Painfully shy, but acting has my heart.

Unfortunately, Yeah, I'm Sierra Bravo.

And this is on the rise.

Yeah.

I found myself in the industry when I was very young, probably nine years old, growing up in Northern Kentucky Cincinnati area.

I never considered acting a career option or choice.

It just never occurred to me that that was something that you could do.

But an agent approached my mom at a county fair, which is the most terrifying start to any story.

And she came to me was like, If this is something that you want to pursue that you're interested in and we can do it, If not, we can forget about it.

And of course, I was like, Yes, I wanted to see what else the world had to offer.

And once I got started, I just couldn't stop.

I started flying out for a couple of weeks at a time to go to do pilot season and audition out here in l.

A.

And then I fly back home for summer camp in school and then around 18, which is well into my career.

At this point, I moved permanently and my mom went home and my sister graduated from college and we moved in together and I was really lucky and that my family was extremely supportive.

But they also never pushed it.

They made it very clear that if I stopped enjoying this that I didn't have to keep doing it.

That's what allowed me to really enjoy the experience of working that lack of pressure.

There is actual video footage of my first real audition.

It's more fine for me to look at.

Um, it was for the Newport Aquarium, and I was supposed to pretend like I was looking at all of these sharks and all of these fish and oh, wow, this is the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

Whoa, what Mhm.

I ended up booking it.

So it's my first audition and my first real job, which is exciting.

Big time Rush was my first breakout role.

It was my first big part.

I mean, it lasted four years.

I grew up on that show, so that was definitely the beginning for me.

Big time rush came to me through my agent and an audition email, and I put it on tape back home in Cincinnati and per usual, I'm not expecting to hear anything.

So I went on a school trip, um, up in the Amish country, which is like the big, cool trip you get to take in sixth or seventh grade.

And when we were at this Amish families house having dinner, all of a sudden the teacher comes up to me and they're like, Hey, your mom's here, which is the worst.

The last thing you want to hear when you're on a school trip.

Hey, your mom's here and she's all frantic.

She's just driven, like 180 miles trying to catch the school bus.

She's like, we got notes.

We have to redo the same.

I was like, Okay, so we went into their market and they were kind enough to that's so kind to turn on generators for us that we have lights because it was it was nighttime.

By this point, she drove this motel down the street and convinced the woman working there to send the tapes off for her.

And then I got a call from my agent saying that I booked a part and I was just, like, shaking.

Yeah, so after big time rush, I wanted to get more into a serious side of acting where I could get more into research and explore human nature a little bit more.

And so that's what I wanted to focus on.

And I was lucky enough to do that with Red Band Society, and after that I mean, I was in it deep.

Once I got the taste for research and building a character from the ground up and asking questions like What exists in your characters drawers?

You know something that you would never see on screen but really makes a huge difference in building this character.

I just wanted more and more of that.

And so I was lucky enough to move into the indie film world a little bit and get a taste of that style of working and just slowly and subtly moving forward.

Um, my next big role being Wayne, which came out on Amazon recently very close to my heart and then cherry.

I feel like it's the next rung on the ladder for me, So I first heard Cherry through an audition email again breaks down from my agent, and as soon as I saw the names attached, I was like, Oh, man, there's no way I'm getting this part that's so out of my league But I fell head over heels in love with the sides.

I'm so intrigued by the story.

I wanted to be a part of it in any way possible.

So I put the audition tape on tape with my friend a couple weeks later, really left it all on the table, truly an unnerving tape to what?

And I sent it off and forgot about it, which I always do too, protect my own sanity, especially with the project that I really like and want to be a part of.

I, like in between, ended up passing on a screen test for another project, but I just knew I couldn't give the part as much love as it deserved.

And I also didn't really feel like I was in a place in my career where I could pass on projects, especially ones like this.

So I was terrified to say no to say the least, So when I got a text from my agent a couple days later saying, Hey, are you free to talk?

I was like, This is It was like I might get dropped and I was like, Yeah, for sure, man, Call whenever he calls, almost immediately like, I don't know if you had some sort of intuition or what, but you just spoke Cherry opposite Tom Holland, and I was left speechless.

I thought he had the wrong number because I hadn't heard anything about this project in weeks.

Like nothing, not a phone call.

Hey, you're still in the running for this, just so you know.

Needless to say, I was shocked.

The preparation process was very in depth for me, a role like Emily is an actress dream.

It's not often in your career that you get to play so many different versions of the same character.

But she also goes on such a harrowing journey and goes to such dark places and dealing with something like addiction.

You know, that's a journey that's a battle that's so personal to everyone who experiences it.

And I just wanted to approach it with as much respect as I possibly could.

I think there's two or three months that I had before we started filming, so I got to really do my research.

I was lucky enough to have a friend connected with the family member who works at a rehab facility in Cleveland, and they were kind enough to open up their doors to me.

So I went there and I got the chance to speak to anyone who felt comfortable sharing their story, and that experience was so valuable to me.

I know I wouldn't be able to do half the job that I did on this movie without their help and without their generosity.

I've got a severe case of imposter syndrome, so I still hesitate calling.

I mean, I am an actor.

It is my job.

It's my career.

It has been for half of my life now, but I still feel like a phony.

Every time I call myself an actor, I feel like it wasn't until I decided not to go to college and pursue this full time.

That's what I thought.

Okay, I'm an actor.

This is a lifelong decision.

I've been asked this question of what my next dream role would be a lot lately, and I do not have a good answer.

I want to be working with people that are excited about the project.

I want to be on a project with a specific point of view.

I'm a big fan of complex characters.

So hopefully again another character that I can really dig into and try to understand the psyche of I think myself and probably every other young woman in Hollywood.

Um, my dream would be to work with Greta Gerwig.

I think she's just so special and incredibly talented, and she just seems like a cool person.

You know, it's funny.

I never fantasize about my career.

I fantasize about my personal life because I am very happy in my career.

So I just hope to still be doing projects that I'm proud of and working with people that I like.

Hopefully love and I get to buy a house and, you know, live a little bit out of the city and have dogs and chickens.

And, uh, hopefully enough space for yeah, a cow.

That's my dream.

Mhm, right.

Mhm, Mhm!