When we see a movie or television show, a good acting job is instantly arresting. Great performances make us forget that we are watching something scripted at all. And getting to that level of mastery is what motivates most actors who stick with it.
Kristen Rose is among them. “I chose to pursue acting because I love telling stories and connecting with people,” she says. “I love embodying a character and bringing it to life. I wanted to be able to make people feel something.”
Originally born in the Philippines, Rose was raised in Houston, Texas. After briefly attending college in New Mexico and Houston, she moved to Los Angeles in 2015 to pursue acting. She worked as a model at first, finding representation at LA Talent and appearing in commercials for Sephora.
In more recent years, she has started to appear in feature films such as Perfect (produced by Stephen Soderbergh and directed by Eddie Alcazar), and Amazon Prime’s sci-fi comedy My Alien Girlfriend. Driven Under, another of her projects, has recently been selected for screening at the Golden State Film Festival. She is getting cast and getting noticed. In 2019, IMDB included her in their ‘Hot Actresses and Beyond’ list.
Rose’s confidence in her rising career is rooted in her approach to acting, her willingness to use her own emotional self in the parts she plays. The extreme situations that her characters find themselves in, allow Rose to, in her words “express myself in a way that I was never able to before.”
This kind of vulnerability can be scary. For several aspiring actors, it is enough to turn them off of acting. Those who stick with it tend to find a rewarding experience on the other side, though. They may even get a chance to find out more about themselves. They also will very likely find the opportunity, as in Rose’s case, to be a part of some exciting and noteworthy work.