THE POWER ISSUE - FEATURES
Landry Allbright
W
hile many child actors seem to fall apart as they get older, Landry Allbright, an Emerson junior, has never felt better. Though she had begun to make a name for herself in Hollywood at a young age, Allbright chose to put her career as an actress on hold to attend college, stepping out of the spotlight and into Beantown. Allbright’s previous work experience includes roles playing Nicholas Cage’s daughter in the movie Con Air, the Grinch’s childhood love interest in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and recurring roles on numerous television shows such as The Bold and the Beautiful, Will and Grace, and Malcolm in the Middle. She began her acting career at the age of two when she starred in her first television commercial for Cabbage Patch dolls, but she admits that none of this was her idea originally. “My sister was the one who wanted to act first,” Allbright says. “My mother brought me with her when she interviewed with an agent, and they ended up signing both of us.” While older sister Taylor found success doing a lot of voiceover work, Allbright made her way to both the small and big screens. Allbright could not be further from the “child star” stereotype. The downto-earth, blonde haired, blue-eyed BFA acting major is not interested in the celebrity status, and is focused instead on a successful acting career. “I realize that fame is definitely an aspect and a perk of acting,” Allbright says, “but I disassociate it with the career. It is clearly possible to become famous other ways— like being on reality TV— but the fame itself is not what motivates me. My ultimate goal is to be successful, not just famous.” She admits that while growing up, she didn’t feel any different than other kids her age or think the things she was doing were anything special. “I didn’t realize that it was unique or awesome at the time,” Allbright says. “I just thought that everyone had hobbies and this happened to be mine, but now I really appreciate it.” Her momentum as an actress peaked between the ages of five and 12, but once high school and puberty hit, she confesses that she lost her “cute kid” appeal, and things began to change. Everyone involved in her career began to focus
more on her looks than her talent— a common problem for child actors. “Once I started to become a young woman,” Allbright says, “I was being sent out on more sexually driven roles and I found that I had a really negative reaction to all the pressure. The fun that had motivated my childhood career was crumbling away, and my heart just kind of fell out of it.” She stopped acting and instead concentrated on school and looking at colleges. This was a relief to her mother (and manager) Donna Allbright who believes that education is the most valuable thing for her daughter. “My greatest fear was that she would love the feeling of working in the ‘business’ so much, that when she got older and would be faced with how hard it really is, she would spend much of her adult life desperately seeking any possible projects,” Donna says. “I have always felt that children who made that kind of money and were not well educated were dangerously unprepared for making healthy life choices.” The Los Angeles native applied to USC and UCLA, but fell in love with Emerson after visiting the campus, and she knows now that she definitely made the right decision. “I could have never guessed what this college had in store for me,” Allbright says. “I have learned so much about myself both as a person and as an actor. The classes, teachers, and especially the other 15 people in my BFA acting class have forever changed me and have given me the knowledge and ability to hone my craft as an actor.” Allbright has been in a number of Emerson theater productions, most recently including Kappa Gamma Chi presents The Vagina Monologues and Emerson Stage presents Chops. She has also acted in a number of Emerson student films, but because she belongs to the Screen Actor’s Guild union and needs to get approval from them in order to do it, which can often be “tedious,” she doesn’t audition often. While she may have had some success with acting in the past, Allbright knows that there is no way she can rely solely on that when it comes to her future. “I greatly value my past experience in the industry,” Allbright says. “I think it will
TEXT // CAITLIN BUELLER help me get my foot in the door and show how serious I am about what I have dedicated my entire life to. Sometimes I do wonder if [taking time off from acting] will hinder me, but I know it was the best choice for me even if it wasn’t the best choice for my career.” Donna Allbright believes that stepping out of the spotlight while making the transition from child to adult actor will only benefit her daughter. “I think Landry will be a better actor because of the maturity and life perspective that Emerson has and will provide,” she says. Though she may not seem like your average college student (how many Emersonians do you know that have their own IMDB and Wikipedia page?), you would never know by talking to Allbright that she is anything but normal. “Landry is the type of person you can know for five minutes and feel like you’ve known her your whole life,” says Allbright’s roommate and best friend, Sonya Glaessner, junior writing, literature, and publishing major. “What makes her such an amazing person (and actress) is the fact that she can relate to so many people on such a personal level.” Allbright says she would never even come close to flaunting her success, and has even responded to the phrase “You look so familiar” with a shrug of her shoulders to avoid bringing it up. “My biggest fear is sounding big-headed or conceited,” Allbright says. “I don’t value people who are like that. This is not who I am; it’s just something I’ve done, and it’s not something I’ve let define me.” Her plans after graduation include moving back home to L.A., finding an agent, and starting to audition for roles. “My goal is to be a film actor,” Allbright says, “but I know I’m not going to land a huge role right away. I plan to start small and try to build up momentum again. I know it will be worth it, though. This is definitely my calling.”
em magazine — SPRING 2011
59