When you answer a phone call, answer in a different accent each time. For fun, and for practice! That’s a fun tip Australian Actor Adrian Honner shared in this episode. Adrian, who is more on the introverted side, also shares with us how he maintained connections in the film industry (but not the traditional way). He too worked a 9-5 job before his big break. Luckily his jobs in both Australia and the Bay Area allowed him the flexibility to audition and for feature films. In this episode, we talk about how pursuing your creative passions may actually benefit you in the long run if you decide to re-enter the corporate workforce. Adrian shares with us how he maintained connections in the film industry as an introverted actor. Did you know: Pursuing your creative passions may actually benefit you in the long run if you decide to re-enter the corporate workforce. Why? Create something from scratch (a film, a song, a podcast, etc.) allows others to view your body of work beyond the role at your previous employer. It can actually allow the recruiter or your potential manager to view your potential through something that you care about.
In this episode, we also share exactly how to tie your creative artwork to your corporate role when going into job interviews. Yes, it still counts!
Mentioned in the show:
- Monster Rat Productions
Adrian Honner:
Rock On.
Amora Brown:
You are a- you are an actor that worked in feature film, or is there another way-
Adrian Honner:
That's perfect. I love it. I want to put that on my resume.
Amora Brown:
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Corpartainment. I am here with actor, Adrian Honner, who has worked in many feature films and modeling and different commercials in Australia. Adrian, thank you so much for joining us today.
Adrian Honner:
Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.
Amora Brown:
You're welcome! It's just awesome to talk to people who are in different countries as well, too. Cause a lot of times when I think of acting, I only think of acting in America. It's like, obviously I can do acting and singing in other countries, but it's like, there's a whole new world. There's a whole- not new world, what am I talking about? There's a whole other world outside of just what I'm used to. So I want to chat with you, you know, especially from an Australian perspective, how did you get so many feature films in Australia? And what is your start look like as well too? Like, that's really interesting.
Adrian Honner:
Yeah. Well, growing up, I grew up on a farm in the absolute outback of Western Australia and split my time between there and, and schooling in Perth. And every single year, anytime there was a, like a performance or anything like that, I already had my hand in the air and you know, my, my friends and all the teachers just knew I'd be into it no matter what. I've always had, that kind of curiosity and wanting to perform either for a live audience or for just anybody really. Getting in feature films: Networking is still the absolute way to do things. I used to hate it. I'm kind of a bit of an introvert. And so I like my own personal space and, but I never saw networking as how other people see networking. I see networking as you're going to go meet a whole bunch of like-minded people and you want to find out about them.
Adrian Honner:
It's not necessarily, "Oh, hey", you know, "My name's Adrian, here's my card. I'm an actor. Hire me". I always hate that. I'm not good at self-promotion. I don't know. Like I'm not very good at the business side of show business, but I do have some amazing agents and people in my corner who do, who, who look after that for me. So I don't have to, which is great. But yeah, networking still is one of my favorite things to do, because like I said, meeting like-minded people finding out about, their interests. I'd rather have a relationship with the person. And then later on down the track, if they're like, "Hey, you know what, I'm doing this thing, I thought you'd have a really good part in it. So do you want to have an audition?" Is pretty much how I got most of my feature film roles.
Adrian Honner:
A lot of them have come through agents, but again, I mean, I've now lived in the Bay Area for almost eight years and in that eight years-
Amora Brown:
Wow!
Adrian Honner:
Yeah. It's great. So much fun. In the- over that eight years, I've kind of auditioned for, I think every casting agent in the bay area multiple times. So they know me even before I, you know, open my mouth. And so that's cultivated a relationship where I think last year, just before lockdown, I had an audition and the casting agent, their went, "Why didn't I see you last year, like, was it just a bad year? Like I, I miss seeing your face". I'm like, oh, that's, you know, that's something that you don't really get to hear from, you know, the Hollywood elite, but it's just nice to know that somebody who, you know, pays multimillion dollars for production, just, you know, wanted to see my face or remembers not seeing it from last year and kind of that made her sad, which I think was a really cool. Very, very cute.
Adrian Honner:
But yeah, I mean, now things, especially with lockdown and during the pandemic, it is much more challenging to network for sure. I also try to subscribe to a lot of groups on Facebook, as far as acting in my area. That is a little challenging because you get a whole range of completely brand new guys who are just want to make a student film or a short film, and they want the top tier talent,
Amora Brown:
Yeah
Adrian Honner:
But they're not paying anything.
Amora Brown:
Exactly
Adrian Honner:
It's, it's, it's one of those challenging things. I love working, but I want to be paid,
Amora Brown:
It'd be nice
Adrian Honner:
You know, I want to, I've been doing it for-
Amora Brown:
It would be nice to be paid.
Adrian Honner:
My- yeah, that'd be great. You know, rent isn't inexposure, unfortunately. Especially the bay area, Oh my gosh. So my first commercial was when I was four years old. And so, you know, I've, I'm now very close to, I'm still on the good side of 40, but not by much.
Adrian Honner:
So I've been acting for 36 something years. And so for me to kind of work for these really cool people who are really passionate about film, it's going to take something amazing. Like if you can't pay me, then I want it to be an amazing script or I want it to be really, really, really decent to show it to some really decent guy, you know, who's going to produce something later on. But yeah, I mean, it's very hard to kind of keep networking, even though we can't. So I'm keeping in contact as much as I can with all of the people that were making feature films last year and this year and saying like, I'm- "Still keep me in your mind", like "we're still going, I'm still", you know, "really, really happy and writing for this to happen". But travel restrictions, everything like that. It's, it's getting a little bit, wacky.
Amora Brown:
Yeah. When you- so *clears throat* I probably shouldn't be coughing in the mic. When you, uh, when you-
Adrian Honner:
That's us both.
Amora Brown:
I have a question to ask about that, especially living in the Bay Area. So my mindset was always this: get a stable job that has flexibility that you can go after that.
Adrian Honner:
Absolutely
Amora Brown:
Is that what you did when you first got into acting or,
Adrian Honner:
For sure.
Amora Brown:
Or that's something that you kind of learned how to do better as time went on? And how does that look now? Because a lot of people I imagine that are listening to the show will be people who are working nine to five jobs that are just like, "Yeah, I would love to be an actor. Like, sounds really cool, but I can't leave my day job".
Adrian Honner:
Absolutely!
Amora Brown:
So like, that's, that's the question that I want to know you as an actor, that's living in the bay area, it's super expensive. Like how were you able to pay your rent? Like-
Adrian Honner:
There's been so different things along the way. And I think, I mean, I've never stopped making mistakes. That's how we learn things. And I hope I'm going to continue making mistakes for, you know, another million years. So in Sydney, very similar to two here in the bay area, when I lived there, I got a job as a restaurant manager at this amazing restaurant. And I had the best bosses in the world. They will, at the interview I'm like "Hey", you know, "I'm an actor, this is what I do. This is what I want to do. I'm not going to bail on you guys. But just so you know, like I might have to call out for additions to this, that, and the other". And they're like, you know what, the way we see it, the more famous you get, the more people are going to come to our restaurant. So go ahead, like take as much time whenever you've got an audition, just let us know and we'll have your shift covered or we'll have, you know, an hour or two hours covered for you. We'll come in and work for you. It doesn't really matter. That was the best scenario for me. Then when I came to the bay area, I mean, it's a little bit different here. Um, I've always been, I know you can't tell it by-
Amora Brown:
I don't mean to interrupt you. The dog's barking will show up in the background of the sound. And this is like the most important part, because this is like literally what my show is about is how people can do both. So I don't want to make you repeat everything, but is it-
Adrian Honner:
Right! Let me grab the dog. So it isn't barking.
Amora Brown:
Oh! Okay, no worries!
Amora Brown:
Doggie! Doggie! A sweet doggie just wanting to be apart of the conversation. Oh my God. Can you join? No. It would be-
Adrian Honner:
Yeah!
Amora Brown:
Oh my God. Yes!
Amora Brown:
Now what does a doggie think about all of this?
Adrian Honner:
This Buster. And he was named after Buster Posey.
Amora Brown:
Oh my God. Okay. So you said you got super lucky and was able to work with someone who was like, "We want you to be successful because your success means our success". And so that's so like-
Adrian Honner:
You never see that anywhere. Like you're never going to get a boss that does that. So I was super ultra lucky about that, but again, I really do think that they respected that I was super upfront about it. It's like, you know, this is literally my survival job. And in Australia you don't get paid by tip. So very, very essential that I had that job. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to buy food or rent. And the bay area was a different scenario, even though it- COVID has taken its effect. I used to be a fitness instructor. So I used to be a personal trainer. I used to train mixed martial arts and a few other things. So at the gym, when I was doing personal training and group classes, I'd usually get noticed that I'd have an additional 24 hours ish beforehand. So I was very thankful that I could just call my boss and say, "Hey, you need to cover this class for me".
Adrian Honner:
And she had the same mentality. Like the more exposure that I get, the more people are going to want to come in. The more that she could capitalize on it basically.
Amora Brown:
That's so true. That's super true though.
Adrian Honner:
Super true. I, unfortunately, left that job. I wish I hadn't. And it has been really, really challenging. I haven't mentioned to a lot of- I think the past I've only had two jobs since then. But the past two jobs, I haven't mentioned that basically, because I thought it would be like a strike against me. So basically go back to hospitality, restaurant jobs, things like that. Generally being a manager of some description a Floor Manager, Bar Manager, Shift Supervisor, something like that. Something that does get a little bit of coin, without completely destroying me physically. I'm not sure I could do, a server job at anymore working 10 hours on my feet.
Adrian Honner:
I don't think I'm built for that anymore, but yeah, so I haven't mentioned it too much, but there are definitely flexible jobs out there. I know a lot of actors that do a whole bunch of things like Uber and DoorDash and those really cool gig jobs while trying to either figure out or how to find a job that will support them as far as food and rent. And also give them that flexibility to do auditions. I mean, lately over the past year, I've been doing basically either zoom auditions or self-taped auditions. And I love and hate them both at the same time. I love them that I do have that kind of free creativity where I can just completely go bananas and, and just excel, trying to exceed what they actually want. But then I really do miss that face one-on-one with a director saying, "Alight, well now let's do it this way". You know? So I don't get that second really knowledgeable voice in my head. I love the fact that I can do most of these things in my pajamas. I don't have to smell good. I don't have to, you know, have my teeth brushed, even though, you know, you should, oral hygiene is very important. So those things, I love that I don't miss, you know, driving two hours to go to an audition.
Amora Brown:
I know that's right. And you save, you save a dollar too.
Amora Brown:
You save so much money. So one thing that I, that kind of just came to my mind, if someone is scared to tell someone that they are working a particular job to put food on the table, I think that's true for everyone like everyone. No one's going into nobody's going into corporate that's really super- I mean, I don't want to speak for everyone, but there are many people that go into corporate jobs because that is their sole purpose is to put food on the table and to eat. Like that's not their passion. And then there's a lot of creative people that are software engineers. There's a lot of creative people that are designers or a lot of creative people that are customer support reps, sales reps, like a lot of the creative people work there, but they got to eat. So I guess like one way that people could go about that is to kind of brand it as "this is something I'm passionate about".
Amora Brown:
And I don't know, keep part of it private, like don't share everything, but just be like, this is something that I'm passionate about, that I work on this and that, but then tie it to how the, how it could benefit the company if they hire you. So it's like adapting instead of being like, "I'm an actress. So I hope I can go to Hollywood and become golden globe and leave y'all", you can be like, you can be like, "oh", you know, "I'm an actress or whatever. And that teaches me these skills" and what does is instead of it being like, I want to be an actress and win awards, become a multi-millionaire and not have to work at this corporate job anymore. It becomes, I'm learning. I'm teaching myself these skills by putting myself in these situations that will teach me these skills that I can then apply to this company in this role.
Adrian Honner:
Absolutely. Yeah 100% agree!
Amora Brown:
Yeah, and that's a way to adapt it. Because they don't need to know, you know ABC, if you have your own business, you say, "Yeah, I have my own business". It's like, in the back of your mind, you're thinking like, I hope I make $10 million from this so I can retire early. You could just say, this is what I've learned from starting my own business. And this is what I hope to continue to learn because when you're not in school, the key is to always be learning.
Adrian Honner:
Absolutely.
Amora Brown:
And if you can find ways to pick up new skills and stuff and tie it to what the job wants you to do, I don't see companies ever not supporting that.
Adrian Honner:
Forsure
Amora Brown:
Cause they'll be like, "Wow, I didn't realize that". And they'll be impressed because they're going to be looking at you like, "Oh Wow. I want to be an actress too".
Adrian Honner:
Forsure! (laughter)
Amora Brown:
Like, especially recruiters. Many of them have like very social personalities, you know? So it's like, people like stuff like that. And it's just inspiring. It's like "Content Creator? Oh, well, have you got 20 million followers on YouTube? I know you can grow our YouTube channel". It's like, you could always adapt it. So I think that's beautiful to hear that you were able to have managers that support you, but in case people don't, you can always twist it like this in 2021
Adrian Honner:
Absolutely. Yeah. That's a really super good rule of thumb. If you can make it sound like you're benefiting their business in any way, they love that. You're not just there to pick, to pick up a paycheck and just kind of kill eight hours a day. Definitely, absolutely. Make sure that they know that.
Amora Brown:
And its beautiful because you're killing two birds with one stone. It's like, you're getting that and you're getting your needs met at the same time. And it's just, yeah. Now-
Adrian Honner:
And I mean- I, I personally think all of that's really like super duper interesting too. So if someone that I'm working with says, "Oh yeah, I, you know, I create content or an influencer" or anything like that. Or, you know, I, "I do tap dancing on the side". I want to hear more of that. Like, that's exciting to me.
Amora Brown:
That's super exciting!
Adrian Honner:
I'm like, cool. You're not, you know, you're not a boring just clock in clock out, go home at the end of the day.Yeah. I want to know more about that. Tell me about Frisbee golf. I've never even heard of that before. Like, let's go.
Amora Brown:
That sounds super fun. I don't know anyone that does Frisbee golf. You do Frisbee Golf?
Adrian Honner:
I like two people that do it and I still don't really know what it is.
Amora Brown:
I mean, I can look on YouTube, but it's just like that, that makes a fun work environment is when people are happy because they have something to look forward to and then y'all talk about it at work. So ya'll work on the product and you might get inspiration that just, you know, I don't know. I'm just, that's just what I'm thinking. That's why I think it's important that people have a stable job and work on their creative selves, whatever that might be, because it just gives you energy.
Adrian Honner:
Yeah. I will even say, just answer the phone, even if it's, if it's, you know, a spam caller. Answer the phone in a different accent and an accent that's not known to you, you know, just keep, keep that creative, just going. Like I do that constantly. I, to when I was in Australia and I was doing feature films that had a target audience of being mainly more for America- my dog's crying again. Now he wants to be let out.
Amora Brown:
Oh no! He's like, "okay, well I'm ready-"
Adrian Honner:
He's like "Its all Shop talk. I don't want to hear about it because I hear about this every day". All right. So when I was in Australia, especially when we had an American market, basically the auditions would be with, you know, your most generic or your most sellable American accent. And so I would literally, before the audition, I would, I would spend all day just talking in that accent.
Amora Brown:
Do the American accent. I want to hear how we sound to ya.
Adrian Honner:
Oh my gosh. Put me on the spot. Okay. Um-
Amora Brown:
I'm sorry! (laughter)
Adrian Honner:
"I don't know what you want to hear. I don't, I don't know. I don't know what you want to hear."
Amora Brown:
Oh my God, that is how it sounds.
Adrian Honner:
That's pretty generic though. I mean, I used to do, uh- my, my, my go-to in acting school was like my Southern drawl. "I don't know Ms. Ramos. I don't think I can help you."
Amora Brown:
Why everybody in the world think everybody sound like a southerner? Everybody in the world think that.
Adrian Honner:
My, my acting teacher hated it. She said, that's a cop out. That's too easy. You're not, you're not even, trying.
Amora Brown:
That's too easy.
Adrian Honner:
"I'm sorry, Ms. Ramos. I told you I didn't have children". It's yeah. It's, it's one of those weird things. I mean, I love accents. So, um, like I've, I've also got on YouTube. It's unlisted, but I've got like the same kind of lines, the same paragraph, but in very different accents. I've got some very Harry Potter kind of accents that, you know, some people really like to hear.
Amora Brown:
Wow.
Adrian Honner:
Or you can see even more like charming and very English, very proper English. Or you can go very Eastern European it's okay. You can do it. It's cool.
Amora Brown:
I cannot do that.
Adrian Honner:
But I mean, that's, that's the thing. That's why we practice, you know, being on the phone, especially when I worked in hospitality restaurant jobs. Every table I sat had a different accent, so I'd have to keep in my head who I was when I was sitting in these people, because they don't want to hear a French guy, and then, you know, 90 seconds later, I'm American or German. So that's very cool, kind of creative mind things, that you can just do whenever it's fun. I like doing it when I'm like trying to get an appointment for servicing my car, I'll put on a weird accent and it's just, yeah. It's good and funny.
Amora Brown:
Okay. So I had a previous person that I was interviewing. Her name is Paulina Pino Rubio. She's wonderful. She's an actress.
Adrian Honner:
Awesome.
Amora Brown:
She had a question for you.
Adrian Honner:
Excellent.
Amora Brown:
What did you struggle with in the past that you've learned during COVID is actually your superpower?
Adrian Honner:
Ooooh!
Amora Brown:
Yes. I was like that too.
Adrian Honner:
That's a great question.
Amora Brown:
Yes.
Adrian Honner:
Such a good question. Staying in one place. That has.
Amora Brown:
Oop. Talk to us about it.
Adrian Honner:
Oh my gosh. So I'm, I'm people I've talked to who have been diagnosed with ADHD and things of that nature have basically said everything that I'm showing kind of signifies that I might be somewhere around there. So I'm undiagnosed. So what do I want to say, oh, "I've got ADHD". But I cannot sit still. Like, this is probably the longest I've sat still in probably about a year. So, um-
Amora Brown:
I am flattered to hear that. Flattered to hear that.
Adrian Honner:
So yeah, generally like I'm, I'm running, walking, you know, I will, no even have a reason. I'll just generally leave the house and go find something fun to do, or find like a local park or a playground or something and just do chin-ups on the monkey bars. But yeah, so shelter in place and the whole COVID thing, it's like sitting still and you go, "you know what, sitting still isn't that bad". You can reflect, which I'm terrible at meditation, as you can probably imagine-
Amora Brown:
Oh that is a super power.
Adrian Honner:
Wanting to kind of move constantly.
Amora Brown:
Wait, wait shorter. Or you've grown patience?
Adrian Honner:
I think my patience has grown. Not sure if that's a superpower.
Amora Brown:
That is a- that is actually yes, a superpower.
Adrian Honner:
Well, let's use that one then. So yeah. Patience for sure. Because again, I would, I would generally be so quick to say something that's like kind of annoying me. Um, but having literally just the four walls to concentrate on for such a long time, it's like, "Well, I mean, do I really want to start, you know, whingeing, complaining, being, you know, pretty negative and there's no where to go"? Like you can't storm out. You can't, you know, why create drama? Why? No, pick your battles. So patience definitely has, has grown so much. And gratitude, I think also, so a lot of the things you start to like really notice when you can't do anything else, it's like, "Oh, well", you know, either something that I did for myself that I can pick up later or I'd have a fiance.
Adrian Honner:
So the things that she does that probably if I was still working a nine to five, wouldn't get the recognition for. But just, you know, little sweet things. Like, you know, she, she, she folds my laundry, which I've never asked. And I,
Amora Brown:
Oh! That is really nice.
Adrian Honner:
I wear nothing that needs to be folded, like t-shirts and shorts guy. But yeah she just folds it and I'm like, "That's so sweet". Like it's just very considerate and she doesn't have to, but she does it. And it's just like, all right. So I'm super grateful and I'm grateful that she can put up with me too, because I'm sure it's, it's kinda challenging living with this guy.
Amora Brown:
Now for you.
Adrian Honner:
Yes.
Amora Brown:
What is the question that you would like to ask the next person I interview?
Adrian Honner:
This is super cool.
Adrian and Amora:
(thinking out loud)
Adrian Honner:
So the question is...
Amora Brown:
Yes.
Adrian Honner:
Do you prefer getting direction on someone's creativity or being creative yourself and hoping that fits their direction? Does that make sense?
Amora Brown:
Oh. Yes, it does.
Adrian Honner:
Okay.
Amora Brown:
That makes sense. But you can elaborate on it just in case they asked me what that means and then I can't get back to you cause I'm like, "Well, this is what they said and that's all I have."
Adrian Honner:
Something good is coming!
Amora Brown:
What does this mean?
Adrian and Amora:
What does this mean?
Adrian Honner:
I'll elaborate. Would you prefer working on a project that someone will micro direct you on? Or would you feel better if you were kind of left to your own devices when it came to developing a character? Because I don't know how to answer that question.
Amora Brown:
What if they're not an actor? So any creative role.
Adrian Honner:
If they're not an Actor, would you prefer working on someone else's project or solely your own?
Amora Brown:
And that's that.
Adrian Honner:
There you go.
Amora Brown:
Thank you for coming on the show, Adrian.
Adrian Honner:
Again, my absolute pleasure. I had an absolute blast. Thank you so much for having me.
Amora Brown:
Where can we find some more of your work so we can support you? Anything new coming out?
Adrian Honner:
That's a great question. Lots of new stuff. A couple of things that I really can't talk about. As soon as kind of international borders open, I'll be flying to Iceland to do another feature film, which I'm really, really, really looking forward to. Um, Iceland's been on my bucket list forever. I do have to grow this out a lot and I'm not sure if you can tell the size and color of my eyes and things, what that will probably entail. So that's going to be exciting more of my stuff. I'm not really much opposed to my own stuff. You can find me on Instagram @AdrianHonner. I do own a company. We're a production company. Uh, it doesn't have much, but at Monster Rat Productions as well on Facebook and Instagram.
Amora Brown:
Thank you for coming on the show and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the day.
Adrian Honner:
Thank you. You too. And thank you for saying "Hi" to Busta.
Amora Brown:
Yes, was a pleasure.
Adrian Honner:
It's pretty quiet when he's in the room. Alright have a great day!
Amora (outro):
If you find the Corpartainment podcast valuable, there are few ways you can help support us. You can leave a review with your podcast app, subscribe to the channel or share our podcast on social media with your friends. My goal is to eventually uses podcast as a launchpad to creating movies and music. It will be so cool to have you along during that journey. If you like our content and want to help it grow professionally, please consider becoming a regular supporter on Patreon at patreon.com/corpartainment. Your financial donations will help to make this dream possible. On our Patreon page, we offer early episodes lists your name on our YouTube episodes and more. To all of you who have shared, left a comment and subscribed to our Patreon, thank you so much. And to all of you listening now, thank you for joining and we'll see you all on the next episode.