Alexandra Nylund / @alexxinee
From our guest:
I'm a Swedish speaking Finn, born in Helsinki, Finland. Basically a viking from up North of the world. The population of Finland is only 5,5 million which is like half of the population of New York City.
As most of us in this industry, I've always loved film, filmmaking and writing. Most of our home videos from my childhood are filmed by me, directed by me, annoyingly narrated by me. I loved playing with different settings, recreating scenes and I usually choreographed something and made my younger sister perform it with me. At the age of 6 we did our first "movie" in arts class, we had a great teacher, I remember wanting to narrate the sound of the bus doors so badly because I thought I could do the best bus sound everrrr lol. We drew the characters ourselves and recorded their dialogues and every sound effects with the teacher. That's what inspired me to film my own stuff at home.
My great grandpa was a writer (wrote plays for theatre and poems and performed) and owned a radio store (I never knew him) otherwise most of my family members have been entrepreneurs or worked at the bank or stuff like that, so I didn't really know anyone who worked in this field and didn't know I could. Whenever I mentioned art related stuff or acting jobs to my grandpa he pretended like he couldn't hear me and asked about my other jobs. He was more academic.
I realized the power of Facebook quite early on and contacted people online whenever I was traveling somewhere with my family and told them that I'll be in town and asked them could I please come on set for one day to learn, watch or help out for free. I was so young so people usually just thought it was cute and let me come. I did that in Europe and New York where I got to visit set in Milk Studios. (Alexi Lubomirski) He was absolutely wonderful. One of the best experiences in this industry. That sparked some hope.
I've always wanted to act too, but at first it started as modeling, I was scouted for some small shoots then eventually asked to represent Finland and once Sweden in competitions abroad, at the age of 17, Top Model Worldwide (in the UK) and as 18, Miss Model of the World (in China) modeling wasn't really my priority but I thought ok I get to meet people, perform, maybe this will open some doors.
I wanted to study film, got into film school, did some modeling on the side, got even more interested in acting. Took me long to find the courage to pursue it because the modeling affected how I was looked at. Thankfully I've always had many hobbies and speak different languages so that helped me open some doors. I could list plenty of skills. Started as an extra and worked my way to better roles. I've played the piano for a few years, sang in the choir, Girl Scouts, figure skating, handball, Savate, kickboxing, etc.... the list goes on so I used that and filmed my own material in the beginning.
Then one day while I was working as Security between some jobs within media, I got home, I was exhausted, I saw my parents watch one of my favorite Nordic TV Dramas and something inside me told me to write the casting. I did, didn't think much of it since it was almost Christmas Eve... Well the next day while at a security shift, I noticed a missed call, it was casting, they asked me if I could come in ASAP to try out for a role.... so I said yes, did the casting, they told me they will let me know before Christmas (which was that weekend). They called me the next day after my audition and told me I was exactly what they had been looking for, so I was super excited. That only goes to show that you shouldn't take any no's personally. Once I wasn't even able to be background or extra and now I had my own character. Timing is everything. Keep believing.
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