The School of Greatness - 687 Believe Through Rejection with Jenna Ushkowitz

Episode Date: August 31, 2018

“You have to keep in mind the right project will come at the right time.” -Jenna Ushkowitz I am a huge GLEE fan. I used to watch all the episodes- I even bought a TV so that I could watch GLEE. I was kind of a freak. That’s why I’m so grateful and excited for you to connect with a new friend of mine, Jenna Ushkowitz. Jenna is one of the original cast members of the show GLEE which was a huge hit for six years. She’s a South Korean-born actress and singer known for her performances in Broadway musicals, and for her role as Tina Cohen Chang on GLEE. She’s also the co-founder of an organization called Kindred which is a foundation for adoption. She also wrote a book called Choosing Glee. In this 5 Minute Friday, Jenna talks about how she handles the pressures of Pilot Season in Los Angeles. It’s not always easy. Learn how to handle rejection in a healthy way on Episode 687. In This Episode You Will Learn: The ups and downs of pilot season (1:30) Jenna’s path to GLEE (2:15) The tools Jenna uses to overcome rejection (2:30) The three truths she lives by (3:50)

This is 5-Minute Friday! Welcome, everyone, to this episode. I'm so grateful and excited for you to be here right now to connect with a new friend of mine, Jenna Ushkowitz. Now, for those that don't know me that well, I am a huge Glee fan, like crazy Glee fan. I would watch all the episodes. I bought a TV just to watch Glee. I was kind of a freak. And Jenna is one of the original cast members of the show Glee, which was a huge hit for six years.

She is a South Korean born actress and singer known for her performances on Broadway musicals and for her role as Tina Cohen Chang on Glee. She is also a co-founder of an organization called Kindred, which is the foundation for adoption with a friend of hers named Samantha. And she wrote a book in 2013 called Choosing Glee. I've been going through it because this is pilot season. And for people who don't know, pilot season is like when all the new TV shows do their pilots and then the networks look and say, we're going to pick three out of the ten. So all the characters are being cast right now. And I've gone out on a plethora of auditions.

And they're great. You know, they're going really well. You're making relationships even if you don't get. You know, they're going really well. You're making relationships even if you don't get the job and you're making good impressions. But how do you handle it? So it's hard. I mean, literally day to day, it's up and down. I'm like, I love LA and I love this. And then the next day I'm like, I hate everything. I'm quitting. You have to keep in mind the right project is going to come at the right time. Not every project. I mean, I'm 110% in everything I do

from waking up in the morning and drinking my coffee. Like, you know, it's just like everything is. Yes, exactly. So, you know, you can't get married to the parts before you book them. I have to like let it go, let it go. And you have to remember that it's just the right timing and the right character and it's going to all happen.

Like there was a pilot I did for Disneyney years years ago and during that time i would have been for the six years it didn't get picked up um well it did but i got recast actually they brought in different women to play the role and had i done the show while it was running i wouldn't have been able to just for glee so like everything just, it all makes sense. Of course, yeah. So that's what I keep in mind. But it's really like a day-to-day. And I'm living with my best friend, Kevin, who plays Artie right now. Oh, really?

And we're both auditioning and we keep each other sane. In New York? Here, here in LA. I'm staying with him. Gotcha. Yeah, and we're great. We've always been the best of friends. He's very talented, too. He's insane. And we're great. We've always been the best of friends. He's very talented too.

He's insane. He's literally insane. His harmonies, whenever he sings harmonies, I'm like... And he can dance and he can sing and he can write and he's just smart. The episode where he got to dance, I was like, yes. I know. We were all so happy. It was amazing.

And on tour, we wake up in the morning and go get breakfast and then they go around the city together. So everything we did was just... That's cool. Yeah. I don't know what I'd do without him. But even during pilot season now, we keep each other in check.

We run lines with each other. That's cool. When we're having a bad day, we'll go and he's like, let's just go get cheeseburgers or something and try and forget about it. So it is good to have a support system here. That's cool.

Yeah, it's hard though. It is hard, hard, hard. There are days we both had one really bad day this time. We're laying on the couch like, what are we doing? Yeah, especially when you were on the top of the world. Yeah, I mean, you go from something and then we look at each other like, I missed that show. It's one of those things sometimes. Amazing. it's one of those things sometimes my truth is living for the bigger picture living for the greater good

knowing that what I was doing left a mark that was bigger than myself number two would be living with the awareness of living with self-worth and self-love or trying to every day. And something about living a life that is not led by fear, but led by challenges that allowed you to expand and grow and learn continually. Thank you.