But only a fortunate few will make it big. The industry is slowly recovering from the pandemic, and the city is rapidly growing more expensive. Experts like actor Ezra Knight and talent manager Elana Ripley agree: mere talent isn’t enough.
As Kouds stepped off the stage that Sunday night in early March, she felt confident that she was on the right path. She had the talent. She had a captivating yet playful presence, irrepressible enthusiasm, and steely determination. She had experience and had recently graduated from ‘The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute’ with its roster of impressive alumni, including industry names like Angelina Jolie and Barbra Streisand. She had a family who was supporting her and was building a network that kept opportunities coming. Berlin’s booker was impressed enough to keep booking her.
It wasn’t just talent that made Kouds stand out wherever she went. “She’s a hustler,” said Caden Cox, 23, Administrative Assistant at the institute. “It's just her presence and ability. She’s so kind. When she walks in the room, she lights it up.” A graduate of the institute himself, he has witnessed Kouds pay her talent forward and land all the lead roles in her time. “The people know when they work with Bella, they're gonna get somebody who's gonna put in work, gonna take suggestions,” he said, “she doesn't have an attitude.” Rehearsing overtime, working on her own projects, and going to events, she built a reputation as a hard-working and respectful professional.
Knight, head of the local actor’s union, SAG-AFTRA, describes the journey to stardom, or at least to steady work, as a hard road. His list of characteristics is topped by a make-or-break attitude, passion, stubbornness, and a deep sense of self.
“Doesn't mean the performers aren’t insecure or uncertain and it definitely doesn't mean that rejection is easy to take,” said Knight, who at 60 has been in the business for decades. “It's just that you can't let that stop you.’’
He describes those who are determined to persist, who can endure and overcome the industry’s many obstacles, as rebels: headstrong, fastidious, and deeply committed. Kouds believes she ticks those boxes.
“It's what I want to do long term, what I want to give my most energy, time, mind, and soul to.”
She had been acting since she was eight years old, most of her life at Zimbabwe’s national theater before moving to Switzerland at 16 to finish high school. To her, New York was the next sensible step in building her acting career. And acting was always the only option. “I won’t settle to do anything else.’’
If she’s lucky, she won’t have to. Like many aspiring actors, she is juggling multiple projects. Unlike others, her focus is not on auditioning. Right now ‘making it’ to her is getting to stay: in September she will need a new visa. “This is where I need to be and being in New York's where I am gonna make it,” she said, confident. “So if I don't get that visa, it's a huge detour.” She knows that once she has that security she will find an agent and get the roles she wants.
“If I get that visa, I will make sure that I'm in anything related to this industry in New York,” the 22-year-old said, her brown eyes sparkling, ”that's my dream. I could write up my own play, put it up myself, be a part of my friend's plays, find directors.”
Until now she hasn’t needed an agency, and she hasn’t needed auditions. Until now all her projects have happened through her community. She’s manifesting it's going to keep happening that way. Just as with the project that excites her most: ‘The E’s’.
It’s a short film written and produced by young women. This will be the first production of ‘Wildflower Studios’, a firm Kouds is building with director and actress Sophie Fazio. A venture aiming to uplift their community.
For Kouds it’s the first film that’s “not just two girls and a camera”. All the starring actresses worked together in different constellations at the institute before. They believe it to be the next big step in their careers. Wanting to produce on a bigger scale and moreover to strengthen their collective of young women in the industry, Fazio, 27, had the original idea. Written by Maya Winkler, the film spotlights a successful band of five girls - The E’s – the moment they get off stage. “The moment you meet us, there's conflict,” said Fazio, “something bad happened.” A shooting. Five girls, five strong characters, five reactions to trauma. One of them: Carrie.
Acting coach Lee Strasberg, founder and namesake of her school, developed what is known as method acting: Immersing oneself in a role in everyday life, in day-to-day actions, becoming the role. For Kouds, that means becoming Carrie.
Carrie has taken over most of Koud’s days. She tries to spend as much time as possible living in her character, started taking early morning yoga classes, drinking kombucha, never leaving home without an energy bar, and making music. Carrie is who inspired her to write songs. Carrie is the reason she’s singing on stage tonight. And the reason she’s eating little pots of honey in the hours and minutes before stepping on stage. Because that’s what Carrie would do.
“Preparing for roles, I kind of find myself, it's when I'm not working on a role, I lose myself.”
Still, singing with her best friend Spencer that night she turns back into the 22-year-old girl from Zimbabwe. Apologizing for technical difficulties between their interpretation of Amy Winehouse’s “Valerie” and a cover of her favorite song “I’d rather go blind”, she laughs with the audience. She’s not nervous nor embarrassed – she’s used to being on stage
Among most of the girls from The E’s, Koud’s sister Ananya, developing her singing career an ocean away in London, is in the audience that night. She has watched her younger sibling sing and act since they were children, marvels at the growth she has witnessed. “It's a rollercoaster of emotions,” she said, “she just embodies her characters so incredibly“. Watching her on stage, she sees her younger sister transform until “she is not Bella to me anymore.”
Kouds’ manager had a similar feeling when she saw Kouds perform in a workshop at the institute. “I got that instant thrill of: she's super good,” Ripley said, explaining how she felt a connection, a spark, that she finds just as important as talent.
“She has a magical quality where she can just really find an emotion in a piece, make it real, and connect with a viewer in a way that many actors can't.” Ripley is confident that ‘it’ is going to happen for Kouds. “It's just a matter of when.”
The sisters grew up in a family that embraced her love for music and theater. Their parents – a florist and an entrepreneur who built a fast food chain, both born in Zimbabwe of Greek descent – are proud and support their daughters, emotionally and financially, as long as they are fully dedicated to what they’re doing. Kouds knows how lucky she is. Her parents pay her rent, part of her living expenses. “They know that once I get my visa and I don't have the US time bomb on my hand, that's when it starts,” she said, aware that from September onwards she’s on her own. Her off-broadway performances and the short film are not paying. Singing does and so do the acting classes she teaches teenagers at the institute on Saturdays.
At the Swiss boarding school that Kouds attended before moving to the US, a teacher recommended she audition for ‘Kid’s Voice’, a talent show on national TV casting young singers. She made it to the final round. Today, four years of life experience richer, she’s reflecting much of this into the film. She channels it for her role: having an anonymous crowd assess, cheer for, and judge her appearance and talent.
She’s grateful that this was her most competitive experience to this day. Contrary, the vibe at the institute felt supportive. The women surrounding her work together instead of against one another. “I have just always tried to not let rehearsal space and training be competitive,” she said, “You go up, act, get feedback, discover, learn.” There’s a deep sense of maturity in her voice, a sincerity in her young face, as she talks about this. It’s something she’s thought about a lot. To her, competing with or judging someone based on whether or not she thinks they're brilliant felt wrong. Looking at others that way, she granted herself freedom to explore and express herself. Leaving competition out, the institute became a safe space. She quickly identified the students who were as dedicated, as determined to turn life on stage into a career as her.
Industry professionals Knight and Ripley both identified competition to be one of the biggest challenges in acting, especially in New York City. Still, both believe in the advantages of the big array of performers and artists the city attracts. ”You're not on an island,” said Ripley, calling the industry a group effort and recommending all aspiring actors to seek circles of people who share the journey, to rise up and produce together. “You – we – can't have it without a group.”
A group like Kouds’s that uplifts and supports one another. “I love the idea of having like a theater troupe or like a film troupe,” the film’s director Fazio said, “I think you get stronger together, especially when you're starting out.” Fazio originally turned to acting to improve her production skills. Inspired by women like Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, Kouds and Fazio are using this opportunity to go beyond acting, using the film to kickstart ‘Wildflower Studios’.
“It shouldn't be weird, but it is weird that it's five girls in a film,” Fazio said.
Five actresses, a female director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. She wanted the relationships between one another to be very clear early on, “often girls are like pitted against each other in the film.”
As Winkler sat down with each of the actresses for hour-long interviews, the story formed: a shooting at a concert. Fazio believes that creating as an artist means two things: “Giving yourself a path to express,” she said, “but also to hopefully shine a light on something that is really important.” She calls gun violence the most important issue for young Americans. Just since beginning work on the short, several of them have had family members experience mass shootings firsthand. The moment they decided on the topic, the whole team has been dedicated to making this hard topic the highlight of the film. “That's what we want people to take away.”
Besides the little, everyday things that Kouds has included in her life to grow closer to Carrie, she and the others have focused their research on gun violence, reactions to extreme situations, and trauma. Watching documentaries and interviewing one another, using the techniques they learned in school. “It’s like something’s bubbling,” Kouds said, repeatedly, whenever asked about that film and the serendipitous way that everything came together.
On the Monday before filming, the girls – The E’s – had a professional photoshoot. Kouds was nervous about it. “When there's five girls together working, the energy isn’t the same as when there's like 10 boys.” said the girl who described herself to usually be one of the boys. Kouds mostly dresses in oversize clothes, allowing small feminine details like earrings. “You wanna be more cautious of what you say, more conscious of who feels left out, of using up mirror space.”
Three days later, the filming began at The Flea, a small theater in downtown Manhattan where just one night before Kouds premiered on stage as Hamlet. More than ever she felt how theater was more playful, open, and vulnerable, while Film felt more repetitive, split apart.
The rest of the weekend was shot at The Pierre, an elegant hotel at Central Park, acquired through one of the girl’s contacts. The set, the equipment, and the crew all felt highly professional. “They are so aware it's frightening,” she said, still fascinated about the team and their communication, how respectful and attentive everyone was. Fazio, who had assisted on many major film sets, lead the team and guided the actresses through the process. To Kouds, acting felt effortless, and thrilling. Every time Fazio called action Kouds was straight in her role. All the work she had put into Carrie paid out. She didn’t have to think.
Kouds called the experience incredible and the most intense four days.
“Would I do it again? A million percent,” she said, glowing with gratitude.
“Was my body exhausted? Yes. Did I have to take painkillers to sleep? Yes!”
The hardest part was being in artificial darkness for four days. She felt disoriented and the sun felt too strong the Monday after it was over. She laughs as she mentions that now she understands “why actors could be dicks on set – the space is very small, like 15 of us in a very small, tight space.” She felt an overarching tension, no one speaking calmly, and things being said that were insulting or stung. She learned not to take it personally, take a breath and tap into the next scene.
“If you feel that it's personal, you are too soft-hearted to be in that room,” she said, comparing it to a pressure cooker, “everyone in here is no longer my friend who I can, they're my workmates and we have a job to do.”
The whole weekend was led and put together by women. “Having a woman lead is a preference to me always,” she said, adding that fully disregarding male presence still would worry her. “When a man is under her, there's respect and she sets the boundaries.” For Kouds, the film crew created ease. They kept the young women calm, joked between takes, and took them seriously.
A week after the final slate her body is tired from moving the equipment and the set. Drained from constantly repeating actions, staying in her role. Exhausted from sitting and waiting for her call hours. Every day she arrived at 9 am and left around 2 am. She’d been freezing in her glittery top with spaghetti straps, craving to put on a T-Shirt and sweatpants. The opposite of Carrie’s stockings, shorts, and high boots. Still, actress Sophia Ahrens, 26, couldn’t help but laugh when remembering Kouds on set: professional while also bringing her fun, quirky energy to lighten the mood. It was Ahrens who had organized the outfits. A high fashion model for years, she managed to connect the team with Alberta Ferretti, a designer who most recently dressed Taylor Swift.
To Kouds this weekend was proof that she was setting herself up in the best way possible. Proof that she knew what she was doing. “We're going to kick ass,” said Kouds about building **this road she felt certain about. She was bubbling with ideas. “I don't wanna audition,” she said, “I wanna make it.” Freedom to do what she wants to do – once she has her visa. She was confident that the best way was to rely on herself. And the network of strong women she built around her. “I can't sit around and wait for somebody to give me a job.”
While that night at ‘Berlin’ was only inspired by Carrie, she kept singing. She began to write a play. The short film was out of her hands – for now. Thanks to this project she realized:
“You can have the most talent, be the most beautiful person. But if you can't take the whiplash that comes with what being on a set is like, you're never gonna make it to the top.”