Meet Anna Marie Parsons | Actress

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anna Marie Parsons and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anna Marie, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
Before I started acting, I was never sure what I wanted to spend my life working toward. At some point during high school, conversations between my friends and I evolved from discussing our present circumstances of who’s dating who and what was the ‘hot’ party to attend come Friday evening, to discussions geared towards our future jobs, which colleges offered the least grueling application process, and whether finance or economics major made more money and so was the better choice. This gregarious high school student, captain of the cheerleading team with more friends than probably necessary, was suddenly reticent to discuss her future. Truthfully, I didn’t feel I had one. I lacked the passion and drive that most people around me seemed to have.

When it was time to move forward, I struggled a lot. During college, I watched as friends and peers strapped on newfound titles and became themselves. An accounting major working towards their CPA, hoping to own a firm; a political science major planning to become a pilot for Southwest, and plenty of finance and econ majors with hopes of working on Wallstreet. They were all becoming who’s and what’s, but as for me, nothing was sticking. I wasn’t interested in anything long enough to make it a major, and the idea of getting a job solely based on an annual salary and benefits was daunting. I had no pending title.

Although my job now is artistic, deciding to pursue my passion for acting wasn’t easy. I spent roughly a year and a half deliberating on how I could help my acting career flourish while maintaining a steady corporate job to appease the side of me that didn’t feel comfortable calling myself a creative. Finally, I realized that maybe acting wasn’t a choice but something I had to do. I felt like I couldn’t escape it, and truthfully, I didn’t want to. I had always longed for a title, but interestingly enough, I rejected the idea of my title being ‘actor.’ I understand now that choosing to pursue a creative job, where you aren’t sure when the next paycheck will come in, who you’ll be working with, or if you may succeed or fail, was part of my love for the work. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Working as an actor is symbolically traipsing through a completely dark cave, sometimes never knowing if you’ll see the light of day again. Having doubts and wondering if you’re crazy are just regular occurrences, nothing to be alarmed over. However, when you do reach that stream of light, and inevitably you always do, the warmth from the rays and the excitement because you can see again make it worth it. A million times over. Regardless of what I chose to pursue, being a career in the arts or something ‘stable’ (if you can describe it that way), I understood failure was always a possibility. Ultimately, I weighed my options: I could fail at something I didn’t care to give my heart over to, or I could fail at something I wanted to give everything to. After that, it wasn’t much of a choice any longer but rather potentially one of the greatest adventures I could partake in.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Please tell us more about your art. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about. How did you get to where you are today professionally? Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way? What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?

Like I mentioned earlier, I spent most of my life wondering what I wanted to be. This was important for me to define, I believe, because my dad became ‘something,’ and he was one of my favorite people.’ He was a flight engineer before transitioning into doing missions with his top-secret clearance for the United States Air Force. He described his time in the military as one of the greatest experiences of his life, accomplishing his goal of being as close to a pilot as he could be without having to complete the education and grueling training he didn’t quite have access to. He looked back on his life happily and he felt that he chased his dream to the fullest extent. I knew I wanted to chase my dream, too, but I couldn’t figure out what that dream was.

I wish someone would’ve told me that the journey of chasing your dream is exactly that, a journey. There is no set path, no one way it has to be done, and quite frankly, there’s not a cookie-cutter mold you simply follow and bam! Dreams met. Before being done with my corporate 9-5’s and flexible yet exhausting serving jobs, I searched endlessly for the answer to how to meet my dreams and make them a reality. I looked at other people on social media and speculated on how they got to where they were. I wondered relentlessly if I ‘have what it takes.’ I dug into every actor interview and coming-up story I could find online, all in an attempt to lay my stones before trying to walk the path.

I couldn’t tell you what exactly it was that helped me make the transition from quitting my job to decide to be an actor full time. I didn’t have artists in my life whom I’d watched pave the way for themselves, I came from a working class family that valued hard work and a steady job. No one understood when I broke the news that I wanted to be an actor. I’m not sure I understood either. Nonetheless, it would be another few months of working at TopGolf and taking acting classes in my closet (yes, classes in my closet because I was so embarrassed someone would hear me working in my room) before I would find a class in-person to start training consistently. I received a DM on Facebook from a woman claiming that her business partner from Los Angeles was teaching actors here in Nashville and offered me a chance to join.

I trained with Elizabeta Vidovic for a year and a half every Saturday or Monday without a beat.
During that time, I discovered my dream and decided I would chase after it just as my dad had done. I worked harder than I had before, and I’ve learned to trust myself in the process. It’s not easy to chase a dream, but the hardest part was the acceptance I had to find in myself and my craft. Training weekly helped me to believe in myself and what it was I was doing. My coach was honest, forthcoming with her knowledge, and never cut corners when it came to pushing me past my limits.

Most daysI still feel like I’m navigating a lightless cave wondering when I’ll make it out to the other side, while some days are the most exciting joyful moments of my life. I would say the satisfaction isn’t the final moment, when you feel like you’ve made it or accomplished it all, because those moments are fleeting. Each day is an opportunity to enjoy how far you’ve come and to dream about where you may go next. It wasn’t easy to accept the fact that I did want to become an actor, but it wasn’t something I could push down and ignore either. Accepting this truth and allowing it to be a part of who I was gave me the strength to keep going after it.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Being a Nashville native has made it surprisingly difficult to keep up with the hottest spots in town, as I watched the city evolve right before my eyes! Nonetheless, I have a few favorite spots I would recommend if you want to get the most out of the city while avoiding the endless crowds.

Nash is small enough not to have to stay in one part of the city all night but big enough where there’s always someplace interesting to have good drinks and hear great music. My first recommendation is Tiger Bar in East Nashville. This place is 1920s-sideshow-inspired. Complete with an animatronic Zoltar, Tiger Bar is one of the more eclectic places to visit in the city. This place is a total freak show.

If you’re looking for a place that’s right under your nose and tucked away disguised by an outdated call box, the Red Phone Booth is worth a visit. A 1920 cocktail speakeasy that’s somehow modern and elegantly vintage, Red Phone Booth takes the cake as one of the better cigar bars in Nashville.

There are too many places to recommend dancing and drinks downtown, but If I had to join the crowds for a night out, the Twelve Thirty Club would be my first choice. The food is divine, the drinks are beautifully crafted, and on the weekends, the upstairs patio becomes a dance club. Broadway is just beneath you, but it feels like a select few know what Twelve Thirty Club has to offer.

Lastly, for the best views of the city, a must-see is Love Circle. Every great city has a local spot to check out the skyline and feel the breeze, and this is ours. I remember visiting this place in high school. It would be packed with college students and teens who probably snuck downtown that night to see friends and escape. Being high above the city offers you a fresh perspective! Just be sure to go on a night that isn’t super cloudy to get the most from the visit. P.S. There are stairs on either side to avoid the grassy hill!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My parents, though they may not fully understand why I do what I do, recognize my need to chase after the dream. As they did themselves. They’ve been unconditionally supportive of a world they know virtually nothing about, and I think without their acceptance I would not have been able to personally accept this part of me.

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Image Credits
Prakash Maddirala (photo in front of white background with hair in my face)