Creative Space with Jennifer Logue

Tyler Andrews on Acting, Life in LA, and 'The Christmas Chain'

• Jennifer Logue

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In this episode of Creative Space, host Jennifer Logue sits down with Tyler Andrews, an actor whose journey has taken him from Playhouse West to starring roles in film, television, and theater. Most recently, Tyler captivated audiences as Jerome in The Christmas Chain, now streaming on Apple TV+.

Jennifer and Tyler dive deep into:

  • His early life and how a friend's unconventional compliment sparked his acting journey.
  • The transformative experience of training at Playhouse West and its impact on his career.
  • Overcoming self-doubt and building resilience as a creative professional.
  • Adapting to life in Los Angeles and navigating the challenges of the entertainment industry.
  • Behind-the-scenes stories from The Christmas Chain and why storytelling is a public service.

Whether you’re an actor, artist, or simply fascinated by the world of creativity, Tyler’s story will leave you inspired to embrace your authentic self and commit to your craft.

For more about Tyler Andrews, follow him on Instagram: @TylerJosephAndrews.
To learn more about Jennifer Logue, visit: https://jenniferlogue.com.

SHOW NOTES:

0:00 — Introduction
1:10 — Tyler’s Journey: From Soccer to Acting
9:15 — Starting at Playhouse West: A Life-Changing Leap
15:30 — The Power of Repetition and Self-Reflection in Acting
22:45 — Moving to Los Angeles: Challenges, Lessons, and Survival Tips
32:00 — Behind the Scenes of The Christmas Chain
40:25 — Tyler’s Thoughts on Creativity and Being Authentically Yourself
48:10 — Dealing with Self-Doubt and Staying Disciplined
52:15 — What’s Next for Tyler

Jennifer Logue:

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Creative Space, a podcast where we explore, learn and grow in creativity together. I'm your host, jennifer Logue, and today we're joined by actor Tyler Andrews. Tyler's journey in acting has taken him from Playhouse West to a variety of roles in film, tv and theater. Most recently, he starred as Jerome in the Christmas Chain, which just made its debut on Apple TV+, which I'm so excited about because I love Christmas movies so much, and Tyler's here to share what he's learned about building a career in acting and adapting to life after acting school. Welcome to Creative Space, tyler.

Tyler Andrews:

Hello hello, hello. Thank you for having me, jennifer. It is really really nice to see you.

Jennifer Logue:

And we should mention that we have trained together. We've known each other for quite some time now oh, seriously, playhouse west is one of my favorite experiences of my life so far.

Tyler Andrews:

We were talking about this before we started rolling yeah, absolutely, playhouse west is has been a monumental, you know, piece of my life and I hold it dear to my heart for sure.

Jennifer Logue:

Yes, so where are you calling from today?

Tyler Andrews:

I am in the great city of Los Angeles, right in Hollywood.

Jennifer Logue:

Love it. I have to ask I don't think we ever talked about this when we were training, but where are you from originally?

Tyler Andrews:

I was born and raised in Kentucky. My father was in the military, so we had moved around a lot, but I spent about 14 years of my life in Kentucky and then, when my father retired, we actually moved to Pennsylvania, where my mother's family and my father's family was originally from. And then that's when I was living in Northampton, pennsylvania I would travel back and forth from New Jersey to visit my mom's side of the family as well, and then eventually after college well, middle of college when I left.

Jennifer Logue:

I moved to Philadelphia Very cool. So I've got to ask what was your first creative outlet? Was it always acting, or did you have something else that you liked to do before you got to acting?

Tyler Andrews:

I don't. I played soccer my whole life. I don't know if you would consider that somewhat a creative outlet, but it was my outlet to just like sort of express myself. It was something that I loved to do. I mean, I played my whole entire life and everyone in my family had played soccer as well my sister, my brother.

Tyler Andrews:

My father had been a coach for some small leagues that I was in when I was younger in Kentucky, but soccer was what I wanted to do. I went and played soccer at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania for a year and I had ambitions to go pro, but I think deep down I just knew that I wasn't probably good enough to go pro and probably deep down didn't love it enough. I found myself falling out of love with soccer. So then eventually I left. That was really my creative outlet. I think you know now that we speak about it, though when I was in second grade or first grade I had played the wolf in Red Riding Hood. Ok, yes, I played the wolf in Red Riding Hood for a classroom play that we had put on. That was my first ever performance.

Jennifer Logue:

I love it and you loved it.

Tyler Andrews:

Clearly, you remember it so I did like it actually. Yeah, I actually really did like it and I remember when we were casting for it in that classroom I wanted to be the wolf. It was like I liked that sort of like the guy who was the he was the main sort of evil man. I always sort of like the guy who was the, he was the main sort of evil man. I always sort of liked doing that stuff, I guess.

Jennifer Logue:

Oh my gosh, awesome. So what led you to start studying acting at Playhouse?

Tyler Andrews:

I was, so I failed out of school. I had my first semester in college. I had a 0.169 GPA and then I quit soccer. I was out of love with soccer. I didn't think I was built to be in a nine to five job.

Jennifer Logue:

And weirdly enough.

Tyler Andrews:

I was about 13 years old, 14 years old, I was hearing my dad have a conversation. I think he was talking to one of the soccer parents, or maybe it was to my mother, and he just made a joke how he could never see me working in an office job. And I guess he just kind of knew, he kind of had some idea that Tyler was like our black sheep of the family, some idea that Tyler was like our black sheep of the family. So I ended up failing out of college. I went and worked for a car dealership that my cousin had gotten me a job at and I was just deeply unhappy. I didn't want to do this. I knew deep down that something needed to change in my life. I ended up quitting that job and I was sitting in a car one night with my friend, aiden Sylvester harms, and he said Tyler, you know you are the best liar I know. And I was like, oh man, do I lie a lot? And he was like you do, but you don't do it in a bad way. You do it to play jokes on us, to make us believe something that's not true, and then we all laugh about it. And he was like you should be an actor and I was like, absolutely not. No, I'm not. I don't like theater. I don't understand that world.

Tyler Andrews:

And I got to my job the next day I looked up Playhouse West I actually just looked up acting schools nearby and Philadelphia was about an hour and a half away. I saw a photo of Tony with Jeff Goldblum and I was sold. I was like I'm going to call this guy. His number's there, I'm going to call him. So I ended up calling him and I'm like in the middle of my last day at my job trying to sell cars, I had just been promoted to go to the used cars a lot so I could start making a little bit more money. This was going to be my future.

Tyler Andrews:

And then tony called me and he was like hey, how are you? I saw you put an inquiry in. You should come up. And uh, look at one of our classes audit. And I was like, okay, I'll be there, I'll be there, uh, next week.

Tyler Andrews:

And I hung up the phone, quit, quit my job, just drove to Philadelphia. I told my dad after I left. I was like I'm not going to come home, I'm just going to drive to Philadelphia. I had a girlfriend at the time, who lived about 45 minutes outside of Philly. So I'd lived with her for about a week and then I moved to Philadelphia and just started with glasses. I was just. I was just sold on the idea of I was going to change my life, but I wasn't in love with acting, I knew nothing about it, I just thought this is how I escaped me, failing me not following through with things that I should be doing me doing things that weren't good for me, that were really going to lead me either being in jail or who knows, who knows knows because I wasn't leading a good life up until I left wow.

Jennifer Logue:

So acting gave you that foundation like that was your, it was something to commit to.

Tyler Andrews:

Yes, you know yes and focus on that yeah, so that was my. My parents didn't understand why I wanted to be an actor and I didn't either, so there was a lot of pushback. They were like you don't get a job, get a job. And I was like I don't want to do that. I I I know there's something more for me in life and I just have to be selfish here. And they didn't understand it until I got in class and they had saw me act in a movie that I had gotten to be a part of, because it was a military movie and he was in the military for 20 years.

Tyler Andrews:

I remember he was acting and he was loving it, and he was like oh, now I see why you want to do this. This is, it's something special, yeah. And he also saw. Welcome Home Soldier.

Jennifer Logue:

Oh, he saw that.

Tyler Andrews:

Yes, and it was like the first time I ever saw him cry, really Wow. I'd seen him like tear up but like not really. You know, it was like I was like, oh my gosh, this stuff's making my dad cry. This is magic Like, cause he's like a tough guy serving the military for 20, 21, 20 years. I was like this stuff's good.

Jennifer Logue:

It's powerful, it's a public service acting. We need that outlet, society needs the outlet because the vast majority of people are stuck in their heads and when you see a movie and you connect with it, that's like an emotional release. You identify with the characters and like it's. It's so powerful and it's such you know you're doing God's work. When you're an actor, you really are yeah, I do think it is a actor. You really are yeah.

Tyler Andrews:

I do think it is a service. It very much is.

Jennifer Logue:

And it's a calling, you know. So this is creative space, and I love asking this question of everyone. But what is your definition of creativity?

Tyler Andrews:

I think creativity is freedom of expression. Tony taught me this great, great acting lesson when I was at Playhouse West. I was always doing scenes and when I would start the scene off, I was doing a voice, I was acting. Yeah, stop, stop, stop. He's like what are you doing? I was like you see how you're talking now you sound like yourself. He said when you start acting, you're acting, you're putting on this facade. He said it's not real. Creativity comes from yourself, your personality. I think the more you can be yourself, the more you can express who you are your idea of it, your choice of it, the way you feel about it.

Tyler Andrews:

That's the creativity, because it's really. It's pure, it's just you, it's your ideas, it's your thoughts about this and it's been drawn from your environment and things you read and see and watch and hear. But I think that's what creativity is to me it's fully expressing yourself and not being afraid to do it, because people want to see your personality. When you, when you meet someone and you're drawn to them, it's because they're really authentically their self. They're not, they don't care if they, if you like them or not. They're just themselves.

Tyler Andrews:

I think, when you can do that in real life, it goes right into acting. You can be yourself, you can react how you react, and that's interesting, that's creativity.

Jennifer Logue:

Yeah, no filters, no finessing, censoring yourself like that pure essence of who you are deep down, which I feel like most people never get to yeah, I think everyone should take an acting class, even if you don't want to be an actor.

Tyler Andrews:

Just then you can start to actually express feelings you don't get to in real life because you're used to suppressing them yeah, yeah, yes.

Jennifer Logue:

Hit the nail on the head, tyler, that's I mean, apart from acting like that was my favorite part of class, like it really peeled back layers of the onion for me as a person like whoo, like I gotta work on yourself.

Tyler Andrews:

Work on yourself confront yourself confront yourself, yeah you know, in repetitions, when you first start, you're you don't know what it is, you're just being yourself. You're answering how you're going to answer. Sometimes you answer and someone goes you're being manipulative. Yeah, you know what are they talking about. We're acting here like no one said that to me in my real life. You're starting to. I don't know what's going on, but you like understand a piece about me. You actually might look into your life and say, huh, I actually am a little bit manipulative. You change it about yourself, or you have a better understanding of how you do it and why you do it, and then you can start to be more empathetic about it because, what makes you be empathetic about it?

Jennifer Logue:

it's a mirror, it's like the ultimate mirror that exercise like oh yeah, for sure amplifies as little parts of yourself that you don't even realize you're there.

Tyler Andrews:

Sometimes other people see they pick up on a vibe and like yeah, I realize you're giving that off yeah, you don't, you don't and still build that muscle of the perception of how someone else feels and how you make them feel so yeah, that I love the repetition activity.

Jennifer Logue:

I would love to just have repetition like once a week at my house, like just have that like a repetition party at least once a week. I do it every day.

Tyler Andrews:

I could find people you know, foundations of acting into that. One little exercise I find to listen, to feel, to not take anything for granted. Um, even in the moment, you know, it's like it's a lot of the things that just it comes down to. When you're done with the homework, when you walk on stage and you, just you leave all the homework behind, those are the things that you have to do Listen, just listen to them, just listen and be emotionally available and read their behavior. That's how you're making them feel and react. Off the behavior. Get what you want.

Jennifer Logue:

Yes, yeah. So okay, we talked a lot about Playhouse West, but apart from repetition, do you want to talk about how the training at Playhouse has shaped your approach to acting?

Tyler Andrews:

I think some of the things that Playhouse West has taught me. One, I mean, I'm honestly the biggest tool. Every actor should have this experience. It was that story I just told you. You have to use your own voice.

Tyler Andrews:

And like it sounds so small, like, yeah, of course I talk in my own voice, I sound like myself, but it's more than that. It's like Playhouse West teaches you to be yourself. You know, a character is the opinion you hold. You're still yourself. You're not becoming someone else, it's I. I am this person. I think that's the approach that I've taken and I always look at it from that. When I'm, you know, doing the homework, is that it's me in these circumstances. So what the heck would I do if I have this opinion? You know, I love this girl, I'm totally in love with her, but I don't know Her family has like a past of racial.

Tyler Andrews:

You know people who are racist and like what do I do with this? And you think about okay, just think, what would I do? How would I actually feel about this? And you start there, you personalize it. Is there anything in my real would I actually feel about this? And you start there, you personalize it. Is there anything in my real life that I understand about this? I've ever really actually experienced racism. What's racism to me? If I met a racist right now? Do I know any racist? And you start from there and it's really giving me a solid approach about just personalizing it, just making it personal, not making it about how do I sound, how do I become sad. No, it's just about like this is a real human being. I remember it's happened a couple times now, even with this christmas movie that I've done. You get a script, it's a character, right, you know it's. This person doesn't exist, but someone just like that does exist and they just might come to watch the movie.

Tyler Andrews:

Yeah, to watch you on stage so you treat it like it's a real person because it's that important, and Playhouse West has also shown me how important storytelling is to other individuals who come and watch it, who might just be in class, and they've been through that. I did a story where Greg got a pan where I was molested by my father and my friend was also molested by my father and he didn't want to do anything about it. He wanted to forget and act like it never happened because it was too much for him. I we did it for scene day. Someone came up to me after and said I haven't done anything about this I haven't done anything.

Tyler Andrews:

They just looked at me and they knew they were gonna. That's all they needed. The year is to see someone else doing something about it, so it's so important yeah, and it's, it's really.

Tyler Andrews:

I think I give all the credit to tony. Tony made me realize how important this stuff is through his story, so through what he teaches you there, through his dedication. He's there five days, six days a week. He is just as prepared as you are in your scenes. He knows just as much as you on those sort of stories, as he's been working on for 20 years, and he's also a director and he's writing.

Tyler Andrews:

So we had to see his commitment and then to be like, well, he's just a teacher. You know, I got to be an actor, he's. I can't let Tony outwork me. I can't let Tony be dedicated as me. He's, he's freaking, he's on, he's on the role. He'll sometimes hop in another level and you see that he is alive, he's got the stuff. So you're like you know you kind of have someone to. You know it's a healthy competition, you and all your friends. Okay, let's see who can rehearse some more this week. Yeah, let's just have a competition. Or like, let's just see you know who can, how many spoon rivers can we get through and in the next month, how many can we actually prepare, go through and finish them? So yeah, it's just, it's really giving me that sort of love of wanting to do this for life, and how important it is how serious other actors take it it's taught me how to understand scripts, how to how to begin to understand characters.

Jennifer Logue:

I mean tony's screenwriting course oh, I love that screenwriting course. Oh gosh, it's changed my life.

Tyler Andrews:

Yeah, I wasn't a writer until I took it. That's my main hobby now. I write all the time because I love it, gave me an understanding on how to make stories and, yeah, it's been really instrumental in my life.

Jennifer Logue:

Tyler, no shade on the college that I went to, but I have an English major. I learned more about writing in Tony's class than I did in college and it was a lot more money.

Tyler Andrews:

You hear that a lot, actually those stories. I've never taken a screenwriting course like this, and it's more than just screenwriting, it's an acting course.

Jennifer Logue:

Yeah, it's more than just streamwriting, it's an acting course. Yeah, it's seriously. I keep, we keep saying this tony's class just changed your life, it really, and he's he's not like sponsoring this y'all he ain't.

Tyler Andrews:

He ain't sponsoring this. I'm telling you he ain't sponsoring this. But if you're in philadelphia and you're a director just a creative artist go look at Playhouse West Philadelphia. Just audit the class, watch the production, because it's really important.

Jennifer Logue:

And be ready to work your butt off.

Tyler Andrews:

Be ready to work for sure.

Jennifer Logue:

Yes. So once you left Playhouse West to go on your own and pursue your career, what initial challenges did you face?

Tyler Andrews:

A lot of challenges. You don't. I'm not training right now. Thankfully I've been busy enough to not really have the time to commit like a full month to going back to playoffs West Los Angeles to maybe do some scene work. That I've been able to find some rehearsals with students who are out here from playoffs West Philadelphia, who are alumni that have been out here for two to three years. The challenges are you don't work probably with anyone that has really gone through our training our way of preparing, our way of rehearsing.

Tyler Andrews:

It's very exclusive to a couple schools that go through all the doors and activities, the spoon rivers, the non-verbals, the ways, everything, how we do it. A lot of people don't have that, have never done that. So you have to learn how to work with people that don't do doors and activities. I find the best thing to do is to just keep doing it in your own words, just keep understanding it. Have discussions with the other actors on what is this for us? What does this mean? Why the heck are we telling this story? What does this scene mean? And having those discussions? Because everyone understands that. Why are we telling the story? But it's the challenges have been of like how do you work around not being able to do doors and activities? Me, to be honest with you, I have some friends out here that learn that know we, we rehearse in the same way. I'll just pull them two aside and they'll be my backup scene scene partners. I'll work as much as I can. Um, there's also challenges of being in los angeles. It's a kind of an isolating city. You live on your own pretty much, unless you're living with your friends. Everyone's kind of like 20 to 45 to an hour um away from you. So rehearsals can be a little bit difficult. It's a little bit more expensive here, so you might have to get a nine to five job to survive. There's a lot of challenges that come with it and really when, if you are an actor coming out here to los angeles, you're going to be tested on how much you really want to do this can you work a nine to five job Because you have to? It's too expensive out here to not, unless if you're a working actor and then also rehearse on the weekends or rehearse after work or still keep up with that sort of stuff and you might come out here and not know anyone from Playhouse West. So you have to start learning. How can I do this on my own? What can I do on my own? Can I work on speeches on my own? Can I still do non-verbals on my own? Or can I find a community out here? Some other acting schools test them out or can I go and find some serious actors there that I want to work with and build a community? But there are a lot of challenges in that way of not having a lot of people to maybe see or hang out with or just have a community in general, like you have at Playhouse West Philadelphia. Yeah, there's, there's I think there's many challenges out here, but it also it's like I remember when I first got here.

Tyler Andrews:

It's kind of that cliche line, but someone I really took at the heart. This is the city of haves and have-nots and wants and do not want, and you have to make a decision. Do you want it or is this going to be where you plateau, you make them arise? I was like, well, I can't let that happen to me, because I came out here on a mission. I came out here and I told my parents this is what I love to do. I told mom, hey, I'm coming back to work an actor. It's going to happen Like, this is what we all decided Tyler's going to do and I'm going to follow through with it.

Tyler Andrews:

But the challenges come with it and you just have to stay disciplined. You can't give up on that discipline because it's so easy to fall off. Can't give up on that discipline because it's so easy to fall off, so easy to be like I'm just gonna go hang out with some friends and go to the bar on the weekends and just, you know, wait for the big opportunity to come. It's like how do you keep yourself occupied?

Tyler Andrews:

create creatively when you're not working when you're not in school anymore? Can you read more? Can you paint more? Can you find more people? Can you go? Can you start to do different things that are enhancing your acting, even though you're not getting trained at playhouse west two days a week, and also doing a bunch of short films? Or can you make short films and if you can't find three people to do it, put up your phone and make a short film by yourself.

Tyler Andrews:

It's better than doing nothing if you feel like you're stuck. So when the challenges come, just do something creative and just counterbalance it. Okay, I have to get a job. Well, I'm going to counterbalance it. On the weekends I'm doing all my creative stuff. No one's gonna send me to go bartend anymore my weekends, or I'm being creative. Are you Just?

Tyler Andrews:

find those ways to get around that. Yeah, but it's a creative town. Every industry is out here. You'll meet artists who sing. You'll meet rappers. You'll meet painters. You'll meet people who mix music. The amount of time I've seen, you know, famous rappers on the street. I have a friend who's moving to Los Angeles. He said is the music industry out there? I say I see artists, I listen to.

Tyler Andrews:

And I'm like you feel that sort of energy of like oh yeah, the industry is out here and it kind of gives you some excitement, of like it's not far from me, I can do this. If other people can do it, I can get out here, bust my butt and do it if other people can do it, I can get out here, bust my butt and do it.

Jennifer Logue:

So what advice do you have for an actor like what things should they do before they move out to la?

Tyler Andrews:

let's break it down a little bit financial wise financial wise, I really to give everyone an estimate, I do think it's important. You need about three and a half thousand dollars if you want to like get a room out here, to move out here and then like you have a month to find a job and pay your next run, okay, your next rent about three and a half thousand. But if you want to be secure, get like five thousand dollars. And or I would say like, if you're coming out here, come out here with a serious actor, friend, someone that you know can be your accountability buddy, you can move in with them and you sort of have this hey, man, where we came out here with the goal and I'm not gonna let you give up on that and you're not gonna let me give up on that. When we're in, when we have those moments of doubt where it's like the hundredth audition, I haven't heard anything, any feedback, what are we doing here? But I also think to come out to Los Angeles, you have to feel like I don't think that you don't, you don't need to be out here, you don't, you don't have an agent. If you're not to the point where you're, you're like I don't want to say you're upgrading your career but you're getting to a point where you're almost becoming a working actor. You're having to be required to go in to test shoot, maybe multiple times a month, and you don't have the money to fly out here. But if you're in Philadelphia right now and you're listening to this, there's no need to go out to Los Angeles. You have the best place to be in the world and I fully believe that.

Tyler Andrews:

But if you're going to come out here, know that you can get in the room with any casting director and you're not going to waste their time. You know that you're ready to work. You know you can be on set. You know you can break down 130 page strip because you might be required to do that. You might be casted in a feature film. I'd never done that. Before I got here I got casted in a feature film. I said, oh my gosh, at Playhouse West I should have tried to break down and fully analyze a feature film because I know I was going to be required of it. So you have to make sure you're really you got everything out of Playhouse West, if you're from Playhouse West or if you're just an actor who's not at Playhouse West. You're ready to enter the industry. You know you're not going to waste anyone's time. You know you're talented and if someone asked you, are you talented, you say yes, I am, and you call me in Because if you're not confident, they're going to know you're not talented.

Jennifer Logue:

You can tell.

Tyler Andrews:

It's a lot about being confident. As you get in the room, you know your body's shaking, you're a little nervous. You know there's people that you don't know and you've heard of them. You go oh my gosh, am I ready for this? Am I supposed to be here? You have to feel like you're supposed to be. You're like you deserve it. Yeah, because you deserve it. If you're in the room, you're in the room because they like you, they think you're good and they want you to win. They want you to win.

Tyler Andrews:

But I say, yeah, if you're gonna come out here, just know that you're ready, like you're really ready to enter the industry and you make sure you know that there's no rush. There's no rush. There's no rush on being great. There's no rush on feeling like, oh, I have two more years that I could get out of training and that I could become really good and still search for an agent If you don't have an, an agent, train, train, but it's all virtual. There's nothing really in person until you're getting called back. You know maybe the fourth time, but I've been tested so many times virtual, never gone in person. So there's that sort of new challenge that everything's online so you don't really need to be in Los Angeles, unless if you have a job out here.

Jennifer Logue:

So you had your agent before you went to LA.

Tyler Andrews:

I did yes, yeah, I had Ryan Hayden with Ideal Talent Agency. Yeah, and that was the reason why I came out here, because I got casted, thankfully, in this TV show called All-American Homecoming for an episode. So when I got that phone call, you know, the funny thing is, when this is and I'm sure there's many actors that can relate to this sometimes you get tested or you're having an audition. They say, hey, we want la local hires, you have to live in la. But you lie. You said I live in Los Angeles and you, you know, you're in Idaho and you don't actually live in Los Angeles, so you're in Kentucky and you and you don't live in Philadelphia or whatever.

Tyler Andrews:

So I remember getting the phone call from my agent and he's like hey, tyler, uh, you got casted. I was like, oh, great, great, great. When do I need to be in Los Angeles? He said three days. I was like, oh my gosh, philadelphia, okay, okay. I hung up. The phone went home. Thankfully, I just moved in with my parents. For like a week I was still trying to find an apartment, shell, and I'm just gonna live out there. That's gonna be my life from now on, because I think this is it for me and my parents were like great, like they've been always been so supportive yeah they.

Tyler Andrews:

I thank them so much because they're really the reason why, like, I was able to get out here in a second, because they helped me out. They were like, yeah, this is like they were immensely happy for me. And I was like, so was I. So I was like I'm just gonna drive across the country, let's go. And then I just I did it in like two days. And I remember, like the day after I got here, I like walked into you know, uh, the studio a lot, and I was getting changed and I was just like still trying to like recover from the long drive. And they asked me like so you live in los angeles? And I was. I just told them the honest truth. I was like no, I just drove here. I just drove here dedication, that's dedication it was.

Jennifer Logue:

It was such a really cool experience to live there wow, now we got to talk about the christmas chain because I I saw you post about it a few. I was like a month or two ago and I was like, is that a like christmas time romantic movie? I was like I gotta see this. I get so excited.

Tyler Andrews:

One of my dreams is to start in a hallmark movie that is like not a serious, I just love them they make me so happy at christmas time. It's a personal thing, so I'll have to. I'm sorry to interrupt you. I have to refer you to someone to have on your podcast. Her name's chelsea gilson. She is like the number one person who does christmas movies. She has like 15 under her belt. She's always been doing them. She might be a really good referral for you because she's always doing them and she loves doing them. She does them like all year round. She's so good at it. I love it. Yeah, I'll definitely get you in contact with her. She'll be a really good connection for you.

Jennifer Logue:

Oh, Tyler, thank you Absolutely. I am like her number one fan already.

Tyler Andrews:

She plays the doctor in the movie the Christmas Chain.

Jennifer Logue:

Oh, she plays the doctor.

Tyler Andrews:

Yes.

Jennifer Logue:

Oh, that's awesome. Wow, so did she write it as well.

Tyler Andrews:

No, she didn't write it. She didn't write it. No, she's just an actor.

Jennifer Logue:

Okay, cool, well, but let's talk about the Christmas Chain. Yeah. Like how did the opportunity come about? First, Did you audition for it?

Tyler Andrews:

Did it come through your agent? It came through my agent but, interesting enough, I've been talking about everything's in virtual. This was actually an in-person audition and thank God I in los angeles, because it was in burbank. This was a really I knew as soon as I got there I did. I just actually going to this audition. This is a good story. Actually, I had just auditioned for this big film and I I missed out on and I was like numbered one or two in the order and I was so disappointed, so disappointed. I was like, oh, this was the one I remember my dad was calling me, said hey, I'm seeing signs for this uh movie, uh the, the sequel, like around town and I'm like getting weird messages, like people are like saying they're seeing a bunch of all this stuff and I was like, oh my gosh, this is it, like this is gonna happen, and then it doesn't happen. You know that's how the industry works. You never know what's going to happen.

Tyler Andrews:

And I remember the next week I had gotten this audition for the christmas chain and I was like what is this, the christmas chain? Something about kidney? And I was like, all right, I was feeling really down and I remember I got to the audition. I just was like this is how the industry works. This is like it's not about getting the job. You get the job when you get to go in and audition. So I was like you know, I'm gonna leave that behind. This is the next project. I'm just gonna come over the audition, treat it like this is my project and I'm like just coming in to rehearse. I remember getting getting done with the audition and I was so just happy with that.

Tyler Andrews:

I was like like that actually felt really good, like whether I did it or not, who cares Like I just had a really good experience working with some of the actors I did and then I got a callback and there was a couple of callbacks and it ended up being casted and working with some of the most nice, wonderful people I've ever met in my life Susan Ann DeLaurentis, dale Fabujar, all these wonderful people in my co-star, carissa Murray, chelsea, stefan Logan, mr Coffee. I've got to work with so many wonderful people from that like Eric Roberts came on set one day. It was, it was great, it was great.

Jennifer Logue:

Cool. How long did it take to film?

Tyler Andrews:

That's another actually crazy story. So the film is a feature film, it's an hour and a half, but we only had 11 days to film it. What 11 days? Three locations, and I remember yeah, we were pushing the schedule. We had everything in the train. I think we shot in six days and in the first scene we actually shot that very first scene when you see us at the train station in about 20 minutes, because it was the last day we had light, all these light sequences they had. They were doing a fantastic job, but 11 days we had. How do you keep it straight in your head when you're shooting out?

Tyler Andrews:

of sequence, like emotionally, like the arc yeah, this film was actually, I believe was filmed in sequence oh it was Pretty much in sequence, pretty much in sequence, a couple scenes.

Tyler Andrews:

But how I do it, you know, on films that aren't in sequence, I think that's where scene analysis comes from. I don't, you know, I listen to a lot of podcasts and you don't hear a lot of like what is scene analysis or what really is it, and podcasts, and you don't hear a lot of like what is seen now it says, or what really is it. And I think, like when you understand the arc, you know the story. At the very beginning of the story I'm like this and then I do and I'm starting to go through this thing that's happening to me in the story usually the inciting incident, the main conflict. You find those, those, you know it's, it's, it's actually.

Tyler Andrews:

It's very difficult because you are almost using the director's scope when you're doing that, because you're trying to look at the scene before and if you haven't shot the scene before and that's also a very emotional scene and you find out some sort of new conflict in the scene, you almost kind of have to make a choice of like OK, that scene before is a lot more personal to my character, so I'm going to take that a lot more personal. Maybe I'll play this a lot more simple so that it's not just the same sort of scene back to back. You know it's interesting that you don't want to plan what you're going to do, obviously scene back to back. You know it's interesting that you don't want to plan what you're going to do, obviously, but you don't also want to make sure you're not telling the story Correct. And that's when you also go to your director. Right, he, she, they, they are your best friend, they're your best friend and they are going to help you answer those questions.

Tyler Andrews:

Hey, in this scene, you know it's two arguments and like back to back, but I don't want to both be knocked down. Dragging out arguments it feels like sending me like sort of flat. Does this mean something more to me? Is there a moment here where we can change, where I can actually, instead of arguing, can I just to her and she's the one arguing at me because I messed up and you see, if there's opportunities to change that, make the story lead where it's supposed to go you want to make choices that lead the story where it's supposed to go.

Tyler Andrews:

You can make a lot of choices, but sometimes there's a couple choices that you need to make so it actually makes sense what happens in the next scene ask questions and collaborate yeah, for sure.

Tyler Andrews:

And ask your, ask your scene partner too. Yeah, no, ask everyone there, because they're all part of the story, even the sound guy, sound woman, they're all part of the story. They all have ideas and I'm taking ideas from anyone I can get. You don't have to take all the ideas you hear, but you can take as many that might work and also yeah, has a different perspective on set.

Jennifer Logue:

What would you say? What did you say?

Tyler Andrews:

yep, you have another take. Do it. Try it one way, try it the other way. Worry about it in post editing it's the editor's job, so you can't do anything about editing either. They'll know what's right in the end the director will know what's right.

Tyler Andrews:

You're just a storyteller and you're just trying to give your choices, give your creativity and let them choose what's right for the story. So sometimes you don't even have to really worry about it. It's not your job, at the end of the day, to decide what they're going to show. You can just make sure I'll give them choices. I'll give them multiple choices, so they have a variety to use.

Jennifer Logue:

That's a great way to put it.

Tyler Andrews:

I haven't really actually thought about that.

Jennifer Logue:

Yeah, I feel like some things are often shot out of sequence, especially if there's a tight time crunch, and it's like, how do you maintain that continuity? Um, but the director normally has that on lock. But something that I didn't think about before acting school was all the different layers of storytelling that exists in a film. Like you know, you have the acting storytelling arc, you know like the emotional arc, and then you have, like cinematography, the writing itself. You know even the sound, and the sound design is telling the story. And, yeah, it's, it's crazy. There's a. I did an interview with Christine Ng, in the first season, I think, and she's a cinematographer, she does. She did Poker Face seasons one and two. She's done a lot of cool stuff, but she talked about how everyone is part of the energy on set.

Jennifer Logue:

Like and I. I had never thought of that before but, like everyone's energy impacts the room. And that's why it's so important to like. Have a good attitude and no matter who you are like, even for behind the scenes like you can have an impact on the energy.

Tyler Andrews:

Absolutely Especially. You know if you're the lead actor, you're the supporting actor. You know it's part of that sort of can be difficult sometimes and I don't like to say this is the hardest job in the world or this is a hard job because we get to play for a living. It's difficult in many ways but it's a lot easier than you know. Grunt work, you know, being a union worker or something like that. It can be wearing on your body, but not as much as them. But yeah, it can be challenging in that way.

Jennifer Logue:

Let's talk about self-doubt, because we were talking about that before we started rolling, and I think it's so important to talk about because so many of us, as artists, we see everyone on the outside doing their thing and we're like, oh my gosh, they're so confident, they're so awesome. And then on the inside, you're like, oh, but I feel like, am I really good enough for this? You know, I feel like all of us may have this little voice in the back of our heads that doubts our abilities, or doubts our you know ability to go out and do something with our talents.

Jennifer Logue:

So how do you deal with self-doubt, and do you even deal with it at all?

Tyler Andrews:

I definitely do. I definitely do. I'm a very hard critic of myself. I do not like to watch myself act. I don't know why. I never really understood when I would hear actors talk about they don't like to watch themselves act, I said what do you mean? You did that. You don't like that. Now that I've watched a couple of my movies with other people, I don't like it, you know.

Tyler Andrews:

Know, because I don't like the choices I make, or I thought I could do better, I could do better, I could do better and I almost doubt am I really that good? Do I have talent? Do I belong in this industry? Am I really gonna have a working career? All these things go through my mind, you know, even when you, even when I book the job, it's the of. Is this going to be good enough? Why the heck did they cast me? I saw some other great looking, you know. There's a taller guy there, there's a more handsome guy there, someone who I thought had a better voice.

Tyler Andrews:

All these things come up and I remember self-doubt when I first started Playhouse West. When I first started, my acting career was actually really important to me. It actually really helped me because I was doubting when I first started acting, I thought this would be the easiest thing ever. All I had to do is commit and I'll be great. And my first three and a half years at Playhouse West, I struggled, I struggled. I was really bad, couldn't understand things. I was playing the words, all these issues were coming up, but I had doubted myself in the sense that I knew I wasn't talented. I knew I didn't have what it takes right now to be a working actor, to really express myself, to do all the scene analysis, to do all those components. So that doubt came in. But then I used it to my advantage. I said, yeah, I doubt my capabilities to do that stuff because I know I'm not good at it, but I'm going to become obsessed at becoming good at them. So the doubt fizzles out. And I think that's how you get rid of doubt is by saying, okay, I doubt my confidence, my confidence. You know what I used to do.

Tyler Andrews:

I used to doubt my confidence all the time. I used to not be able to be myself on stage. I would go out in public and Luke Kwan can attest. Yeah, luke can attest to this, juliet Valdez can attest to this. I would publicly embarrass myself. I would go out into the grocery store and start singing. I would do all these things and they would go you're crazy, what are you calm down? What are you doing? I said I'm just doing it actually so that when I get on stage I'm less nervous because there's my friends that I'm like nervous. So I said why am I nervous with my friends in stage? So I don't feel like I'm doing enough. I said, well, if I can get some confidence I can start to build on top of that. So for me I I just publicly embarrassed myself.

Tyler Andrews:

I just started acting a fool and really I was acting like myself. So that self-doubt of like I'm not good enough kind of fizzled away. I said I don't care if I'm good enough, you just either accept me or you don't. I'm not going to change for you to accept me. We had the self-doubt. I turned it into obsession over the things I wasn't good at. That I knew I had to be at least foundationally good at for acting and I obsessed over that.

Tyler Andrews:

But doubt still comes in of like I don't think am I good enough to be in the industry? Do people really like me? Why? I mean, I remember my first year with my agent. There's probably about 50, 60 auditions I did. I never heard anything back, not one thing, no criticism, no callbacks, anything. And that was creeping in. I thought this was going to be the easiest thing in the world. I get an agent. Finally I can just work, and I'll work on some capacity all the time.

Tyler Andrews:

Nuh-uh, not how this industry works, especially when you're I mean, for some people it does when you're first starting out, you know luck comes to play in that and you get to work. But also you're, maybe you're more prepared. Maybe I wasn't as prepared a year ago as I am now and that doubt creeps in. But the only way I've been able to not worry about it is by just consistently working on the things that I doubt is by just consistently working on the things that I doubt.

Tyler Andrews:

If it's me not being emotional, well, I'll just spend a full week of watching really emotional movies and sitting here and crying my tears out to this laptop and being like I'm going to open myself up more to it, and then maybe I'll go out in public and I'll meet someone randomly and I'll just talk to them and if they start to say something about their life that's personal, I'll really try to be effective. I'll really try to be effective. I'll really try to take it in and be empathetic towards it, because your real life really does relate to the type of actor you are. That's another challenge Coming out here. To Los.

Tyler Andrews:

Angeles you're not seeing a lot of. If you're not in a school, you're not seeing all your friends tear their heart out on stage and you're like feeling that empathetic all the time can be like. It can be a cold business, you know. It can be like the blind and if you're not willing to do that work of still keeping your heart open as much as you can, still practicing those tools, the doubt will creep in immediately and I've noticed that out here and I was like oh, stop, stop, stop, stop.

Tyler Andrews:

we've experienced that before. What do we got to do? I just got to rehearse. I got to rehearse and work on these things. So that gave me confidence. That gave me the confidence being involved in the creative process.

Jennifer Logue:

Yes, putting yourself into the work, just working, working out the self-doubt.

Tyler Andrews:

By yourself. With friends, working out the self-doubt by yourself.

Jennifer Logue:

yeah, anyway yeah, so for actors just starting out, tyler, what do you think and we touched on some of these things already, but just in case there's more stuff you want to touch on what are the most important things to focus on for them to progress in their careers?

Tyler Andrews:

I'll go from two perspectives. If you're're at Playhouse West, just focus. If you're listening to this and you're a Playhouse West student, just focusing on the craft there, focusing on the skills that you're learning in the school because they are applicable in everything you do in the industry. The words and activities are every scene, practically Nonverbals are all in scripts, fantasies are used constantly, spoon rivers are all the speeches and the films are going to do. So. The more you can become great at those things you're learning at playhouse west, the more prepared you're going to be for the industry. So there's no rush to get out of it. Use all the time you can there, because it's it's. I'm telling you, there's no other place like that.

Tyler Andrews:

But if you're not an actor who's at a school and if you and if you don't think you have the time to train, or maybe not even have the money to train, I would say I told a friend of mine this reason is to start watching modern tv shows and modern movies and ask yourself what is required of those actors. What are they doing? What's required of them? Are they required to be emotionally available, to be able to take themselves on these emotional roller coasters, to be affected by what the other person is saying. You know they have to be able to build these characters to be someone.

Tyler Andrews:

Maybe they're not, you know you might have to play a pastor and start to ask yourself questions how would you get there for yourself? And start to work on it. Start to practice. You can practice by yourself. If you watch, you know a movie and I watched the midnight mass is a really good character who plays the pastor. And if you find yourself I want to play a preacher just be a preacher. Try to start applying those things that might work for yourself by yourself and learn what works for you. And I would also say read acting books, you know. Read about different techniques and try those things on. See if it works for you. Try it for like three months. If it's not working for you, find something else that works. Try it for like three months. If it's not working for you, find something else that works. You can really learn by just watching actors what they're required to do and then doing those same exact things that's great advice.

Jennifer Logue:

I had never heard that before either, so that was a first on the podcast, cool. So what's next for you, tyler?

Tyler Andrews:

ah, I wish, I wish we were next week so I could tell you. I can't tell you yet.

Jennifer Logue:

There's news. There is news.

Tyler Andrews:

There's big news. There's big news that I'm really, really, really excited about. It'll keep me busy for a while.

Jennifer Logue:

Yeah, Anyone that follows me on social media'll know with probably they'll know by december okay that'll be our christmas surprise, our holiday surprise, yeah it'll be a nice christmas surprise for everyone.

Tyler Andrews:

Yeah, I'm really happy about it.

Jennifer Logue:

I think everyone will like to hear about that so, tyler, I'm so excited to hear about this next project you're going to be working on I don't know what it is, uh, because you can't tell anybody until December, but that's totally okay. But thank you so much for sharing your journey with us on Creative Space. Seriously, such a great conversation.

Tyler Andrews:

Thank you so much for having me, jennifer. It was so nice to catch up and be able to talk to you again. It's been such a long time. So thanks for having me.

Jennifer Logue:

really it's been a pleasure oh, thank you now, before we go, though, where can our listeners uh follow you online so they can hear about this exciting news in december?

Tyler Andrews:

yeah, okay, so they can find me on instagram, um, at tyler joseph andrews and just my other I. I only have other. That's, that's all I have. Oh, sorry, I'll end that. Tyler Andrews is my Facebook. But, yeah, social media wise and that sort of way where you can see all my posts Instagram Tyler Joseph Andrews.

Jennifer Logue:

Awesome. Well, thank you again, and thank you all for tuning into creative space. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. Until next time.