Meet Olivia Renee Pearson | Actress & Writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Olivia Renee Pearson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Olivia Renee, why did you pursue a creative career?
Firstly, I need to thank my mum for opening my eyes to this industry and an acting career from a young age, because without her I might’ve missed the opportunity to express any of my creativity. She’s the one who signed me up for my first ever acting course when I was younger, and ever since that day I had chased this industry and everything it brings.

When I was a very young girl, I would create imaginary stories and spend hours acting as this popular alter ego girl surrounded by these friends who’d I’d also created. I was this confident girl when I was alone in my room acting all these scenarios out. I wasn’t shy of what people thought of me, because the friends I made up, looked up to me. But when I stepped out into the real world, especially at primary school, I pushed a lot of that quirkiness aside as I felt different from the other kids, and I was only happy when we had drama in school. I felt my creativity blossom and be embraced, and I didn’t feel like an outsider, as drama was the place where you were assigned to act as something else and create a story.

I created this saying that I live by whenever someone asks me ‘Why I do What I do’ and I wish I could’ve told my younger self this:

“I want people to embrace the weird kids inside themselves to be completely whole in who they are; idiosyncrasies and all.”

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I feel like when I say I am an actress, people see it as a hobby – especially in Australia. Therefore, at the beginning I was quite bashful about explaining what my passion is and what I want to do when I got out of school, because unless you’re getting paid or famous people don’t take you seriously when you say it’s your career.

However, I am proud to say I am an actress, and this is my career and even though I am not as famous as Margot Robbie (yet), I know that this is where I see myself in the future; pursuing full time. As I mentioned before, I also am very interested and intrigued by the process and creativity of screenwriting, and my first ever short filmed – written, produced and starring me; is nearly ready for the world to see at film festivals. It is called, ‘Escape With Me,’ and it is a rom-com short film, about a woman who escapes to a remote cabin following a break-up and has to reluctantly share the cabin with the cocky brother of her ex due to a booking mix-up. With the acting industry being so competitive and a big long waiting game, some great advice I got from an amazing teacher, is “Why wait around for someone to cast you, when you can cast yourself?”

Perseverance is a word that should be highlighted as a requirement when entering the acting industry. From starting my acting training and career at 8 years old, and still awaiting for my foot to get into the world of Hollywood, the constant thoughts of ‘is this worth doing’; ‘am I good enough’ – will always wear your self esteem down. But, I am constantly training at different acting schools like NIDA, AAFTA, TAFTA, Centre Stage – and you end up working with new people, gaining new connections and insight; and this will open you up to doors of exciting things that will eventually get you to where you deserve be.

This is not an easy career to get into or maintain, but I cannot see myself in any other career path than this one – so keep an eye out for me on the big screen!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well, I am from Melbourne, Australia so I am going to give spots around here for people who want to visit down under!

Firstly, I have to give a disclaimer – Melbourne is better than Sydney, in a lot of ways. Reasoning is, the nightlife here is open much later and the ambience of Melbourne nightlife is super immersive (especially on a summer night). So I would take my best friend to Tiamo, in Carlton which is a beautiful well priced Italian restaurant, then head on over to either Johnny’s Greenroom in Carlton as well, for some rooftop bar cocktails; or to HER Bar in the CBD for some drinks and good music. Depends on the person, but clubbing in Melbourne is great especially if you’re a party animal. If you enjoy techno/house music – Electric Bar has an awesome jazz club feel to it, or if you’re like me – I would take you to The Osbourne, which has RNB/Pop songs playing (plus a lot of AFL players go there.)

In Melbourne, while we don’t necessarily have the famous well known sightseeing monuments like the Opera House or the Sydney Harbour or even Bondi Rescue – we have great beaches and seaside towns like Lorne, which I have taken my best friend to; as the drive along the Great Ocean Road is phenomenal. Or for a vacation down in Sorrento along the Mornington Peninsula, is always a good way to go to enjoy the many different beaches along there. Within the city, the National Gallery of Victoria, always has beautiful exhibitions on, or nearby is the Princess Theatre showing many different musicals and plays.

This might be a very bias comment to make but Melbourne has a variety of different cultures in terms of food and ambience, and historically older buildings and attractions like Luna Park which has the oldest running roller coaster, running for over 100 years – and this speaks to a lot of people who enjoy architecture, art, ballet, theatre, good food from all over the world. Plus it’s not as expensive to visit or live here either!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are so many valued people in my life who have helped me so much to get to where I am today and still motivate and inspire me to have the same passion and preservation to continue, and I would love to thank each of them individually but I like to think they know who they are.

However, the biggest shoutout that I want to give and will always be the most important people in my life, is my family; especially my parents. My brothers and grandparents have never stopped showing support, and interest in what I do and their love for me has never stopped even with me being the weird odd one out of the bunch!

But my parents, wow there is not enough words I can use to say how grateful I am for them and the love I have for them. (Warning! This might become a bit sappy) My parents have helped me out financially throughout basically 13 years of my life to go to acting classes, headshots, auditions, flying me to America for an acting course and then helping me out when I moved to LA for 6 months to pursue more acting. It’s not just about the finances though, it’s about their non stop support for what I do, with how risky this career path is and yet they haven’t told me to go with something more stable. My mum would stop what she is doing, to do research for me about a course or acting experience I was interested in, just to tell me how we can achieve it together. I could go on for days about everything they have done for me, but it would be a novel, so my Shoutout will always be to my parents – especially when I win an Oscar!

Website: imdb.me/oliviareneepearson

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oliviareneepearson/

Other: Check out my other story published by VoyageLA – https://voyagela.com/interview/check-out-olivia-renee-pearsons-story/

Image Credits
Kylie Southwood Photography