{"id":5475,"date":"2020-06-12T17:31:56","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T17:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/?p=5475"},"modified":"2020-06-12T17:34:32","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T17:34:32","slug":"jay-ellis-discusses-his-humble-beginnings-as-an-actor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/jay-ellis-discusses-his-humble-beginnings-as-an-actor\/","title":{"rendered":"Jay Ellis Discusses His Humble Beginnings As An Actor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5477\" src=\"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/jay.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"428\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/jay.png 800w, https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/jay-300x161.png 300w, https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/jay-768x411.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I<strong>n a brief yet candid conversation with Issa Rae, <\/strong><\/span><strong><i>Insecure\u2019s<\/i> Jay Ellis recounts the amusing story of how he became an actor.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>As destiny may have it, Ellis\u2019s journey began through having a friend, Josh Henderson, who happened to be making strides as an actor. At a high profile party one night with Henderson, Ellis was approached by an agent who asked if he was an actor. \u201cI\u2019m like, yeah, of course I\u2019m an actor. I ain\u2019t took an acting class, I can\u2019t tell you three words of a Tennesee Williams play, I don\u2019t know nothing!\u201d said Ellis.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>A meeting was later scheduled, which required Ellis to bring his resume and headshots. \u201cI typed up every job I\u2019ve had since I was a sophomore in high school. Old Navy, Athletes\u2019 Foot, Smoothie King, all the modeling jobs I\u2019ve had.\u201d Having extensive experience with actors and the industry, the agent instantly knew that Ellis didn\u2019t have a clue what he was doing after reviewing his resume. Yet he took a chance on him, and provided Ellis with the resources he needed. Because he was working a minimum wage job at the time, he couldn\u2019t afford the acting classes or $350 headshots\u2013\u2013yet with determination, he found ways to maneuver around the costs, such as hiring a photographer from Craigslist for a much cheaper price (Although he hopes those pictures never see the light of day). Instead of paying for acting classes, he audited them, which allowed him to take 20 classes for free. \u201cSo, I started going out on auditions and Issa, they\u2019re so bad &#8230; I have no idea what I\u2019m doing. But I was young, and my ego told me I could do anything.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Evidently, Ellis\u2019s years of fortitude and persistence, while also utilizing the classic adage of &#8220;faking it until you make it,&#8221; has worked in his favor. We love a humble beginning!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe  id=\"_ytid_18757\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"  data-origwidth=\"800\" data-origheight=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-QU18g5NNXI?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;disablekb=0&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>To listen to the entire conversation with Jay Ellis and Issa Rae, and gain access to more exclusive content, consider becoming a patreon by visiting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/issarae\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/issarae<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a brief yet candid conversation with Issa Rae, Insecure\u2019s Jay Ellis recounts the amusing story of how he became an actor.\u00a0\u00a0 As destiny may have it, Ellis\u2019s journey began through having a friend, Josh Henderson, who happened to be making strides as an actor. At a high profile party one night with Henderson, Ellis [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[31,340,341,419],"class_list":["post-5475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film-tv","tag-featured","tag-insecure","tag-issa-rae","tag-jay-ellis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}