The Arts & The Big Break: Part 1 with Anna Camp | The Arts & Everything

Description

What does a “big break” in Hollywood really look like for a working actor, and what does it take to sustain a long‑term career? In Part 1 of this two‑part conversation, UNCSA Chancellor Brian Cole talks with actor and UNCSA alumna Anna Camp (“Pitch Perfect,” “True Blood,” “Mad Men”) about the tiny off‑Broadway show that quietly changed everything when director Mike Nichols happened to be in the audience.

Anna shares how that moment led to new opportunities, and why the less‑glamorous side of momentum — typecasting, pressure to stay busy, and constant comparison — can be just as defining as any “overnight success” story. She talks about learning when to say no, choosing roles that keep you growing, and trusting your training when the industry wants to put you in a box.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

How one night in a small New York theater changed Anna Camp's career

The realities of typecasting and how she learned to push back

Why saying no can protect your craft, your values, and your long‑term goals

The role UNCSA and conservatory training played in building her confidence and resilience

Part 2 continues the conversation with Krys Marshall for more behind-the-scenes stories, reflections on creative risk and practical advice for emerging artists charting their own path.

"The Arts & Everything" is a UNCSA Media podcast hosted by Brian Cole and produced by Maria Wurttele and Sasha Hartzell. Executive producers are Katherine Johnson and Kory Kelly, and Louie Poore is the associate producer. Creative Design is Alli Myers Gagnon and Digital Strategy is Natalie Shrader. Music was composed by Chris Heckman and performed by Chris Heckman, André Vasconcellos, Miah Kay Cardoza and Gabe Lopez.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Transcription

Brian Cole
In the arts, there's this idea of the big break. That one moment where you're in the right place at the right time. When you meet the right person, land the perfect role. When you get called up to stand in for somebody in that big performance. A moment that changes everything. It's sort of a fairy tale in the arts industry. But like all fairy tales, it's at least somewhat rooted in truth. The question is, how much truth? If you pull back the curtain on these big moments... what do you find? Welcome to the Arts and Everything. I'm Brian Cole, Chancellor of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Today, we have a two-part episode looking at the arts and the big break. And we ask, are big breaks just the natural culmination of years of putting in the work? Or is there also a little luck involved? I'll be speaking with two actors and UNCSA alums whose careers you likely already know. They both have big break stories, and they both push back, in their own ways, on the myth that the big break comes to you. Here's part one. You may know Anna Camp from hit TV series like True Blood or Mad Men, or movies like Pitch Perfect or, most recently, A Little Prayer. From Broadway to TV to film, from comedy to horror, Anna is constantly stretching herself as an artist. Fresh out of UNCSA, she landed an off-Broadway role in a wild musical at a small theater in New York. It was a big deal for her at the time, and turned out to be a huge deal for her career. Anna joined me from her home in Los Angeles to talk about what her big break really looked like and how one small show led to Broadway, to hit television and beyond. Anna, again, thank you so much for taking this time and joining us. It's really special to have you here.
Anna Camp
I'm so happy to be talking to you today and I'm delighted that you guys wanted to talk to me.
Brian Cole
Well, what I want to talk today about is the idea for artists of the big break or things that happen in careers that are kind of a before and after, you know, whether you realize it in the moment or whether you realize it down the road. You've had so many moments in your career, which has already includes so many incredible achievements. Is there one that sticks out right now that you kind of feel like was a big break or a moment where you felt everything changing?
Anna Camp
Yeah, definitely. There are a lot of. moments that I can look back on and say one thing really did lead to the next. I did a very, very, very small off-Broadway play at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre called God Hates the Irish. It's like terribly raunchy, musical, like really wild. And a lot of students who went to Yale developed it and worked on it. And Will Frears actually ended up directing it. I mean, I had to audition for that. play probably four times. I was playing a British girl and the director didn't know if I could act. He thought I was just the girl when I came in. And I was like, no, I went to college for this. I went to school for this. Like I'm a trained actor. I was so young. I think I was like 22 years old or something, but I got the role and two people came to see me in this very, very small off-Broadway play. And the first person was Mike Nichols. So Mike Nichols ended up coming and seeing me in that show. And then he cast me in my very first Broadway role opposite Frances McDormand and Morgan Freeman, just from being in this crazy little off-Broadway play. And then the other person that came was the amazing playwright, Theresa Rebeck, who ended up giving me a script for a play called The Scene after one of the performances and told me that she wanted me to come and do it at the Humana Festival. And then that got an off-Broadway run at Second Stage, which was amazing. But those two people coming to this very, very, very tiny off-Broadway play, like that basically changed the trajectory of my life as an actor, especially in New York City. And I kept getting play after play because of those plays. And then Alan Ball came to see me in a play called Equus with Daniel Radcliffe. And then he called me to audition for True Blood. And that's basically how that kind of took off. So pretty amazing how that one small little off-Broadway play led to so much.
Brian Cole
What did that feel like in the moment? Did you... Feel that all happening at the same time? Was it just moving really fast for you?
Anna Camp
I felt definitely surprised, but I felt really cool. I felt like, oh, this is what people say could possibly happen. It felt very cinematic, right? Like this amazing director who had directed Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and The Graduate and like coming up to me. And like it just felt like I was in my own little. movie or something. It just felt like something I'd heard about, but I never thought would happen to me. Looking back on it, it just feels like pretty amazing. Like whenever I tell this story to people too, they're always very like, wow, like that doesn't happen that much anymore. Or how cool that happened to you. So I think that I appreciate it more now than I even did then.
Brian Cole
I love the stories of those little moments like you described that this person showed up at this small show and it's kind of this butterfly effect of things that takes you in another direction and that in hindsight we see launch our career. When you look back to those early years, you know, these first big projects, these big breaks, within those experiences, were there turning points or risks that you felt that kind of shaped your path as an artist?
Anna Camp
Oh yeah, definitely. I think especially, you know, after I got Pitch Perfect. It was such a life-changing job and a life-changing role and I didn't realize, you know, how big that was going to be and how many people were going to love it and how it was going to be this big franchise. We had no idea. But I do think that after that role, people really wanted to pigeonhole me and I would be offered a lot of the same types of roles. And it's very... hard as an actor to say no to projects because you don't know when the next one is going to come. You know, you should feel grateful for every job that comes your way. But I just knew that I had a lot more to give than the exact same character over and over and over. So I turned down some jobs for some sitcoms where I would have been playing, you know, the uptight, blonde, bitchy role again, when I just felt like there... I had to trust myself, I guess is what I'm saying, and trust the fact that I'm more than just that one thing and that I am a talented actor who can do a multitude of things. And I was lucky to have a team of people and agents who also believed in me and they weren't forcing me to take jobs just for money or just because it was the easy route. And to this day, I'm still having to work to find the roles that are challenging and creatively stretch me in ways. I have to have faith in directors and writers to see me beyond just what the world may see me as. I'm grateful for Pitch Perfect, but my God, is it like really, it's put me on a path that if I don't say no, I could really go down and get stuck in that for sure.
Brian Cole
Yeah. The thing I took away from what you're saying is all the decisions that you have to make throughout a period like this. And you mentioned saying no to jobs. So, I mean... Those must stick out as also moments for you in time, like difficult decisions to say yes to something, to say no to something. Any more of those kind of decisions stick out for you?
Anna Camp
I said no to a lot of jobs in a row, and then I had to actively seek out different projects. And I think the work that I'm the most proud of, not that many people have seen. There are these two very small indie movies that I was, I guess, cast against type, so to speak. I didn't do it for any. money at all. Like I lost money, I think on some of it, because I had to put myself up in the hotel rooms or whatnot. And, but I did it because I wanted to stretch myself as an artist. You know, I ended up like dyeing my hair black, and I pursued this incredible horror movie that, that I loved being in. And then there was a very small indie movie called Hero Wild that I did, that was about the death with dignity act. And I played a woman who was dying from cancer. And I... through everything I had into these two roles that not that many people have seen and that I didn't really get any career bump from it, so to speak, but I got fed in my soul as an artist. When everybody graduates college and they want to hit it big right when they get out and they want to book the Asian and they want to be on the TV shows and be in movies like right from the get go. But there's something about saying, I want to do this forever. I want to do this as my career, as my life. And there's going to be ups and downs, and there's going to be dry times. There's going to be times where you're in that thing, and it'll go like this constantly. And so to have that perspective of... This is for the long haul. And sometimes I need to take jobs that feed my soul and not just advance my career or my bank account. But those are also incredibly worthy. And sometimes they're the most worthy jobs, actually.
Brian Cole
I love hearing that aspect of a career. When you talk about your career, I mean, from that big break that you described until now, it seems to me... like externally as kind of a meteoric rise. It may not have felt that way to you at the time, but it seems like so much happening in a very short amount of time, relatively speaking. What are some of the unexpected challenges that you noted along the way as all this started to happen for you and you engaged the industry in really meaningful ways? You know, what do you remember about that?
Anna Camp
I mean, I'm still facing these challenges today. There's always this tendency. to compare yourself, compare yourself to other actors, compare yourself to, you know, your friends who also graduated school with you. And somehow there's this feeling that you're on a race, especially as a, as a woman I've noticed. Um, and I'm now 42, I'm about to be 43 at the end of the month. And there, there comes this time where you stop racing and you stop. competing. I'm not technically where I want to be quite yet either. You know what I mean? So it's nice when people say you had this meteoric rise or that you're doing everything that you want to do. And then so many ways I am, but there's always this thing of trying not to compare yourself to other people's careers and other people's paths. Because like somebody just got nominated for their very first. Emmy just the other day, and she's 58 years old, you know, and she's on this new show called The Pit. And you don't know when it's going to happen for you. It might never, like the awards may not come or whatnot. But it's really about going and sticking in for the long haul. You know, I mean, I've stopped trying to compare myself, even though it's really hard not to. I'd say that's one of the biggest challenges.
Brian Cole
That's all really great advice. for young actors like those here at UNCSA. Because you were here too as a student at UNCSA, what other points of advice come to mind? Like what advice would you give Anna back in high school and college at UNCSA as a drama student?
Anna Camp
Oh my gosh, so much advice. Wow. You know, I think that you have to be very open to things not working out exactly how you might want them. or wish for them to go, you have to follow your gut and your heart and, you know, don't take jobs if you feel wrong about a role, if it doesn't feel right, you know, just to get your foot in the door, like just try not to compromise yourself as an actor and as an artist. And maybe, you know, it's not your goal to start out doing regional theater, but like do it. Say yes to smaller roles, meet people. Get knowledge. Continue to take training after school if you feel the need. Just don't be so wound so tightly that there's a yes or a no, a correct way to go about making it happen for yourself in this business. There are many ways to go about it, and it usually doesn't happen exactly how you think it's going to go.
Brian Cole
Right. Well, we're on the subject of you as a student here. You think back to that time. Is there a moment? that sticks out for you and your experience here that feels like as one particularly helped you prepare for this career?
Anna Camp
Oh, wow. Yeah. I mean, there's so many incredibly valuable moments that I learned at UNCSA. I mean, I had a wonderful time in the training programs there. All of these amazing teachers that I felt like saw me creatively. I never got cast in like a lead to roll while I was there. I watched my fellow students and other actors get cast in like the bigger roles. I was always like such a supporting character, which was wonderful. But I always was like, oh, man, like, what's what's wrong with me? Why can't I get like a lead, you know? But I remember I had such an amazing moment where where Gerald Freedman came to see me in a play that I did off-Broadway. And I, you know, crushed it. I was one of the leads in the show. I remember I saw him after the performance and he just said, where was that the whole time you were at MCSA? And I said, it was there the whole time. And I think that if that story can help any student who. Like things change just because you are having a certain experience in college in your training program doesn't necessarily mean that it will translate when you leave the school. My advice is to be prepared and learn everything that you can there. And it's such a wonderful training program. but do not be deterred if you are not. maybe quote unquote as successful as some of your classmates in getting certain roles or whatever it may be. Like I was definitely super hard on myself and I was really like, I was, I was sometimes very sad there to be totally honest. And so when I got out, it was so liberating to see that I wasn't crazy, that I am talented and to know that things can change. You know what I mean? And just because it's like that one day, it doesn't mean that it's going to stay that way for forever, I think is what I would reach out and tell little Anna that not to worry, your time will come.
Brian Cole
I think little Anna would be pretty excited if she could see a window into Anna today.
Anna Camp
Thank you. Thank you. I'm very proud of what I've accomplished and I think you're right.
Brian Cole
Well, UNCSA is incredibly proud of you and what you've accomplished. And, you know, you were speaking earlier about how with all that that has happened in your career to this point, that you haven't done everything that you've wanted to do, that you haven't become everything that you wanted to be. What do you feel in this moment is the next leap or the next steps for you or what's the next big break?
Anna Camp
Oh, my gosh. So many wonderful things come to mind. I think that what I would like to see happen in my career and what I'm actively searching for is a role that. people will see me as like a very complex actress. I can handle drama as well as the comedy. I usually, you know, I've been cast in a lot of comedies. I also think comedy is very difficult to be totally honest, but I would love for it to have a very weighty, meaty, complex, leading role in a film that can stretch my talents and put me on the, on the map in a different way than I think that people are used to seeing me. which is something that I'm actively seeking out now in my career. And it could also be a play where I get to play an amazing role that I can like really own and have some real gravitas to. I think that people are used to seeing me in a bit lighter fare. And I'd like to have something be very full of depth. So that's the main thing that I'm searching for these days.
Brian Cole
I really saw some of that in your performance in A Little Prayer as well.
Anna Camp
Oh, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. It's so awesome to see that people are responding to that. There was an amazing emotional moment that the camera really caught and that Angus really got out of me and the other actors as well. I mean, you're only as important as the other actor that you're working with and getting to work with David and Celia and Jane was really incredible. So I'm happy that you saw that. Thank you.
Brian Cole
Oh, I can't wait for everyone else to see it too. And I'm so glad that they now have the opportunity to do that. Well, I really appreciate you taking the time to do this today. It's just inspiring to hear your story.
Anna Camp
Thank you.
Brian Cole
A huge thank you to Anna for sharing her time and story with us. You can catch her in the new Scream movie, Scream 7, which is coming this February. And Anna's example of an actor winning their first Emmy at age 58? That's UNCSA alum Katherine Lanasa for her performance in the hit series, The Pit. In part two of The Arts in the Big Break, I sit down with another incredible actor and alum, Kyrs Marshall, to hear how a last-minute audition and a life-changing phone call turned into seven years on an Emmy-winning series. I'm Brian Cole. Thank you for listening to The Arts and Everything. Until next time, take care and keep finding the arts in everything. The Arts and Everything is a UNCSA Media podcast produced by Maria Wurttel and Sasha Hartzell. I'm your host, Brian Cole. Katherine Johnson and Kory Kelly are our executive producers, and our associate producer is Louie Poore. Creative direction and design is Alli Myers-Gagnon, and digital strategy is Natalie Shrader. Music was composed by Chris Heckman and performed by Chris Heckman, André Vasconcellos, Miah Kay Cardoza, and Gabe Lopez. Special thanks to Linda Shaytar for all her help with logistics.

Description

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

How one night in a small New York theater changed Anna Camp's career

The realities of typecasting and how she learned to push back

Why saying no can protect your craft, your values, and your long‑term goals

The role UNCSA and conservatory training played in building her confidence and resilience

Part 2 continues the conversation with Krys Marshall for more behind-the-scenes stories, reflections on creative risk and practical advice for emerging artists charting their own path.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Transcription

Brian Cole
In the arts, there's this idea of the big break. That one moment where you're in the right place at the right time. When you meet the right person, land the perfect role. When you get called up to stand in for somebody in that big performance. A moment that changes everything. It's sort of a fairy tale in the arts industry. But like all fairy tales, it's at least somewhat rooted in truth. The question is, how much truth? If you pull back the curtain on these big moments... what do you find? Welcome to the Arts and Everything. I'm Brian Cole, Chancellor of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Today, we have a two-part episode looking at the arts and the big break. And we ask, are big breaks just the natural culmination of years of putting in the work? Or is there also a little luck involved? I'll be speaking with two actors and UNCSA alums whose careers you likely already know. They both have big break stories, and they both push back, in their own ways, on the myth that the big break comes to you. Here's part one. You may know Anna Camp from hit TV series like True Blood or Mad Men, or movies like Pitch Perfect or, most recently, A Little Prayer. From Broadway to TV to film, from comedy to horror, Anna is constantly stretching herself as an artist. Fresh out of UNCSA, she landed an off-Broadway role in a wild musical at a small theater in New York. It was a big deal for her at the time, and turned out to be a huge deal for her career. Anna joined me from her home in Los Angeles to talk about what her big break really looked like and how one small show led to Broadway, to hit television and beyond. Anna, again, thank you so much for taking this time and joining us. It's really special to have you here.
Anna Camp
I'm so happy to be talking to you today and I'm delighted that you guys wanted to talk to me.
Brian Cole
Well, what I want to talk today about is the idea for artists of the big break or things that happen in careers that are kind of a before and after, you know, whether you realize it in the moment or whether you realize it down the road. You've had so many moments in your career, which has already includes so many incredible achievements. Is there one that sticks out right now that you kind of feel like was a big break or a moment where you felt everything changing?
Anna Camp
Yeah, definitely. There are a lot of. moments that I can look back on and say one thing really did lead to the next. I did a very, very, very small off-Broadway play at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre called God Hates the Irish. It's like terribly raunchy, musical, like really wild. And a lot of students who went to Yale developed it and worked on it. And Will Frears actually ended up directing it. I mean, I had to audition for that. play probably four times. I was playing a British girl and the director didn't know if I could act. He thought I was just the girl when I came in. And I was like, no, I went to college for this. I went to school for this. Like I'm a trained actor. I was so young. I think I was like 22 years old or something, but I got the role and two people came to see me in this very, very small off-Broadway play. And the first person was Mike Nichols. So Mike Nichols ended up coming and seeing me in that show. And then he cast me in my very first Broadway role opposite Frances McDormand and Morgan Freeman, just from being in this crazy little off-Broadway play. And then the other person that came was the amazing playwright, Theresa Rebeck, who ended up giving me a script for a play called The Scene after one of the performances and told me that she wanted me to come and do it at the Humana Festival. And then that got an off-Broadway run at Second Stage, which was amazing. But those two people coming to this very, very, very tiny off-Broadway play, like that basically changed the trajectory of my life as an actor, especially in New York City. And I kept getting play after play because of those plays. And then Alan Ball came to see me in a play called Equus with Daniel Radcliffe. And then he called me to audition for True Blood. And that's basically how that kind of took off. So pretty amazing how that one small little off-Broadway play led to so much.
Brian Cole
What did that feel like in the moment? Did you... Feel that all happening at the same time? Was it just moving really fast for you?
Anna Camp
I felt definitely surprised, but I felt really cool. I felt like, oh, this is what people say could possibly happen. It felt very cinematic, right? Like this amazing director who had directed Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and The Graduate and like coming up to me. And like it just felt like I was in my own little. movie or something. It just felt like something I'd heard about, but I never thought would happen to me. Looking back on it, it just feels like pretty amazing. Like whenever I tell this story to people too, they're always very like, wow, like that doesn't happen that much anymore. Or how cool that happened to you. So I think that I appreciate it more now than I even did then.
Brian Cole
I love the stories of those little moments like you described that this person showed up at this small show and it's kind of this butterfly effect of things that takes you in another direction and that in hindsight we see launch our career. When you look back to those early years, you know, these first big projects, these big breaks, within those experiences, were there turning points or risks that you felt that kind of shaped your path as an artist?
Anna Camp
Oh yeah, definitely. I think especially, you know, after I got Pitch Perfect. It was such a life-changing job and a life-changing role and I didn't realize, you know, how big that was going to be and how many people were going to love it and how it was going to be this big franchise. We had no idea. But I do think that after that role, people really wanted to pigeonhole me and I would be offered a lot of the same types of roles. And it's very... hard as an actor to say no to projects because you don't know when the next one is going to come. You know, you should feel grateful for every job that comes your way. But I just knew that I had a lot more to give than the exact same character over and over and over. So I turned down some jobs for some sitcoms where I would have been playing, you know, the uptight, blonde, bitchy role again, when I just felt like there... I had to trust myself, I guess is what I'm saying, and trust the fact that I'm more than just that one thing and that I am a talented actor who can do a multitude of things. And I was lucky to have a team of people and agents who also believed in me and they weren't forcing me to take jobs just for money or just because it was the easy route. And to this day, I'm still having to work to find the roles that are challenging and creatively stretch me in ways. I have to have faith in directors and writers to see me beyond just what the world may see me as. I'm grateful for Pitch Perfect, but my God, is it like really, it's put me on a path that if I don't say no, I could really go down and get stuck in that for sure.
Brian Cole
Yeah. The thing I took away from what you're saying is all the decisions that you have to make throughout a period like this. And you mentioned saying no to jobs. So, I mean... Those must stick out as also moments for you in time, like difficult decisions to say yes to something, to say no to something. Any more of those kind of decisions stick out for you?
Anna Camp
I said no to a lot of jobs in a row, and then I had to actively seek out different projects. And I think the work that I'm the most proud of, not that many people have seen. There are these two very small indie movies that I was, I guess, cast against type, so to speak. I didn't do it for any. money at all. Like I lost money, I think on some of it, because I had to put myself up in the hotel rooms or whatnot. And, but I did it because I wanted to stretch myself as an artist. You know, I ended up like dyeing my hair black, and I pursued this incredible horror movie that, that I loved being in. And then there was a very small indie movie called Hero Wild that I did, that was about the death with dignity act. And I played a woman who was dying from cancer. And I... through everything I had into these two roles that not that many people have seen and that I didn't really get any career bump from it, so to speak, but I got fed in my soul as an artist. When everybody graduates college and they want to hit it big right when they get out and they want to book the Asian and they want to be on the TV shows and be in movies like right from the get go. But there's something about saying, I want to do this forever. I want to do this as my career, as my life. And there's going to be ups and downs, and there's going to be dry times. There's going to be times where you're in that thing, and it'll go like this constantly. And so to have that perspective of... This is for the long haul. And sometimes I need to take jobs that feed my soul and not just advance my career or my bank account. But those are also incredibly worthy. And sometimes they're the most worthy jobs, actually.
Brian Cole
I love hearing that aspect of a career. When you talk about your career, I mean, from that big break that you described until now, it seems to me... like externally as kind of a meteoric rise. It may not have felt that way to you at the time, but it seems like so much happening in a very short amount of time, relatively speaking. What are some of the unexpected challenges that you noted along the way as all this started to happen for you and you engaged the industry in really meaningful ways? You know, what do you remember about that?
Anna Camp
I mean, I'm still facing these challenges today. There's always this tendency. to compare yourself, compare yourself to other actors, compare yourself to, you know, your friends who also graduated school with you. And somehow there's this feeling that you're on a race, especially as a, as a woman I've noticed. Um, and I'm now 42, I'm about to be 43 at the end of the month. And there, there comes this time where you stop racing and you stop. competing. I'm not technically where I want to be quite yet either. You know what I mean? So it's nice when people say you had this meteoric rise or that you're doing everything that you want to do. And then so many ways I am, but there's always this thing of trying not to compare yourself to other people's careers and other people's paths. Because like somebody just got nominated for their very first. Emmy just the other day, and she's 58 years old, you know, and she's on this new show called The Pit. And you don't know when it's going to happen for you. It might never, like the awards may not come or whatnot. But it's really about going and sticking in for the long haul. You know, I mean, I've stopped trying to compare myself, even though it's really hard not to. I'd say that's one of the biggest challenges.
Brian Cole
That's all really great advice. for young actors like those here at UNCSA. Because you were here too as a student at UNCSA, what other points of advice come to mind? Like what advice would you give Anna back in high school and college at UNCSA as a drama student?
Anna Camp
Oh my gosh, so much advice. Wow. You know, I think that you have to be very open to things not working out exactly how you might want them. or wish for them to go, you have to follow your gut and your heart and, you know, don't take jobs if you feel wrong about a role, if it doesn't feel right, you know, just to get your foot in the door, like just try not to compromise yourself as an actor and as an artist. And maybe, you know, it's not your goal to start out doing regional theater, but like do it. Say yes to smaller roles, meet people. Get knowledge. Continue to take training after school if you feel the need. Just don't be so wound so tightly that there's a yes or a no, a correct way to go about making it happen for yourself in this business. There are many ways to go about it, and it usually doesn't happen exactly how you think it's going to go.
Brian Cole
Right. Well, we're on the subject of you as a student here. You think back to that time. Is there a moment? that sticks out for you and your experience here that feels like as one particularly helped you prepare for this career?
Anna Camp
Oh, wow. Yeah. I mean, there's so many incredibly valuable moments that I learned at UNCSA. I mean, I had a wonderful time in the training programs there. All of these amazing teachers that I felt like saw me creatively. I never got cast in like a lead to roll while I was there. I watched my fellow students and other actors get cast in like the bigger roles. I was always like such a supporting character, which was wonderful. But I always was like, oh, man, like, what's what's wrong with me? Why can't I get like a lead, you know? But I remember I had such an amazing moment where where Gerald Freedman came to see me in a play that I did off-Broadway. And I, you know, crushed it. I was one of the leads in the show. I remember I saw him after the performance and he just said, where was that the whole time you were at MCSA? And I said, it was there the whole time. And I think that if that story can help any student who. Like things change just because you are having a certain experience in college in your training program doesn't necessarily mean that it will translate when you leave the school. My advice is to be prepared and learn everything that you can there. And it's such a wonderful training program. but do not be deterred if you are not. maybe quote unquote as successful as some of your classmates in getting certain roles or whatever it may be. Like I was definitely super hard on myself and I was really like, I was, I was sometimes very sad there to be totally honest. And so when I got out, it was so liberating to see that I wasn't crazy, that I am talented and to know that things can change. You know what I mean? And just because it's like that one day, it doesn't mean that it's going to stay that way for forever, I think is what I would reach out and tell little Anna that not to worry, your time will come.
Brian Cole
I think little Anna would be pretty excited if she could see a window into Anna today.
Anna Camp
Thank you. Thank you. I'm very proud of what I've accomplished and I think you're right.
Brian Cole
Well, UNCSA is incredibly proud of you and what you've accomplished. And, you know, you were speaking earlier about how with all that that has happened in your career to this point, that you haven't done everything that you've wanted to do, that you haven't become everything that you wanted to be. What do you feel in this moment is the next leap or the next steps for you or what's the next big break?
Anna Camp
Oh, my gosh. So many wonderful things come to mind. I think that what I would like to see happen in my career and what I'm actively searching for is a role that. people will see me as like a very complex actress. I can handle drama as well as the comedy. I usually, you know, I've been cast in a lot of comedies. I also think comedy is very difficult to be totally honest, but I would love for it to have a very weighty, meaty, complex, leading role in a film that can stretch my talents and put me on the, on the map in a different way than I think that people are used to seeing me. which is something that I'm actively seeking out now in my career. And it could also be a play where I get to play an amazing role that I can like really own and have some real gravitas to. I think that people are used to seeing me in a bit lighter fare. And I'd like to have something be very full of depth. So that's the main thing that I'm searching for these days.
Brian Cole
I really saw some of that in your performance in A Little Prayer as well.
Anna Camp
Oh, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. It's so awesome to see that people are responding to that. There was an amazing emotional moment that the camera really caught and that Angus really got out of me and the other actors as well. I mean, you're only as important as the other actor that you're working with and getting to work with David and Celia and Jane was really incredible. So I'm happy that you saw that. Thank you.
Brian Cole
Oh, I can't wait for everyone else to see it too. And I'm so glad that they now have the opportunity to do that. Well, I really appreciate you taking the time to do this today. It's just inspiring to hear your story.
Anna Camp
Thank you.
Brian Cole
A huge thank you to Anna for sharing her time and story with us. You can catch her in the new Scream movie, Scream 7, which is coming this February. And Anna's example of an actor winning their first Emmy at age 58? That's UNCSA alum Katherine Lanasa for her performance in the hit series, The Pit. In part two of The Arts in the Big Break, I sit down with another incredible actor and alum, Kyrs Marshall, to hear how a last-minute audition and a life-changing phone call turned into seven years on an Emmy-winning series. I'm Brian Cole. Thank you for listening to The Arts and Everything. Until next time, take care and keep finding the arts in everything. The Arts and Everything is a UNCSA Media podcast produced by Maria Wurttel and Sasha Hartzell. I'm your host, Brian Cole. Katherine Johnson and Kory Kelly are our executive producers, and our associate producer is Louie Poore. Creative direction and design is Alli Myers-Gagnon, and digital strategy is Natalie Shrader. Music was composed by Chris Heckman and performed by Chris Heckman, André Vasconcellos, Miah Kay Cardoza, and Gabe Lopez. Special thanks to Linda Shaytar for all her help with logistics.

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