Acting for God, By Celina Tolbert

Acting for God
 
By Celina Tolbert

Hey All! My name is Celina Tolbert and I am a 17 year old high school senior. I love God and want him in every aspect of my life. I love performing; including singing, acting, dancing, and modeling. I also love youth ministry and volunteer with my church and Campus Life, a branch of Youth For Christ. I long to travel the world and I plan to live in a big city. I plan on going to college next year in Nashville or Virginia Beach - I'm waiting for God to tell me where to go :)

So anyways, recently, God gave me a huge blessing. As I said, I love performing. I have been singing, dancing, and acting for a while. I have done local, school, and community theatre. A few years back I started doing extra work in movies. I would sit in a church pew for 6 hours or stand at an outdoor concert/revival at 3 a.m. listening to the same song on repeat. I was unpaid*, but happy for the experience. I focused on family friendly and faith based films. I also joined a community club of student filmmakers and auditioned for and acted in a few short films. I wanted to start auditioning for speaking roles, but a few problems arose.

I didn't have any headshots, and I also didn't have any money. Now being an actor without headshots...is impossible. I'm not saying you have to spend $1,000,000 on headshots, but you have to have nice professional looking pictures that show how you look naturally. I wanted to submit my resume for things, but had no pictures to use. Just when I thought nothing was ever going to happen, God gave me an awesome blessing. My photographer friend was having an open house - and asked me to model for her! I would get free photographs and get to add modeling experience to my resume! They turned out great and I didn't have to spend any money!

I was so excited about my new headshots and couldn't wait to start submitting for projects. I submitted for a few and never heard back - no big deal, rejection is a big part of the acting industry. I continued doing extra work, trying to build up my resume. But then I hit a dry patch. There was nothing for me to submit for. Oh sure, there were plenty of inappropriate projects - but I had promised myself that I would stick to my beliefs, no matter how hard it got. And then, right when I again lost hope, God reminded me that he held me in his hand. He showed me an amazing film that would further his kingdom!

I submitted and was asked to audition! I auditioned and thought that it wouldn't really happen. But then I got a callback! I was so nervous before the callback that I couldn't even eat. But when I got there I reminded myself of this advice from a friend - If you are that worried about something, you aren't doing it for God - you're doing it for you. I relaxed and had fun. Before I knew it I was offered a supporting role!

Working on "Secrets in the Fall" was a blast! You can check it out here: http://www.facebook.com/SecretsInTheFall?fref=ts It is set to release next fall. It's predecessor, "Secrets in the Snow"(which I was a background extra in) will be released worldwide in christian book stores and online January 8th, 2013.

You can view my website here: http://celinatolbert.webs.com/

My IMDb page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4101176/ feel free to give it a facebook "like"

My youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/celinacts?feature=mhee

*Not all extra work is unpaid. However, if you have no experience, you will most likely start out getting unpaid work. Also, even some speaking roles are unpaid in small, independent films.