by Ryan Meehan
Allison Carter Thomas is an award winning actress in both comedy and drama. Her career began with a win for Best Supporting actress for the role of Hilary in the comedy feature “All Screwed Up” (On demand, Amazon, I Tunes, and screened at the Friars Club Comedy Film Festival) She was a season one cast member of MTV’s hit series “Girlcode”, and appeared in the sequel to the IFC cult classic “My Life’s in Turnaround” which was directed by Eric Schaeffer. Allison was also a lead in the IFC series “Greg the Bunny”, and she’s our guest today in 5 questions.
RM: Your bio says that you are “academically trained in people”…Do you think that you had a pretty good start with that before you decided on pursuing a Sociology degree at Columbia University?
ACT: Yes! I feel like that’s life. Every moment is an opportunity to learn something. I love people watching and observing. There is something that makes everyone tick, life experiences that contribute to how a person behaves and lives. More often than not we’ll never know what those things are. I think that’s fascinating. It’s so easy to get caught up in ourselves and I think it’s important to take in others around you to gain perspective. You can learn something from everyone, positive or negative. I’ve always felt that the better you know yourself, and the better you can understand others, the more effective you can be as a performer. That’s what I loved so much about sociology. It was just another way to study people and society. It’s all related, even if it may not seem to be at first glance.
RM: How did you get into acting in the first place? What made you so drawn to the entertainment industry?
ACT: Shopping at the mall… There was a model scout there one day that stopped my friend and me. I filled out their little sheet, they took a polaroid, and a week or so later they called me in to their agency. They had ZERO interest in me as a model, or as anything really, but were into me paying a lot of money to attend this school they had. However, through that school I heard about Model Search America. I went to that convention, met a NY casting director (who was eventually the catalyst to my moving to NY and led to me booking my first national commercial), landed my first agent, and from there landed my first couple jobs. The first time I was ever on set I was like “Oh, this is it.” I just knew. That modeling agency may not have been into it, but things work out man.
What drew me to entertainment though was actually dance. That was and always will be my heart. I grew up dancing and that was originally what I planned to do professionally.
The short version: I finished high school a year early so I took that year as an opportunity to move to New York and hit the ground running. I performed with a hip-hop company and did little jobs here and there, but unfortunately I had a lot of injuries from a few years prior and eventually came to accept that my body wouldn’t hold up for very long. That’s when I decided to focus on acting. It took me a hot minute to have the balls to admit it, but even while I was in college I always knew that’s all I was going to focus on when I graduated. When I stopped dancing all the time and wasn’t performing, I realized I needed it. I need that outlet or I’m a less happy person. I still dance when I can, I don’t think I’ll ever completely stop, but that realization was the final push for me. Acting took over the void that losing dance left.
RM: What’s the best thing about working in television? What’s the best type of a show to work on?
ACT: Well, it’s fun. That’s always a solid bonus for anything, but it’s also a constant challenge. There’s literally no telling what you’ll have thrown at you on any given day. You have to always be on your toes and able to adapt on the fly, I love that. It’s also such a bomb time to be working in television. There is so much good stuff out right now and more and more awesome roles for women, especially in comedy. I think that’s the greatest. It’s about damn time.
The best type of show to work on really depends for me. Anytime there’s great cast chemistry I get really excited about everything we do. It just adds a really great element to any shoot.
RM: How did you get involved with “Girls Watch Porn, Too” and the people at College Humor.com, and what other work have you done when it comes to internet videos?
ACT: YES! That was such a fun shoot. I still occasionally do sketches with some of those funny ladies. I actually met Adam Newman at a seminar a few years ago when he was working at CH, and he brought me in for a general audition. I worked with them (CH) on a few sketches and “Girls Watch Porn, Too” was one of them. It was ridiculous and amazing and everything I want every shoot to be.
I love doing sketches, so I’ve done a bunch of stuff when it comes to internet vids. I’ve worked with College Humor, The Onion, Esquire Online, Match.com, Driver Digital, plus loads of independent stuff.
RM: Where do you hope to be in ten years from now? Is there anything that you haven’t gotten to do yet that you would really like to do?
ACT: I hope to be a success. That however is something that can be measured in infinite ways, and something that my definition of changes almost daily. But as of right now, professionally in ten years I hope to be a lead in a crazy successful television series. I also hope to have transitioned more into feature films, studio or indie, as long as the work is hard and good I’m on board. I would absolutely love to play the leading lady in a rom com, but I want to branch out too. I would die to be able to dance in a movie or do an action film. Seeing bad ass females on screen is one of my favorite things. Playing one would be awesome. I want to be able to try everything I can. I don’t set limits for myself or my goals. As long as I’m able to continue to work and challenge myself, I’ll be one happy lady. I would also really, really like to be a wizard and live at Hogwarts. Fall back plans are important.
RM: What’s up next for Allison Carter Thomas in the remainder of 2013 and into 2014? Anything big in the works that we should know about?
ACT: Well, later this month I have a pilot showing at The New York Television Festival. I’m really excited about it. We shot it this summer, and it was one of those really great cast chemistry situations. I’m obsessed with the people I worked with. They are so great and funny and talented that I felt like they helped me be better. Our show times are Thursday, October 24th at 6pm and Friday, October 25th at 9pm. Come! The pilot is called “Broken Up”, and you can get tickets here:
http://www.nytvf.com/tixSYS/2013/progguide/Title/AZ/ALL/COMED/ALL/
I’m working on a few other things, but nothing I can spill the deets on yet. Anytime I have something new it or information about it will be put up on my website, so that’s an easy place to find stuff. As for 2014, looking forward to murdering me some pilot season.
Official Website: www.AllisonCarterThomas.com
Allison on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Allison-Carter-Thomas/196981830352791
Allison on Twitter: @AllisonCarterT
Once again thanks for visiting First Order Historians and enjoying more of the internet’s finest in user generated content.
Meehan
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