Make Your Own Luck

The Coven's correspondents recently attended Her Conference, our inaugural Witch Fest and a multi day event where key note speaker Troian Bellisario shared her wisdom. Troian Bellisario, who most know as Spencer from Pretty Little Liars, left the audience wanting more after her infamous key note speech at Her Conference. Bellisario who began her acting at the age of three, quickly filled her resume as an actress, tv producer, writer and most recently, film producer.

Talk to us about your college experience

What I really wanted was conservatory style training. It wasn’t until I applied to USC and got into their BFA program in their School of Theater and I got to be in that conservatory-style training when I really felt like my college experience ignited. It was everything I had hoped for.  My friends and I formed a little theater company and that was when I started to create and really define myself.  I will never forget when I walked into my first acting class my first day there and the teacher said, “You’re not here for us to teach you how to be actors.  You are actors, but we just give you the space to try anything you want.” So I really looked at it like four years of a laboratory where I could fail and be horrible and try to be a bit better and then fail again and really experiment. I tell this to everybody who comes and asks, “What do I do if I want to become an actor?” and I say I needed my college experience. I needed the classes, I needed the experience of doing plays with my friends; I needed the freedom to not have my first time that I fell on my face in front of a camera, be an actual job. If you go out and solicit work when you’re younger, there are so many pressures and expectations for you to be a professional. Fortunately, I had some experiences being on sets and stuff in college, but I also knew I wanted to build my confidence, craft and ability as an actor. College was an integral factor in doing so.

What other lessons have you learned in college?

College isn’t only about confidence, but it’s also about building a foundation for yourself. In college, I met like-minded artists who also loved theatre and who also believed that they wanted to invest four years of their lives in their craft.  Those are people with whom I still collaborate.  My best friend from college, Tommy Bertelson, directed me in Feed; this is a relationship that first started when he directed me in a little scene. To this day, we're still creating together.  It’s not just about the experiences you have in college, but it’s also about the people you find that you carry with you (and they carry you as well) into the next part of your life.

Talk us through your journey to when you first decided acting is what you wanted to pursue and to the point where you got your big break

Both of my parents are in the industry, so my earliest memories are on a set or a backlot. I know how to be quiet for a really long time. I know how to survive off of craft surfaces. I have a lot of great respect for the crews and everyone around you on the set who are doing their best work to be able to give you the opportunity to do your work.  So, when I was little, like 3, I remember turning to my parents and saying, “I want to do that; I want to be in front of the camera.” And I remember my dad was like “God, I really don’t want you to be an actor.” But my mom was like, “Just give her a chance.” So, I got my first role when I was four and I did not understand why we had to do multiple takes or angles. I thought it was so boring.

What made you decide to audition for the role of Spencer Hastings and what was the process like for you in becoming her?

It’s not really a story a lot of people love to hear. I think a lot of people want me to tell the story that they’d expect; right, which is like I went out, I auditioned, and I got it and it was like AMAZING! Being that I went to a theater school and I love New York City and I’m from LA, I’ve really wanted to come out to New York and try a career in theater my whole life. I remember in my senior year of college talking to my agents and saying, “Just so you know, I’m planning to move to New York and I want to do theatre. I’m not opposed to working in LA, but that is my trajectory” and they said, “Absolutely.”

So that was my plan and I got out of school.  The play in New York didn’t work out, but a play in LA did. My first job was the understudy in the Los Angeles production of Farragut North and I was Olivia Thirlby’s understudy.  I remember being like, “Oh man, I’m just going to be an understudy,” and of course the very next play they called me in and I auditioned and then I got that role. It was proof of the importance of perseverance in any position of internship where you might not be doing that thing that you feel like you want to be doing.  It’s important for you to go, watch in the environment, watch how people they conduct themselves, and just try to learn and be an apprentice. Needless to say, I then went into a play in Los Angeles and I kept saying to myself “After this play, I’ll go to New York and I’ll start my journey," but this did not happen.

So what had happened was there was an audition to go for and I remember reading the script and someone saying, “This is going to be the next Gossip Girl and it’s going to be huge.”

And I was like “I’ve never seen that show. That’s great, but I don’t want this.”  

Later my agent sat me down and said, “Look, you're young, you’re just starting out your career, and what you need to do is work. It doesn’t matter where you do it or what you’re doing. You just need to get experience.”  

Finally, I decided to go in and had assumed they weren’t going to cast me. I know they want the blonde, all American girl-next-door, so whatever.  I’ll go in, maybe I’ll make a couple of new fans in the room, and at least I’ll get the experience in auditioning for a television show. Shortly after my agent called me back and was like, “They want you to go in again, but this time do your hair and makeup better!”

I went in again for the call back and then they tested me in front of a studio. The whole time I had this notion in the back of my brain like, “New York is getting further and further away.” Finally, they called me and said I got the role. I remember, honestly, I knew it was such an incredible opportunity and I sat down and I just started crying. Not because I was upset that I had gotten something so wonderful, but because I suddenly had no idea what direction my life was going. Not in a million years had I thought that I would be on a TV show. Never in a million years did I think I would be on a teen show. I wasn’t into Gossip Girl or Buffy the Vampire Slayer so this was all brand new to me. I picked myself back up the ground and said to myself, “What can you do in this role as Spencer Hastings that can challenge you in the way you feel challenged by theatre? What can I do to engage in this work?” I’m so grateful for the ways that this show changed my life. I wouldn’t have been able to create my film Feed without this platform. I wouldn’t have the relationship that I have with so many fans and incredible people that I’ve spoken to so many times.