years without a job: christina ochoa’s unfiltered acting journey *it hits different episode*

Summary

One Broke Actress Podcast Summary

Episode: Years Without a Job: Christina Ochoa’s Unfiltered Acting Journey
Release Date: April 24, 2025
Host: Sam Valentine
Guest: Christina Ochoa

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Introduction

In this compelling episode of the One Broke Actress Podcast, host Sam Valentine engages in an in-depth conversation with actress Christina Ochoa. This episode, part of the “It Hits Different” series, delves into Christina’s unvarnished journey through years of unemployment in the acting industry, her strategies for survival, and her ultimate breakthrough. Listeners are offered a raw and honest account of the emotional and financial struggles actors often face, alongside valuable insights and advice for navigating the competitive landscape of Hollywood.

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Background: Christina Ochoa’s Journey to LA

Christina Ochoa hails from Barcelona, Spain, and relocated to Los Angeles approximately seven years ago. With minimal connections in the industry, her move was fueled by a desire to pursue acting more seriously.

Quote:

[05:27] Christina Ochoa: "I'm from Spain. I'm from Barcelona, born and raised. And I came to LA, gosh, maybe seven years ago, something like that."

Upon arriving in LA, Christina began taking acting classes but initially struggled due to the limited production opportunities available in Spain. Her decision to move was a pivotal step towards seeking broader horizons in her acting career.

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Early Career Struggles

Before moving to LA, Christina attended a conservatory in Spain. However, she found the environment restrictive with few quality productions and limited opportunities to audition, as the conservatory emphasized peer collaboration over individual casting efforts.

Quote:

[06:00] Christina Ochoa: "I went to the conservatory. But Spain doesn't have a lot of production... so I didn't really do much there."

This lack of audition opportunities compelled her to relocate, seeking a more dynamic and supportive environment for her acting aspirations in Los Angeles.

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Ethnic Casting and Bilingual Advantages

Initially, Christina did not perceive her bilingual abilities as an asset. However, the evolving landscape of ethnic casting in Hollywood began to position her Spanish background as a unique advantage. This shift allowed her to secure roles that required an ethnically ambiguous presence, broadening her casting opportunities.

Quote:

[07:12] Christina Ochoa: "Now it has become an advantage because I'm an alternative option that clicks off a box or checks out a box that I think has been an advantage in the last three years."

Christina notes that while her early roles were not specifically ethnic, casting directors later capitalized on her Spanish heritage, allowing her to embody characters that required a Latina presence even if originally intended for Caucasian actors.

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The Dark Period: Two and a Half Years Without a Job

After her stint on the show Matador, Christina experienced an extended period of unemployment lasting two and a half years. During this time, she faced significant financial hardships, including living on borrowed money, driving for Uber, selling personal items, and even attempting to bartend—an endeavor she ultimately failed due to lack of experience.

Quote:

[18:53] Christina Ochoa: "Two and a half years unemployed after that. Literally not even a guest star, not a co-star, not a day player, nothing."

This period was marked by personal challenges, including a difficult breakup and living arrangements that strained her emotionally and financially. Christina candidly shares the lengths she went to survive, emphasizing the harsh realities many actors face when not consistently employed.

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Breakthrough: Auditions and Booking Roles

Christina's perseverance eventually led to significant breakthroughs. A notable audition for Animal Kingdom showcased her ability to connect authentically with casting directors, despite initial setbacks. Although she believed she had secured the role of Lucy, circumstances led to her being cast in a different, more substantial role as Ren Randall.

Quote:

[42:22] Christina Ochoa: "I walked in the room and I knew that I had won the room over."

This unexpected turn proved pivotal, allowing Christina to establish herself within a respected production and paving the way for further opportunities. Her role in Animal Kingdom became a cornerstone of her career, demonstrating the importance of resilience and adaptability in the acting profession.

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Character Development and Acting Process

Christina emphasizes the significance of immersing oneself fully into a character. Influenced by her training with Sarah Mornell, she adopts unique methods such as drawing to visualize and manifest her desired outcomes. This artistic approach allows her to align her daily actions with her long-term career goals, fostering a deeper connection with her characters.

Quote:

[34:14] Christina Ochoa: "I draw. So really, because of the artist's way and because of things like that, like I draw not once a day, but I draw a lot."

She rejects traditional breakdowns from scripts, believing they can constrain genuine performance. Instead, Christina focuses on bringing her authentic essence to each role, which has consistently led to more fulfilling and successful portrayals.

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Body Image and Industry Pressures

The podcast addresses the pervasive issue of body image within Hollywood. Christina shares her personal battles with eating disorders and the obsessive focus on physical appearance that can hinder an actor’s self-esteem and performance.

Quote:

[54:40] Christina Ochoa: "I have done everything across the board from, you know, killed myself in the gym. I've battled with eating disorders in my youth."

She highlights the internal conflict of balancing maintaining a desired image while nurturing her creative capabilities. Christina advocates for a holistic approach to health, emphasizing that physical well-being directly impacts artistic expression and overall performance quality.

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Perspectives on Female Empowerment in Hollywood

Christina offers a nuanced view on the recent shifts towards female empowerment in the entertainment industry. While acknowledging the positive strides made in diversity and representation, she also points out the unintended consequences, such as fear and hesitancy among industry professionals.

Quote:

[62:11] Christina Ochoa: "I think the way collectively we have gone about it could be somewhat detrimental sometimes when the extremes are representing the entirety of the movement."

She stresses the importance of balance, advocating for equal representation without diminishing any group. Christina believes that inspiring rather than instilling fear is key to fostering meaningful and sustainable change within Hollywood’s dynamics.

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Advice for Aspiring Actors

Christina imparts practical advice for newcomers to the acting scene, particularly those relocating to Los Angeles. She emphasizes the importance of financial prudence, recommending investments in reliable transportation and affordable living arrangements to extend one’s financial runway during the initial, often rocky phases of an acting career.

Quote:

[69:31] Christina Ochoa: "I would say invest in a good car... save up as much as you can to like stretch your finance as much as you can."

Additionally, she underscores the value of building a supportive network organically, rather than leveraging connections solely for career advancement. Christina advises actors to approach networking with authenticity, fostering genuine relationships that can lead to collaborative and creative opportunities.

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Conclusion

Christina Ochoa’s unfiltered acting journey is a testament to resilience, adaptability, and unwavering commitment to one’s craft. Her candid recounting of navigating prolonged unemployment, overcoming personal setbacks, and ultimately securing meaningful roles provides invaluable lessons for aspiring actors. Through her story, Christina illuminates the multifaceted challenges within Hollywood while offering hope and practical strategies for enduring and thriving in the competitive world of acting.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Christina Ochoa (05:27): "I'm from Spain. I'm from Barcelona, born and raised. And I came to LA, gosh, maybe seven years ago, something like that."
• Christina Ochoa (07:12): "Now it has become an advantage because I'm an alternative option that clicks off a box or checks out a box that I think has been an advantage in the last three years."
• Christina Ochoa (18:53): "Two and a half years unemployed after that. Literally not even a guest star, not a co-star, not a day player, nothing."
• Christina Ochoa (34:14): "I draw. So really, because of the artist's way and because of things like that, like I draw not once a day, but I draw a lot."
• Christina Ochoa (54:40): "I have done everything across the board from, you know, killed myself in the gym. I've battled with eating disorders in my youth."
• Christina Ochoa (62:11): "I think the way collectively we have gone about it could be somewhat detrimental sometimes when the extremes are representing the entirety of the movement."
• Christina Ochoa (69:31): "I would say invest in a good car... save up as much as you can to like stretch your finance as much as you can."

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Additional Resources

• Christina Ochoa’s Instagram: @OchoaChristina
• Philanthropy Focus: Oceana - Earth's Oceans
• Upcoming Pilot: A Million Little Things on ABC

For more insights and full episode details, visit onebrokeactress.com or follow Sam Valentine on Instagram at @SamValentine.

Transcript

[Sam Valentine]

What's up guys?

[Christina Ochoa]

Welcome back to another episode of the One Broke Actress podcast. An honest account of actor life plus a few lessons I learned in the process. I am your host, Sam Valentine and this is a specialty. It hits different episode and if you already know what that is, go ahead and skip forward 60 seconds and skip this intro. If not, this is the throwback episode, meaning it was previously recorded. So not all the content that is in it might be relevant to this exact moment. But let me tell you something I have noticed about all of these interviews and these conversations. Depending on the time of where you are at in your life and your career, man, it hits different. Also, please keep in mind I've grown and changed as a person and as a host. So I might not agree currently with all of the things I said in this episode. Please be forgiving of my growth as a person and be understanding of its still really vulnerable to put yourself out there, especially a former version of yourself. Our guests themselves also might have changed a lot in the process, so let's be equally loving to them. And my audio setup has gotten a hell of a lot better since I started this. So please take the content, please enjoy it to the best of your abilities and forgive anything that doesn't resonate in your ears as well as it could. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy this. It hits different episode.

[Sam Valentine]

What's up guys? I am so excited to bring you the first episode of season three of the One Broke Actress podcast. This is the podcast dedicated to an honest account of actor life, plus a few lessons I learned in the process. I am your host, Sam Valentine, AKA One Broke Actress. Guys, I missed you so much. If you guys listened in to the teaser from last week, you heard a little preview of what's to come in this season. I've spent the past three or four months recording it and I cannot wait to share it with you. It is going to be so fun for me to listen back because that's by far the best reason to batch these episodes in advance other than the fact that we all know actors schedules are a little shady. Uh, and it's hard, it's hard to pin people down. Um, so that's why it takes a little minute to batch these episodes. But there is some super cool stuff coming and I am just so excited to present it to you in any way possible. If you like anything out of this episode, please please, please give it a little rate and review on itunes. Make sure you are subscribed so you get all the new season Episodes from now until Christmas, basically. That's really weird to think about for the rest of this season and beyond. Keep an eye out on OneBroke, actress.com, follow me on Instagram AM Valentine. I think that's all I have for you today, so let's get to it. I'm so excited. Our first guest of season three kicking it off with some badass female empowerment. Ladies and gentlemen, Christina Ochoa. I met her a long time ago in Sarah Mornell's class. You guys have probably heard Sarah Mornell on the podcast by now, but we took her intensive together and I just remember her as this super eager girl who afterwards was like hosting game nights for all the actors she met and doing the nicest things. And this is before she had had booked anything past her first show and hadn't worked in a long time. And you're going to hear her tell that story and a lot more on the podcast today. And it's just really cool to know that she is that good of a person. She's not just like playing one on TV today. She's also gonna talk about not only how she survived two and a half years without a job, but how she discussed with her agents how she didn't really want to do any more mediocre tv, how her experience and ethnic casting has been, and it's a little different than, I think, what you would expect. She also shares with us her version of balance, how she has really brought some things into her life via drawing instead of quote unquote, like manifesting morning pages, which was very interesting to hear about and something I've actually started since I recorded the podcast with her. We talked about body image, we talked about how she finds characters. She gives us some link to some awesome literature. I mean, the girl is a buttload of information to be had. She is awesome. Not only that, she also finds time to do charity work on the side and is like a major nerd involved in all of these projects. She is a queen among women and I was so excited to get the chance to record with her. Oh, little tidbit here. The audio is going to seem a little off. I did go to her house to record this episode and she had a new puppy playing in the background. So if it sounds a little funky, it's not typical. It's just because we had little extenuating circumstances. So. So thanks in advance for your understanding and let's get to it. Without further ado, please enjoy. Christina Ochoa. Ah, guys, I'm here with Christina Ochoa.

[Christina Ochoa]

Hi.

[Sam Valentine]

Thank you so much for doing this.

[Christina Ochoa]

Oh, gosh, thank you. Thank you for making the time. And I've been wanting to come on your podcast for what, a year now? Maybe not that much, but.

[Sam Valentine]

Been a minute.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah, been a while. Yeah.

[Sam Valentine]

Been in and out of town quite a bit. Well, let's start with how you got to la, because I don't actually know where you're from.

[Christina Ochoa]

I'm from Spain. I'm from Barcelona, born and raised. And I came to la, gosh, maybe seven years ago, something like that. I had no connections. I knew one person, my publicist, and at the time was not my publicist. There was nothing to publish, this was just a friend, but that the only person I knew. And I just kind of landed, started taking classes, hated the town for the first two years, you know, and, and kind of went from there.

[Sam Valentine]

Did you act insane?

[Christina Ochoa]

I went to the conservatory. But Sane doesn't have a lot of production. Okay, it does good production. Maybe it has two good movies a year. The rest, with all honesty, just looks like bad porn. It, you know, production wise and just because of the resources and the funding and stuff like that. So I didn't really do much there. There's also not a lot of audition.

[Sam Valentine]

Okay.

[Christina Ochoa]

And they don't encourage auditioning when you're studying. Like they, they're peers to a certain extent.

[Sam Valentine]

Okay.

[Christina Ochoa]

So if you're at the conservatory, you're studying, you're learning, you're doing these exercises. Remember what an orange smells like and, you know, a lot of organic work.

[Sam Valentine]

I didn't spend about a week in college pretending to be a swirl.

[Christina Ochoa]

So until. There you go. Yeah. And they. You don't audition. So then I moved here and I figured, well, I have, you know, my English, which is not perfect, but was, you know, competent enough that I could get away with pretending.

[Sam Valentine]

That wasn't your first language.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah, I know, I know. It's so deceiving.

[Sam Valentine]

That's really cool. So do you feel like that's been an advantage in your career, by the way, to be bilingual?

[Christina Ochoa]

Not until now, right now, the ethnic angle, even though I don't necessarily maybe look like Penelope Cruise or anything like that, that now has become an advantage because I'm an alternative. I'm an option that clicks off a box or checks out. Checks off a box that I think has been an advantage in the last, what, three years. And we thought, yeah, let's.

[Sam Valentine]

Let's jump right into that. You know, coming then from that. When you first came here and did you feel like it Was more heavily Caucasian casted. And then you kind of worked your way into this. We kind of taken a turn, been this awesome, like ethnically ambiguous slash ethnic casting, like, big push for all of these, like, diverse casts. Has that. Have you kind of watched that journey happen in your career?

[Christina Ochoa]

I seen it in the, in the room, like with the, with the breakdowns and stuff in the audition. But to be honest, the roles that I've gotten cast in, none of them were initially ethnic. Okay, interesting. And then they became ethnic. Once they cast me, they decided to maybe capitalize on Spanish or the Latin angle. And so my kind of like my first few roles that, you know, in the recent three year stride that I've hit have all been like, Ren Randall, Animal Kingdom. She was supposed to be a blonde, blue eyed Cali girl. Now she's Latina and she speaks Spanish every once in a while. And, you know, same thing with Nora on Valor and Blood Drive with Grace and now Ashley on like every single one of those roles was written to open ethnicities, but I think initially intended for a Caucasian white because I am Caucasian from Spain. Still ticks that box. I'm not necessarily Latina, but I think that now, because they can check that box like we said with me, suddenly I think it just makes it easier for them to also go Caucasian. Other roles that play ours at me. Okay. So all of a sudden now they're like, oh, well, we had this other role, this, you know, other serious writer or other occurring or other whatever that was supposed to play in as a character that now we can make that Caucasian because she's already the Latina in the show or wouldn't. Interesting.

[Sam Valentine]

So it kind of frees up a different kind of. Because you don't think of like Caucasian casting is adding diversity.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah.

[Sam Valentine]

So.

[Christina Ochoa]

And now I think it. It does. Like they. I think for Valor, for example, some of the roles that they initially had as maybe ethnically diverse then became Caucasian because we were already so ethnically diverse and, you know, kind of like the, the series regulars. So it opened that up. Okay. I just think that's shifting a little bit.

[Sam Valentine]

Okay, then.

[Christina Ochoa]

No, I mean, do you feel like for you.

[Sam Valentine]

It's funny you say that because I auditioned for a role on Valor that was supposed to be ethnically ambiguous.

[Christina Ochoa]

Oh, really?

[Sam Valentine]

And I am.

[Christina Ochoa]

Do you remember what role?

[Sam Valentine]

I could look it up. I will tell you, it was an audition that I'd bombed. Oh, like all of a sudden. I'll tell you that after the podcast because I wrote an article about it because it Was like, I went in, I got, I got. So guess. Great transition fam. Pat myself on the back. I got so anxious before I got the room because it was a reoccurring, which is like my next step. You know, you feel like you hit the echelon, you get a couple co stars. This like pretend ladder that doesn't really exist in Hollywood. Then you're supposed to get guest stars and then whatever. And so I haven't had a ton of reoccurring audition and I felt very prepared and I got in the room and I just, I didn't handle myself well and I got kind of anxious about the potential instead of being in the audition and doing my work.

[Christina Ochoa]

Right. So you have.

[Sam Valentine]

So Christina and I met in class, I feel like a million years ago. And I remember, I remember you because you would sit on the tip of your chair and you raise your hand at one point and you're like, I just get nervous in network tests. And I was like, why didn't we even have network pet? This girl is so cool.

[Christina Ochoa]

And.

[Sam Valentine]

And then I feel like I've watched you excel, which has been super fun to watch someone you've like seen in a, in a learning environment. Just. And I'm sure it doesn't feel like this, like this upward motion as much as it looks, but when you started auditioning for these bigger roles, how you started to get into bigger rooms, like, what's been your journey with that? How has that felt for you?

[Christina Ochoa]

Um, well, I mean, first off, we, when we met, it was at Sarah Morenell intensive and her. I think it's the audition intensive, it's called. Yeah, weekend intensive. And that class kind of changed my light and entire perspective on everything. Work, booking thing, auditioning, everything.

[Sam Valentine]

Your first time working with her?

[Christina Ochoa]

That was my first time working with her.

[Sam Valentine]

Okay, mine too.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah.

[Sam Valentine]

She's done this podcast twice, so people will know what she's talking about.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah, he kind of like saw the things that we were doing that were self destructive or detrimental to us and then was able to pinpoint them and really, you know, kind of tap into that. By the way, I apologize if you hear growling in the background. I have a new puppy. He's just hanging around.

[Sam Valentine]

These are so damn cute that I.

[Christina Ochoa]

Can'T even be mad. But that kind of changed things. Getting in the rooms, in the larger rooms happened relatively early for me, I think, because maybe of the Spanish Hispanic thing, maybe just because of luck, maybe because my team, I always felt like my team was way, you know, above and beyond my league like just out of my league.

[Sam Valentine]

Well, let's not take talent out of it. Like, don't, don't discriminate.

[Christina Ochoa]

But I wasn't booking. I was in these big rooms and I was getting tests and I was getting callbacks and I was getting things like that. But then I was never actually booking those roles and I was losing them out sometimes to names, which I can completely understand. And then sometimes I was losing them out to people that I didn't quite. And you never do understand why other people get the role or why you get the role. Even when you get, you're like, I don't. I feel like an imposter. Recast me and then fire me every.

[Sam Valentine]

Time I feel like I tricked everyone in the room.

[Christina Ochoa]

Exactly. And they're gonna see once I'm on set, they're gonna see I made a mistake. And, you know, I, I, I still feel that way.

[Sam Valentine]

You do?

[Christina Ochoa]

All the time. That all the time. I mean, this is relatively new for me. Like this, this work kind of like wave that I'm riding right now is really only two and a half years. And I count my blessings or I feel extremely fortunate, knock on wood of it. Hopefully it continues. But you know, in, in these last two and a half years, it's just been another intensive for me when it comes to work and learning. And of course now there's ethos.

[Sam Valentine]

Right. We'll just talk a little. Just lean close to my.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah. And I feel as though in two years it's been Animal Kingdom, Blood Drive, Valor, and now a million little things. And that has all been to me. I still do not believe it. I still don't register it. I still don't get it. I struggle with understanding a lot of it, you know, and I credit a lot of it to Sarah and really to, to the lessons and the conversations that her and I ended up having. She believed in me and she helped coach me and teach me and let me, you know, go to class when I was a met and you know, I was, I was working the class where I was trying to like, help her with self tapes in exchange for a session in coaching. And she, she did something for me at a time that was very critical that I think we all need, we all need somebody who said, I got you and I know that you will book and you will get there. And I believe in you even when you don't believe in yourself. Yeah. That support system, if you have that, if you find it, if you can build it, if you can create it, that the biggest thing I Think, you know, like, do you have, like, a big support system here or back home that you feel like you rely on in that way? I mean, yeah, my.

[Sam Valentine]

My family's always been super supportive, which is incredible, but they don't really get it right? You know, everyone still. You go back to, like, the big family dinners, and they're like, you should.

[Christina Ochoa]

Try to be on tv. I'm like, oh, thanks.

[Sam Valentine]

I totally forgot to check into that. You're right.

[Christina Ochoa]

No, I get. I. My family will suddenly say things like, oh, I just watched this movie, you know, and. And the girl. You should be that girl.

[Sam Valentine]

You should be that Lola.

[Christina Ochoa]

When they say that, and I'm like, not what movie? And they're like, oh, it's this movie. Venezia. I was like, sicario. Read. And then I said, you didn't read. I was like, oh, my God. Like, I mean, from your lit, but still. Yeah, you know, play. I. That's not how it works. Like, you should just call, you know, in their eyes. Like, you should call and, like, the top. Like, just tell them you speak Spanish. I'm like, okay, I'll do that. I'll do that.

[Sam Valentine]

Oh, my God. No, it's true. But I will say my parents and my, like, immediate family are kind of starting to get it. They're on board for, like, the marathon, not the sprint. And then my boyfriend's been, like, the best. He's been with me for even together for almost five years now. And he's been like. He's like, you know, I got your back. He, like, understands and isn't even not an actor.

[Christina Ochoa]

He's like, is he in the industry?

[Sam Valentine]

He's a writer.

[Christina Ochoa]

Okay. So he kind of understands the uncertainty. Yeah.

[Sam Valentine]

So he totally gets it. So having someone who's, like, cool, then I have two dogs. You know, you come home, and it's like, it doesn't matter. They would prefer me not to book a job ever, because I'll be home. So how did you support yourself through that? Through that hard piece? Because I feel like so many actors who listen to this podcast are in this place where we. There. There is a light that you can see. It's like, I have. We've all done, like, some indie work, some this and that, and, like, I'm in the same boat. I. I know that I'm talented. I know that, you know, getting the right people is on the journey, figuring out where I fit in, all that stuff. How did you. And, like, even going. If you feel like talking about, like, what, jobs. Side jobs. You did and that kind of stuff. How did you deal with like that echelon?

[Christina Ochoa]

Well, I started with trying to capitalize on anything that I could do that, like, for me, science communication. My background is in science, so a lot of my time and energy went into having side jobs that were about either writing or coming on and doing, you know, side work in science communication, hosting a conference or something like that that pays probably less than indie work and anything else. So I, you know, tried my best. But look, I was unemployed for two and a half years after I did a show called Matador, which is Robert Rodriguez. You know, after getting Matador, I was like, this is it, It's Robert Rodriguez, it's Gabriel Luna, it's Albert Molina. It's a bunch of, you know, incredible talented people that I'm learning from and that are going to now catapult me into working. Right now I'm gonna work. And two and a half years unemployed after that. Literally not even a guest star, not a co star, not a day player, nothing.

[Sam Valentine]

Two and a half years off of that show, was you getting footage from it?

[Christina Ochoa]

Oh, yeah, yeah. I was in like eight episodes. I was, I was a recurring. I was not a regular, but I was, you know, 8 out of 13. It was still a lot great. It was a great role. And I just film it at here in la. Okay. And it was. Yeah, two and a half years. So right before booking Animal Kingdom, I was driving Uber. Like, I. I was literally so. I was so broke. I. I did everything and anything. I'm helping other friends with whatever jobs they had. I was doing. I was selling my clothes on ebay. Um, I don't drink. So getting a bartending job was very hard for me just because I'm not familiar with alcohol at all. Like, if they were like, well, we want a screwdriver, I'd be like, I don't go to Home Depot. I don't even know what that means. It's vodka and large shoes.

[Sam Valentine]

Just so you know, it's been a really long time. Bartender.

[Christina Ochoa]

I once tried to be a bartender and tried to get a job bartending. And then they asked me a few kind of questions and I. I totally, totally lied completely on my resume. And I was like, yeah, I bar pended at a restaurant that my boyfriend, parents owned or whatever. Totally made it up. There is no restaurant. And I was like, I bartended in Spain and this. And they were like, oh, you know, so what kind of drinks did you do? Or whatever. And I was like, oh, you know, like just upscale. So I Was like, mojitos. Oh, my God, you should have no margaritas. And I was like, you know. You know, it was, like, upscale. I had no idea what I was talking about. Trying to bother by land her job. I remember it was the hotel in. It was for a hotel bar.

[Sam Valentine]

Okay.

[Christina Ochoa]

Because I felt like I could capitalize on the languages aspect and it would be an easy in.

[Sam Valentine]

Great, great idea.

[Christina Ochoa]

And it did not work because I got to that last final interview, and they were like, no way. I mean, you can. You can wait table, but you. You can't bartend.

[Sam Valentine]

Yeah.

[Christina Ochoa]

And then what else? Oh, my gosh. I remember for a while. And they're going to kill me if they hear this, but there's an attorney's office that I was tutoring. I was tutoring a lot in any way, shape, or form, whether it was, like, kids or school. But then I had an opportunity to tutor in Spanish for a pretty hefty sum. Like, it was. I mean, it was like $100 an hour or something, which at the time, to me, was the biggest sum of money I could make in an hour. Yeah. And I started tutoring them in Spanish. All good. And then I started. They asked me if I could tutor them in French. And mind you, I speak French. I can communicate in French. I by no means have the skill level, language, like, capacity to tutor in French because I do not know how to say 9% of the things that I need to say. And I would make it up. I could not pass it up. So I was just like, totally. My French is just as good as my English. Let's do it. And then I started making it up. So when we were say. I didn't know how to say. I don't know, carrot. Right. And. And in French, carrot is. But if I didn't know how to say it, I would make it up. I would say the word in Spanish because they're so close. I would just take a wild guess and then put the French accent on. So I'd be like, yes, it's les enna rit. And I would say it with such a straight face. And, you know, it was one of those favorite. And then they went on trips, I think, to Paris after that. I quit right before they left.

[Sam Valentine]

Probably a call.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah. Because I was like, oh, they're gonna get back. And they're just gonna be like, so everything you taught us was wrong.

[Sam Valentine]

I'm dying for what happened to Patri. I wish I knew.

[Christina Ochoa]

I know there's, like.

[Sam Valentine]

There's, like, a rom com in there.

[Christina Ochoa]

Somewhere. This is my, my apology, my public apology. The people that I. I scanned for a few months tutoring map in French as well as in Spanish. The Spanish is legit. The French is a wild card. It may be legit. It might not be. You know, I, I was trying to survive. Like I didn't have enough money to pay rent. And again, the, the lowest point was right before I hit, in a weird way, like before I hit that stride. It was right before Animal Kingdom and I.

[Sam Valentine]

Was that your next thing after the manager?

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah. And that was two and a half years apart, man. It was. Yeah, it was a very big low. And I, I had a very bad personal breakup and a bad situation. And so I was living. I had $600 in my name and I was on an inflatable mattress in my friend Gia, who's also an actress, in her one bedroom apartment. Like her cats would wake up sleeping on my head kind of a thing. It was in her living room. I had all my clothes on a rack in her living room. I totally invaded her space. She was so kind to let me stay with her. And you know, I was again selling clothes, trying to sell my jewelry, anything I had just to survive.

[Sam Valentine]

So you had basically what would, what would fit in your car at this point? Yeah, didn't really have anything.

[Christina Ochoa]

I put my stuff in storage. I had stuff, some of it you see here in my house still today, because I still have it.

[Sam Valentine]

The cabin is beautiful now, by the way. You could fit several actors on these couches.

[Christina Ochoa]

And I, you know, I put it in storage and was hoping for the best, was praying that something would happen, that something would come in. I was hoping for a full time job. I wasn't even hoping for thinking at that point, okay, like I used to.

[Sam Valentine]

Re looking for full time work and.

[Christina Ochoa]

100%, um, and I had a friend who loaned me $5,000 that I felt I could use to carry me through two or three months living on the bare minimum. And that was pilot season. And those three months went away and I'm booked and I suddenly had $600. It was like, okay, I either buy a ticket back to go to Spain and go back home, or I don't know what I'm really do at this point. And two days later I had the audition for Animal Kingdom and that hit. And then that was. That job also was the one that three years ago or three years before that I had hoped Matador would be. It was the job that suddenly got me the next job. Yeah. Amazing.

[Sam Valentine]

I hope you ever get to that point, to like feel the upward swing. But you really have to feel like what a bottom is before you can feel like what everything else like.

[Christina Ochoa]

Do you think if you would have.

[Sam Valentine]

Gotten a full time job, would you have been able to continue acting? I think so.

[Christina Ochoa]

I mean, look, I, I do believe that, you know, so long as you have somewhat of a leniency from, from your boss or whatever, and that you can actually take a day to go audition or whatever, I think you probably can. I would recommend I spent two years again here in LA as well. And this is right before Matador, but I spent two years working as a producer at a production company thinking that that would open some doors, make some connections. I was still able to audition, but I had a full time job and I had responsibilities that did not really let me do that freely. And I am now of the belief that if you really want to do this, I think time yourself. So I would say maybe get a full time job for six months, eight months, a year and don't tell him you want a full time job for just six months. Or, you know, or maybe have that conversation now. Now that I don't have to scam poor attorneys in French lessons. I'm all about full honesty.

[Sam Valentine]

Yeah, right.

[Christina Ochoa]

Um, but you know, I would say make as much money as you can, save as much money as you can, focus on building, say your network and then let go of that and be myopic and just attack a pilot season or or episodic season, depending on where you are and what you feel like your forte is. Yeah, but you know, attack that myopically without focusing on anything else, without worrying about your bills for three months. Like I think even though I ran out, I ran out of those five grands during pilot season and didn't book. Those three months were what allowed me to book because I was coaching, I was going to class, I was only focused on acting and booking. That's it. I was going to the gym. I was, you know, trying to be good to myself and kind to myself and I was meditating and doing yoga or whatever. You go box or go do whatever it is that works for you. But I would actually say it's better. I read a book called the Power of Full Engage. And this book is great. It's an easy read. You'll read it in like two hours. And it's one of those things, talks about how it's not a marathon and we're conditioned to think that our life is a marathon and success comes from that long term kind of like, steady, fat, steadfast. This book says that it's not that life and success are often a series of spring instead.

[Sam Valentine]

Oh, okay. I love this. Yeah, go on.

[Christina Ochoa]

That changed. That changed a lot of things for me because basically says there's no point and you can equate it to anything in your life. Um, but especially as an actor, there are times where you're trying to do a million things at once. And even though you carve time to do something, you don't give it. Your full engagement and your full energy and attention and focus is not there. So the return on investment, the ROI on that time means nothing. I could sit down, say you're, you're writing your own script or something and say it's one of those things where you sit down on a computer and you're like, okay, I'm going to write this now. You're not focused, you're not paying attention. It doesn't, it doesn't work. And then sometimes you sit down to 20 minutes and it's the best thing you've ever written. So that's what this book was talking about. It was saying, do things in spurts of spread with your full engagement. So recovery, your body, your spirit, everything has to have as much attention and focus and rest and recovery and everything is everything. I mean, I like that, but I know if I spread myself too thin and I'm trying to do everything at once, nothing gets done.

[Sam Valentine]

So how do you work with your schedule then? Because you're traveling a lot, how do you give yourself time to like, work as an actor, to be a human person? You do a ton of volunteer work. Like, how do you manage your schedule? Because time management, I think is a huge thing for actors.

[Christina Ochoa]

I stopped trying to have a routine and fascinating.

[Sam Valentine]

Go on.

[Christina Ochoa]

I, because I was all about it. I, I carry journals. I have like, I'm, I'm the kind of person who set goal and then tries to measure them and keep track of them. So for me it was a lot of I'm gonna read one hour every night and I'm gonna listen to a podcast or, you know, I'm going to watch an award winning movie every single night for an hour and this and that, whatever. And I would try to like isolate these little nuggets of time in my day and follow a routine.

[Sam Valentine]

Very similar.

[Christina Ochoa]

People go, yeah, a personality. It's assertive. You're trying to like make things work. You're trying to be proactive about.

[Sam Valentine]

This is the week that I start this program.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yup, do it for two weeks. Yep. And I realized that didn't work for me. It never worked. And at one point I was like, I'm not. I'm the immersive personality. And so for me, I need to dive deep into something and I get obsessed with it. So little tiny chunks of time didn't work. So I stopped trying to have a routine. And I said to myself, I'm going to be the opposite. If, for example, instead of trying to learn a new skill one hour a day, I'm like, no, I'm taking two weeks. And this is all I'm doing. I'm learning Hesser first. So I will go and I would be at the beach all day, every day for two weeks. And then I'll let it go. Once I get to a place that I feel competent enough that I can let it go, I let it go and I move on to the next thing. So for me, it's been like, if I'm on set and I'm working, I'm working. There is no social life. There is no balancing things for me. That takes 100% priority over everything. I will not respond to texts for weeks at a time. And my. My close people, they know that if I'm the opposite, if I'm focusing on relaxing, I'm hard out. Like, I'm, you know, blackout dates with my team, I'm gone. I'm on vacation, I'm gone for four days. I'm doing nothing but eating and getting fat and sleeping 14 hours a day, hanging out with my friends. And I'm not looking at my phone. So I tried. And basically what I do for balance is accept the extremes in that way. If I'm in class, I'm in an intensive and not doing like a weekly thing or whatever. If I'm, you know, things like that. And it works for me, routines do not work for me.

[Sam Valentine]

That's really good to know. I try to do the same stuff. I'm like, this is same thing. I'm like, this. I'm gonna watch a movie every three days that I haven't seen that.

[Christina Ochoa]

The classic. And then, you know, if your schedule is just.

[Sam Valentine]

I mean, I have enough jobs that like, I never know what my day is gonna be like. And then I get upset with myself for not following through with said plan. Or like, why didn't you start I want the week acting class? And like, I can't.

[Christina Ochoa]

It's hard. Very interesting. Have you. Have you heard of things like morning pages, five minute journals, and things like that? That's really helped Me, I have.

[Sam Valentine]

Did you read the Artist's Way?

[Christina Ochoa]

Of course.

[Sam Valentine]

Okay. Everyone's been telling me to read this. London book recommendations.

[Christina Ochoa]

Actually, I'm lying. I'm lying again. Look at me. I'm lying again.

[Sam Valentine]

How do you say the artist play in French?

[Christina Ochoa]

I did not read the book. I had the workbook. So she has two things. She has the book and then she has the workbook. And I. The workbook was enough for me. It's the. It's the gist in the first chapter and then the rest of it is practical exercises. The book I was actually told is not that good. Okay. You just need the gist.

[Sam Valentine]

I like a workbook application.

[Christina Ochoa]

So, like, I, yeah, I read that, but I carry a bullet journal and I'm going to show you, literally, because this is something that I know it sounds so esoteric and, you know, I. I can't tell my friends in science and academia about this, but I do do it lessons.

[Sam Valentine]

Don't worry.

[Christina Ochoa]

I draw. So really, because of the artist's way and because of things like that, like, I draw not once a day, but I draw a lot. And it. It's my way of manifesting or visualizing what I want. And it's incredible because again, it was like a few weeks before Animal Kingdom. A friend of mine and I started doing this as a manifestation. We're like, you know what? We're not good at sitting and meditating and visualizing our future every day. We're not. But we heard about this thing where if you draw yourself and you draw the light you want and things you want around you, you're kind of doing the same thing and you're investing 15 minutes of your day into making those choices in your head. And so you. I mean, correlation, not causation, but you hope that the rest of your day micro decision align with it. Okay, Right. So if in my drawing, I'm drawing like I want to, again, I want to be a pro surfer and I want to be, you know, super fit and healthy and this and that. It's very likely that I'm not going to end up cooped up in my house, not being physical and eating a burger just because I spent those 15 minutes thinking about it and I started drawing. And it's surprising, but I can show you drawing from when I started doing this. And it was right before Booking out came out and I drew things and.

[Sam Valentine]

A passion idea of taking writing.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah, it's insane because I can't write it. I also feel like then I get stuck in the word yeah. And for me, like, I'll just draw. I'll draw a light bulb on top of my head and just be like inspiration and ideas. It's very, it's very, you know, it's open. I'll draw money.like dollar signs is what I was drawing at the beginning. Dollar signs and arrows pointing to me. I'm so broke. I am, you know, so broke. I just need a job. And so I would draw, you know, I would draw the little things that, you know, a script. And I'd be like, offers, you know, and this and work and steady work. And I draw calendars. And I'm like, perfect timing. You know, everything is perfect timing. And it's crazy. But I do attribute a lot of that to my life right now. Like it's been, you know, three, four now shows in two and a half years. And one of them, Animal Kingdom was supposed to be a two episode art. I come back to it every season. They, they are so wonderful. And it works out with my schedule. It's always during hiatus or after I wrap another show that I'm in, which wouldn't be compatible because I'm. I'm a series regular on or I'll meet on or something that I can't combine with. And it works. So let's draw. Guys, if you're listening, just draw.

[Sam Valentine]

I mean, literally gonna go home and draw. I can't wake.

[Christina Ochoa]

I can't encourage it enough if you don' writing down, you know, your manifestations or whatever you want to call it, hit or your goal be your things. Like drawing has been everything for me in that sense.

[Sam Valentine]

I love that. That's such a different idea. Oh my God. Okay, I'm literally gonna start doing this, throwing out my routines and having a little sketch time. Yeah, I like that. As you started to enter these bigger rooms. So Animal Kingdom happened. What can we talk about that audition specifically? Okay, so. So you're down on your luck. And you are.

[Christina Ochoa]

My favorite thing is thirsty.

[Sam Valentine]

Yeah, see? And you walk into the room. How do you not bring that desperation.

[Christina Ochoa]

Into the room with you? Or do you or did you. I mean, I, I didn't bring it into the room. And again, here I'm going to credit Sarah, really be sure she's the one who managed to somehow convince me that walking in with confidence and my own take on things would pay off in the long run. And I guess that that subdued that thirst or that hunger a little bit where it was like, hey, if it's not this, it'll be the right thing. I Had also just started turning down auditions, which I'd never done. I. I hadn't been employed in two and a half years, and I called my team and I was like, I'm not taking any auditions for things that I don't love. So no procedural. I'm not going to do anything where the character is something that I don't want to do.

[Sam Valentine]

How did your team take that?

[Christina Ochoa]

I mean, they. They thought it was insane.

[Sam Valentine]

Yeah.

[Christina Ochoa]

They respected it. Because I am very fortunate that my team is very pro artistry. Did you have just an agent or.

[Sam Valentine]

A manager at that time or both?

[Christina Ochoa]

Um, I had both at the time. Um, and I was. I was very lucky that again, they are. They are for the artist. My agency is a boutique agency.

[Sam Valentine]

Are you still with them?

[Christina Ochoa]

I. I am still with them. That's amazing. And I will hopefully, unless they drop me, I will never leave them. Um, cool. And. But they're a boutique agency with a very good name. Okay. If that makes any sense. So, like, they have very small client list, but they are also very much about character actors and they have, you know, people that are very selective. So I didn't think for them, it didn't come totally out of the blue.

[Sam Valentine]

Did you meet them after Manager?

[Christina Ochoa]

No. I. I mean, yes, after Matador. But during those two and a half year browsing, do you.

[Sam Valentine]

Or even though you hadn't worked, but they were respecting your decision to turn down work?

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah, I was testing for these roles.

[Sam Valentine]

Oh, see, that's something, though. Like, you fed them a little.

[Christina Ochoa]

I had tested for the roles and then I turned them down. I turned down. Not those specific ones, obviously, those I didn't book. But I. I decided going into the new pilot season, if I'd been with them for a year and I hadn't booked, maybe not like that. And that's normally the time when agents reevaluate, if they even keep you on board.

[Sam Valentine]

I was going to say, this is a scary time to, like, stand up for yourself.

[Christina Ochoa]

Ye. And, you know, after the intensive and after some of those conversations and I kind of felt like I had nothing left to do. So to be honest, there was a little bit of like, fuck it. My favorite thing in the whole. And here's the thing, we don't get into this job miserable because we could probably, all of us could probably be doing something else that makes more money than only where we're miserable. So why take a job would make me creatively miserable. So I started looking at it like that. And then I just, you know, I was like, Look, I don't want to do procedurals. I want to do something gritty. And I don't care if the roles are small or big or well paid or not or never seen or, you know, indie or whatever, or for free. I, I just, I like, I'm going to take a stand for my creativity and for my artistry and I'm going to respect. And they still, I mean, they still sent me the appointment and it was very hard to say no, but I did. And then Animal Kingdom came along and it was for a different role. It was for the role of Lucy. Okay. And she was definitely much more ethnic, I think, than I came across. But I walked in the room and I knew that I had won the room over. Like, I walked out thinking I'd booked Lucy. And as a matter of fact, I called my team and I don't often do this because I will call them and I'll be like, oh my God, I blew that. That was awful. I suck. But I called them and I was like, I think I just got this role. Sick. And then I didn't get it.

[Sam Valentine]

What, what did that feel like? Like, what was it? Do you feel like you just nailed exactly what you wanted to do? Did you feel like you had their eyes on you?

[Christina Ochoa]

I felt like it was, I, I felt like I had never been in that room before.

[Sam Valentine]

Where, where was the audition?

[Christina Ochoa]

And it was at the Warner Brothers lot and it was John Levy and it was their, their kind of casting office and I was still new to it. And obviously they have an incredible reputation for the shows that they cast and the level of actors that they put in their show. So I was very nervous and I walked in and I didn't get Luffy and I thought I did because they were just like kinda phenomenal. You're amazing. And the feedback in the room was just good. I felt like they were, they were giving me a green light in a weird way. And I walked out and I called my team and I was like, I nailed it. I bought, I just got that role. And that's kind of cool though, because.

[Sam Valentine]

Then they followed up with that enthusiasm probably.

[Christina Ochoa]

Well, they called, they called me in for a different role the next day. So they were like, we don't want you for this role, but you're going to come in for the call back for a different role. And I was like, okay. And then they sent me the breakdown and it was like the total polar opposite. Not ethnic at all. Blonde, blue eyed, Cali girl, look like you, you know, in the breakdown. And it was the next day for Chick. Yeah. Well, they were passing all of them at the same time. So I walked in and the three girls auditioning for Lucy were there too. And I went in for the ren. You know, I was like, okay. But she was such a badass and she was supposed to OD and die after two episodes. Um, so I knew it was a small part, but she was a drug addict and a drug dealer and she had. I fell in love with her way more than I did with Lucy. Um, and I walked in and I was very nervous because John Wells was in the room and Lisco was in the room, and it was like a very intimidating room. And I got pissed right before walking in for something that I don't quite remember what it was, that I was very angry. And I. I remember at one point I was supposed to hand the character, who is John Levy, the casting director, reading the other part, my. My boyfriend. It was like sex scene. And then he like pulled. Asked me for some pills or whatever, and I ended up going into my purse and grabbing something and I think of Advil and throwing it at him because I was just so pissed. And for some reason it worked. Oh.

[Sam Valentine]

Oh, my God. That's one of those things that, like, they remember. They'll never forget that you, like, sealed the deal on the role, probably, and it just was because how you came in the room.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah. You know what? I felt like it was because I took that ownership, which is what Sarah and other actors I've heard always say. You have to come in with who you want this character to be, with that essence inside you. And you can. It doesn't have to be your essence. It can be the character, the essence that you've done the work on. You have to leave that room feeling like you did what you wanted. And since then, I always have. And since then, my. My booking rate has gone up, obviously. My, you know, I. It's been one of those things where I can afford to be a lot more selective.

[Sam Valentine]

Yeah, you can.

[Christina Ochoa]

Stuff under your belt. Because now I feel like, oh, if I walk in a room and I do this thing that has been working for me, there's a chance I might actually book it. Yeah.

[Sam Valentine]

Technical question.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah.

[Sam Valentine]

You threw the pills and then your scene ended. Did you get. Did you go grab them? Did you say, like.

[Christina Ochoa]

Like, what'd you do? I drew the pills and I was just supposed to hand them to him. I threw the pills at him and then he just looked at me and I ad libbed like, so what the fuck Are you still doing here? Get the fuck out. Or something along the line. But I ad libbed a button at the end, which I tend to do.

[Sam Valentine]

I do, I always end with my own life.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah. So I, I, I did that and then, you know, again, they laughed. They liked it. We tried it again with a bunch of different things and not a bunch. We just want to know if you.

[Sam Valentine]

Like, picked up the pills angrily or if you just picked them up and you were over it.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah, I was kind of over it. I was, I was just, you know, I was like, Leah, you guys saw me. Look, I, I still put a smile on my face because I'm trying to get this job, but I was kind of like, you know, let's just, let's go. What do you want? You want to do it again? It was not, not that I was above the role in any way, but that I was deserving of it. That's how I felt or tried to feel in that room.

[Sam Valentine]

The fact that you can manifest that or create that however you want to say it in your own body, when you were, when your life was living on a couch, it the epitome to me of someone who can survive in this business. Because I feel like if you can be like, I don't need it. I just do my job. You are welcome. For me, coming in that room, I feel like that is, that's incredible. That's a very special skill.

[Christina Ochoa]

I, I will also say that that feel comes from that work that we do. Right. So the character work, even though it was the next day, I spent maybe four or five hours at Sarah's house running line for the, for the audition, learning how to cut coke, even though it wasn't in the audition, learning how to do lines of coke with a credit card and vitamin B powder. I learned how to roll a joint. I was.

[Sam Valentine]

You ever smoked a joint before? I just asked because I think I remember Sarah's telling that story.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah. And, you know, I, I was trying to watch the surf videos and live inside her, and I, I found a song. For me, music is, is one of the things I do immediately. First when I get character. Oh, cool. I give them song or I find a playlist normally that I feel is get me in that zone really quickly. So Renz was languid and sexy and gritty and kind of rock and roll ish. And it gave me a rhythm, so it gives me a walking pace too, and physicality. Immediately, it's like, I dance like them, you know, I dance like my character. Whether it's Awful or not, I dance like them and I feel like all of a sudden I'm in their skin. I give them a horoscope just because for me that's very simple guidelines into building a pretty layered character. Whether you need horoscopes or not. It's like if you give them an identity that is already pre established in a certain way, you're giving them a new layer. It just makes it take a little.

[Sam Valentine]

Pressure off you too to create when it's like in the horoscope.

[Christina Ochoa]

Right. So you just kind of. I don't have to do the guesswork as much.

[Sam Valentine]

How much of that for you depends on break the breakdown or do you kind of toss it out?

[Christina Ochoa]

I toss the breakdown out the window immediately. That's never served me. It's always gotten me in my head and it's always made me make choices that were not coming from inside, that were not genuine, that were not rooted in me. And I think until. What is it? Until you're a name, you were type.

[Sam Valentine]

Oh, I haven't heard that before, but I like it.

[Christina Ochoa]

So you have to come in with a lot of you. Unless you're an incredibly gifted character actor that thrives on becoming something completely polar opposite than you. Right. Unless that's your skill. You're probably one of those improv, you know, magicians and incredible character actors. I think your essence carries through and if you go against that, it might not serve you. So I will change lines if they don't serve me as Christina. And I, I skew just like I'm, I'm Christina adjacent with my characters and I always find things within me that I relate to them and that comes to the forefront and if the breakdown goes against it, I'll get in my head. I just get nervous and then I'm trying to like, oh, it says she's very angry and aggressive. So let me make sure I show anger and aggression here in some place, even though the scene might not call for it.

[Sam Valentine]

And it's like show all the level.

[Christina Ochoa]

You are. The level there's. I want to say it was Stella Adler who has some quote and I'm told you gonna butcher it. So don't quote me in the quote, I promise. But it's something along the lines of become a better person, you become a better actor and become a better actor, you suddenly become a better person. And for me, I've. I've always tried to have my life be my art. So to me, I. If. And. And Sarah does it a lot. She like live like the character until the moment you walk in the room. You know, for Grace on Blood Drive, she's always in her car, was driving a lot. I was running lines in the car with somebody else. I was. You know, even if it was just around the block, I was walking in cowboy boots. Just because she had a different walk than me that Sarah actually gave me.

[Sam Valentine]

She had to loan out shoes.

[Christina Ochoa]

She loans out so many shoes, so much clothes. And, you know, I. I was cursing a lot like a trucker. I was trying to be a lot more of a. I don't know, tomboy, but temptress in a weird way. So I. I will try to do that for my characters, even if they're small, even if this again. I mean, Animal Kingdom was supposed to be two episodes, which is why I maybe walked in the room being a little bit more confident that, like, look, I. I just read what is the role. I. I see it, I know it. It's not like this pressure of, like, oh, they're gonna want me to be this, like, incredible, you know, how. See, how did it.

[Sam Valentine]

Transition?

[Christina Ochoa]

Did.

[Sam Valentine]

Was it after you filmed your first episode and then what? Like, how did they transition it to a reoccurring?

[Christina Ochoa]

To be completely honest, obviously, I don't know what the conversations were in. I don't know if they saw dailies and then they decided to do it. I do know that I was very fortunate that I shot with John Wells and he was directing that episode and Jonathan Lisko was there. And I know that they liked what I brought to Ren, and in particular, my job was when I was bringing out of my partner at the time. So Ben Robson, who plays Craig Cody, they. We have good chemistry, and I think they saw that as something that they wanted to expand on. It wasn't necessarily about my role. Obviously, it's not my story, it's about his role. But I poked at a side of him that no other role had yet, and they wanted to see that. They kept wanting to see that chemistry, so. And now we're. They just got picked up for season four.

[Sam Valentine]

Amazing.

[Christina Ochoa]

Congrats. I. Well, I mean, it's not my show. Well, no, but.

[Sam Valentine]

Yeah. Pieces of puzzle.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yes. Um, and that's. That's a room that. Because I was in such a bad place and it was so thirsty and broke, they will have me for as long as they will take me, no matter what other jobs I'm doing, no matter what my role entails, you know, it. I don't care if they're like, oh, we just want you in one episode. We Want you to come in and be butt naked doing a line of coke and just see in the background like, I, I will do it because they, that family have been so amazing to me and, and at that time in my life that they don't know they faded with life in a weird way. Cool. Were you naked in that show a lot?

[Sam Valentine]

Say, let's unpack that for a second. I want to talk about body image in general for just a sec because it's a lot of pressure and I feel the pressure now even in the lower echelon to be a certain size. And I know that it is changing and everyone's like, it's different now. I still think there's a certain requirement as unspoken requirement for a certain type. And I, I am curious how that pressure, if you felt pressure at all, if you had to deal with that, especially being naked on camera. There's a lot to unpack with like.

[Christina Ochoa]

Body image in Hollywood. Oh, gosh, yeah, it. I mean, of course we all felt that pressure. I have done everything across the board from, you know, killed myself in the gym. I've battled with eating disorders in my youth, even before Holloway. I think just as expectations rise and come to the forefront of whatever you're dealing with, it's also the thing that people feel like they can control the most. Right. So you feel like at the very least as an actor, you can control your image. So let me just work on that. And then you get obsessed with it and then you get myopic about what you look like, thinking that that's what's going to be determining in your career.

[Sam Valentine]

Every time I haven't booked in a.

[Christina Ochoa]

While, I'm like, what?

[Sam Valentine]

You know, I should probably lose some weight or like cut my hair, like every time.

[Christina Ochoa]

I totally get it. And I will say that at least my experience has completely the opposite when it comes to actual booking and stuff. I have been my thinnest, maybe, and.

[Sam Valentine]

My.

[Christina Ochoa]

Aesthetically, maybe what is considered standard, my prettiest and my cutest and my most whatever and been completely unemployed and not booking and not getting in rooms. And then I have been my worst. I have been not good to myself, not sleeping, not taking care of my skin, my diet and my exercise, and then gotten, you know, the best feedback or testing or booking whatever sort of roles. I have to say, I think some of that internal turmoil has hindered me for sure and actually prevented me from getting old. I, I think it's hard for somebody, especially certain female. And I'm going to say this, and I think, God Because I don't know the specific words. And again, I'm going to blame this on the language barrier. Sometimes I, I will say things that are not exactly precise in the wording, but please take everything I say word wise with a grain of salt. But if you are a female and you are considered beautiful, cute, attractive, and all of a sudden you're going out for the attractive roles and the pretty girl role and the lead roles and the ones that say she's beautiful because every. Can I curse? Sorry.

[Sam Valentine]

Oh, yeah.

[Christina Ochoa]

Every fucking breakdown, whether you're supposed to be a doctor, a nurse, a military person or whatever, is like, if she's the lead, she's just gorgeous. And if she. Or beautiful or beautiful but doesn't know it. Yeah, exactly.

[Sam Valentine]

Dick. Yeah.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yes, yes. Or tough but vulnerable. Those, Those kill me.

[Sam Valentine]

This is why you throw out the breakdown.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yes. And all of that, all of a sudden you think that you're competing on level. Suddenly that is so accurate, walk into the room and now you think that, wait, now I have to be, I have to out pretty or out best this person with my image too, because they're looking for someone beautiful. And now I have to be more, again, more toned, more fit, more tan, taller, skinnier, whatever it is. And I think it gets in our head so much and I would bring it back to the art and I would bring it back to say, not the art in like this ambiguous kind of like, oh my God, you know, it's all about like your talent. No, no, no, no. I still think your body and your image and your health affect your art. But what I'm saying is how do they affect it in a more holistic probably way. And it's like if you are nourishing your body kind of, you're going to function better just because you're going to be more inspired, you're going to have less of that stress. And stress is the enemy of art. Um, and I think if you are not competing, you are able to bring whatever is more unique to you, forget the breakdown, but you are able to walk into that room and win it. Right? So I think that that has been the lesson that is one of the hardest for women, but especially because if you're, say you think you're cute, but 10 pounds, 20 pounds, 30 pounds shy of what people consider attractive, or you are pretty, but, oh, your skin is not as, you know, pristine and even and beautiful as what you think you should have or you have that one thing, right? I don't know if it's your nose, your Boobs, your height, your whatever it is. And you start obsessing over that thing because you think you're just shy of what they're looking for. And I think the beauty of what's happening now with. And it goes for men, too. But I will say that with how much we verbalize it as women and what is happening with the female empowerment and with women coming into power in Hollywood and making those decisions now and diversity and all that. The beauty of that is that if you look like, say, a Playboy model or whatever was considered beautiful 10 years ago, like the very typical. Like, not typical, but perfect. Yeah, the very perfect person.

[Sam Valentine]

The Barbie measurement.

[Christina Ochoa]

Exactly. Is no longer what is actually looking. And if you look at it, it. It. You can track it, and it's becoming exponential. And it goes both ways. You know, you can look at something like the shape of water, and you can look at that Lee. And that is going one way. And then you can look at, you know, other. Other shows, like, I'm going to use Drop Dad Diva or whatever. Like, there are so many shows and so many movies that are now breaking free from that, and lead characters are no longer the interesting ones that are the lead, you know, so. So I think esthetically, the things that I've dealt with have subsided the more I work, you know, because I think that the more I can focus on bringing these characters to life and living in them, the more I realize they are not an image. And we're also not models, some of us. You know, I'm sure I. I don't model, but I. I know a lot of actors model on the side. It's very good money, and it's something that is, you know, kind of like around the industry. But we're not in a picture. It's not a picture. We move, we breathe. We. And if you watch the most interesting performances and the ones that you like, whether. No matter how the person looks, you're watching them move and you're listening to the cadence and you're hearing their voice and you're seeing them talk and, you know, interact and look at the other person and whatever. So all the things that you think you get in your head about, no one else is seeing.

[Sam Valentine]

Yeah, I feel like you're just talking to me right now.

[Christina Ochoa]

You're looking in your eyes and talking.

[Sam Valentine]

So you don't feel like I needed very badly. Well, okay, so one more question off of that. Do you feel that shift in Hollywood, then the whole.

[Christina Ochoa]

All time's up. Me too.

[Sam Valentine]

Have you felt that at all in Your work. Have you felt that female empowerment shift? Do you feel like you've seen more female empowerment type of roles, More women directors? What is in your experience sense that. I mean, I hate to say it started with Harvey Weinstein, but this shift.

[Christina Ochoa]

Where I think right now what I feel at least in the positions that I've been in has been a little bit of fear, which is not necessarily the shift and change that everyone is hoping for. Because I think, look it say for example on Animal Kingdom, on Blood Drive or whatever, I'm playing these roles that say I'm naked on set or I'm dealing with a lot of a very male dominated environment in a position where I'm an actress and I'm hungry and I'm. I'm trying to make things the best I can or whatever. The people that were and are respectful of women are there and continue to be there. Yeah. You know John Wells, he does Shameless. They've done that. Production company works in a way that I've never been more respected and treated kindly on set. Despite the fact that I'm the least clothes and less objectified. Same thing with blood dry. Same thing, you know. And then you have other environments where I've, you know, been with having conversations with friends that have gone into a room and a feel of objectified. Those people, I just think we're less tolerant of them. So we're doing like a purge, which is great. But at the same time people are now kind of scared and I feel like nobody's on solid ground. So if I'm doing a press shoot or I'm doing a publicity thing sometimes it's always it's now I see things like, oh, let's make sure we get the female as much protagonism even if the story is not about her.

[Sam Valentine]

Right.

[Christina Ochoa]

So let's make sure. And I'm like, okay, come calm down. Like, you know, we want to tell the female stories, we want to tell the male stories, we want to tell them both. It's just about not diminishing one for the other. Yeah. For the sake of it. Yeah.

[Sam Valentine]

I feel like that we. Everything like tilts like one way or the other massively. And I feel like it's full hard press to find this middle ground and this is across the board on, on all areas, like finding what am I thinking of right now, like equal pay and stuff like that. It's like how, how much do we have to fight for something that like.

[Christina Ochoa]

Should just be a chill and it'll happen. I think right now the Problem is when we are fighting for equal pay and I fall for it. I've asked for favored nations and every one of my contracts and I've never gotten in. He's gonna really never. And the reason I look but I still think it's worth putting up the fight, even if it's a losing battle that I already know is a losing battle. And the reason I'm okay, I'm. I'm completely at peace with it is the fact that I've also been paired up with men who I've been so lucky in my co stars and in the men that I've worked with and my counterpart and my, the male lead that I've been playing opposite is because they have a volume of experience and work below. Below their belt is how it works. Under their belt.

[Sam Valentine]

Yeah.

[Christina Ochoa]

Below sounds a little dirty, but, you know, they have a body of work that merit, say the quote that they, you know, have had or whatever it will. We just have to keep fighting that until it becomes standard. So now we're going to move into. The newer generation should start getting equal pay. It should be the nor I think for maybe people in our age range, we're still, unfortunately, we may be paired up with people that deserve a higher pay. And I'm kind of okay with that because to a certain extent, I think if you are deserving of it and you have a. I'm not talking about the Mark Wahlberg no scenario where those.

[Sam Valentine]

Things I'm, I totally agree with you. I feel like it should be more merit based and less. I mean, I hate the word gender based, but I do feel like it earned.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah.

[Sam Valentine]

It should be equally earned. Yes, but it's earned.

[Christina Ochoa]

Exactly.

[Sam Valentine]

Yeah.

[Christina Ochoa]

We're on the page. And I think, I think right now Hollywood is just a little afraid. They're afraid of making the wrong move. Yeah. So they're swinging on that side of the pendulum, like you said. And I think that they are a little bit hesitant. And I think it's. I think it may even be backfiring sometimes. I'm a big feminist. I'm a big proponent of obviously equal rights and equal pay and especially in Hollywood representation, things like that. I am very lucky to be surrounded by great women in the industry that are very big proponents of the movement. I think the way collectively we have gone about it could be somewhat detrimental sometimes when, when the extremes are representing the entirety of the movement. Because that's not, I think the majority of the middle of that movement is not that extreme point of view. And the extreme point of view is making people scared. I. I know people who. Men who are feminists who are also now scared to hire a female assistant just because of the climate of things. And given equal competency between a man and a woman, they may hire a man. Which is exactly the opposite of what we are trying to fight for. Yeah.

[Sam Valentine]

It feels like this cyber bullying of it. The reverse effect is almost a little too overwhelming.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah.

[Sam Valentine]

To allow for like satiation of everything.

[Christina Ochoa]

To even out 100. And you think about those and you think about getting. Look, get the assholes out. I'm a big fan of that. Do it.

[Sam Valentine]

Bye.

[Christina Ochoa]

Kick them out. Less tolerance, less bullshit. Behavior onset or off it. Like let's make this industry and this group and this collective of industry professional. Let's make it the. The representative of what we want of this inspiring, artistic, wonderful movement. But at the same time don't do it by batching collectively say a gender. It doesn't matter which one. We're doing the exact opposite. We're talking about. You know what I mean? Like so don't. Because it's also not just gender specific. You know, you. And for me, I think that the better way to cause social change across the board and I feel like this with science. I feel like this with anything is inspiration. It's not fear. Fear based. You know, I don't know. I think it's one of those things that. And I know I differ from opinion from a lot of people, but I think getting people afraid is not the solution. I've been getting them inspired to move to action, to mobilize on the local level, on a small level, on a. On a set level. Whatever it is is what will ultimately catapult us into that stage that we really want to be in. Which is the end goal.

[Sam Valentine]

Control. Working with what you have and controlling with what you can.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah.

[Sam Valentine]

Not hating on the entire mail race or whatever it is we're doing.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah.

[Sam Valentine]

Okay. One. One final question. One more just because I'm so excited to ask you this. For actors who are coming to town right now.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah.

[Sam Valentine]

New satellite or they've been here for a couple of years working. They're getting their feet wet. What do you wish you knew before you really dove into this world? And it didn't have to be one grand idea.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah. One. One thing I wish I knew is invest in a good car.

[Sam Valentine]

No.

[Christina Ochoa]

I know it sounds silly and cal.

[Sam Valentine]

That but this is details I want.

[Christina Ochoa]

I. I would say invest in a good car but can save on your rent. I came here thinking I had to be in the thick of it. I had to be in Hollywood or West Hollywood or whatever. I had to be in an area where things were all happening around me. I wish I had been told, look, live out in the fucking Valley where you get for half the price. You can rent a room, you can rent a place, you can rent an apartment. No one fucking cares about your apartment.

[Sam Valentine]

Live with your roommate. No one ever wants to see your house.

[Christina Ochoa]

It doesn't any. Who cares? Yeah, you know, like Hustle. Try to save up as much as you can to, like, stretch your finance as much as you can. And invest in a good car, because you will be regardless of where you are. Even when I was in Hollywood, I was driving to Santa Monica, I was driving to the Valley, I was driving. So you will be spending the majority of your time in your car driving anyway. So invest in that. I would say you will hate la, most likely. For the first two years, it's like bargain shopping. Like, you have to stiff through a lot of shit before you find the treasures. Yeah, like, so that's how I feel.

[Sam Valentine]

About finding friends in la.

[Christina Ochoa]

That's exactly how it is. It's so hard. And there's like this weird competitive thing that I think is now subsiding a little bit too. With what climate? Yes, it's. It's this thing where people are happy for you until you are happier than them. Or something like that.

[Sam Valentine]

I was gonna say, I think people are happy for you until it really. Until you really hit a stride and then you're really happy and they're like, oh, good job. Yeah, the support level changes. I like what you said about having a support system that really is there. Yeah, the ups and downs. Because, yeah, sometimes people think they leave you on the downs, but people will leave you on the ups.

[Christina Ochoa]

Or they try to ride the ups with you and they try. And when you're. And when you're down, because even when you're on the up, you have downs. Like, let's not get carried away here thinking that just because you're working full time, there are no downs and insecurities. I still deal with as many headaches and confusion and. And stress and nerves on different things and on different, you know, levels and on. On different, maybe, like, sides of things. But still, as I was when I was trying to figure out how to book. Yeah. Now there's like, how to do this right or how to do that right, or how to navigate a situation on set or how to bring depth to a role when it's written in a way that I maybe don't agree with or whatever. Yeah. Like, so those don't subside. And I would, you know, I would encourage people to try and find their core group and take time to do so and not stress too much about life. I would also say networking is great, but nothing that I have gotten work wide has been due to networking. I have a wonderful network and I, I do a lot of passion projects with them that I love. But at the end of the day, every single job I've gotten than. Because I've walked in a room that nobody knew me and I have no connections to and I did the best that I could and I, you know, so networking is great, but I, I think networking has to be a specific thing that you do for different reasons because also nobody likes to be used as a connection. Yeah. So network because you want to create common things together and you have similar vision. But don't network because you think the producer or the friend or the casting director that you know is going to get you in the room or help you book or whatever.

[Sam Valentine]

It's a very common theme on this podcast, like the different definitions of networking and what seemed like the gross. Going to a party, handing out business, making friends and you develop.

[Christina Ochoa]

You've had boost your network and no.

[Sam Valentine]

Matter where you live, you have a quote unquote network people you hang out with every day.

[Christina Ochoa]

Of course, also the one thing I would lastly encourage people to do is because I had to learn this the hard way, was when you ask for favors, which you will inevitably in this town, when you ask for favors, one make it incredibly easy on the other person. So if you're asking somebody, do you, you know, send your stuff to their agent or whatever, Send a blind carbon copy to, you know, several friends and say, hey guys, I'm looking for new representation. Here is my material, here's my reel. These are the kind of projects I want to be doing and the kind of roles I'm, you know, good at. This is my resume. If you. So, you know, if you see it fit. Please forward this to any representation, whether it's your own or somebody that, you know. Um, please forward it. No, you know, no pressure. Everyone is blank. Carbon copy. There's. If you don't reply, it's fine kind of a thing. But I'm really looking to have some new meetings and do it like that. Like putting someone on the spot and being like, can you introduce me to your agent? Can you. This I had to learn the hard way that that's one of those things that does not rub people the right way. Yeah.

[Sam Valentine]

Even if they like you, you just never know how, like, their relationship is with their agent or what's going on.

[Christina Ochoa]

They've been doing your work, too. Yeah. Like, I don't. You know, I would ask this of people that did not know who I was, an actor, as a talent, if I would show up to time, like, on time to set, if I would, if I was talented or not or whatever. And it's like, that's the one thing that I can say is because it'll get you further and you will see more results if you make it easy and take off the pressure and are always willing to do a favor back. That's true.

[Sam Valentine]

Across the board.

[Christina Ochoa]

Yeah.

[Sam Valentine]

Okay. We've gone over an hour.

[Christina Ochoa]

Thank you. Cut out anything that you feel is redundant.

[Sam Valentine]

No, nothing is redundant. Everything is perfect. Thank you so much for this. If you want to. Oh, oh, I'm. I want to push your social media, what you volunteer, what else you're working on. You just got cast the new pilot, which we didn't even talk about. I'm going to have to have you.

[Christina Ochoa]

Back on because this is.

[Sam Valentine]

I could talk to you forever. What's the new show? What's happening?

[Christina Ochoa]

Everything I say is regurgitated from other people that have given me this advice. And just so you know, I'm. I am mainly. Mainly active, I guess, on Instagram. Um, I'm at Ochoa. Christina, I would encourage you to visit Oceana or Earth's Oceans, which are the organizations that I work with the heaviest when it comes to philanthropy and the things that I. My causes and the things that I believe in. And the new pilot is called A Million Little Things. And coming this fall, the abc and it has such an incredible group of people and a wonderful cast and people that you will fall in love with and recognize immediately. And love and their characters are great. So take a look.

[Sam Valentine]

Okay. All right, guys, I will talk to you in just a bit.

[Christina Ochoa]

Thank you much.

[Sam Valentine]

And that rounds us out for today's episode. Thank you so much, Christina, for your insight. You are a badass and I respect your career and I just love watching this happen for you. I'm so excited. If you guys want to follow Christina, she left her socials in the end of the episode. Also, everything she mentioned from the books to all of her platforms are linked in the show notes as well as a full [e-mail] I am also available at onebrokeactress.com and at Sam Valentine on Instagram. That's all I have for you guys today. So I will see you next.

[Christina Ochoa]

Time. Then it's done.