Yeah, I'm Jessie mae lee and this is on the rise.

I always loved, you know, dressing up, but it was always something that I just love doing with friends and things and I love doing school plays, but I never really considered that it could be something that I would actually end up being able to do as a job most of my time at school and college and things.

I I sort of thought, well I'm going to go down a very different route.

So I ended up going to university to study french and spanish and I didn't have the best time.

I didn't really want to go in the first place, so I ended up dropping out of university and then having to sort of, you know, just sit down with myself and think, okay, what do I actually want to do?

What, what makes me happy at the time?

I started working as a teaching assistant in a secondary school, which I loved such an amazing job.

And while I was doing that, I was looking after this family and one of the kids, he decided he wanted to audition for the National Youth Theatre.

I thought I'd quite like to do that as well.

So I went along on the same day he did and just got a taste for it and started to meet, you know, other people of my age who were sort of thinking that they wanted to pursue a career in, in theater and acting.

And it was making those friends that really made me think, hey, maybe I can do this and and seeing lots of diverse faces.

You know, it helped, it helped me back a long time thinking well being ambiguous looking and being mixed race.

I felt like I was gonna make becoming an actor difficult.

You were in my confidence a bit because I think I'd go along to an audition and not be enough of anything.

But then so slowly over time I just started going to auditions and open castings whenever I could.

And I was just lucky.

I was in the right place at the right time, so much of it, you know, this this industries who, you know, or being in the right place at the right time.

And I was really really lucky.

Very first real audition.

Oh it was for um I've seen this open casting for a tv show.

They were looking for a a mixed race actor and it was yeah, I'd only just done, I don't a four week courses national youth Theatre and that was it.

And so I went along to this audition, it was obviously for a T.

V.

Show and I was so nervous.

I was I was like you know properly shaking and then after like this is the second time I went in I just thought well I'm just gonna try and have fun with it because you know you can get yourself so wound up thinking oh am I doing that right?

Am I doing this right when really you know your job as an activist to show, you know show the team what you can do and what you can offer and if that's not what they want then that's okay.

It's not about you being a bad person or being a bad actor or anything, it's just not what they were looking for.

So I think having that mentality was really helpful.

I had some real around the same time, some really bad audition experiences with, you know, even for things like little short films where I was actually told once I was too exotic for a role, which was, you know, again, talking about my sort of insecurities about my dual heritage.

Um maybe just think, well maybe this isn't the industry for me, but things are changing and I think that's really exciting.

Especially you know, of a, an actor of color, you know, to be able to think, hey, I can be in, you know, in a fantasy show, which is like I said something I never thought that I would be able to do.

You know, I was the generation that grew up with Lord the Rings, like my brother and my cousins and my little friends, we'd all, you know, run around in the park with sticks hitting each other.

I loved all the you know the chinese martial arts films as well.

I remember watching Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon over and over and over again and acting out the fight scenes with my brother.

So I loved all of that stuff and I love to look like dark fairy tales like Pan's Labyrinth and all these sort of fantastical world.

So obviously then when this show came around and the audition came around I was so excited because the child in me was just jumping for joy because it was you know, something that I really, really loved.

So the role of Alina in Shadow and bone came up and I remember looking at all the breakdowns and I saw that they were looking for a mixed race actor, I felt so connected to the character.

And one of the things that I really felt excited about was the fact that, you know, I could see that they've made the change they've made, you know, Alina into a mixed race character and she wasn't necessarily in the books.

And at first my thoughts were why, why are they doing that?

Is that just to tick a box?

But then in the audition side there was the scene was Alina talking about her background and talking about her race and talking about her eyes specifically.

And I was like, okay, they're not shying away from the less enjoyable parts of being mixed race and not shying away from the racism that the asian people face and that was really important to me.

So yeah, it was really, really excited and just felt so connected to the character.

I really liked her.

Um so yeah, then after a couple of rounds audition, remember I've been told, you know, in a few days time you kind of hear the, the answer and I was here at home and I got the call from my agent and I think we all just sort of, I don't know if screamed a lot, I was so excited and then had to wait a few months before we actually started filming.

So it was a very, very long, long summer.

So when Archie first chemistry roads form all, it was quite later on in the casting process.

I think a few of us have been cast already and I was doing chemistry reads with a bunch of different actors for Mel and they were also so lovely and talented, but there was something that I felt was missing.

Archie had initially auditioned, but then I got different jobs, so, so I didn't think he could do it.

Then he came back and again and he just he just walks into the room and you know, I was just like, all right, I'm Archie.

And immediately he just had that thing that that I couldn't quite explain at the time, you know, this sort of like warmth and vulnerability, but also this sort of rawness to him.

It was seamless with Archie, he just fell straight into it.

Um So we had that first chemistry and I was really excited and then he came back again and after the second chemistry read, I coaxed him into having lunch with me and I sat there and I said, well, we're gonna have so much fun and the rest of the cast are amazing and really met them and, you know, talking about, you know, all of the exciting things that are gonna happen.

And Archie had to say jesse, I haven't got the role yet, so don't remind me.

But then lo and behold, you know, a week later he got the part.

So I was just so happy that we had this sort of natural chemistry as well.

We're really good friends, which is so important to capturing this, you know, this beautiful friendship between male Molina.

Mm mhm I feel like the show raises some interesting questions and I think especially, you know, regarding the relationship Selena has.

I think there will be lots of debate about what's right and what's wrong.

And I hope that people will watch the show and see this diverse cast and be able to find someone in the cast in a character in the show that they really relate to because that is important.

And I think it can it can make the difference for someone, especially if you're going through the kind of identity crisis that so many people go through in terms of race and sexuality and things like that.

And when you see those things you've gone through being portrayed on screen, it makes you feel less alone.

So I hope that, you know, people can watch this show and and sort of feel seen and heard.

Mm Yeah, I actually thought I wasn't going to have social media especially when the show came out because because of you know, it can feel maybe a bit invasive or that you owe you, Oh, you're following yourself.

And that can put a lot of pressure on you.

I think to you know, to go out of your way to create content or whatever.

And I think it's important for you know, for my you know, well being to remember that like, you know, I I don't exist for other people and I exist for me and I want to be able to share my experiences and things from the show, behind the scenes stuff.

So it does feel sort of bizarre to have people I don't know know who I am and I think it'll take some getting used to.

I'm quite private and I'm quite sure, but also at the same time I'm really proud of this show and I'm really proud of, you know, all my, you know, dear friends who are in it.

So in that sense, I'm really excited for it to come out and and I'm I'm sure people will love it over lockdown.

Actually, I wrote a few short film scripts more just for fun and just for something to do.

I really love film and I feel like if I were a better word smith, I would have written a book, but I'm just not, I'm way more of a visual person and I think especially being so involved in the show and being on set so often in shadow and bone and getting to see everyone behind the camera and all the work that went into it, it was really exciting.

And so yeah, I would love to direct something one day.

I think someone else would probably have to write the script, but definitely something I'd be interested in doing okay in five years.

I think I would love to be um you know, well maybe working on my first, my first um Directoral debut and I'd love to be living somewhere out in the sticks in the countryside just getting fresh air out of the city.

Um I'm fairly easily please, so I don't really mind what happens to me.

Um but I hope that you get to have like more, more adventures and more experienced system, that's sort of what I've had in Shannon Bone, but we'll see.

Yeah, yeah.