THE CHOSEN INTERVIEW: Actress Amber Shana Williams (Tamar) | Hosted by Jenalynn Weed

[Music] hello everyone i'm jennalyn weed and welcome to another episode of chatting with the chosen [Music] uh i have the honor and privilege of speaking with a special guest who played tamar who i think should be named the bestest friend in the universe to her friend who is paralyzed i have the one the only amber shayna williams amber how are you um like on behalf of against the tide thank you for taking the time to have this interview how are you doing i am doing great i am so honored to be here thank you for having me i'm so excited yeah and where are you calling from so currently right now i'm in madrid spain like smack dab in the middle of the city center wow oh my gosh that must be so thrilling i mean you know with corona i bet you know it's been a little quieter than usual but is it still kind of you know kicking life uh even in the midst of corona well you know we started our quarantine a lot earlier than everyone else because we kind of had we were the center of a lot of things right away but then we kind of got past that and now we're kind of back on the streets where things are back at it for living life again of course safely with our mask and things so things are almost back to normal so you might hear a few ambulance or or something come by during the interview life is almost back to normal back here oh that is so great to hear i know back you know in the states some things are a little back to normal some things aren't and so um you know it's just kind of still taking life one day at a time you know so you never quite know what tomorrow's going to be like so yeah but uh i just wanted to start us off with a fun question so our fans might not know this because you didn't do this in your scenes in the chosen but you're highly skilled in sword combat firearms and other forms of stage fighting why did you decide to focus on skilled arts such as these okay so a lot of people don't know that it is a dream of mine to be a superhero it really is i've always wanted to be a superhero or at least play one on tv and so um the first thing i thought was i just love the sword i love the long sword i love the katana blade and that was the first thing i was drawn to and so i started learning how to use all the different swords and then i started learning how to do some stage combat now of course because of some of the things that happened quarantine i didn't get to finish all of my training a little bit more hands uh a hand hand combat as well as dagger use and how to use it you know mysterious like but hopefully i'll get back to that really soon uh but yeah that is the best thing ever um i have done a couple of projects where i've had to use it and it was really cool doing like barrel rules and jumping in the air and stun i did my own stunts it was it was really awesome so a lot of people don't know that and i don't think that tomorrow is going to be doing too much of that anytime soon would that be awesome that would be incredible just like have her you know we'll see i feel like she should have gone through the crowd like that just be like move aside just making way amazing tell dallas to put it in there for season that would have been incredible oh my gosh so are you looking to be in the next wonder woman movie or okay so i'm not super picky but of course you have black panther and that just provides so many opportunities uh for people especially people that look like me and um i've always and they of course they have so many more weapons that they use with their hands as well you have the staff and you you have more sword play and it's just beautiful to watch them it's and then they have the dura melanche which of course is very of the the women leading the army which you don't always see quite a bit as well and so yeah it could be like you've been amazon with wonder woman i have like look if marvel is watching they should be watching the chosen by the way so watch the chosen marble and then also call me because i'm waiting to be a superhero oh my gosh i love that oh my gosh yeah well and just how empowering does it feel to just you know feels amazing it really does especially since most of the there's not a lot of women um that are doing combat especially weapons combat and so i'm fighting against a lot of guys and so when i'm i'm fighting against them and i have the upper hand you can't imagine how awesome that feels like yeah oh my gosh yeah we'll see but that means that you are twice as skilled because you have to work twice as hard to get the leg up on them so that means you're twice as good as they are oh my gosh i absolutely love that um and so kind of just zooming out to your whole entire story so stage combat is part of your story but i was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about your backstory and why you decided to pursue acting professionally well you know acting was something i always wanted to do growing up but as most of us know our parents are always really concerned about having a life that is more stable that's your parents dream for you they want you to be a doctor and a lawyer a teacher um and so that's what i did i went to college i got a degree in human resource management and sociology but my heart was just still calling and acting is something that you don't really choose it chooses you it's really hard to explain um i even went to nursing school uh was darn near finished and then it just called out to me there was nothing else i could do i was just like i'm i'm i'm leaving i can't finish this someone really close to me passed away and um he he had some very some very clear words to me before he passed and he said it was my grandfather my best friend he said i worked hard enough in this life for you to do whatever it is you want to do in yours and with that i made the decision i said you know what um life isn't over until it's over you can always start over again if you decide that something is not for you i'm gonna do this right now because life is short you have no idea uh when it's your last day because tomorrow isn't promised i'm going to do this right now and so i decided um i guess it's 2020 so maybe this was 2013 i made the decision to do it full time so maybe i began in 2010 but it was until 2013 that i decided to quit everything else become a full-time actor it was it's not easy at all it is a very difficult lifestyle and career choice but it's rewarding you meet so many beautiful people and you learn so much about yourself and that's kind of how i got started into that and i tell you my life has changed so very very much since deciding to become an actor for sure wow that is incredible thank you so much for sharing that with me and i'm sorry for the loss of your friend but would you say so you mentioned a little bit about you know how you learn so much about yourself with acting um and so would you say that that is what draws you to acting or uh can you can't even explain and put into words what what draws you into acting yes i think what a lot of people experience as human beings in general is a lot of censorship and we tend to hold a lot in how we really feel and what we really want to say but as an actor i can be people who who don't have to do that and who do not do that imagine having a friend who is paralyzed and how you would love to scream at the top of your lungs to the world for someone to save them but how often have you actually done that tamar did it and it gives you a chance to have this voice so being an actor allows you to use the voice that you often hide um you can be anyone you can be everyone um now i can tell my mom i am a doctor on tv i am a nurse and a lawyer on tv um but yeah it just it provides you this opportunity to actually be more of yourself than you've ever been um you can tap inside into all those places that you normally keep hidden and it allows you to truly express who you really are with no bars and no censorship wow that was just incredible i know that reminded me of whenever i watched that episode episode six of the chosen and uh tamar is uh coming in with her friends and they encounter mary and mary's like i can't like there's no space and you know mary's like i don't want to make a scene and tamar says wouldn't you want your friends to make a scene you know if this was you and that just makes me stop in my tracks every single time of if i was in tomorrow's place like would i you know pursue every single option for my friend helping my friend which is why i think tamara is like the bestest friend in the universe because she did everything in her power to get her friend healed by jesus because she knew it could happen so um thank you for sharing that acting definitely does release a lot of like energy and like personalities that you don't really get to tap into all the time and so uh yeah you get to play a doctor on tv and learn things about humanity you know um in different different ways so absolutely you learn um the whys the whats and the whys about everything that you do and everything that other people do and it's like that's why she did that that's why i think this way and you really don't you really don't think about that when you're actually behaving a certain way you don't think why do i behave this way for example when you get into an argument let's say with your significant other and then you give them the quiet treatment well you don't give them the quiet treatment so that they don't talk to you you do that because you really want them to keep working hard to talk to you and to fix what's wrong but you're giving them the opposite reaction of what you actually want them to do and so when you become an actor you kind of learn um how our behaviors can often be in contrast with what it is that we want and so it's really really actually a beautiful thing and dips into psychology and sociology and all these other amazing things it's really nice everyone needs a best friend like tamar for sure yes i know and and just with acting i just think like actors are so smart just how you said you know uh dipping into psychology and sociology and why do we do the things that we do and they you know actors such as yourself you get to really figure out why humanity does certain things and uh yeah and so that is just beautiful to see um and so kind of focusing in on this just a little bit uh what is your acting process when you prepare and step into a role and how was that for your role in the chosen so could you walk us through your prep of the role of tomorrow right okay so in general in preparing for any role you want to make sure that you know the story as a whole so i did some extensive research to figure out who tomorrow was and i re i realized that um dallas took um creative license with mark and when i found out i was like okay this is actually amazing because now he is trusting me to give this this character life to create who she is so now i'm it is quite a bit of a responsibility to become someone else who already exists but it's even a bigger responsibility to create someone from the roots from the ground up and so i had to start um by first laying the groundwork of who she is and where she came from and you get a little bit of her backstory about you know she grew up in egypt is that egyptian yes i grew up there her father was ethiopian you're not quite sure about her mother her mother may not have been around she may have passed away you know a lot was going on back in those times she speaks several languages as many people did especially in a port town by capernaum and um she's very sentimental she's a very sentimental caring person and i've come across many people in my life who were very much like tamar in in this very beautiful introspective sentimental way and i kind of started to channel who they were when i decided to create this character and i really had to think on the words that she used and that she spoke and there was a softness to her but there was also a strength and it's just like with most women i feel like a lot of times there's a monolithic idea that women either have to be soft and delicate or we have to be strong and superhuman and we are all of the above and that's what tamar is tamara is she encompasses all that it is to be a woman to be strong and soft to be tough and vulnerable and so i wanted to be able to encompass all of that because she was she had fear you know and like she knows that jesus is so powerful and she trusts him with all of her might she's never but she had two sentences with this man but somehow trusted him with one of the her best friend in her entire life who she probably grew up with to to heal him like how how incredible is that and and to to put all your faith into this one moment into this man all of her her might knew this and so you have to dig deep to be able to find that kind of strength and that trust because a lot of us don't have that we have a lot of hurt and a lot of disappointment and she had to move past that so i want to to find some some place in my heart and someone like i said my grandfather was really close to where i would still have this amount of trust and of course in my faith itself something i still had enough trust in to be able to give that to to tamar um and the lines when it comes to learning lines that's actually the the the least of your worries as an actor what you need to do is understand what's happening because when you understand what's going on everything else follows and so that's kind of the process that i went with her i had to give her the ground groundwork i had to give her a spirit a soul and a backstory and even though you don't get to see that on the scene that's a lot of the work that goes into a character that many many people who are watching a film don't get to see is even if you see a character in passing their 30 seconds on the screen an actor often has set there and just just pounded in all kinds of back history into creating that 30 seconds that you have seen on screen and that's exactly what i do wow that was just beautiful and speaking for myself when i watched it i definitely did get that softness when she first introduces herself you know saying that she grew up in egypt and you have that softness but then you know when she's approaching the crowd she just will not give up and when you're talking about how you know most of the work people don't get in that 30-second you know passing by i i feel like that's kind of like an iceberg you know you see only the tip of it but then all the work that goes into it probably like you know the majority of the percentage 80 90 is all unseen and just the practice and the work that actors have to go through i mean you know for a role um you know even if it's just passing on screen you might be dedicating weeks to doing that back and um at least you know to me i i could see all of that in your portrayal of tamara and it was so beautiful um to see and you just did such an excellent job portraying so much backstory and somebody who like you said it was creative licensing and so you know she's not in the bible by name um and you just kind of had to create that role so uh it was it was just beautiful and we definitely saw you do your homework um and so thinking back to acting and um your passion for it uh throughout your life who has inspired you as an actor and just as a person so you know that person doesn't need to be an actor but who've been you know a couple of inspirational role models for you as an actor and as a person i mean you're running thing that you're gonna get from me today is my grandparents okay they're my heroes and my best friend so they were always the ones that encouraged me that i could do any and everything that i could possibly put my mind to and so as a personal hero it would be them um and as acting i have a few actors that i just absolutely adore them every time i see them on screen um one of which is charlize theron i just that lady is incredible every time i see her on screen and when we were talking about the sword uh the sword fighting and the stage combat like she has to be nearing 50 now and she still does it all and it is just beautiful to watch um i also love angela bassett every time i see her on screen um she's just she's just this picture of strength and she's like statuesque and i just i just look up to her i call her like my tv on to like like one day i'll be able to work with you you remind me we aren't um i just love these two women so much i have a few other um actresses i just i love to see them work like naomi harris i just i i adore their work and the passion that they put into everything that they do um it's just it's just magnificent and of course i'm not going to leave out my chosen cats now they let me tell you before i started i'm like okay well you know these are actors just like me la la la these guys are incredible okay so they went and found every amazing actor they could find to do this series now i have i have never been a part of a project where i was like so proud and in uh of the talent that set right beside me and i worked with some celebrities everyone from like bruce dern to um robert redford and i'm sitting here next to liz and i'm just like you know what i mean liz tavish and i'm jonathan listen like they're like my new little heroes you know what i mean but it's just amazing so i'm not going to leave out my my chosen cats either chosen guesses spend them all i oh my gosh i love that and wow you've worked with robert redford holy now the sad thing about being an actor is sometimes and it happens is you do all of this work that i talk to you about you know you go through first of all you prepare you work your behind off to do the audition you get into the uh they get into the audition and you know your your nerves and then you make it through you get the callback excited uh you get the second call back you're really excited you try not to freak out then you find out okay you're on hold you know you do a little cabbage patch dancing and then the agent calls me like you're booked it and you're like thank you so much like the world is like just everything is just it's amazing and then you get on set it's the greatest day of your life your inherent makeup whole nine yards right then when the film finally comes out do you find out after you tell your whole family hey watch it my movie's coming out my episode's about to come out oh no yes it happens so much to actors you know it's not it's not a nod to how good you are or how bad you are as an actor it just happens sometimes there's time constraints often we can't help to take it personally sometimes you're human but this happened to me very recently yeah so sometimes that happens too but uh it's live yeah i know it's it's hard and it's hard not to take it personally because yeah like you said you put so much effort into it and you did the whole nine yards hair makeup you're on set with these people and you know your 22nd scene might be 20 seconds over their needed cut so they'll just take it out and you know it's just like you know yeah if you tell people hey i'm in this movie with this person people are like whoa and then worlds you're like catch me on episode seven and then it comes on and you're like you should just like say that you're like somebody in the background who they can't really see but you should just say that that's my eyelash right there if you just zoom in there it is back i think you could probably save some face by doing that but yeah well that is just incredible to hear and incredible to hear about cast members uh from the chosen you know it doesn't matter if you're an a-lister or not that doesn't you know determine how skilled you are or how talented you are and yeah the all of the actors it has been amazing just to see the caliber and you know even if you're not a christian just the caliber of the show like i have some friends who watched the show and they said just taking the religious stuff aside it's an amazing period piece like they did so much historical context backward background work and just the acting and it is just an incredible piece of art you know taking you know religious stuff aside like even if you're not religious it's so beautiful and they just got such great actors and so i'm really excited to see season two when it starts production uh they just greenlit i don't know if you heard that but they just green lit it so um i know all the fans are really excited now that they're gonna be starting production again so yeah but so since you were especially featured in one episode of the chosen have you been able to watch the whole series yet and if so what do you think of it as a series absolutely i just watched it once i've seen the series again six or seven times listen i have done several projects i have done tons of movies and series and you know what say you and there has not been nothing i've watched multiple times but the chosen like literally multiple times i have sent the link to just about everyone i know whether they're christian or not i'm like look watch this watch it not just because i'm in it but because it's awesome like it literally is awesome like the first episode i was like okay because before when you when you get the audition for something you just want to do a little bit of research and so i think at that time only the first four episodes had been out before they did the last four and so i was like oh on the first episode i don't know okay let me watch the rest of it i was just like i have to be in this so like i wanted to make sure i sent them something good so like no absolutely and then i was just i was itching just like the rest of the fans for the last four episodes to come out i didn't care that i was in the series i just wanted to see what was going to happen like i just want to see how everything was going to play out so no i'm a total fan of the chosen and i and i i don't show this to you in my other series okay i'm a total fan of the children like i will watch this as every time it comes on i will watch it every time i have an opportunity i will watch those that's how awesome that show is i i still talk about it and i've done it a year and so ago and i still share that with people i i'm still getting love from fans from that show which i love all of you by the way thank you so much many of them are sending me portraits and and paintings of and they're gorgeous and like just like i've never been so proud to be a part of any project as i am of the chosen not only has the crew and the cast been amazing the show i am just so proud of it like it's just so the quality is amazing i put a lot of thought into every single aspect of that show like you said even if you look at it as a period piece like there's just there's just so much thought that goes into everything from from the the art from the the the sets from costuming have you seen the last costume all that is hand designed handmade like handcrafted it is beautiful it's gorgeous like like it's just i'm just saying i don't know how many times i can i can say it i might be able to say it in spanish but i am extremely proud of being a part of the chosen it is one of my most favorite projects to date to be a part of wow that is so incredible here i feel like you should say in spanish just because the chosen ballet i love that that was that was beautiful but but it's so cool to hear that you've watched it i know a lot of actors hate watching things that they're in just because they're like cringing like i know i've done that i cannot watch things that i've been in like whether it was a concert or a dance performance i just cringe and so that is you know really cool that you have been able to watch it and get past that whole like cringing at yourself um and just be proud of it as a series i remember i think it was george zanta zan seth said wow i cannot say his name george santos there we go sorry george um so i remember george saying in one of the interviews that he doesn't really watch things that he's in like most actors but his family wanted to watch an episode so you just like you know i think he did put on episode six and they were watching the leper scene and you know he was just gonna show that little clip and then before he knew it they watched the whole entire episode and he was just like oh my gosh wait we have to watch all of the other episodes so the whole entire family just watched the whole entire thing and i think all the actors that i've seen so far they have been like i've loved watching the show just as the show and sharing it with friends and family and just putting it out there because it is an incredible piece of art and you know especially incredible if you are a christian um just because it is different than a lot of the other things that we've seen from you know christian media and it's just been so cool to see a multi-series like a multi-part series of jesus's life and ministry so uh thank you for for sharing that and so kind of uh backing away from the chosen we'll get back to that when we get to our fan questions at the end but one really exciting thing about you that some of our fans might not know is that you were the owner and founder of a non-profit dedicated to the progress support and diversity of actors of color in america would you please share a little bit of that backstory i read that and i was like oh my gosh i have to ask about this it just sounds so beautiful so i would love to know how you came about founding it and what it's been like doing this you have absolutely done your research and i'm like totally standing here right now so um so it's called dallas actors of color and right now although we'd love to be on a national platform i'm focusing on the actors in my community of dallas and um although i'm working pretty remotely right now so dallas actors of color was as created because one day i was sitting at an audition and i'm sitting around and as you as you know when you're at an audition you're often there with a lot of people that look like you because they're calling in your type for whatever role it is that you're going in for and i'm sitting there and i know not a single one of these people in here and that's not the crazy thing the crazy thing is is i've seen all of their faces for the past few years that i've been acting and no one's ever once you know been like hi i'm i'm amber or i'm sally or i'm too we just kind of sit there and it's more of a you know it's just like and i felt this overwhelming feeling of competition and and i just didn't feel community and although a lot of what we do often feels like competition i think we lost the sense of of the community that that's actually still there and i wanted i wanted that i missed that because i would see someone else come in and and and they would be like oh my god hey i haven't seen it forever and it just it changes everything when you want to audition when you have this wonderful beautiful feeling of positivity after you've seen someone you haven't seen in a long time that's like we need we want this we need to know that we're here together like like when one of us wins all of us win and i i also noticed that there wasn't a lot of platform for people of color and that's an inclusive of all people of color so whether you're asian african-american latino native american this is all is that it's all inclusive and so i was speaking with another actor um who's brilliant actor from dallas and i was telling her about it and she goes we really should have some sort of i don't know a group or something and me i'm not one to think on something too long if it's in my mind to do something i'm going to do it because i'm such a procrastinator i know that if i wait i wait too long it's not going to happen and so the next day i'm like okay let me get creating that get to creating this group and that's exactly what i did and so i started this organization we had so so so humble beginnings really i think it was about 35 of us some of the the people that i actually did know i never really spent time with them but i did know them more or less and now i'm saying we're maybe about 2 000 of us now from 35 to 2 000 and so we're kind of known in the dallas community now and so what we do is we provide a sense of community we provide uh scholarships as well for actors of color so um we really like to focus as well on new actors in the industry because it's really easy to get spammed when you're doing this i know you understand like you're getting i want to be an actor and then you have like all of these agencies and all these photographers who are looking to take your money or take advantage of young actors and their parents with these huge dreams um models with these huge dreams and we're here to kind of circumvent all of that from happening we want to provide you with all the tools all the resources you need to hit the ground running and a safe place to do so so we provide workshops we provide scholarships you want to make sure that you're where you're connected with all of the right people that you have uh that you know who the right agents are and who are the trusted casting directors and trusted um productions and if there are issues in the industry like issues of maybe um harassment or or sexism or racism or anything like that that this is a safe place to share your experience so that we can make sure that we nip this in the bud within our community and so that we don't uh perpetuate anything like that going on as far as sending more people out to these these type of companies you know and so it's been really beautiful to see everyone come together and now that i'm gone and i was like oh no it's gonna it's not gonna work i'm not there anymore it's just taking a life of its own and and it's beaut we have these these huge mixers at least once a year everyone comes out together and it's really beautiful to see we and and also one of the big things that we do and it's really important to me and that's one of the reasons why i was happy to be a part of the chosen is that uh representation matters i've had so many fans contact me and they were just happy to see someone that looked like them on tv and that's what we want to do we want to change the narrative and we want to make sure that what you see on tv is representative of who we actually are um and that's and so we also foster uh writers directors on the creative side on the other side of the camera so we can change the stories that are being put out there as well so we're just kind of like one big family trying to change things wow that is that is so beautiful and just incredible that it's taken off about 2 000 members now that is just yeah a family and for all of the actors of color who are in the dallas area i i just wonder what a comfort is you know to them like you said you know there are a lot of like agencies that try to scam people who just are trying to dip their toes in and don't really know you know the the right and wrong way to do things and the people who unfortunately are not nice and uh are not in it for their best and so that sounds like an incredible community and for if we have any uh fans of color who are in the dallas area i was wondering what is the organization called it's called dallas actors of color and it took off so fast that um we still have a few things to catch up on like a an official website so right now we're on our social media pages which is facebook of course instagram we have a website but in baby stages um we're going to be making sure we have something a little bit more solid coming um but these things take time as most things do and as we're hoping to be non-profit with everything being shut down because of the current state of every uh of you know the virus and whatnot um it's hard to get push things through government-wise so we're waiting to get through bureaucratic paperwork to get our non-profit status approved and whatnot but yeah it's dallas actors of color and eventually um as she mentioned before we're hoping to go national and then we'll just be actors of color america but so right now it's just dallas acres of color so right here at home in dallas a nice little community we do have events so if you ever feel alone out there you're more than welcome to just contact us join us we're here for a big family answer your questions especially if you're getting started whether you are a parent of an actor or you are an actor we're here for you i absolutely love that thank you so much for sharing um and for yeah any of our fans who are in dallas please check it out uh it is it makes such a difference to be in a community like what you said earlier you know coming into an audition and kind of having that sense of competition and not really trying to know everyone because you know you're like well i want to get the part and they all want to get the part you're right it makes such a big difference if you are coming at it from a standpoint of if one person wins everyone wins and especially when it comes to representation and you know just trying to get more actors of color on screen so that you know all the kids you know can see people that they can you know who inspires them like you said uh angela bassa is one of your role models i mean just you know more people that that children can look up to so i greatly admire uh your efforts in doing that and as you mentioned uh you're not in dallas right now you are in madrid spain and so um how how did you come to be living in spain and what is it like managing a career working between europe and the us well so i came to spain for love and um a lot of people i i kind of made a mini announcement but not really a big one but um i was i'm recently engaged so thank you so like most of my family doesn't even know yet um so you oh my gosh no before the family does wow i feel like family congratulations oh my gosh but so um my fiance which i haven't even have not referred to him as that in public so you guys are the first person first people to hear me refer to him as my fiance oh my gosh i'm in love oh my gosh that is so incredible so i moved here with my fiancee who was you know my birthday and um he he's from madrid and he said which means i can't live without you and he was like but he has to go back home because his visa expired he is he was a first grade teacher i mean how beautiful and so um i asked my parents it's like what should i do they're like leave get out but i wasn't sure and um my career was going so well this time i was having auditions or booking things without even having auditions they were just calling me and they're like amber's good put her in the park and so i do what i always do when i'm so lost and confused i pray and i pray and i say okay please if this is what i'm supposed to do make it to where it's my only choice make it so blatantly clear i have no no other option and god made it blatantly clear and then you have two choices you always have two choices you can either do what feels safe or you can step out on faith and i will always tell you to step on faith and that's exactly what i did and it wasn't easy it's never easy moving somewhere where you do not speak the language i mean you thought your uno dostres really meant something in high school it means nothing when you moved when you moved to uh the country and so i moved here it was it was really difficult but um you know i finally got started getting the hang of things um i didn't work for the first several months my agent in the states who i still have um she was you know sending me little things here and there but nothing worth flying back for um eventually i found an agent here who believed in me i booked nothing she sent me out for she's like i'm going to give you a probation period she spoke just enough english to meet me in the middle so i'm going to give you a probation period for 90 days with zero things okay zero and she's like yeah i have a feeling about you i really do i'm gonna sign you and she signed me and if i didn't tell you i was like booking things left and right after she signed me i was all over the place from barcelona to lisbon to um milan too and i was just like is this my life like who is this girl and it was it just felt so amazing that like as soon as you trust as soon as you step on faith and stop holding on to what feels so safe and so comfortable you'll see the most beautiful things happen in your life and so i kind of managed life between here in the states by kind of once you get to a certain place in your career you have to kind of evaluate what's worth traveling back and forth that's all so the chosen was definitely worth traveling for by the way so they were like well amber we're really i was like no worries i will make sure i'm in the states as long as you get me from new york i will be there and that's exactly what happened um but yeah so i still i still have um projects that i will audition for and i'll make myself available for the states should they meet me and then i work here like i've auditioned for everyone from i don't know i don't know if i'm under nda so let me not let me not just in case but like even spike lee and a few other big name directors that honestly i know i would likely not have had that opportunity had i say in the states so it really really pays to step out on faith like if you get anything from this interview from watching me today it's to step out on faith it's it's easy to be safe but it pays to step out on faith and that's that's exactly what i did so i kind of just managed life i have tons of airline miles now listen i used to be in the states flying back and forth like every couple of months sometimes every few weeks i still i work sometimes with um a client where i work events for them sometimes as well in between jobs just to make sure that i can you know stay working with the people keep my social skills up but other than that yeah that's it it's just it takes a lot of effort it takes a lot of desire to just want to do it otherwise yeah you have to want to do this and i really do so i'm keeping that effort i'm so close to london now so i've started training at um identity school of acting in london which is an amazing school if you are familiar with john boyega do you know who that is yeah so john boyega he trained at identity school of acting soda latisha wright who played cheri and um black panther the the sister of black panther as well as so many other amazing actors have come out of that school there are alumni of that school and now i am in that school so i feel like amazing like and so um i'm going to be of course hoping to work more there as well so i'm going to keep my my little toes and all the ponds between the us uh london as well as here and spain and the peninsula wow you are just you're wearing so many hats right now okay let me put on my u.s hat and i'll just go there go to london and wow that is incredible i yeah i've seen uh john boyega in star wars so i'm like he's great um and yes and also latisha like i've seen black panther i'm a huge nerd so i've seen all of the franchises oh really dude when black panther came out i was like this is a whole different level i absolutely loved it so when it came out i would just like hop out of places randomly to my fiance yellow kind of forever he'd have to go like he'd have to drop whatever he's doing and go like this it was the most i don't care if he was cooking dinner or taking a shower or brushing his teeth he had to drop everything and like like it was the most amazing thing oh my gosh that is like dutch thing to do with your fiance oh my gosh that is like i feel like every couple should have like a nerdy thing that they do you should listen everything from from what lord of the rings to harry butter to all the marvel all the dc like that's me i'm that girl people look at me and they automatically have no idea that i would sword fight like come on guys i'm a total nerd i swear to fight like that's me but you know i don't look like where i've been yeah okay well here's a key question in your nerdiness um have you ever done larping no i have never done larping what you've done sword fighting you've never done larping no well for our fans who don't know what larping is it's an acronym that stands for live action role play um and so you would literally like you know reenact like scenes from lord of the rings and things like that and you dress up as the character and can i can i get a couple can i like get a couple brownie points back i have totally done fan fiction though like okay written novels i like have an elven name and everything no way oh my gosh the platform i still remember my elven name when did you write that i was like 17 for sure oh my gosh i absolutely love that okay so you did fan fiction lord of the rings obviously i have done tons of fan fiction and i would also do cosplay any time that comic con came to town so i can i i feel like i'm not i'm not so bad right well i haven't done larping i almost went to a renaissance festival where we were going to dress up as lurtherings but then covet happened so didn't get to do that but uh that is awesome that you did comic con and stuff when it would come around but i love when people nerd out it just i feel like it's such a common theme you know between people no matter who you are if you both love this thing you can just become fast friends so um and so since you're living in madrid with your fiance um so obviously that is um a near future uh life goal but i was wondering you know what your plans are for like career goals and life goals uh in the near future well you know i i can only speak for amber right now um i i have so many things that i would love and that i would want to do but you know god has a way of of being like haha yeah you thought you had plans so i try to be really careful with that but um i you know would love to be i'm working more to be honest i would love more projects more films more series i would love for but chosen to blow up i would love i mean because it's already blowing up in my opinion but i would love for it to just take a hold of the world globally to where it just becomes a household name i i just i'm hoping that i don't have to you know work so hard to find out that they kind of start looking for me eventually um but i do hope that one day we could have this wedding um that's kind of on hold right now for many reasons because because of covid number one i'm not working and number two uh because of safety reasons uh we're not sure and um we're also looking to buy a home so i'm i'm wanting a home in the states and i'm wearing a home here as well and so it's just it's kind of hard navigating being an adult gosh it's a lot harder than they said it was going to be don't grow up kids do not grow up adulting is hard it really is um i would love to grow dallas actors of color and i have um a few other foundations um a lot of people want to be actors for several different reasons i want to do it because i love it and i also want to do it because there's a platform i want to create from it of awareness for many different things one of which of course is trying to narrative and to create a community for people of color to also create outreach and resources for mental health in low-income communities and to also provide a service for our elderly and our senior citizens so i have like all of these these because i love i love senior citizens like i i know i told you maybe 15 times already how much i i loved my grandparents like so much and it meant so much to me having them in my life i was blessed to have them until i was about 25. i'm 32 now and um it's just they have a special place in my heart some people love working with children and i love children but i love working with older individuals and so i have tons of foundations that i have a foundation that i would love to create to make life easier for them as well and so being an actor i think sometimes it gives you um a platform for people to listen so i could do this now and people look that's really nice right but if robert downey jr is like hey i have this foundation for everything oh my god robert yes let me let me help with that all right so i would love to use my position of influence to be able to help other people like i feel like one of our purposes in life actually the purpose in life is to bring purpose to others is to give back to others like we're social beings and i feel like that that's what our goal should always be is to give i mean think about christmas when do you feel the most fulfilled is it when you receive a gift at christmas or is it when someone is opening a gift that you give them and so i want to always be the one giving the gifts like and and so that's what i kind of want to reach that point where i can be in my career where i can i can do that and i can be that uh for people and and to help people and to change their lives but of course i want to work too it's because i love it i love doing this as i mentioned before it chose me i didn't choose this life it's very stressful i mean i want to walk across the stage i want an oscar like i want all that you know don't have a dream unless it's a big thing boys and girls don't have a dream unless it's a big dream because you know those are the ones worth fighting for you know make sure your book is worth reading and then that's kind of the point i am um in my life right now wow amber you are just you're an inspiring person like honestly like 32 you are inspiring me like you do not have to be an older person to inspire i am just feeling so inspired right now i think it's really special of you to focus on the elderly because people tend to forget about the elderly i mean you're right a lot of people love kids and you know i mean that has merit in it kids are our future and so we need to invest and develop them but we also can't forget about our past and we can't forget about you know um our older um citizens and i remember when i was a part of a choir that would tour around you know to different churches around the country and we would go into nursing homes and we would have we performed concerts at these nursing homes and it was just incredible getting to hear stories from these people living in nursing homes and just the life that they you know lived i mean i've you know spoken with people who were a part of the civil rights movement or people who were in vietnam or other things in life and it is just incredible to hear these stories from them and uh to hear their personal story and you know they don't live forever and so you can only get those stories for a short amount of time and so i think that's really admirable of you to um focus on that group as well um that that demographic so i i applaud you for doing that yeah i feel like there isn't enough sometimes and that was one of my favorite things to do i feel like a lot of times that they give the senior citizens this oh you know old people kind of thing and especially when you see them portrayed on television they're always kind of female or dementia but the best part about speaking with the older generations like the stories i don't care if i've heard the story 15 times i loved when my grandfather would tell me about being in world war ii and i love when my grandmother would tell me how they met and i just wanted to hear the story over and over and over again it's just such beautiful stories and and so many gyms of life and i learned that the things that we care about that we focus on are often not as important as as we think they are we give so much importance to minuscule things that won't matter tomorrow what matters today are the people that you love and the people in your life because everyone has a timer and you never know when when your time is here and so you need to love them with all all of your heart and and give them their flowers while they're here you know that's why the idea of celebrating someone when they're gone to me it's just like well it's very depressing like i've always said i don't want and i hate to get dark here but i don't want a funeral because i want to celebrate on here like i don't want i don't want any of that give me my flowers around here we're going to have a party so when i'm done it's a party it's going to be a reception you know what i mean we're going to celebrate and so that's what i want to do i want to i'm going to give them their flowers while they're here and and and that's exactly what i think we should be doing to everyone in our lives and and living it while we have it yeah you just have great perspective amber i think you know we all i need to do some introspection i mean because you're right we tend to focus on such minuscule things that don't matter i mean you know sometimes we'll be praying and our prayers are all about ourselves you know god help me get this thing or and it's like santa claus and we're just asking for things and you know when are we focusing on on other people what i love and they focus on this a little bit in the chosen is you know back in biblical times uh you know they didn't have nursing homes or anything and it was like your duty as someone's daughter to take them in if they needed um you know if they got sick so like simon's mother-in-law got sick and so they were at simon's house and that was the role that you were expected to play because that honored your father and mother and honoring your relatives and so you know it might be an inconvenience but you know that family is so important and so i love that they focus that focus on that in the chosen because that is so important and we tend to get you know very individualistic in the society where you know people are like oh i you know can't spend as much time with family or i don't you know want to do this thing but i love how excellent you put it you know give them their flowers while they're here um i absolutely love that and we'll be you know thinking about that uh when interacting with my relatives and my close friends and yeah because tomorrow's not promised and that was really really good perspective to hear um and so thinking of life goals and stuff i was just wondering if we could hear the story of the proposal oh my goodness okay yes i if you don't want to share it you don't have to but i'll be more than happy to share it you will be the first to hear it i think um for sure so this is exclusive fans you are getting so much from this interview okay so my fiance's name is adrian and i love the guy he's not the most romantic i'm the romantic one and that's okay guys there's no roles in any relationship so i'm usually the one with the you know i giving flowers or cooking or something like this he he's a provider and um he's really caring and so sweet and so our anniversary was coming and um i was like okay well he's not gonna plan anything you know he's kind of like let's watch he you know yeah that's his idea of romance i'll rub your feet man and we'll go ahead and eat which is you know pretty nice and i'm like no i want to do bed and breakfast or something cute this year so i'm online i'm like i'm booking bed and breakfast and he's like don't do that why not he's like just don't do it i'm like i'm gonna book bread and breakfast um what time do you want to leave what time do you get off work he's like amber don't look what is your problem he's like we're not gonna be here i was like yeah right whatever i'm booking it right now and he's like amber please don't book the bed and breakfast we're not gonna be here we're going out of town and i did not believe him i'm so serious i did not believe him i'm like about to book you you've ever seen don't push the button and i'm like and um he's like and he sends me a text message with like a screenshot of some flight tickets but he like cuts out where i was like oh about five tickets okay all right well all right so we're going somewhere cool all right i won't buy the tickets where are we going and um he wouldn't tell me and of course as usual in the life of an actor if you ever want to book a job here is a big tip for you guys make plans make really big plans okay the bigger the plans the bigger the job that you're going to book so um of course the days that he had booked to go uh on this vacation i i got asked to put on hold for a job and because i don't know he's gonna propose i'm like oh maybe don't worry just fly out there and i'll meet you there the next day after filming he's like no we'll reschedule but i had other plans and i didn't end up even though i got put on hold for the job i didn't end up booking it and so uh we left and on the way there i found out we were going to ibiza so um ibiza is like um it's normally known to be a big party island um and spain but since we went um at the very end of the season no one was there so it was like really quiet really empty but really beautiful so you can appreciate everything in the sunsets and the beaches and i'm like wow this is really great so we booked a hotel it was pretty empty and um i love him but the kid is pretty cheap he's pretty cute and so when we went to our room and i walked in i was like holy moly it's like a huge suite there's like this kitchen in there and yeah like three balconies and i'm like this kid's going all about like this is crazy he was like wow i didn't know they were gonna do this they upgraded us because the hotel is empty which is a good excuse i was like oh okay yeah you're right wow that's pretty cool so we make plans you know to go do activities and one thing i love to do i don't know why i love it so much is to see sunrise and sunset i'm like addicted to the sunrise in the sunset he could care less about the sunrise and sister he's like it happens every day like what are you gonna see but this particular day he was which is our anniversary he was just she was headset on seeing the sunset and i'm like dude calm down it'll be here tomorrow like right so i'm like well let's eat like um if you do know what bae is like um it's a traditional spanish dish it's a huge like rice and you have like shrimp and things on there it takes a really long time to make so he orders the paella knowing he's going to propose but not thinking about it like how long it's going to take to make and the place that he wants to propose is like an hour away so i'm not knowing something i'm eating taking my time and he's just like and i'm like what is wrong with you like calm down and he's just kind of being weird and he's normally a pretty cool chill guy i'm the one that's like usually on edge and so i would finally finish eating and i'm like babe we don't even have to go that far the sunset's gonna be right here we're in the water already he's like no we gotta go there okay chill out we'll go so we drive there i'm like chilling i'm enjoying my day we finally get there and it's a place called esbera and it's like this gorgeous cliff setting you're like it's like the edge of the world and then like right in front of you you see like this big huge island rock and there's just like kind of a few rock it's just gorgeous setting and the sun sets right beside it and it's just it's gorgeous if you look it up it's it's phenomenal the photos and so he's like um let's go and i'm like okay so i'm walking like okay this is a great spot he's like not too many people here like it's it's fine so no keep walking okay he's being so weird so finally he finds like the little you know corner of a section where nobody is and i'm sitting down looking at the sunset and he's behind me like messing around with his gopro and i'm like you're gonna miss the sunset you rushed me out here for the sunset you're not even watching anything through gopro he said i forgot to try and pop so he's like digging a hole in the ground to put the tripod in there to record the sunset i'm like this kid is a mess and so i'm sitting there by myself like taking selfies and everything i'm like you're gonna miss it so he's like working up a sweat like i have no idea what's going on and eventually i guess he gets tired of it or he just figures out a way to get the gopro set up he sets his phone there and he says let's just let's just take a selfie i said okay let's take a selfie so he sets his phone up he puts it on record i didn't realize this and he stands there and here we are the backdrop is this sunset and you have this beautiful island of esme right behind us on the edge of the cliff and i'm standing on this red dress and he's standing there looking handsome and he he starts to act really really weird when he's when he's nervous his face starts to spasm so he was just like [Music] and he hugs me and his heart is speeding on his chest and i'm like hey what is wrong with you're acting so weird your heart is beating so fast he's like i'm just frustrated from the gopro i was like okay all right if you say so then you start saying all these beautiful sweetener things about how he's so proud of us and we're so beautiful together and how we make a wonderful team and um he just loves me so much and then he gets down on one knee and i'm like at this point like of course like i'm like starting to hyperventilate a little bit and i'm just like oh my oh my goodness oh my goodness and then he pulls out the box and like through my tears it's like the ring like was lighting up like it was the strangest thing i found out later there's a light actually i had it there is a light in the box but i thought it was my eyes because the ring was like glowing and i was like oh my goodness and um he proposed and he said you know would you make me the happiest man in the world and you marry me and i of course said yes you know it was the most beautiful romantic thing and so unexpected from him and just in the way that he did it and you always think that you want this big fancy proposal with all your friends and the flowers and your family there but in the end it was a private beautiful one-on-one moment that was just perfect it was exactly what it needed to be and i'm so blessed and i'm so happy and i can't wait to marry that guy oh my gosh thank you so much for sharing that is the most beautiful story ever so you really had no idea no i think right when he he stood there i was just like okay um something's going on here but like working up to that i really had no idea i really didn't wow oh my gosh that is just an incredible incredible story thank you for sharing we're welcome to send you a picture too after this i'll send you the photo i'm gonna have to send a picture uh we'll see maybe if we can like put it on the on the video it's a picture but that wow that is just incredible i love hearing those stories so thank you for sharing um and indulging in that so um but yeah so um moving on to some fan questions um so this question comes from katherine menning uh how did you find out about the chosen was it your agent okay yes it was my agent my agent sent me you know casting like normal saying that the chosen is looking for um an actress for this role and it was actually for the role of tina so do you if you're familiar with bettina fedina was a woman at the well and that was who i originally auditioned for and um i was like okay cool yeah i could totally do this and um i sent that in and i heard back maybe a few days maybe a week later and they were like no we want you to audition for them why we want you to audition for tomorrow and i auditioned for tomorrow after that and here i am wow that is so cool i didn't i didn't know that you had to audition for fatina so wow that is that is so cool so uh following along with that so jane muller one of our fabulous moderators for against the tide media she asks what did you think of your role as to matter uh like first thoughts when your agent sent you the role i know you said earlier um you know uh that you built here from the ground up but when you when you first got it what were your first thoughts when i first received the role of tomorrow i was like whoa this woman has has a lot of gall like who who do you know that had this much um like audacity to stand in the face of god and demand his help jesus of nazareth i saw what you did to the leper on the road this morning my friend has been paralyzed since childhood he has no hope but you please do for him what you did for the leper if you are willing rabbi you know you can't your faith is beautiful and tell him that he knows he can help you do you know what i mean like most of us are like um please you know if you can't like maybe sort of no she stood there in the face of god and told him i know that you can do this please do this because i know you can and you know you can do this like so reading it already i was just like oh my goodness like i i wish that i had even a percentage of the goal that tamar had honestly i really really did and i was really lucky that that they considered me for her um because it happens a lot to two actors is where where they're like okay i like you for this role and then they see what you do and they say actually you'll be better for this one and so i'm super blessed that that's what ended up happening for me wow and uh since you've said that you've watched the show like six or seven times um also asks uh what was your favorite scene either a scene that you were in or a different one you know that is so tough to to answer because they're all so beautifully done it's also amazing okay so let's see i think my favorite scene is when jesus turns the water into wine [Music] [Music] go draw some out and serve it to the master of the banquet and when when his mother tells him when mary tells him she says you know now is the moment you know if not now when my time has not yet come if not now when [Music] please [Music] do whatever he tells you [Music] so and he goes in there and he does that and the look on thomas's face and she's like like what like can you just imagine being there in that moment like i thought it was just amazing now i have other scenes that i'm in love with like when mary is healed and the meeting wasn't a 15 minutes of course when tomorrow mars there i love these saints but i think i really love the wedding scene and whole because i just love the joy from that i'm like a magnet towards positivity and good vibes and that's that that's all that was in that scene and it was another side of jesus that you don't always get to hear you always hear this oh holier than now and this this very serious and statuesque and stoic image that you always they talk about in church and you see in all these other shows and you see him laughing and joking and playing around and it's just it's beautiful and i feel so connected and and duncan does such a beautiful job with that and then that scene with turning the water into wine and i i just i think that's my favorite scene for sure wow yeah i i definitely love that one as well i loved the um i loved having thaddeus talk about you know being a stone mason during that same part where it's like you know the first cut is final you can't change the trajectory or anything like it's so final and so that's you know just the weight of jesus doing his first miracle like his first public uh miracle uh really changed the way that i viewed the story because i kind of you know viewed the story when i was growing up like oh here's this kind of weird like stories like turning water into wine and it's just kind of like whatever but then you know really um you know thinking of the implications of him doing his first public miracle and you know the course that is being set and so i think i think i love that scene as well i think they did a really great job with that and so you shared with me uh that you're comfortable talking about your faith and so um i'm gonna be mixing up uh amanda yoder and janice barfield's questions together and ask how did your role on the show impact you emotionally and spiritually it really impacted me to be tomorrow because it was coming from such a place of of deep desire to want to help someone and um what i had to do to be able to connect with her in that moment was i had to think of someone who i wanted jesus to heal so much that i could have them there with me there's nothing more in the world than i wanted than to have that person be healed i didn't care about myself i didn't care what happened to me it was just for the sake of that person and so that took me back to someone in my life that you know meant the world to me that's no longer here that if i had the opportunity that tamar had i would would i do the same thing and yes i i feel i can i say now that i would and so it it hurt you know a little bit to realize that you don't have that so it was it was a little emotionally draining to to plays tamara at that moment when she's calling out to jesus that that's emotionally draining because if you feel what she's feeling um the pain the desire faith and um i think that working with jonathan he like he i i think someone may have access before to me it's he really gets you in that moment too like he has his thing that he does he he takes you away from everyone else and he like holds your hands and he stares into your eyes and he just he he tells you like he's i love you and and he he speaks to you and and you really actually just you're taken to this place it's like you're not even where you are anymore and so you really feel like tomorrow and you know it's sometimes it's scary to not feel like yourself sometimes but it's also such a beautiful experience as well to be taken to this place but also as i mentioned before the most important thing is to remember to come back to come back from there but yeah that that's it it did affect me and um it changed me like i want to be a friend like tomorrow i i feel like people deserve to have demise in their life and i think we should all strive to be a little bit more like her i love that and you kind of touched on the next question um so karakothem asks some of the actors have mentioned how moved they were when they were working in scenes with jonathan rooney and they felt a spiritual presence that they hadn't expected either in the scene with him or acting while he was off screen but watching them on the sidelines so did you have a similar experience being like in the scene with him or around him right okay so it was like 125 million degrees so i didn't watch too much of what he was doing when i wasn't on the thing i wasn't in the same excuse me but when i was in a scene with jonathan jonathan has he has a process and he's very connected to his process and and as as every actor has a different process so if you don't have one and you're doing your own thing jonathan will bring you into his process whether you realize it or not and like i mentioned before he took me by my hands and i'm like what's this guy doing i didn't really realize what was happening uh because um i don't i i can't quite remember but i do know that we kind of you don't really film scenes in the order that you see them in and he took my hands and he started speaking to me and it took me a moment to realize what exactly he was saying and i do not know what happened but all of a sudden i just started to bawl i just started crying tears were coming out and i was just like okay like yeah like i i just felt connected to him and in this place and he he he finds it and he stays there and if he can't get there he will make sure everything else around him is silent or dallas will make sure everything around him is in a position to where he can get to that space and he will bring you in there with him because that's how that's how dedicated he is to make sure that he is honoring the role of jesus as much as possible and so it's my job to make sure that he's allowed to do that so as tomorrow as an actor as a secondary as anyone else is to make sure that we are all supporting each other we are an ensemble and he he is totally a team player he's not like hey i'm here i'm blaming jesus you know no he wants to make sure that he is connected to no matter how small your role is you know he wants to connect with you and he will do that and it's it was i i can't explain i i i don't know if i can answer the question because i can't explain exactly what happened maybe it was something spiritual maybe it was just his his light you know um just sometimes people are just so connected it's about that it just shines through them and you just you never know but he there's something special about him but he you know he took my hands and all of a sudden next day i know i'm just i'm just crying and then are like let's go let's let's let's start the scene and so what you see happening up there was it was real so with everything i had already built up for tamar plus this connection that jonathan had created between the two of us that moment was now real wow that is just that is so incredible to just hear and just to be able to experience that um and being being able to be brought into that space i feel like that's really special and you know just to have that process you know because things can be loud on set you know things can be hustle and bustle up until they say quiet and then you have to start rolling but that's that's really great to hear that um you know he is such a process that he will bring other people into and you were able to do that and that filled your scenes like even better like that filled your role even better so thank you for sharing that absolutely every as i mentioned before everyone they're not just great actors they're great people and that goes down to the cast and the crew like everyone they found just amazing spirited people as well and so it was not only just easy to connect with him as a professional on set but as well as offset you know going you know to grab a cola or something like that like it was just it's it's like kinetic it's like this beautiful energy and so it's it's not just what you see on tv he's really like this like off screen as well and so is the rest of the cast or just these really beautiful people and so they make what we do so much easier that is incredible and uh carol well steed sorry for mispronouncing your name uh she asks what was something unexpected that took place during your time on set and who was the funniest person on set while you were there oh my gosh you have to let me think about this for a second um what was the most unexpected thing to happen on set um well i guess we've kind of already touched on it it was that moment that i had with jonathan like i totally did did not expect that to happen at all before my scene you kind of you don't really have moments like that um if you've never been on set so i know most people watching are probably not actors so when you go on you usually have you memorize your scenes you get everything done and then you go on set usually that's your first time meeting the other actors you do you have to do and you leave so you really don't have a lot of time to bond and so having that moment with him was just like it was totally unexpected and then let alone have a an emotional reaction to it it was something i absolutely did not expect either um as well so that was a really beautiful moment and the funniest person oh my gosh oh that's gonna be like a tie like that's that's all they're all pretty hilarious i really cannot pick one so like keon the one who plays um james but james he is hilarious okay um uh who else is hilarious george who plays john he's he's a hoot um the guy who plays barnaby if you remember who barnaby is he he's hilarious as well so i i can't really pick out of all of them who's the funniest because they're all complete nuts like they're hilarious like they'll find the funny in every single moment that happens [Music] sometimes at the like oddest moments so um yeah those are like the funniest guys on set for sure and if i miss anyone i'm really sorry but for sure yeah i know it always seems or at least to me from interviews that you know i've done a lot of the disciples are really funny and barnaby's really new too and just like the whole trio of you know the zebedee family they're just like all comedians and every last one of them for sure is a comedian like if they weren't disciples that'd be their next career right i know and i'm like none of you are related but i'm glad you guys are playing the same family because you're like the same level of funniness so you seem like you're related they kind of look alike too don't they like they look really similar as well like they yeah i feel like they do look similar and they do have a lot of like they're very like boisterous and you know uh not afraid to like do anything so you know just put themselves out there and so i feel like that is very common between the three of them and yeah they do yeah i think they do kind of look pretty similar so um all right one of our other fabulous moderators elizabeth hollenstein asks do you hope to come back in a future season of the chosen you know that would be amazing and not just for my own personal desires but because i actually want to see more of demar i really do i want to see where her story goes i want to see more where she came from and more of where she's going and um when you see someone like that like with a faith so beautiful and so strong and powerful like you know that there's there's got to be more and before they even told me they kind of announced on their page like you know you know don't be surprised if you see her in future seasons so i'm like like really so i'm just as excited as you guys are so i have no idea if and when tomorrow is going to come back but i'm like that's my biggest hope and my dream i would love to come back i would love to see the fam again and and you know just be back there it's like one of the gosh you feel so at home with the chosen family it's just it's the strangest phenomenon it really is as many sets as i've been on none of them has felt as home as the children said um that is they're so beautiful to hear and i guess i hadn't heard that but that would be amazing if she came back like you know don't be surprised if she comes back so i'm like that would be amazing that would be super cool if like it came back to capernaum and she was like one of the big people in capernaum who's like you know i'd be like you better send that to dallas be like dallas you know what you should make tamar a boss i know ray i'm like dude she i mean because like you said she has a lot of audacity and she has a lot of gall and you know i feel like i could see her you know making a scene in other places i could totally see doing all of those things and um like like her faith her faith just is gonna take her places and um if all you need is a mustard seed faith and she's walking around with watermelon size you know she's going to be destined for some pretty amazing things yeah yeah so i'm excited to see where she pops up again um deborah brown asks was it hard to learn to speak egyptian so you speak spanish was it hard to learn egyptian well okay so there was kind of some conversation on what language they would actually have to mars speak so i actually went through a few languages before we got to ancient egyptian so first i had to do um arabic i learned the line in arabic and then i did kind of this maybe a sort of ancient arabic if that is even a thing where that exists and then they finally settled on ancient egyptian so the arabic was actually rather easy for the most part and i have a lot of arabic friends so they were able to like teach me how to do that i was like oh look at me ask you guys um and then um the egyptian part came or maybe the second second type of arabic and that was a lot more difficult and there was a lot more to say and it was a little bit more intimidating but then the egyptian came and it was a bit intimidating at first and it's not so much the the speaking it it was the pronunciation because it has a lot of clicks like it's it's it's slightly different and so um i think a lot of people would be surprised to know that it was actually jonathan who i believe did the translations or who's who's the one who who sent that so like that man is just he could do everything and so um yeah so learning that it ended up being a lot easier than i thought it was going to be it was intimidating when you first looked at it but it was once once the scene started it was just like it just kind of came out especially once it's happening in a conversation i would love to do more of it i would i would love to be speaking more ancient egyptian or any other language that they you know decide because she's ethiopian as well so you know that would be uh an amazing thing um to be doing i'm sure that maybe people probably thought that i'd have an accident because we all have accents in the show which we had to train as well so it's it's such a challenge and i'm all for challenges and so i'd be really excited to to learn more but it was intimidating at first wow yeah i would be so scared about the pronunciation part you know like getting up there and then they stay rolling and then you accidentally say something wrong you're like i'm so sorry but so that's a great thing about film is that they say cut i'm gonna do it again now if you're on stage and then you have to do it then you know it's kind of but you just kind of keep going because you know ancient egypt doesn't exist anymore so no one knows if you say anything wrong very very with confidence and archaeologists somewhere yeah that's cool that jonathan did that i had no idea that he like helped with the translations and stuff i'm i think his dad's side is egyptian so uh that is wow that is so cool he's like pretty impressive and i think he did also the aramaic and everything so like he was just kind of brilliant with that and of course you notice because he is a little bit more capable at speaking the language and had a little bit more practice and work with it that he he spoke it a little bit more than demar did so if you go back and check out the theme mars like you know tamara nakinanio and he's like you know he's like going and and and then she's like oh you know knock and he's like he's like he was going so he had like you know most of the words to say i'm sure had i had as much to say as jonathan did it would have been a little bit more intimidating than it was but even so it was it was amazing to actually do and then to see it like when i saw myself do it i was like oh my gosh yeah i would be like so thrilled to be like hey that's like ancient egyptian that's pretty cool i did that like that's how i feel when i'm watching lord of the rings i'm like i want to speak elven like you know so watching myself um have subtitles like that that was the coolest thing that's ever happened to me by the way wow that is oh my gosh that that just sounds really fun to do and i'm glad that it wasn't you know too intimidating to do because you know that can kind of you know get in the way of you know as you're prepping because you're nervous about that so that's really good i did notice he spoke a lot and i was like dang like you can memorize all that but if he was the one doing it then that makes sense tara smith uh she asks what was your reaction to your beautiful costume was the jewelry and costume cumbersome to wear being outside in the heat all day because i know it was like you mentioned earlier it was like a bazillion degrees when you guys were filming and you did have a beautiful costume and so like what did you think of you know wearing it and then like wearing it all day in the heat okay so i had to be careful on set and remember that i was not a princess because i felt like one okay and and dollars used to always comment he's like amber your posture is just it's so perfect because i i have i have really good posture my daddy's to get on me all the time so here i am with like this straight back and this you know glorious wardrobe and i really just felt like a princess and it's a little bit she had a princess i had to kind of like loosen up a little bit because that's what i felt like in in in that in that wardrobe it was amazing to wear now i i would i would not say it was come with someone forever it was hot no matter what you're wearing some people had to have you know head coverings and all of that and i like i actually feel feel for them more than i did myself because my hair was kind of out i got to breathe a bit um everything as i mentioned before it was like handmade handcrafted and i i had so much pride and honor in wearing it the belt was handmade that was a little tight so like to eat they had to let that i mean my waist was snatched but you know i had to leave room for my food baby at lunchtime but other than that like everything was like so amazing um it was hot but they made sure to keep the actors cool so you know they would put us in like there's like this cave like the the cave that um john the baptist the jail that we that he was in was actually like when he when they weren't filming the scenes there they actually had that it's kind of like a little waiting room as well for like the actors where they had like blowing cold air in there and like cool drinks and it was like oh yes like it was so great um and then of course they had like other rooms in our trailers and things so they made sure that we were my trailer was actually really cold so i didn't really have to worry about being too hot until i was on set but then again they were hot where they were they didn't have ac so you kind of have to use these moments um actors have to do it all the time where you feel uncomfortable and you you someone with your character and and you apply it with them so you know the mara is probably hot carrying you know her best friend in the middle of the you know desert or whatever and capernaum you know blazing heat with no ac and uh yeah but i did i feel like a princess did you know i had my coins here and but i had to i think it was dallas i was like i feel like a princess he's like yes but you're not i was like i have to remember like i'm not a princess i am not a princess i felt like one because everyone was like amber i love your wardrobe like it was if i could have taken it home i totally would especially the necklace mm-hmm everything was just perfectly well done absolutely cumbersome no way actually i know i was like you're the princess of the episode i mean just because it was so beautiful and it's so different because you have all the disciples who are wearing just plain clothes and you know it's kind of like you know whatever it's not like bland but it's you know just normal day and then you have like tamar who's like all dressed up and with the hair and oh my gosh right so she's from she's from egypt and you have to think egypt is kind of like new york you know it's like it's like the new york of mesopotamians so they're here and it's like they kind of dress up to go buy toilet paper kind of thing if you were to put it into today so and that's kind of how she looked and so she this was like a normal day for her she's out there picking flowers in like this regalia it's like 125 degrees and she's out here picking dandelions you know and so it was no but that scene actually was pretty hot doing that thing but they make sure like they stand there and they have like these fans with the water and things and they have umbrellas so they're they they take care of you really well but yeah it's it was hot yeah for sure israel is very very hot i've been there in the summer time it is 110 115 very high on a cool day in the shade i know right so speaking of that scene um how long did it take to film all of your scenes for the chosen like how long were you on set and were your scenes filmed out of order i remember you mentioning that you know in tv shows they usually film out of order so were your scenes out of order and how long were you on set yeah so usually with films and television series they do not film them in order i i've never been on a set where we filmed anything in order um for several reasons so no we didn't do tomorrow scenes in order i if i do believe correctly we came out just blazing and doing the uh the paralytic scene first if i recall and so um let me see we did that we did that same first i think i filmed for maybe i was scheduled for five maybe i ended up filming for three or four days but we did over a period of two weeks so or or a week gosh you know i'm guys i'm getting old now so um i filmed yes and then we had to come back two weeks later and film again um the last scenes which i believe was the one where we were picking the flowers i think we did that on the the the second week if i recall and it was a normal full day i don't think i had any short days so usually about eight hour days pretty normal um some of them went on a little bit longer uh but i don't think we worked more than more than one maximum but i think most of them are eight hour days they're standard if you're lucky yes i know i've seen some behind-the-scenes footage when you know they were filming things at night like at the wedding it's like 3 a.m because you know you don't have to worry about the sun setting like you have all night to film night scenes so they were up all night so luckily i had no night scenes when you do night scenes your call time is usually five or six pm as the time that you come in and get dressed and get pretty and then they set things up and you don't start filming until the sun goes down and then you have all of the night until sunrise and that's your that's your film time and so i had all day scenes luckily um so i didn't have to suffer through any of that but i have had days on sets where i don't have to show up to work until 1 a.m or 2 a.m but i'm there and i've had days on set where i've been on set for 18 hours so luckily with the chosen they take care of you really well and um of course crew stays on a lot longer um because they're needed to handle everything like they're what people see the actors and they're like they're in love with what the actors do and they're the face of a series but the crew does all of the heavy lifting and they they make they make the magic happen and so without them there'd be no the chosen and so um it's because of them that we have it and such a beautiful project and um yeah but they're the ones who put in all of this blood sweat and tears to be honest and they're doing the long hours dallas is doing the long hours you know everybody's in there just sweating it out um but it looks gorgeous you know it came out and it was all worth it man yeah it was just absolutely beautiful and i have appreciated they've put out a couple of videos uh some crew members talk about their roles their jobs and you know how they film some things and you know uh building rigging and things like that and you were absolutely right like they're there before the actors get there and they're there long after they leave because they have to build things tear things down and they make the magic happen and um you know you're able to step into the world because they created it and so yes they they deserve so much praise for i believe i think they do thank you guys so just if you're watching this thank you for everything that you do because you guys are amazing everything from art to grips to lighting too just even the pas who are running and getting us water and holding umbrellas over our head like that is tough work like it really is it's like non-stop so like the cast the crew crew is amazing 100 uh um all right so uh i wanted to leave this last couple of minutes for you to share any last words any parting words that you would like to impart on the fans uh you know any inspirational thing that you can think of or anything that you just want to tell the fans who are watching well first of all i just want to say thank you thank you for being fans of the chosen you know um i feel like a lot of times uh some of these series and some of these films and they forget that they wouldn't be what they are or who they are without you guys so we want i want to thank you so much for just supporting everything that the chosen has um has done and and what they stand for and i want you to also keep in mind that when you have um things like the chosen beautiful stories of faith that they're not meant to create faith they're not meant to make you believe they're meant to strengthen your faith to help inspire you to go out there and want to learn more i want you to crack open your bible and that's that's i think something that they have done a beautiful job at uh doing and i just want i really hope that it's been encouraging all of you to want to know more and learn more um i want to thank everyone who's reached out to me personally who has sent me all of their photos and tagged me in all of their pictures and their posts i love receiving um these beautiful paintings i think i mentioned it before the paintings and the portraits listen i went from never having a picture painted of me in my entire life ever like ever ever to this quarantine having maybe like almost a dozen sent to me in a matter of a couple of months and you guys have showed up and showed out and it's been just beautiful to see and just even more amazing to be a part of um thank you so much ellen for having me here for interviewing me thank you again media for asking me to be here um interviewing me i loved playing tomorrow was one of you know the greatest accomplishments of my career so far i hope that you guys stick around for season two i am so excited to see i am a fan of the chosen as well so i want to see what's gonna happen i'm just excited as you guys are i want you to remember what i said about faith um when you have a choice between doing what's safe and stepping out of faith always choose faith because that's what's going to pay out in the end that's what's going to change your life it's always going to be work that i promise you and anytime that you have a doubt in your life any time listen to me any time that you have a doubt in your life and you're not sure what you're supposed to do instead of praying for a sign pray for discernment because likely that is the sign um often when difficult things happen in your life we um translate them as obstacles and a test when actually it's directional it's about trying to lead us somewhere but we don't really understand it and we don't know that he's trying to guide us we just think everything is going wrong instead i forgot to give you discernment so that you may understand what's being said to you instead of just say something because if you're if you speak greek and someone's speaking to you in chinese you're not going to understand okay so just ask god for discernment and you just notice how everything in your life changed always choose faith and always ask for discernment especially when you have doubt in your heart and in your mind and that's it that's all i have that's my little gym um via tamar okay be it tomorrow to your friends if you don't have it tomorrow as a friend be a tamar and uh that's all i have to say is yes they do and that was fabulous that was so fabulous amber it's such a good word oh my gosh you were just like talking and i'm like reach yes i'm like all the fans please just remember those words oh my gosh that was fantastic and uh thank you again to our fans and fans of the chosen we couldn't do this without you keep bringing your loaves and fishes and if you liked this video and want to see more please hit the subscribe button down below and hit the notification symbol to receive notifications for new videos and i want to thank the against the tied media team and most importantly i just want to sincerely thank you again amber for sharing your story with us letting us um into your heart and just sharing uh your heart with us so thank you again thank you so much for having me and we are out cool [Music] [Music] hey it's dallas and the creator of the chosen and yes season one of the chosen is complete all eight episodes they're available right now you can look up the chosen in the app store or google play and we're easy to find you can download it and be watching within minutes and in fact it's unprecedented technology you can connect to almost any device you have directly and you don't even need a subscription so i hope to check out season one of the chosen right now [Music] perfect and yeah so all right let's make sure everything's good to go awesome and then additionally when uh when i start i'll count us in because i'm going to be doing speaker view just so the camera knows to be on me for it i'll just count us in three two one and then i'll start talking so uh just let you know for when we start but uh yeah we'll just get rocking and rolling um and awesome cool so all right let me make sure i'm in speaker view awesome okay all right three two one why don't you come over here once he's lowered he's actually on the ground uh you can go and take a seat zebedee james and john are the ones who helped get him down into creating that 30 seconds that you've seen on scene and um excuse me these 30 seconds that you have seen on screen okay so you did fan fiction lord of the rings obviously oh my gosh he was he was my first hollywood crush yeah i was i mean i'm going to show how young i am i was four when the first lawyer rings came out uh like he was my first hollywood crush ever and i was just i was hooked and i loved him and then you know because you know when you're four you think that the actors look like who they're playing and so then a couple years later when pirates of the caribbean came out he looks drastically different i'm like wait that's legolas like what oh my gosh i was so in love um life i have done um um i have done tons of fan fiction and just like as like a off seeing thing um how i want to be respectful of your time so there are a couple more fan questions but if you don't have time for it we will just cut to the end um so just let me know uh because i want to respond no i'm all yours for the rest of the evening okay cool cool because there's a couple more fan questions there's five or well four because there's two that are very similar so okay cool cool so awesome and uh carol wellsteed sorry for mispronouncing your name good very nice all right ladies and gentlemen that's wrap on day 12. great work everybody and we are out cool oh my gosh amber you have just so encouraged me today i talked so much i should have warned you no you're totally good i mean i i kind of expect people you know to i so uh for my job i interview people professionally and so um but it's you know not like it's not like this it's like job interviews and so um i'm used to people talking a lot and you know i think you talked a really good amount i don't think you were over you know some people they just kind of like go on and on and on but i had i had like a moment i was like damn you know what my brain i don't have kids i got mom brain like what was the question that is me all the time i somebody will ask me a question and i'll be like that is good question let me tell you how to answer how i'm going to answer this and then i like stop and i'm like wait what was it again but have you ever been so embarrassed to like ask them what the question was again and you just kept talking until you remembered what the question was i was like i'm not going to do this she said they can cut so like otherwise if this was real life i probably would have just kept talking oh my goodness no i think you're fine that kind of reminds me have you ever seen the office yes okay so it reminds me of michael scott says in an episode he's like you know sometimes i just start a sentence not knowing where i'm going and i hope i find it by the end of the sentence and sometimes i feel like that that's me 100 i'm like and sometimes i just i'll talk and i had a point and then i'm like i don't remember what that point was but that's okay because i will make a new point yes as long as you sound confident with what you're exactly just pretend you know you're saying the exact right thing i the one thing that is just embarrassing is when you know somebody will you know like somebody will ask a question and the person maybe like doesn't understand it or they just want to talk about whatever they want to and they'll go in a completely different direction and then you're like okay how do i get you back on track without embarrassing them and saying oh wait but but what about this like because the audience might remember the question and they'll be like oh did that person just like not and you want to make sure that they use it like you don't you don't want to embarrass your guest and so you know you just kind of have to redirect just a little bit yeah that's that's me but i'm like i think i did okay but sometimes i just have these moments where it's it's just like yeah so sure like i'm so sure i knew exactly i had my answer and then all of a sudden it was like you know like the little hamster just like he got tired it was just like [Music] well see sometimes i feel like the hamster if you've ever seen this video it makes me laugh every time this hamster is running on the wheel so fast and he gives out his little legs give out and he goes flying out so i feel like that's my brain sometimes i'll be like on an idea and then it's like where did i go basically and then you just kind of have to get back there and and not look like you didn't just have a total brain fart so yeah i think we did well i totally my fiance always gives me crap about um amber you can't tell a story you can't tell stories in so long i've been just get to the point i'm so sorry but you have to set it up like i love your engagement story you had to set it up you had to say the context of adrian doesn't you know plan a lot of things he's not a romantic you have to set that up because then you don't if if you don't then you don't know how big that is exactly that's exactly the point it's like you have to have some context thank you okay i feel better yeah oh i think i mean i also talk a lot so but i just i love stories and so i love the other girl yeah also uh are you a fan of the enneagram what's that ah you don't know what the enneagram is i was trying to figure out what you are um during it's a personality test thing oh no i've taken the personality test i can't remember which one of my numbers i think um i have it screenshot somewhere okay so yes i am a fan i just i really i you know sometimes you don't remember what stuff is called yes okay yes i took it cool yeah because i was trying to figure out what you are i was like is amber three wing two because you love helping people you're also a go-getter and so twos are the helpers and threes are the achievers and so i was just kidding i was i think up to there's a test i think isn't there yeah i mean there's like some online like free tests and stuff um i mean like a true enneagram person enthusiast would tell you that you're not supposed to take the test you yeah you're supposed to read the book and read all the different profiles and then deduce which one you are and like which book but sometimes you know i'm like i self like introspection sometimes is not the best for me so i'm like who am i really did i pronounce your middle name correctly when i was introducing you um it's shanna but chana's phone oh shanna thank you i'll tell you this my dad says shanna my mom says shana so you're totally okay okay well i i forgot to ask you before i did it and we can re-record the very beginning of it um because i you know with my name jenna lynn like it's made up and so people are like is it is it jeanalin some people i don't know why they don't look and so they think it's jocelyn he kind of plays over it and forget spelling my name like you just cannot it's funny to see all of the iterations of how people spell it i understand like now like i had i did like a name change a long time ago but like trust me i understand but no my parents can't agree on how to pronounce that so don't worry about it it's perfectly fine but i i pronounce it shanna but my mom still calls me shayna so no worries okay cool cool um yeah also i love like the name is so pretty like you you're so cool thank you thank you that's hilarious wow i mean sometimes you know a good name is a good name you know kind of it's true this is true so yeah my parents are strange you know oh what is um what does eden say she's like you know we're not you know we're not crazy we're colorful like we're just we're fun but it's super cool that you're at that london school like holy cow like how like are you intimidated by it like at all initially when i saw their lineup of their alumni lineup i'm not sure if you do you watch any secular television oh yeah yeah have you ever seen snowfall at all i haven't seen that one now okay well idsa is the name of the school identity school of acting and they have um uh a list of alumni that is just that'll blow your mind and so the reason i ended up signing up for school is because they're kind of like dallas actors of color so there's there's the school and they were like none of the schools here are kind of focused on actors of color here and even the the structure the content the narrative is not keeping in mind what the doctors look like you know like you can't give me a script from friends because i can't relate to living in this huge like you know penthouse in new york like you know that's not but i have stories of being just a regular girl you know like everything is not about me struggling in life as a single mom you know and so they with this in mind they're like we're going to provide a safe space for everyone it's not just for people for everyone to come but we're all we're going to make sure that we change the narrative and they did this and they started shooting out big time names a-list actors and i was just like whoa and then because of corona virus it started offering courses um um online and it's a you have to audition to get into the school and i was like why not i've been looking for an acting school kind of intimidated to go to one here in spain because they're on spanish and even though i speak spanish i'm it's like to do the whole class my sword that all my combat classes are in spanish is totally different yeah and so here it is in english like i addition and i got into the professional course which is like the top tier course since i was even more excited and i just want to be a part of that number like lord please let me be in front of that number they have an agency so they still rep like legitimacy and john as well so they still wreck these big name actors and so that's that's kind of the next goal to be able to take my career to the next level is to do well enough in in the academy portion that they decide to want to read wow that is crazy i love that that is just like i mean like you said earlier like dream big shoot for it like you know you can't just do small little things like you have to put yourself out there and just be confident and you know even if you know you think it's a little crazy like who knows it could actually happen so don't limit yourself so wow yeah dream dollars because the thing is is you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna get there you're gonna get close and if you drink pennies you're gonna get pennies you dream dollars you're gonna get dollars and and not to say from the money standpoint but just just from the effort that you put in into it it's like if you if you dream small that's that's where you're gonna go and imagine if you if you dream small and you kind of get there you're like okay it kind of got there you dream big and you kind of get there like just imagine how big that step is to kind of get there so if i say i want to win an academy award and i kind of get there that's still a pretty big deal you know what i mean and so like that's what i always encourage people it's okay to have smaller goals i dream big always for sure do you have any dreams well see the thing about me is i love a lot of things and so you know my whole entire life has kind of been you know i'll kind of have one dream and then you know kind of what you were saying earlier god will have a sense of humor and laugh and say you know this one isn't the right one for you right now and so you know i've been singing and dancing since i was three and uh i was a senior in high school and i was gonna go uh to a conservatory program with a theater and um god decided to shut that door and my whole entire life was like going to that point and so i had no idea what to do i had like an identity crisis and um like developed an eating disorder and it was just it was like the worst year of my life and thankfully god rebuilt me and he rebuilt my love of learning and my love of people and just humanity in general and what i really love about acting as well and you know i love film for this is i love seeing humanity portrayed especially like so intimately and so raw like i love like a good close-up where it's like you don't have to say anything but you know exactly what they're feeling and the depth and complexity of what they're feeling like i have a thing for faces and i so i love seeing actors i mean i've even seen this in marvel movies like an actor in a marvel movie and i'm like your face i'm like you were just saying so much without saying anything at all and so i love that about humanity and i love asking the question why do people do what they do and so i went to college in new york city it was a very tiny christian college but uh it was in new york city hence why i have all of new york up here as artwork new york city stole my heart so i want to get back there someday soon but i um i started just wanting to know more about people in general and if it wasn't going to be performing then i wanted to go more into like anthropology and like sociology and still getting that you know why why do people do what they do and um how does that affect culture like you know religion politics um economics those all of those things influence culture and culture influences those things so i love culture and so you know if you know god is still keeping the performance door closed you know that would be one way where i would do that but then i do have another dream of being a professor and teaching about culture and so i have like a dream of like jenna lynn at age 60 would be like this you know awesome like spunky new york city professor teaching like sociology and just being like you know the cool professor like i want to be the cool professor so because like i've had a lot of cool professors and so i'm going to be that person and you you then you are that person from originally uh so i grew up outside of dc and then i went to college in new york city so i'm an east coaster through and through so but you're in chicago right yes so i was in chicago for my job so i moved from new york to chicago and then my job brought me here in dallas so are you a sociologist like me say it again you're sociologists like me well so i didn't study that i studied well okay my school's interesting they kind of make up degree names and so my degree is called media culture and the arts and so it's it's like liberal arts yeah that sounds awesome yeah so it's really cool because uh it's very interdisciplinary so i took culture classes but then i also took art history and my art history professor he loves like just history in general so we learned you know about you know okay why this person paint this glorious painting that we all know and love like what was he feeling and what was going on in society like you know if the french revolution's happening you need to know how these people were thinking and feeling to paint these pieces and so you know um so i would like to get like my master's in sociology or um or anthropology um and ultimately get my doctorate but uh yeah so i don't know when that will happen but would love to do that after my like i'm like i'm the same way i'm just like i believe that just us we're social beings and i like to know the whys of everything that we do and how that influences everything you really should travel like let me tell you the greatest learning experience i have ever had was being the other and of course being a black woman you have and you're born kind of feeling this way in an essence but you're still an american you still you still have a collected a collectivity with the society you know you still have community you're still an american but leaving this and going somewhere else and being the other now it will change your entire life like it'll put everything that you've ever learned into play into perspective and it will humble you in ways that you never i mean i'm sure because of what you've been through you've already felt like you felt things you know that some people will never have to to feel their entire life but like but you will just it will change it will change you to be even if you just do it for a year or a few weeks like i really highly encourage you a lot of people do a couple study abroad programs a lot of my friends have a lot of american friends actually here and i would i would consider that i feel like that would that would as as big as someone who's in a similar kind of um what we call this concentration i would it's affected me and it's changed to be here it really has yeah i know i was planning to travel more this year and then covet happened um i've been i've been to israel a couple times and there i can definitely attest like you know like not being israeli like that it was very very different and like trying to learn the culture and like you know how things work the inner mechanics behind what people say and what they mean like the slang terminology and stuff and so but i do have a couple friends who i have a friend who's about to study in poland and then um one who studied in hungary and the one who studied in hungary she was like oh my gosh this just absolutely changed my life she knew hungarian a little bit because she's family there but like being immersed in the culture i mean it was like sometimes it is but it's so rewarding it's it's you'll cry you'll laugh but it'll it'll be like something you've never experienced and you'll have a whole new appreciation for those who have to experience that where where you live where you're where you're from like you're like i had no idea like how difficult it is like when you you're you're a brilliant woman you're intelligent you're beautiful you're you're you're smart and you you have all these things that you've done with your life and that you're capable of imagine not being able to say that to to communicate that with anyone all you can do is like ask where the bathroom is or or or just how your day went kind of and like you're funny imagine not being able to like be funny like you you can't i'm more funny in english i promise like it's just such a challenge and but it's really it's really beautiful it'll change your life so if ever you get the chance everybody sat in your path it goes somewhere and he says hey you know when you you can be here we got this for you for a year or six months or whatever to be in this country for a certain amount of time i i think you should take it i don't know why this is in my mind in my heart but i i think that's something you should consider thanks thanks amber yeah i yeah would definitely love to to travel and i mean i just have so much respect for you know um people anywhere but you know because i've been living in america i have such respect for you know people who are learning english as a second language or as a third language depending on how many languages they already knew like you're so intelligent like so intelligent for trying to like figure out multiple languages in your mind and i just have i have so much respect for people and you're right like they may not be able to you know say exactly what they want to say and it may sound broken so it doesn't sound like as coherent but that does not attest to their intelligence or anything and so you know i i love i and i highly respect you know people who who put themselves into places where it's like you know i might step into a classroom and i might not know all of the words that they're saying you know i can kind of get by but i like have mad respect for for people who just dive in and just go into those situations um they're just they're incredible agreed um but cool well um i don't want to take up too much your time also i forgot to press stop recording so maybe i know um do not put this on there

Channel: Against the Tide Media

Views: 21,219

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Id: 2_CNEw-C3d8

Length: 135min 30sec (8130 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 29 2020