Diana Elizabeth Jordan: Create Your Own Opportunities
Episode Description:
Diana Elizabeth Jordan is an award-winning actor, solo artist, theatre- and filmmaker, artist educator, and disability influencer. She has been cast in over 60 film, TV, and theatre productions, including CBS’s SWAT. Diana is also the founder of two production companies: Dreaming Big On A Swing Entertainment and The Rainbow Butterfly Café. Diana is a member of SAG-AFTRA and Actors Equity Association and one of the disabled advocates for Women of Color Unite. In this episode, Anya talks with Diana about her work as a disability advocate and how she's built a career in Hollywood.
TRANSCRIPT:
Anya (00:12):
Welcome back to Sista Brunch with me, Anya Adams. Sista Brunch is a podcast about Black women and non-binary folks striving and thriving in media, entertainment and the arts, and we can't wait to share more stories with you over the next few weeks. My cohost, Fanshen , is out today. We will miss her dearly, but don't worry. She'll be back soon, and I'm super excited to dig in to today's interview. Our guest for this episode is the award winning actor, solo artist, theater and filmmaker, artist, educator and disability influencer Diana Elizabeth Jordan. We are so excited to have you.
Diana (00:52):
Oh, Anya. Thank you for having me. And Fanshen, I'm thinking of you and sending you love.
Anya (00:59):
I'm going to just tell our guests a little bit about you, Diana. Here's the rundown on Diana. Diana has been cast in over 60 films, y'all. 60 films, television and theater productions, including CBS's S.W.A.T., which is high action. She recently performed her solo show, Happily Ever After (One Woman's Journey to Find a True Love), I'm on that journey as well, at the 2021 Hollywood French Festival where she received a diversity scholarship, Pick of the Fringe, and an Encore Producers' Awards honors.
Anya (01:33):
She's an award nominated director, a producer, and the founder of two production companies, Dreaming Big on a Swing Entertainment, I love that visual, and The Rainbow Butterfly Café. Diana's also a member of SAG-AFTRA, an actor's equity association, and one of the disabled advocates for Women of Color Unite. With all of that, it is wonderful to bring you onto our podcast Sista Brunch, Diana, and dig in with you.
Diana (02:05):
Thank you so much for having me. Thank you very much.
Anya (02:09):
I'm so overwhelmed with your history of all of these things you've done. And it's not just one thing. It's a multitude. One of things we like to do on this podcast is talk to our guests about how they got to the place they are now. Do you want to just talk to us a little bit about your background and how you started working in entertainment and got into this role?
Diana (02:33):
Yeah. I was one of those kids. I remember those people that always knew that I wanted to be an actor. Well, I actually liked to joke I was meant to be an actor because I entered the world in a highly dramatic fashion. I didn't breath on my own for 45 minutes, so the doctors worked on my for 45 minutes before I started breathing on my own. As a result, I have cerebral palsy, which is a neurological disorder that mildly affects my speaking gait. Though I'd always known that I might be an actor, I always had known that I wasn't going to let barriers stop me from being an actor.
Diana (03:27):
I don't think my story is any different than those of us who've always know this is what we wanted to do. I did theater in high school and elementary school. I went on to college and got a graduate degree in theater. I was the first actress with disability to get my master's degree at Cal State Long Beach. I had a master's in fine arts. But that was when the career and also teaching. I teach at a wonderful placed called Performing Arts Studio West where I teach other actors who have disabilities. We were in our 20s. It was started in 1998. They were going into our 23rd anniversary this year.
Diana (04:19):
Again, I've always known what I wanted to do, and I think other things came into that where I discovered my love for directing. I discovered that I love to teach. They all became these extensions of who I am as an actor. Producing became an extension. And unless it's necessary for me to create opportunities for myself... But everything with that of this little girl who just wanted to perform and express myself. I even had an aunt who was an actress. She died a year before I was born. So I would hear stories about her from my grandmother. She had a very small role in Band of Angles, this episode with Sidney Poitier. She was like in one scene. That was really cool.
Anya (05:23):
Yeah.
Diana (05:23):
Yeah. I've always known this is what I wanted to do, and I always wanted to create opportunities for myself and for other actors who were marginalized by a part of their identity as well.
Anya (05:41):
Do you start acting and then the directing and the producing came? And in terms of the acting, how did you break through? What was your first experience? How did that go?
Diana (05:53):
I will say this. I was offered the role of baby Jesus. My dad was a minister. I was offered the role of baby Jesus. My mother turned it down because that's a role you can never do again. No, I am over that. Let me tell you, I was offered the role of baby Jesus when I was six months old at my daddy's church. So we'll let that go. But hey. I think my birth mother was like mother bird and was great at... It was like, "Are you my mother," and I was mother bird. But I really just got into it. I was working to go... I've been mainstreamed my whole life.
Diana (06:43):
I was with kids who did not have disabilities, but my high school had a great theater program and I was lucky to have teachers that were really supportive, Mr. [inaudible 00:06:59], and Mrs. [Paulie 00:06:59], who was there who gave me opportunities in the lead. Mr. [Lewis 00:07:07]. I went to a school that had a great arts program at the time when they were really putting money into the arts program. They grew up in Oak Park [inaudible 00:07:18], which is a suburb of Chicago, and that helped. Then I just bought my way through and I went, I designed a major in college.
Diana (07:30):
I did still take theater classes and then I was determined when I started in Chicago with the [inaudible 00:07:39] that year that I wasn't going to go through auditions. I didn't care whether it said disability or not. Where there's an audition that said, "Woman in her 20s," when I was in my 20s, I would go for that. I just always said, "I'm going to go," and I did get opportunities that I faced a lot. I usually got, "You're really good. We just don't know how to cast you." I'd be like, "Give me a part. Not that hard. You just, 'Here. Here's the script.' I mean, that's how you cast other people. This is how you cast me."
Diana (08:30):
Yeah. Things have gotten better over the years. I'm in a new category now, because now I like to say, "I celebrate the intersections of [inaudible 00:08:41] disability and maturity." 29 years is a lot of years. But that's another thing. I'm in a new category and I'm going to celebrate because I'm in a new category of mature woman, so why can't I celebrate a mature woman who's really okay with seeing it all out, including having a disability? Why can't that woman be a lawyer or a judge or fall in love with someone that look like Denzel Washington, for example? As an actor. [inaudible 00:09:28]. I'm talking about on screen only.
Anya (09:35):
This is Sista Brunch with me, Anya Adams. Fanshen is away today. Stay tuned for more of our conversation with our amazing guest, actor an disability advocate, Diana Elizabeth Jordan. We're back. Check out more of our conversation with Diana Elizabeth Jordan. Well, that's so amazing. What's really interesting, I'm hearing you say is like you almost didn't see anything in your way. You were just like, "This is what I want. I'm going to put myself in the position to get it." I think that's so inspirational for all of us to just not see the barriers that are being put in front of us. But I do think a Forbes interview that you had in which you mentioned your agent had said to you, "You're Black. You're a woman. You have a disability, and I'm not a social worker."
Diana (10:43):
That was a new... Yeah. Yeah. That was when in Chicago I was looking for an agent. I have fabulous representation now, but when I was looking for an agent back in Chicago, I went to one of the big agents in Chicago, and that's exactly what she said to me. I am very positive, but I didn't want to make it seem like this road has been a better road, because it's been very challenging. But I find there's a circular thing, because actually that agent that said that to me, she was the head of the agency. Two years later, one of her associates called me and said, "I want to represent you." I just said, "Well, your boss said this." She goes, "Well, I'm saying this."
Diana (11:42):
That was one of my first agents. Even in the difficulties, which there have been that. I mean, there have been many, many tears. I have been trying focus on the blessings. Yeah. It's been really hard. This is a very tough business. But this, doing this right now, being on this show is a blessing. It's such a great opportunity to talk about... Yeah. I don't like to call it thinking outside the box. I like to say, "The box is really big," because we don't realize how big it is. Because I'm not outside of anyone's box. I'm in the box. You can see that I belong in the box, not outside of it. And the diversity of other actors who have... Other disabled actors as well, because we're a very diverse, very intersectional group, and we're the least visible... Authentically, we're the least visible on television and theater. But that is changing and that's really wonderful.
Anya (12:56):
Yeah. I do find people find it very exciting. I mean, what comes to mind, I was just thinking I don't know if you've watched Sex Lives of College Girls.
Diana (13:05):
No, I have not. No.
Anya (13:09):
Because I feel like they do a good job of representing the university experience and a little bit more diverse in terms of people within college are not just able bodied. You've got there's a girl in a wheelchair. It's quite diverse and it's exciting and interesting to watch, because I think people want to hear those stories. They want to understand different points of view, and I think it feels like our industry is slowly breaking that open. But it also feels like that's work that you've been doing for quite a while, putting one foot in front of the other yourself, but then also creating these organizations to help as a united front to kind of bust open that door.
Diana (13:52):
Right. And I've been a part of some. I mean, at Performing Arts Studio West, I teach. That was started by John Paizis. I don't want to take credit, but I think as a whole, that our actions at Performing Arts Studio West, where I have been teaching, have been casting over 2500 and mentors having a roles in film and television and theater since. So things are changing. I'm getting more auditions than I have, and I do get called in to read non-disabled roles, and I love that. I mean, I love when I get called in for the woman in the store or whatever. We can say, "That's who I am." I mean, my disability is a part of who I am, but it's just one of my identities. I'm an aunt, I'm a daughter, I'm still doing the life changes that people in their 50s...
Diana (15:01):
I want to proudly say what my age is. I think I'm done with that we shouldn't feel ashamed. We need to feel proud of whatever stage in life we're at. And then you feel this is amazing. That's another barrier to break down, because they're not going to deny who I am. Because if they do that, the friends that grew up with me like, "You're not 30. What are you talking about? I went to high school with you. You're not 35." Women shouldn't be afraid to celebrate who they are, no matter what stage in life they're at.
Anya (15:49):
That's such a beautiful sentiment, and one we need to have as a mantra I feel like, because the world is pummeling us with other ways of thinking about it, which are not as healthy.
Diana (16:02):
Well, I mean, I've met women like Andie MacDowell and Sarah Jessica Parker are saying, "Here's my grays. Here I am. Deal with it." I'm hoping they'll be a platform. We're also in the mature acting category. That I can represent, and disability is a part of that.
Anya (16:31):
Yeah. Yeah. The other thing I wanted to ask you about was your coaching, because I feel like you spend a lot of time now you've kind of stepped into this leadership role where you're helping younger actors and people that have decided they want to act that have developmental disabilities or whatever the situation. You're helping them move towards their goals. How do you see that mentoring and advocacy work dovetailing with your own career work?
Diana (17:11):
That's a really good questioning, because there was a time when I'd be like sometimes my clients get more auditions than I do, and I'm like, "Wait." I have to get to the point mentally where I'm like, "It's both. I can do both." That's why once I shifted my mindset, and I think there was a long time where my coaching was my day job, and I saw it as a day job, but I really think day job can be such a sabotaging mind word. Because day job says, "I'm not successful. I have to have a day job." Whereas once I said, "You know what I am? Coaching is an extension of who I am as an actor." And the truth is really in my coaching, one of my acting clients, one of the clients at the studio for a role that I'm going out for too.
Diana (18:29):
So if I am coaching a young male actor, there's not competition. So it's not like I'm coaching them for a role that I'm going out for. But it still allows me to be direct and be creative, and I'm also putting people in their dreams too. Since the pandemic, the studio has gone online, so I record and tape four YouTube classes a week. So that's all the teachers do. Alexander, our music teacher, does music. Joe and Alexander do music. My cohost, David, does an interview of Meet The Biz, and our wonderful dance teacher does dance, and then Pascal does the spoken word [inaudible 00:19:24]. We do a [inaudible 00:19:27]. So we're offering online content.
Diana (19:31):
So in a way now, I'm producing four webisodes a week where I write it, I produce it, I shoot it, I edit it, [crosstalk 00:19:46] the edit, and then I send it to be played online. So I'm constantly creating content now. But my weekly vlog, A Morning Cup of Joy, will start again next week. I'm very excited. You have to be creative and do what you do. If I can mentor somebody else... I didn't have that mentoring in the same way that I can give it to other people. I'm honored. Again, you can either look at your glass half empty, half full or from the [inaudible 00:20:24].
Diana (20:24):
Last year I set as a goal I wanted to book three costars. That was a goal I set. That didn't happen. I had a lot of auditions where my team is like, "Great auditions." I didn't book, but I was getting called in consistently, which is a part of what happens in this industry. But then I realized even though we didn't book costars on TV and film, and then they are just improv space and we did [inaudible 00:21:00] from there and did improv, I was asked to be a guest on four or five different shows last year. So I did get my costar and guest star roles, but it wasn't in the way I imagined it, but it still happened.
Anya (21:15):
Well also, you were in the rooms, girl. So it doesn't matter if you didn't get them this year. The fact that people saw you and now they'll remember you and you're out in these other places, that's so much a part of building your brand in this industry now I feel like, especially when you have such unique talents to share. For people to be able to see that and remember you, they're going to be like, "Oh, yeah. Let's get Diana. She was great for this. It didn't work out, but we'll use her for that." You know what I mean?
Diana (21:47):
Especially now, a casting director might get five, 800 submissions from one role. If you got called in, we can [crosstalk 00:22:00] calling in... They're not calling in all thousand of those people. They're probably calling in maybe 50 to 100. If you get 1,000, even if you get 500 submissions, they're going to call in maybe a fifth of that. So just for me to get called in, like you said, "I got into the room over 13 times last year." For me, the majority those roles were not these typical... They're just the neighbor, the lady that worked at the bank. For me, that's huge to get in that generic supporting category. I was in that category over 13 times last year.
Anya (23:02):
That's so great. Yeah. So you broke through in a way that-
Diana (23:02):
Yeah, I broke through.
Anya (23:05):
Yeah. Which is fantastic. I think it's also a great lesson for people to see like as you do, as you keep creating your own content, as you... Again, like I always say, it's foot in front of the other, and you're pushing forward for what you want and you have in your mind what you want, which is to be seen as a person.
Diana (23:25):
Exactly. Exactly.
Anya (23:25):
The lady in the story and a whatever.
Diana (23:28):
Right.
Anya (23:29):
That's fantastic. Hi, it's Anya and you're listening to Sista Brunch. We'll be right back. And if you haven't already, follow us on Twitter @SistaBrunch, Instagram @sistabrunchpodcast, and on Facebook at facebook.com/sistabrunchpodcast. Leave us a comment, slide into our DMs and share your news with us. We want to celebrate your hard work with you. I have a very specific question we like to ask our guests.
Diana (24:01):
Sure.
Anya (24:02):
You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but we like to talk about it because we feel like people don't talk a lot about their salary and their range and what they get paid. Are you comfortable talking about like-
Diana (24:15):
Yeah, yeah. I mean, right now as far as acting, I mean, I've done some ultra low-budget films. I mean, I'm making standard rates when I do. Honestly, for TV and film and shows, I'm not working that on a regular basis. But when I do, it's nice. I look at things when I do a role, especially when there's not the compensation, I go, "Is role a challenge? Will it make me grow? How does it feel?" Sometimes I get paid. During these improv shows, I started working with Impro LA and doing narrative improv, which is a longer form of improv, which I fell completely in love with.
Diana (25:27):
I mean, I get paid to do those shows. But the creativity, the creative role that a casting director may not necessarily see me in, but just that freedom just to continue to work on my listening skills as an actor to be challenged like, "Here you're going to do this for an hour, and there are no lines, and there are no scripts. Here you go." And they work on trusting the wonderful other improvers I get to work with. That's incredible. So I may not get the financial compensation. Honestly, during the pandemic that kind of saved me too. These past two years have been incredibly challenging in so many ways.
Anya (26:23):
I like that answer though, because I feel like as an actor specifically too, you may not be getting paid a lot of money to do the project, but the experience and the foundation it's building for you is only going to help you make more money when you get the job because you'll be able to pivot in whatever way.
Diana (26:42):
Is it?
Anya (26:45):
Yeah. Yeah.
Diana (26:45):
There are things now that were then where there's nothing wrong with doing [inaudible 00:26:51]. But for me, that's not something I wanted to do anymore because I had been working really hard for over 30 years at my career. I think you have to right. I think you also have to know what your boundaries are and what you're willing to do and be okay with that. There are certain things that I may not feel as comfortable doing. I think you really just have to be able to say, "This is okay, and this is not." It's very individual with each person.
Anya (27:30):
Person. Yeah.
Diana (27:31):
Yeah.
Anya (27:32):
Agreed. Agreed. Diana, I can literally talk to you all day, because you have so much interesting experience and stuff. But we're coming to the end of the podcast and I just want to give you an opportunity, because you did earlier talk about all these names. You're like, "You don't know these people, but this is what we're doing." Can you tell us just what are you doing right now, how can we support you, where do we go to follow you on the Instagrams and the Facebooks? Yeah.
Diana (28:01):
To know more about Performing Arts Studio West, that is pastuidowest.com. That's the place I worked as an acting coach and teacher for the past 21 years [inaudible 00:28:17]. That's also a great resource for talented actors with disabilities. If you want to follow me, you can go to my website is my name, dianaelizabethjordan.com. My Instagram and Twitter are all from the heart DEJ. And that's where you'll also find my A Morning Cup of Joy vlog, which premiers next February 2nd. The first [crosstalk 00:28:49] of the year is next Wednesday. I had taken a break because we're back, and you can find out about my Women's show also on my website, and that will lead you to my other company. You can look for me, call me. Can I say that? Call me in. Call me in or something. Call me in and give me an opportunity to show you what I have to offer.
Anya (29:22):
Yeah. I love that.
Diana (29:28):
Call me in and give me an opportunity to meet with me and let me show you what I have to offer, and maybe at this part it doesn't match. There'll be another one. I don't demand. I just would love an opportunity to show more people what I have to offer. And yes, I want to book, but I can't book if I don't get an opportunity to come in the room. I would love an opportunity to get in more rooms, and then maybe that room will lead to a set.
Anya (30:02):
I love it.
Diana (30:03):
I got in the room last year, and now I want to get on the set this year.
Anya (30:07):
I love that. I want to high five you, but-
Diana (30:11):
From the room to the set. Yeah.
Anya (30:12):
I love it. From the room to the set.
Diana (30:14):
I've got a theme for this year, reaching new heights. I take a motto every year, and this year it's reaching new heights, so that's what I'm going to do.
Anya (30:26):
Well Diana, thank you so much for coming on our show. I loved talking to you, and I think you really provided some incredible insight for our listeners and for me as well. It's just been a pleasure.
Diana (30:38):
Oh, thank you for having me. Thank you so much.
Anya (30:49):
Thank you for listening to Sista Brunch with me, Anya Adams. That was our conversation with Diana Elizabeth Jordan. Visit sistabrunch.com to find out more about her and how to support her upcoming projects. Remember, Fanshen will be back with me soon. But in the meantime, don't forget to follow us on Instagram @sistabrunchpodcast, or also on Twitter @SistaBrunch, and on Facebook at sistabrunch.com/sistabrunchpodcast. Got questions for our Ask Sista Brunch segment? Vista sistabrunch.com to fill out our questions form, and we might just read and answer your on air.
Anya (31:28):
Also, sign up for our monthly newsletter to get job tips, viewing recommendations and more. Oh, and don't forget to subscribe, rate and review our show on iTunes. Your support is really, really important to us. Our senior producer is Sonata Lee Narcisse. Our show producer is Brittany Turner. Our executive producer is Christabel Nsiah-Buadi. And we'd like to acknowledge that the land we record our podcast on is the original land of the Tongva people for those of us in Los Angeles. Can't wait to see you next time. Take care, everyone.