MAKING IT IN LA LA LAND
Coast actress Cleo Massey made a name for herself a decade ago in H2O Just Add Water. Now she’s trying her luck in Los Angeles.
Cleo Massey made her name on the hit TV show Now, she’s chasing her dreams in LA. Inspire editor caught up her while visiting her home on the Gold Coast
QEmily Selleck
Was it hard to get your visa to work in the US? It’s really hard to get an entertainer’s visa so it was very exciting when I finally got it. It took about six months and cost a lot of money. Not only do you have to prove that you’re successful in your field in Australia but you need seven to 10 references from industry professionals and a sponsor in the US, it’s very intense.
I had to go through lawyers in LA so I also had to pay for
international calls and even then you’re not guaranteed a visa. It’s probably too expensive and time consuming for a lot of people to pursue it.
QHow long do you usually spend in the US? I’m usually there for pilot season and I stay for three to four months at a time. Most days I’m in auditions. You walk in the waiting room and there are 10 other girls that look exactly like you. La La Land is realistic like that, my favourite scene is when Emma Stone is in the audition room and gets interrupted, it’s just so real. Sometimes you spend hours on hair and makeup and half the day driving to an audition to get 20 seconds in the room with the casting agents, and they just don’t care, it’s how it works over here.
QWhat’s it like being an Australian actor trying to work in LA?
If you go into the room as an Australian then switch your accent they’ll spend the whole time picking at how you do an American accent so I have to pretend I’m American. But there are some benefits to being an Aussie, they like us over there because we’re hard workers compared to a lot of Americans who don’t even learn their lines for auditions.
QHave you spotted many celebrities in LA? Not too many, but I have seen Julia Roberts and Drake.
QTell me about the Oscars after-party you attended earlier in the year.
It was really fun, I went with my friend Jess Green who is also a Gold Coast actor. The location was secret, so we had to meet down the road from where the actual Oscars were being held and get shuttle buses. The director of Moonlight came and there were lots of other important industry people. I met a lot of contacts that night. Paris Hilton was also there and she was very Paris, you weren’t allowed to go near her, it was exactly as you’d expect her to be.
QYou’ve amassed nearly 37,000 Instagram followers and thousands of views on your YouTube videos. How did that happen?
A couple of years ago I started filming some singing videos and uploaded them. People then started asking me to upload vlogs, so I did that and my YouTube and Instagram following grew from there. Because a lot of my followers are young girls, I wanted to be as positive as possible. I made a video about all the hate that I’ve got over the years – firstly to teach online bullies a lesson and secondly to help people who get bullied online – I got a really good response.
What are some of the comments that you have received from bullies online?
When I was going through school people would call me ugly all the time and tell me I had a massive forehead. Other times they’d say I looked 80 years old and that I should delete my account. I’m not a big celebrity at all and I would get so much hate, I can’t even imagine what the big celebrities get. If you’re having a bad day those comments can be destroying. You don’t know where someone is at with their mental health. Eventually you just learn not to read the comments.
QHow has your social media following changed over the years?
It’s crazy to think social media and Instagram, in particular, wasn’t really a thing when we were filming H20 in 2006. I started getting a lot of followers when the show went on Netflix so it’s mostly the next generation of young girls that follow me. Having a big social following has actually helped me a lot in America. With an entertainer’s visa you can’t work in a cafe or a bar so I’m able to do Instagram collaborations to make some money and help me live. The original fans of the show are now in their early 20s – do they often recognise you out in public?
It’s cute, a lot of people my age come up to me and it’s really nostalgic for them. We started filming more than a decade ago but with Netflix there’s a whole new generation of kids now watching it.
QYour H20 co-stars Phoebe Tonkin and Claire Holt are both starring in one of Hollywood’s biggest TV dramas (The Vampire Diaries and The Originals). Do you still catch up with them?
Yeah I catch up with them in LA, they’re doing really well in their genres. I was always close with Cariba (Heine) so I still see her a lot too.
QWould you audition for an extra role on one of the Hollywood productions shooting on the Gold Coast?
Once you’ve played a supporting role you shouldn’t go back to being an extra, it’s like going backwards. They usually precast all of their bit parts in LA and then they come here. It would be more likely to get cast in a small role on a Gold Coast production by going to LA. It’s pretty cliquey.