Chrystee Pharris on Making it as an Actress

Chrystee knew at a very young age, she was meant to perform and has done just that with roles on Scrubs, Passions, and most recently, Monogamy. She gets real with Georgette about her time at Emerson, how she's easing her way back into acting after a brief hiatus, and how keeping up with the current trends in her industry has kept her gainfully employed. Recorded on April 19, 2023.

Transcript: Season 6, Episode 6

Chrystee Pharris

Georgette Pierre:
What does it mean to make it big? Well it depends on who you ask, and we did. Welcome to Making it Big in 30 minutes, a podcast for, by and about the Emerson community. You're about to meet an Emersonian who's making it. Making a living, making a difference, and sometimes making it up as they go. I'm your host and alumni Georgette Pierre. If you like what you hear, subscribe and share with your friends and meet me and other Emersonians over on Emerge, the only digital platform exclusive to the Emerson community. Go to emerge.emerson.edu for more.

Georgette Pierre:
Chrystee Pharris knew at a very young age, she was meant to perform. She's an actress known for her roles on scrubs, daytime soap opera Passions, and most recently Monogamy. Which aired on all black, AMC network's SVOD platform. Chrystee continued to find ways to expand her toolkit and started voice acting, directing, and producing. If there's one thing an Emersonian is going to do, it's carving out their own space. Chrystee got real about her time at Emerson, how she's easing her way back into acting after a brief hiatus, and how keeping up with the current trends in her industry has kept her gainfully employed. Here's Chrystee Pharris on making it as an actress. I have Chrystee. Hi, honey.

Chrystee Pharris:
Hi.

Georgette Pierre:
Good to see you. I'm grateful you were on my wishlist for my last season of Making It Big, so I'm glad I got to have you on here. So to warm it up a little bit, describe your profession in a funny, lighthearted way without it being so obvious as to what you do.

Chrystee Pharris:
Well, I love to get out there and make people laugh and make people cry and make people think, and I want to give people life. I'm trying to think of a way of saying it without saying what I do.

Georgette Pierre:
Yeah, no, and then well, I love that you can top it off now on what you do, because I got some questions around your career and your path.

Chrystee Pharris:
Oh, okay. Well, I am a TV actress. I knew what I wanted to do when I was four years old. I was super determined and did not allow people to tell me that I could not do it and make it in this business. As a matter of fact, there's something about being very naive about being in the entertainment industry because as soon as people give their opinion and tell you that you can't do something, it starts to weigh on you, and you have the fear and the doubt come in. But I just remember when people tried to do that to me, I was like, 'what are you talking about? Everybody makes it. Like you graduate from college and then you major, or you do what it is that you majored in'. I just thought everybody made it. And then I soon realized that a lot of people were not making it and I was. I booked seven shows in six months, and from my own connections when I was doing my internship in LA through Emerson, and I tested on the show that I interned on. One of the shows that I interned on.

Georgette Pierre:
Well, let's even talk about that. So Emerson has this LA program, and when I was in grad school at Emerson the building, the permanent building, wasn't there. And so now it's more robust. But how did the Emerson LA program move mountains for you? How much did that really help?

Chrystee Pharris:
Oh, I mean, I wouldn't be successful today if it wasn't for the LA program. There was something about the LA program that... I had a teacher who still teaches at Emerson called Brad Lemack. He might say something different, but it's my favorite thing to tell Emersonians from my perspective. But I went up to him and I said, 'I want you to be my'... He was an amazing, during orientation he was absolutely incredible. And I went up to him and I said, "would you be my teacher? I want to do a directed study. I want to learn how to be my own manager for myself". And he was like, "no, I'm going to teach you the business of acting". And the stuff that he taught me made me so successful that I went back and I told the head of the musical or the theater department, and they made it mandatory and a curriculum for the students after me.

Georgette Pierre:
Oh, wow.

Chrystee Pharris:
Yeah. I mean, it was just that successful, the business of acting. And so if you are an actor, you should definitely take this class. Because what he did was he had me interview people that were in my field, and from there, I built these relationships with people. So by the time I graduated, some of them were open and willing to give me an opportunity. And I remember when I booked a show called Passions, it was an NBC soap opera. And I needed a publicist, and I had interviewed them through Brad Lemack. He introduced me to them, and they took me on as a client and didn't charge me an arm and a leg. I mean, they represented big time people like Jim Carey and Brian McKnight and all these big people. But they didn't charge me like that. And so what I found is-

Georgette Pierre:
Because you had already built that relationship.

Chrystee Pharris:
Because I had built the relationship and I kept in touch with them. Every time I would have something nice happen in my life, I would send them an email, "Hey, just wanted to let you know this is what's happening. Thank you so much". But yeah, the Emerson LA program, it gave me some great opportunities. And then the rest was on me because I built relationships. And of the seven shows that I booked in that six months, five of them I got on my own because I had built relationships through my internships.

Georgette Pierre:
Yeah.

Chrystee Pharris:
Just meeting people, you know what I mean? Walking down the hallway. I met Steve Harvey and then him and a guy named Rashaun McDonald gave me opportunities for Sister, Sister and Steve Harvey Show. And all these opportunities came because I was also bold enough to say, "Hey, I'm an actor". And then I was confident. I mean, I thought I was going to pee in my pants in all of the auditions, but I was able to hold my composure. I did it. And the thing that everybody says about me when I book a job is 'We booked you because you were confident'.

Georgette Pierre:
I love it.

Chrystee Pharris:
And yeah, that's the most important thing. If you're not confident, no one's going to give you $20,000 an episode to come in. You know what I mean? If you're not confident.

Georgette Pierre:
What surprises you most about the work you're doing now?

Chrystee Pharris:
What surprises me the most. I think what surprises me is the evolution of the business. The business changes so much, every 10 years there's something new happening. First it was they started moving tour from multi-camera like Friends type shows, big Bang Theory, Cosby Show, to single camera comedy. That was the first genre of move. And then it was about speaking fast, you know what I mean? As opposed to taking your time through it. And then the next phase was reality shows and how they became popular and was taking over TV shows and movies. And in between that it was rappers and musical artists. And now it's like social media people.

So as you get older in this business, you really have to pay attention to what's happening otherwise you'll get left behind. And then you'll just be bitter and complaining, 'oh, it's not like it used to be. These people are taking over'. Well, you better get with the program because the people who were old school who are my age are getting out there and making it happen. And the ones who want to complain about it are sitting at home and they're fading out of the business. And you don't want to be that person.

Georgette Pierre:
Yeah.

Chrystee Pharris:
You want to be able to have longevity. So you got to go with the flow, and you got to post. And then whatever the new thing becomes next, you got to be on top of it. You know what I mean.

Georgette Pierre:
Well I think about when we're in college, we're always stressed and we're thinking about various things. And so obviously in hindsight, you can see that the steps that you've taken for your journey that you may not have thought about. But what would you have told your Emerson's, your younger Emerson self then with the things that you've seen and learned now?

Chrystee Pharris:
I have to say, I mean listen, I just always had faith. I didn't always have the best support, meaning sometimes race became an issue. What certain places and things and teachers or professors. And I just never let that keep me from making it in this business. Again I was so naive. 'What do you mean I can't make it? What do you mean? What do you mean my color makes a difference, I can't play that role'. Things are still different now than when I was in school 20 something years ago. I think there's more opportunities and people are moving past color, but I had that a lot. And I think I would do things exactly the same because I worked consistently the very beginning. I would not have, what I would give myself advice on is I would say, don't worry so much. If you lose a job or you don't book a job, there's going to be more opportunities. I would tell myself, never take a break, because sometimes you get so discouraged that you like, 'oh, I'm just going to take a break'. I would tell myself, don't ever take a break.

And I would also tell myself, as much as I try to give all my everything into this business, I would once save my money instead of always taking like, 'oh my God, I got to take this class'. 'I got to do this', and 'I got to promote this', and 'I got to spend this money on this'. I would've saved more. I would've taken more vacations. And I would've lived life a lot more because I think my thought was, 'oh, I'm going to make it big, and then I'm going to do this. I'm going to take a vacation. I'm going to have a kid. I'm going to get married. I'm going to do all this'. And when I didn't make it big like I thought, because I thought I was going to be somebody was going to make it friends. When that didn't happen, I found myself feeling, well, what did I get accomplished?

Now anybody else would look at my life and say, 'oh my God, I wish I was where you are. You make money and you do this and you're doing voiceovers'. But in my mind, I feel like, wow, what did I get accomplished? Because I don't have a show. I don't have a family. I didn't save like I guess maybe could have or should have, because nobody taught me how to do that until way later in life. I would've bought a house. You know what I mean? I would've done things that I thought eventually I would have done. And now that I'm in my 40's, I'm like, 'oh, what have I done?' And again, people look at me and they're like, 'oh, your life is wonderful'.

Georgette Pierre:
Yeah.

Chrystee Pharris:
Yeah. But in my mind, I feel like, huh, ooh, I better go to therapy over this. I'm like whoa!

Georgette Pierre:
I can connect with a lot of the things you're saying though. But how do you even keep going even through that? Because the thoughts sometimes are not our own, and they're our own. And they're very convincing. Chrystee, right?

Chrystee Pharris:
Yeah.

Georgette Pierre:
They're very convincing because I didn't feel like I did enough. I don't think I'm doing enough. I don't have the money that I want, right.

Chrystee Pharris:
Yeah.

Georgette Pierre:
I'm still... And with your career and you hitting on various cylinders, there's things that you got to constantly keep doing.

Chrystee Pharris:
Yeah.

Georgette Pierre:
And so in addition to keeping the faith. When we're going to hit lows, but how do you keep the momentum going for any insight for those that are pursuing a similar path to you?

Chrystee Pharris:
I think it's finding multiple streams of income is one. And I think finding other aspects of the business that you are good at. When my look or color or talent wasn't in, or age wasn't in at the moment, then it became about what else can I do? 'Oh, I can do voiceover'. 'Oh, now I'm looping and doing commercial voiceover and animation', and 'oh, you can direct, oh wow'. Now I'm traveling. My short film is won three awards. I'm directing musicals and I'm finding other ways to keep the energy alive to where I'm not feeling like I have stepped out of the business, I'm still doing it. And I take an acting class, I just started back in the acting classes. And so you have to have multiple things in a life outside of this business too. And I think when you do that, it will give you life and you'll have more to draw on as an artist instead of just keeping yourself in the house.

Georgette Pierre:
That makes absolute sense, yeah.

Chrystee Pharris:
Yeah.

Georgette Pierre:
I think sometimes people discredit the personal projects, and I feel like in the business that we're in, they like seeing people take more initiative around creating their own things versus waiting for someone to tell them to do something or hire them or cast them for said thing. You were talking about your short film, and I had read that you did a short film and you had to do it over Zoom and you directed your first short. And it was two deaf actors, as I think as the main characters. What did you learn about yourself in that process? And even did that give you the directing bug as well for more things to do?

Chrystee Pharris:
Yeah, it was during the pandemic. I was like, 'okay, well can I be doing at this moment?' And somebody approached me and asked me would I direct this project? So I did. And I don't think I've been that excited about the business since the first time I step on stage. The joy that I had of directing other people and allowing them to see how incredibly talented they were and being able to draw that out of them when they didn't know that they had, it was amazing to me. And it was the biggest joy, and it's been traveling. But here's the thing that I want to say. You got to think out of the box when it comes to this business. So here I am directing, but what it did was it opened up me to different people that were in the business that were deaf and who had hard of sight.

And what it did was it opened me up to this world of audio description that I didn't even know existed. So when you turn on Netflix, you'll see something that says audio description, and it describes what you see on screen. Well, I was so fascinated, and I was like, 'oh my God, how can I be of service?'.

Georgette Pierre:
Yeah.

Chrystee Pharris:
So I learned how to do it. I learned how to do it, and then I took a class, and then I started reaching out to people, 'Hey, just so you know, I learned how to do this. I would love to be a part of your team'. And now I just got hired, and now I'm going to be doing my first job the 8th of May. So it's another voiceover world that people are not familiar with.

Georgette Pierre:
Wow.

Chrystee Pharris:
And so again, when things get slow, all of a sudden I'm always getting introduced to something new. I'm like, 'okay, well what else is there?' 'Oh, wow, look at this'. And I talked to a whole bunch of people who were legally blind and they told me what they needed. So now I'm like, well, I got to be an advocate. And then I'm also being an advocate for deaf actors or deaf people so that they can have more exposure and more close caption on their projects.

Georgette Pierre:
Yes.

Chrystee Pharris:
So it's just things like that that I'm like, 'wow, this is a whole new world'. And I think when you take the focus off of yourself and your [inaudible 00:18:02] and you focus on other people and what's out there, I think you'll start to see that there's more than one thing to be able to do.

Georgette Pierre:
I love that accessibility is becoming a thing and turning up. It's funny because I'm working with, I'm doing some volunteer work and for some reason something just nudged me to make sure I always do alt text to describe what the image is or whatever the thing is. Wait, so what projects are you working on that you can speak of? Are you bringing black people shit back? I had to say because I'm wearing my always black. I'm always black, never sorry shirt.

Chrystee Pharris:
Yeah.

Georgette Pierre:
But I was like, 'let me ask her about this. What's she working on?'

Chrystee Pharris:
So I have not pursued that, but I have another show that I want to do, bringing people around the world together, and I think that's going to be a good show. And then I have a website that I'm creating for actors that is going to be a useful resource for them that I think they're going to love.

Georgette Pierre:
Oh, is that the one that you share the logos?

Chrystee Pharris:
Yes.

Georgette Pierre:
Yes.

Chrystee Pharris:
Yes.

Georgette Pierre:
I see those logos.

Chrystee Pharris:
So it's been a little bit of a challenge getting it done. First dealt with some people. And so again, I have to remind myself I'm in it for the long haul and that you have to go through a couple of frogs to get to the prince. But I'm getting there. I would assume that it's probably going to be done by the end of the year.

Georgette Pierre:
Okay.

Chrystee Pharris:
It'll be done by the fall, but then when we'd have to do a prototype, see how people like it, the good, the bad, the ugly, and then probably launch it in January right when pilot season starts.

Georgette Pierre:
Okay.

Chrystee Pharris:
I definitely have a few projects there. My show got canceled. We were in rolling to our fourth season. That was Monogamy got canceled. So now back to square one on a series. And then I guess the other thing is just directing a show that a friend and I created that I would like to direct. And instead of starring in it, I think I might just have some other actors get out there and do it. So-

Georgette Pierre:
Nice.

Chrystee Pharris:
I'm kind of excited about that too.

Georgette Pierre:
Nice. I can't wait to see, oh, I can't wait to see that website because those logos were looking fire. I was like-

Chrystee Pharris:
Thank you.

Georgette Pierre:
I said, what's she working on?

Chrystee Pharris:
I know. I was like, let me ask my friends. And then I was like, let me ask some of my young friends see if they like it. Because now I keep reminding myself I'm a little older and I keep forgetting. And then I'm like, you got to remember you ain't that young. So a different eye would be good.

Georgette Pierre:
Yeah.

Chrystee Pharris:
Let me ask some of these younger Emersonians.

Georgette Pierre:
Okay, listen, I appreciate it. Thank you for pulling me into that circle.

Chrystee Pharris:
I appreciate it.

Georgette Pierre:
No matter what you do now, your experience at Emerson has influenced who you are today. Every institution leaves its fingerprint on us, whether we use it, acknowledged it or not. What mark did Emerson leave on you?

Chrystee Pharris:
I mean, listen, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I had a teacher, rest in peace she just passed away last year, Kristin Linklater, who was absolutely amazing. She created freeing the natural voice. She was absolutely amazing. And she believed in me, it didn't matter about anything. Not my color, not anything. It was just about my talent. And then I had some teachers that weren't as supportive, that had to do with race. But when you have people like Paula Langton and the Kenny Cheesemans and the Sidney Andersons and the Kristin Linklaters who were very supportive, it outweighs the bad. And so what I take away from that is there are a lot of great, amazing people in this world who will love on you and support you. You just have to find them. And you don't let people define you, the good or the bad. You have to believe in you and having the confidence in you. And that's what it really taught me, was to bet on myself and to believe in myself.

And hindsight, looking back I guess I'm glad that I had those experiences just because it made me stronger. And then I'm one of the actors from my class that is working and that has worked consistently. So none of that stuff that I experienced meant anything. And also too I want to add, some of the things that I believed that happened could also been filtered through my belief system, which might not have always been the truth. You know what I mean? I'm filtering through my lens. Now there were some stuff that were obvious.

Georgette Pierre:
Right. But no, I'm glad you called that out. Yeah, it's true.

Chrystee Pharris:
Yeah.

Georgette Pierre:
Yeah.

Chrystee Pharris:
I mean, it's also filtered through my experience. So there's a lot of situations that I wish I would've done differently had I not had some of the experiences that I did that made me go in this different direction. So I wish I would've developed more friendships with people at Emerson, but because of some of the negative things that happened, that would've happened on any campus. You know what I mean? It made me narrow my vision when I could have adventured out to have more friends and do more things with people. So yeah, I mean, I look at it from both perspective. It's not all on one side, it's a combination of both.

Georgette Pierre:
It's the balance. Absolutely.

Chrystee Pharris:
Yeah.

Georgette Pierre:
What's one thing you like to try next, and why haven't you tried it yet?

Chrystee Pharris:
Motion capture is what I like to learn next. I have tried. It's a lot more difficult than you think. You have to be extremely difficult, and I mean difficult. You have to be extremely creative in your mind and think about all of the nuances of what a person would do when you're improving. So if you're opening... Motion capture for people who don't know, it's like when you watch video games and you see people, or you see the video games and the people are moving, somebody actually goes in, puts on a whole entire suit that has all of these cameras on it, or little points on it, and then it moves and then the camera gets it. So you really literally have to think of every single thing that you are picking it up, slicing...

Georgette Pierre:
Every motion that you would naturally do without thinking about it.

Chrystee Pharris:
Right. That's what I would like to try next. So I think I was trying to do the other portion of it, but I think what I would like to do is do maybe the facial expressions. And I'm learning, I'm working on a game voiceover stuff Friday.

Georgette Pierre:
Yes.

Chrystee Pharris:
But I want to learn the other side too.

Georgette Pierre:
Yeah.

Chrystee Pharris:
There's multiple streams of income when it comes to this business. You just have to figure out where you're good at and what you're good at and get in where you fit in.

Georgette Pierre:
No, I know, because all I keep hearing, I was like, oh, she got to hustle. She is hustling-

Chrystee Pharris:
Always.

Georgette Pierre:
From one thing to the next thing to the next thing. Peeling back the layer of the next thing.

Chrystee Pharris:
Yep.

Georgette Pierre:
Chrystee is not playing with y'all.

Chrystee Pharris:
Listen, I never. I knew when I worked at the Boston Symphony Orchestra and I worked at Tower Records that no longer exist. I told myself, I was like, 'yep, this is not for me'. Because I couldn't remember people's names and how to spell it when I was doing-

Georgette Pierre:
Right, right.

Chrystee Pharris:
Working, because I was working on the telephones, having to type in people's names. And I was like, 'this is not what I do. Well, you better be successful at acting'.

Georgette Pierre:
Yeah.

Chrystee Pharris:
And that's when I was like, okay, let me learn all aspects.

Georgette Pierre:
You will make it work.

Chrystee Pharris:
Oh yeah, yeah. I was like, I can't get-

Georgette Pierre:
You got to make it work.

Chrystee Pharris:
My job. Yeah, I can't.

Georgette Pierre:
Absolutely. She's like, 'oh yeah, we ain't going back to this'. Okay. Lastly, what does it mean for you to make it, and how will when you get there?

Chrystee Pharris:
Obviously, well not obviously, it has changed. Again, I always thought I was going to be big, the people from Friends. And that didn't happen because reality shows came into play and that took away some of it. Now it's social media. So success for me now is being able to make a living on what I do. Do I have to be big and famous? No. Do people recognize me? Yes. Do they recognize me all the time? Absolutely not. And I'm kind of okay with that now. I've gone to Europe and people have stopped me and like, 'oh my God'. And I'm like, 'oh my God, how long ago that show was? That show was like 20 years ago. How do you even know who I am?' But success for me has changed. It's can I provide for my family? Can I purchase a house? Can I live and not have to worry every single week?

Am I living from check to check? Am I working consistently? That type of stuff, and am I making money that is worth my time? And that gives me time to focus on the craft and not have to work this outside job, which there's nothing wrong with it. I mean, we've all had to do it. But my goal was to not have to do it to have the freedom to be creative. And so for me, that is what success is. I have the freedom to be able to be creative, and I can make a living without struggling and I can take care of my family and God willing I have a retirement that will take care of my life to where when I get old, no one has to take care of me. And I'm not sitting there living in poverty, living off of disability and not being able to survive and living from check to check. That to me is what success is for me at this age. It wasn't when I was younger, but at this age, that is what's most important to me.

Georgette Pierre:
Speak on it. Chrystee thank you so much.

Chrystee Pharris:
You're welcome. Thank you for having me.

Georgette Pierre:
Making It Big in 30 minutes is sponsored by the Emerson College Office of Alumni Engagement and supported by the alumni board of directors. Stay in touch with Emerson community. Join us over at Emerge, a digital platform where Emersonian go To connect. Go to emerge.emerson.edu for more.