For four years, Amanda Czerniawski led a double life.
To this day, many of Czerniawski's friends and family members still don't know that she spent four intense years as a film and television actor. Czerniawski never told them why she left school early for auditions; she never confessed that she appeared in "Ransom" with Mel Gibson, chatted with Ron Howard's kids and had staring matches with Kevin Kline during the filming of "In and Out."
Czerniawski, a senior, every so often misses that whirlwind time in her life and now fulfills her "need to perform" with her involvement in the Princeton University Players and the Chapel Choir. Currently substituting the stage for the camera, she looks forward to the possibility of performing on Broadway some day.
All it took was one weekend seminar about screen acting for Czerniawski to fall in love with the world of film and television. Twelve-year-old Czerniawski and the other participants, nearly all adults, were each given scenes and told to memorize them in order to perform them the following day. One student would be selected to be launched into the world of television and film, complete with photographs, an agent and a manager. After the initial shock of discovering that she had been chosen, Czerniawski's life was transformed into a whole new world, with training, auditions and her first job: an educational video.
"I would never know where I was going to be or what I was going to be doing the next day," Czerniawski said.
Since few roles are offered for adolescents and Czerniawski was tall for her age, she frequently auditioned for roles for 18-year-olds.
"They wanted me to go out there and be the sex bomb," Czerniawski said. "I had the goods, but I didn't know how to use them."
For Czerniawski, life as an actor was both exhilarating and exhausting. It was also so demanding that she once limped to an audition immediately after breaking her foot at a modeling shoot.
"It was a toll on myself sometimes. I don't think an adolescent should be doing it," she said.
In her four years as an actor on screen, Czerniawski did everything from educational videos to commercials to films, with her favorite role as a graduate student in the movie "In and Out." Seeing famous people, and even auditioning alongside them, became commonplace.
"I lost a role to Julia Stiles. I'm still bitter about it, but I'm over it," she said.
After four years of juggling acting with schoolwork, Czerniawski decided that she needed a break from the pressure so that she could concentrate on academics.
"I kind of made that choice – my schoolwork versus the industry," she said.
Czerniawski "lived to perform," and her time in show business still remains a part of her – after so many auditions and performances, interviews and interactions with people are easy for Czerniawski.
"It gave me more confidence in my self, despite the fact that the industry does feed on insecurities," she said. "I knew I had this ability, that I was good at something."
Czerniawski still loves to perform and has developed her talents as a singer.
"My voice is pretty ripe for Broadway," she said.
According to Czerniawski, the film and television industry is commonly misunderstood. Few realize how long it takes to become an established name and many people underestimate the power of connections and being in the right place at the right time.
"The chance element is more important than the talent element," Czerniawski said. "Luck and connections – that sums it up."
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