“The OA’s” Brit Marling opened up about how she had the courage to leave a job at Goldman Sachs for acting
There are some people in the world who just have all the talents, and one of those special humans is The OA’s Brit Marling. She’s an actress and screenwriter (and co-creator of the show), and she also worked incredibly hard to get where she is.
In an interview with People, Marling discussed Hollywood and female characters, and also opened up about her life before getting involved in the entertainment industry.
Marling studied economics at Georgetown University and received a job offer from Goldman Sachs after completing an internship there. While it was probably hard to turn down a steady and solid income, Marling just felt it wasn’t the right fit. Not just the job itself, but that whole career in investment banking.
“I thought, ‘I’m setting myself up for a life that I’m not really going to enjoy,” she told People in an interview. Asked how she was able to take the huge risk, Marling attributed it to those critical early career decisions.
"Sometimes people have something they want to do, and they have the back-up plan, and it becomes hard to do Plan A, because doing something different or strange or outside the box or being an artist in any capacity is just difficult. There's no clear path. So usually you hit some resistance and fall on your back-up plan because it makes more sense. What I did is, I accidentally lived the back-up plan first. So there was just no back-up plan [after that]."
via giphyBut when Marling got to LA, she became disappointed in the lack of complex roles for women.
"I came close to playing parts where I felt, ‘If I had a daughter, would I be proud of the representation of a woman she’d be watching? Because you want to begin getting work as an actress and think, ‘This is what I have to do in order to [make it in the industry]’…That’s the point where I thought: the only way I’m going to be able to navigate what feels right is if I figure out how to tell stories."
via giphySo, Marling took matters into her own hands, conceiving of films like Another Earth and The East with collaborators from Georgetown.
She became a fully-fledged screenwriter, and now she’s a cocreater on The OA for Netflix. She also has an insanely cool perspective on taking risks in life.
"This all happens a lot quicker than we think. [...] Life is so short, and so I think if you just hold that concept of time in your head, you find yourself capable of pretty radical things. If you can give yourself permission to not be afraid."
And we think that’s pretty perfect advice, no matter what career you’re venturing into! Thanks for the inspo, Brit. We genuinely think you’re such a positive force for women in the industry (and women in general), and we can’t wait to see what you do next!
