Adrienne Hernaez, a 2020 BYU–Hawaii alumna from California, said she didn’t think she could make acting her career, but landing a supporting role in a movie made her believe her childhood dream was possible.
Living out a childhood dream
Hernaez said she remembers being a kid watching the behind the scene bonus features for “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone” and wanting to be a part of something like that.
She said she started getting into acting when she made friends at a local Catholic church and performed for their Easter play. This was her first experience acting in front of a crowd, Hernaez added.
She said she continued to act during her time at a community college and at BYUH, where she majored in elementary education.
Hernaez explained she first heard about the “Once I Was Engaged” movie audition from Kristl Densley, a BYUH assistant professor for the Faculty of Language, Culture, and Performing Arts. Hernaez said Densley helped cast actors for the film and asked Hernaez and a few other students to audition for the movie.
After landing a role in the movie, she said her directors were very encouraging and informed her she had the skill to make acting her career.
Finding strength in individuality
Hernaez said she felt limited by the beauty standards presented on social media because although more projects are becoming more diverse, many roles in movies don’t usually cater to Asian American women.
“I had to look at my strengths as an actor and individual. With more diverse roles being written and more diverse writers, more doorways are being opened for people of color to get those opportunities,” she explained.
Finding strength in her individuality and what she could personally bring to a character helped her look past her limitations as an Asian American actor, she added.
Not all rainbows and sunshine
Hernaez advised those wanting to go into the movie industry to research what types of films, directors and actors they love and get involved. She added the film industry is “not all rainbows and sunshine,” and people in the industry are pulled in all different directions.
She said it is important for actors to find a support group of friends and family who believe in them because at times it may be hard for them to believe in their self.
Hernaez added there is a place for everyone in the film industry. “I thought you had to be really pretty or have a lot of training, but you can still get training anytime. … You don’t have to look a certain way to be considered an eligible actress.”
From the stage to the camera
After years of performing on stage, Hernaez said working on a film was different than what she was used to.
“The director told me a lot of [working in] film is just waiting around until you’re needed,” she explained. Even though she was able to make a lot of friends waiting on set, Hernaez said she didn’t realize how much she would wait before being called in to perform a scene.
With stage acting, she said she performed each scene in order, but in film acting, scenes were filmed out of order based on location and which cast members were called on set, she shared.
She said on top of waiting around to film the scenes, she also wasn’t used to the lack of rehearsal time. “When you get on set for theatre you have 3 months … of rehearsal time to work with cast members, but for film you don’t have that rehearsal time … you kind of just do it,” Hernaez said. “It felt like a rehearsal and performance while you’re being filmed.”
Hernaez plays the character Leilani in “Once I Was Engaged,”, which was released July 21, 2021 and is set in Laie, BYU–Hawaii and other locations.