Meet Belle Sinclair Pace | Actress & Writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Belle Sinclair Pace and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Belle Sinclair, how do you think about risk?
I think any artist who decides to give themselves fully to their craft experiences a good deal of fear and doubt in their thought process, whether they’re just starting out in the industry or they’ve been in it for years and are looking to grow in a new direction. Instead of pushing these natural feelings of doubt and fear away, I use them to propel me into my work. Ultimately, the question for me came down to this – when I look back on my life, will I regret never having given acting and writing a shot? Will I regret not giving it my all? When the realization hit me that I’d only ever experience this life once, that sense of finality led me to shed away all of the beliefs that weren’t serving my happiness. Within that, you find purpose. My senior high school quote was from Henry David Thoreau – “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.” It’s surely not as simple as that, to be confident 100% of the time in your pursuits – but if you can fake it until you make it, and if you can err on the side of doing your dreams rather than thinking about them or feeling them stagnate inside of you, that is a real step in the direction of your dreams. That was my biggest challenge in making the decision to pursue acting and writing freelance – to take my daydreams, hopes, and wishes about becoming an actress and writer to reality. I started out small, with taking an acting class, participating in as many student films as I could, engaging in technique workshops, practicing monologues, you name it – I got my foot in the door as many ways as I could. Even then, I had doubts and fears too – would I ever have the chance to level up in my career? To earn respect in the industry? I am slowly but surely, through hard work and perseverance, going confidently in the direction of my dreams in that regard.
I never thought seriously about risk until I started reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. That book changed my life, and it particularly changed my understanding of risk. She encourages you to build a stable foundation within yourself through morning pages and artist dates so that you can learn to trust yourself first (unlocking the artist within), in order that you can then go out into the world and challenge your fears. Among the risks I took, the hardest ones were the smallest ones, it seemed. Taking an acting class for the first time in my life, for example. Showing my writing to a friend for the first time. Those were scary steps towards building my confidence and resilience as an artist. Among the bigger risks I’ve taken – say, moving to New York City and pursuing acting and writing; trusting other creatives in the city and collaborating on projects together; and booking bigger paid projects in New York and Los Angeles – these were made all the much easier by taking those initial and frightening first steps. I think the scarier the prospect of a project is, the more your soul is calling on you to seize the opportunity and learn from it. There is so much possibility on the other side of fear, I’ve learned.
In order to be an artist, or a performer, you have to trust yourself enough to take risks. You have to be willing to brace yourself through any outcome – to be personally immune to both praise and critique (not professionally immune!)- and pick yourself up from failure, which is the root of growth. There’s a saying that artists must have a thick skin for the industry and a thin skin for their craft – you have to maneuver flexibly between the tough love you often get from the business but also the softness, vulnerability, and humanity that made you want to pursue this business in the first place. I actually get excited now when I am nervous for a project, because it tells me that I’m all in the project and that I care about doing well. I’ve reframed that narrative for myself.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am continuing to find my voice as an artist, but I think what I bring to my craft is vulnerability and authenticity. My strong suit is connecting with others on an emotional level; a lot of the feedback I’ve gotten from audiences, whether in TV/film or theatrical performances, is that I either made them laugh or made them cry, so that tells me I’m evoking some real feelings in my work. I always appreciate as an audience member when performers don’t hold back and let go on the stage or screen – so I’ve learned to cultivate that ability in myself as well.

I think often about how I first got into this business, and two events come to mind: when I was 5 years old and then when I was 21 years old. First and foremost, I went to a very theatrical elementary school. In Kindergarten, I practically begged my teacher for the lead role of my class play where I’d play the mayor of a small town – I’d have the most lines – and he relented. We performed in a tiny black box theatre and my parents still have the video. Our school was lucky to have a great theatre department – some of my most vivid and colorful memories as a child were going backstage behind the black box theatre and the grand auditorium at my school – I loved seeing all the pulleys for stage props from the high ceilings, the set designers working on making the sets come to life, and best of all – the costume room, full of color, sparkle, and designs from different time periods. Throughout elementary school, I got to play various parts, and even if they weren’t lead roles, I had the time of my life just being on stage. When I was 7 years old, we performed “Once on This Island”, where I played grass and my one line was “grass!”. But to me, I was just ecstatic to be under those lights. It was around this time I also got obsessed with writing my own stories down on computer paper and stapling them together; I think I made about thirty “books” for my family, all about fantastical worlds and unique characters, many inspired by the plays and musicals in which I performed at my school. The next formative event that shaped my interest in the arts came much later when I was in my early 20s. I took a long hiatus from the fun school acting and the dallying in creative writing I indulged in when I was very young. I did not recommence acting and writing until my last year of college, when the pandemic hit; at the University of Virginia, where I was an Echols Scholar, I majored in Biology and French. I had a heavy focus on science, specifically neurology. But, my interest in the art of storytelling persisted … and in my free time in college, I’d write poetry, short stories, and read as many books as I could. I watched old movies and saw various performances that I loved. So when my brother Farrar Pace asked me to star in a homemade short film he was making during quarantine for his course at USC, I eagerly said yes. As we got to making it at our house during COVID, and he gave me a character to embody (in the horror short film we made, I was playing a newbie social worker making a house call), I became sucked into the story. It was so exciting and thrilling, even though the project was small and for his class. He then invited me to play Jordan Baker in a live performance of The Great Gatsby for his USC class with real actors, which was even more thrilling.

So when I moved to New York, the city and the people there only furthered my connection to art and fostered my creative skillset. I have come a long way professionally and have received training that has helped me fine-tune my craft and develop my instrument. This past year has been my best year artistically; I wrote, produced, and starred in a short film titled “Keepsake” (Best Film of the States, The North Film Festival), I starred on Netflix’s “Unsolved Mysteries”, performed on my first television series “My Secret Husband” (Director Grace Hyejin Park, Legacy Pictures) and pilot “Confessions of a Serial Dater” (Director Lawrence Winslow, 9one Productions), worked as a photodouble on Amazon Prime’s FALLOUT (Director Jonathan Nolan), and I joined SAG-AFTRA. For the first time ever, I got to travel to Los Angeles to film and I had my first out-of-town hotel stay covered by a production. I consider these huge stepping stones from where I first began in this industry. And I am only just getting started – I am eager to take my work to the next level, not only by continuously auditioning, but also by creating more of my own work. I am currently crafting my first screenplay with my brother and hope to continue to collaborate with him as well.

The challenges in my journey have of course been numerous, but I don’t intend to let that define me. I define my creative success by my willingness to be vulnerable in my art. If I can move one person in an audience, I consider that an enormous success. If there is one thing I want to communicate to the world with my art, it is this – everyone is a light, and everyone has worth in this world just by the mere fact of their existing.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I used to live in Greenwich Village in a first-floor apartment behind the subway, and it was the best one year lease (and covid deal) ever! I think Greenwich Village and West Village are some of the most beautiful areas to explore in Manhattan during the day – some of my favorite restaurants there would have to be Joseph Leonard, Olio e Più, and One Fifth – for coffee, Moshava Coffee on West 8th is my new favorite. I would take them walking everywhere, or even CitiBiking on the West Side highway, where you can see a lot of West Side staples like Little Island, The Whitney Museum, and then you can ride past TriBeCa into Battery Park, all the way past the Staten Island Ferry to the Brooklyn Bridge (which is beautiful at sunset). Speaking of which, I love walking the Brooklyn Bridge so that is an essential! Outside of those neighborhoods, I love SoHo, LES, and a lot of Brooklyn. Some of my other favorite restaurants are Dudley’s on Orchard Street (LES) and Five Leaves (Greenpoint, BK) which was started in Heath Ledger’s honor. In the LES, there’s a bookstore I love called Sweet Pickle Books which sells jars of pickles and books. When my friends and I aren’t going to underground jazz or comedy clubs, we like to go to Joyface, Horses & Divorces, and the Lot Radio. There’s nothing you can’t do in New York!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to dedicate this to my brother Farrar Pace, a filmmaker and writer in Los Angeles. He is the first person who gave me an acting role in my first short film and he encouraged me to take an acting class. He encourages me to become a better artist every day. Besides my brother, I have to thank my mom, dad, and sister for supporting me through the risks I’ve taken.

Website: www.bellesinclair.com

Instagram: @belle_pace

Image Credits
Malik Moody Lev Gorn Joe Tobon Julian J. Peeples Legacy Pictures