Okay, I'm jumping on the bandwagon and doing an autobiography. It's a sad tale, a happy tale, a heartwarming tale...an all-too overdramatic tale really. Such is life.

A couple of years ago I overheard a conversation that I wasn't supposed to hear. It turns out that before I was born my parents were going to split up, but my mum got pregnant so dad wouldn't leave. He stayed, and nine months later I came along. The first thing the doctor said when I was born was "Hey, she's got red hair!" That's right, I was born with it and twenty years later it looks like I'm stuck with it.

I was a strange child. We moved around Australia a lot - Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide - and never really stayed in one place long enough for me to make any close friends. So I learned to rely on myself for company and amusement. I was that kid that's always playing pretend games - the kid that somehow manages to convince themselves that the pretend is real. At least, that's what the grownups thought. In my mind, it was like, I knew that it wasn't real, but the grownups expected me to believe it, so I put on a show for them. For example when I was five, I had a toy telephone. I was playing one day, and pretended to call my friend Ben, and arrange a "date" for that night. Mum and dad were going along with it, and it came time for my bath that night. So I had my bath but instead of putting on my pajama's I put on my favourite dress, ready for my "date". Then mum told me I wasn't really going on a date and I cried. Don't know why...I distinctly remember knowing that it wasn't real as I was getting dressed. Very strange.

We finally came to settle in one town when I was about eight. Before that I'd already been to four different schools, and wasn't expecting to stay long in this one. But I entered in grade 3, and finished Grade 6 there. Then I went on to high school in the same town, with some of my friends, and stayed there 'til I graduated.

I discovered dancing when I was about four, and living in Perth. I started out in calisthenics, which I didn't really enjoy, and mum soon moved me into ballet and tap, which I adored. Dancing became my life - in every city and every town this was the one thing that remained consistant. I auditioned for VCA (the Victorian College of the Arts School of Dance, the biggest performing arts school in Victoria) when I was fifteen, but didn't get in. Then, a year later, I fell and hurt my knee really bad, and had to quit dancing. I was devastated. What could I do for a career now? All I'd ever wanted to do was dance.

My high school did a big musical production every year - I got involved in Year 9, when the productin was 'Once Upon A Mattress'. I was just in the chorus, as everyone under Year 10 is, but it was the most fun I've ever had. Here in the theatre there wasn't the pressure and the bitchiness of the dance comps - it was just friends and fun and singing and dancing - it was perfect! So after I fell in Year 10, I decided that I would be an actress. After all, if I could do it in the high school play I could do it anywhere, right?

Acting became a bit of a dream, as I started getting into writing. I had always written stories, for as long as I could remember, but I discovered the wonderful world of fan fiction. My first forays were Backstreet Boys stories - I had my own website, plus an awards site - that became pretty huge. I wrote about fifty stories - 'Forbidden Love', 'Popstars', 'The Dying Game', 'House of Angels', the 'Just Hold On' and 'The One' series' were some of the titles. I continued to do school plays - 'West Side Story', 'Dames at Sea'...

During 'West Side Story' some people from the Boilerhouse Theatre Company, the local theatre company in my area, came to see the show and invited some of the leads to audition for their new play, 'Blackrock'. I overheard and tagged along to the audition - and never looked back. I did my twenty-fifth show with the B'house last year, and made my directorial debut last year as well. A couple of years ago I started to get bigger roles. While I'd started out in the chorus, I was getting more notice. First came Hedy La Rue in 'How To Succeed in Business'. That same year I did 'Seven Little Australians' as a chorus member, but with a featured dance or singing solo in practically every chorus number. They practically gave me my own bow. Minnie Faye in 'Hello Dolly' was an awesome role - my favourite to date. Even when I didn't get a lead role, I was always a featured soloist in the chorus.

I graduated high school with average marks. Year 12 had been a year of parties and drama and smoking on the back oval with my friends. While I'd always been one of the 'geeks' I'd made friends with some of the cooler people through the school play, and inducted them into my own group of friends. We became the drama crowd, and suddenly we were kinda cool. Especially me and Kelly, who were THE drama students of the school. Kel and I had the leads in the year 12 play, 'How to Succeed', and some of our classmates were invited to watch a preview of the solo performances we had to write and perform for our Drama exam. Suddenly if I walked into the upstairs girls' toilets the cool girls would offer me a smoke, and if I saw them in the hallway they'd ask how my drama solo was coming along. They congratulated me when I got a B on the exam. The toughest girl in the school stood up for me when she heard there was a girl that was giving me shit during play rehearsals.

But as cool and as nice as these girls turned out to be, my other friends always came first. After all, I'd had a friend ditch me in primary school for some 'cooler' people, and I knew how it felt.

After high school, Kelly and I went into a performing arts course that sounded fantastic in the brochures. Diploma of Arts - classes in acting, singing, dancing, stage management, production management, stage makeup, lighting, sound - everything you needed to know about theatre all rolled into a two year course, on a campus that was in our town. Sounds perfect right? Wrong.

The course was run by a wanker who couldn't organise his way out of a paper bag. The acting classes were good - a bit wanky, but you'd get that in any acting class. Dance was actually "movement" - after doing a wanky warm up where we'd self-consciously wiggle our asses in the air, we'd roll like rocks across the floor and invade each other's negative space. Singing was actually voice - we lie on our backs for forty-five minutes breathing, then practice a bunch of tongue-twisters. I quickly found that I had no interest at all in the production/backstage side of things, but these were the most important components in the course. The teachers were wanky fringe-artists who encouraged us to go see "experimental" theatre where people performed existentialist one-man shows about the meaning of life. The light at the end of the tunnel was the free beer days the student union would organise, and the insane parties we would hold.

Gradually the wanky "performance artists" left the course, and by the second year we were left with about eight of us who'd grown very close and just wanted to put on good theatre. So we did. We were the first class in the history of the course to put on a show completely of our own accord - written, directed, produced and performed by us. It was bloody hard work, but the show was awesome. The show was called 'Black, White and a Nasty Shade of Grey', and it was a little obscure, but awesome.

It was about this time that I started writing on EWFN. We'd had a four-month break before we started on 'Black, White' - a much needed break in my opinion. I'd been doing back-to-back and usually overlapping shows for four years - there hadn't been a moment where I wasn't involved in at least one play - and it all culminated on opening night of our last teacher-produced uni play. I found myself sitting outside our little theatre with a cappacino and a cigarette, sobbing uncontrollably, terrified to go onstage. I'd lost all ability to take direction - I just couldn't find the motivation for my character - and with a whole bunch of crap that was going on with the love of my life, an asshole named Ashley, I just wanted to crawl into a hole and die. That was my nervous breakdown of sorts - I don't remember much of it, but I managed to get through the show, and the other one I was involved in at the B'house at the same time, with not much damage done. Then I took a break.

I discovered elijah-wood.com when I was searching for pics of Lij one day, and clicked on the Fan Fiction link for old times' sake. A whole new world was suddenly opened up. In my BSB days there'd never been a site like this - where people would give you feedback straight into your thread, where close friendships were made through these stories. Inspiration hit and Hollywood Confidential was born.

Now I've graduated my course, and I'm currently playing Lily St Regis in 'Annie the Musical' at Mount Players Inc. They are a very prestigious company - EXTREMELY hard to get into. There's gonna be some big casting directors from Melbourne in the audience and the show opens in May, so wish me luck! I'm also looking for a new job - my part-time job at a supermarket (the inspiration for Superwhat???) isn't giving me enough hours to live on, so I need something else. My parents are pushing me to get a boring office job, but I'd rather die. They can't fathom my wanting to be an actress - I don't know where this creative streak in me comes from, I'm kind of the black sheep in my family. We'll see how it goes.

So that's me! I think I've crapped on for long enough...lol. Keep a look out - I may be coming to a movie theatre near you...

Jaime

I was the title and was like 'Oh that is sooo Jaimes' ^_^

Anyway, the only thing I can say is that you so have a typical actress life. You know the hollywood actresses and how they talk about their lives and how they became famous.

It's a sign I tell you, a sign! ;-)

haha!!! Thanks honey - you'll be the first to get a thank you in my Oscar's acceptance speech! lol :hug:

damn I love this thread! You get to know bunches of cool things about your fiends...*nods on the word friend*
I won't comment much on this coz if I start I won't ever finish, you know I can babble for hours and hours... just let me say that I'm happy you posted, this helped me a lot to figure you out.
And it just feels so good!!! :hug:

lots n lots of luv,
A.

Aw, Jaime, it was so nice to read this. Mena's right, it really did let me get to know a bunch of cool things about you. Good luck in May, dear! I'm sure everything will work out for you. And, when you become a rich and famous actress, I can say I knew you way back when. :yes:
hugs,
amber

*hugs girls, getting emotional* You guys....Amber, I went to add you to my MSN contacts and it wouldn't let me. :( It said you don't have a passport account or something...I was sad.

A passport account? hmmm, I have no idea what that means. lol. Aw, I'm sad too now. I usually use my aol messenger, but I do use MSN to talk with Mena. I wonder why it won't let you add me. I shall try to figure out a solution to this problem. lol.

Hey Jaime!!
I'd heard you say somewhere you were on a play or something but I didn't imagine something that important!! WOW! Honey, if you got to where you are, you must be very good! ;-)

I wish you the best of lucks on this and all the plays you ever make! And I'll point if I ever see you in a movie :P
Also, if I ever make my dream of being a movie director, I'll contact you! ;-) Hehehe :P

LOL @ Flower...definitely hun! Have your people call my people and we'll do lunch...hehe!! *hugs*