Entertainment & Film Industry Interview - Filipino-American Actress Amielynn Abellera's Journey in Acting

Greg Staffa 0:00

You're listening to the Staffa Corner Podcast, a Staffatarian look at entertainment and life with your host, Greg Staffa. My guest this episode is talented Filipino stage screen and voice actress, amy Lynn Abelera. Thanks for joining us today.

Amielynn Abellera 0:37

Thanks for having me, Greg. I'm so happy to be here and talking to you.

Greg Staffa 0:44

Before we get started talking about your highly anticipated medical drama the Pit, which premieres January 9th on Max, tell me a little bit about yourself, where you grew up.

Amielynn Abellera 0:51

Yeah, sure, sure, sure. I was born and raised in Stockton, California, which is up in Northern California, kind of makes a triangle with San Francisco and Sacramento, upi 5. And I still go there. All my family is there. I go there for the holidays I was just there actually last week. And when did I come to LA? I came to LA in 2008 to go to USC for graduate school. I got my MFA in acting from USC at their theater school, and then I've just been here ever since as a working actor, hustling, you know, but still I'm pretty much a California girl through and through.

Greg Staffa 1:37

Now, one of the things that they highlight on your resume is that you're a Filipino-American stage screen actress, but you weren't born there. So how important is your heritage in your life? Is that something that you have gone back and explored? Is that something that just is a part of what you are? How much is that culture important to you and how much do you kind of learn and draw from it, having been born and raised here?

Amielynn Abellera 2:05

Sure, so important to me very much. Both my parents are from the Philippines and they immigrated over in the 70s and then had my brother in Chicago, had me here in California and being Filipino, and our culture was a very big part of my life growing up. Of course, however, the one thing that I've played have that aspect to them. They request that I can speak some Tagalog, or the character is a Filipino, filipino-american and, specifically to the Pit my role, her name is Perla, she's a Filipino American nurse here in Pittsburgh and she is. She does speak some Tagalog, which is pretty essential to my role and I so I don't speak it like Amy Lynn Abelera doesn't actually speak Tagalog fluently, but it's a really cool tool to have and I wish I could connect to it more and I'm trying to learn. Actually, I've taken some lessons for the past five or six years to really kind of get closer to that in my culture and I also have been trying to teach my daughter some Tagalog words. She's four and she actually knows her numbers and a lot of words we use at the house. So, in terms of bringing it to my acting career, being Filipino has been it's so important to me and so important to the Filipinos in this industry.

Amielynn Abellera 4:07

I think for a long time we've been wanting more and more representation in mainstream media film, tv, theater and just, you know, in our daily life. Know, in our daily life, uh, and I think just recently I want to say, give or take like 10 years I feel that the world is at least we are seeing more filipino representation in in art, filipino stories, filipino characters. We're seeing it in, I'm seeing it in the life around me. You know, I think there's a lot of Filipino restaurants now, the food. We're hearing about Filipinos in sports, you know Manny Pacquiao, so I think we're just more visible. I don't know what truly like what was it that reinvented or caused that shift, but I am here for it.

Amielynn Abellera 5:07

I'm so excited and I know a lot of the, a lot of my Filipino colleagues, my family. We're excited. We're excited to see us on TV. We're excited that there's Filipino nurses on TV. We've had a lot of medical dramas that that we wish to have seen, to have seen more of our people on, because that's such a big part of who we are. A lot of us are in the medical field. Both my parents are healthcare workers. My dad is a doctor. My mother is a nurse. She's a nurse practitioner and they're retired now but're so stoked to for this show that they're. They're actually two filipino nurses in the pit, which is really super, super exciting, and we both speak tagalog, oh well and it is becoming more of a I don't want to say common language, I mean, at least in my area.

Greg Staffa 5:59

I I'm in minnesota and one of my last employers we had a call center and they were always looking for English speakers, spanish speakers and Tagalog speakers, which really surprised me, because that wouldn't have been, you know, outside of my company. I wouldn't have been my first guess, as our third language that we'd be constantly looking for. So I don't know if it's just a Midwest thing because it's a rarity, or if they just that was the need, but I know like growing up my dad was a teacher and we hosted a woman that was from the Philippines as like a instead of a student exchange program, a teacher exchange student. So I've always been kind of fascinated with that culture and it's always surprising when someone grows up with that tag. But you haven't. So have you visited there much, or have you been able to kind of learn the culture from your family?

Amielynn Abellera 6:51

you know, I haven't been to the philippines since 2005. Probably was the last time I was there and the first time I went I was maybe 13 or 12 or something like that, and and and I was just going for for some like, a relative of mine was getting married and I think he was in medical school there he's he's from the States when he was going to medical school there and I think and he was getting married. So we were all flying over there for the first time the ones who were born here in the States to go support, of course, attend his wedding, and since then I've really only been there for things like that. But as a child, I'm going to be honest with you, it wasn't what I. My experience was challenging, as I think what I expected to feel when I went there when I was 12 was to feel a real connection, like I wanted to feel like, oh, I was so excited. I remember I was so excited to go to the Philippines. I was finally going to like, see, you know, all the food, all everything that my parents talk about, and a ton of Filipinos, all my people, and and I was so really shocked that that was not the feeling that I had.

Amielynn Abellera 8:16

And I think when I got there and I'm only able now, as an adult, to articulate this, but back then I I didn't know what was going on. I was confused. I felt even more of a minority there than I did in the United States and I think it was. I felt isolated as an American, because they could peg me as an American there, which was very you know the Filipinos there. They're like oh, she's from the States, they knew it as like, with what I was wearing I didn't speak the language, I was an American and to them, you know, and so I felt really out of place and that was really hard for me because, you know, I feel like a minority here and when I go there I just I felt like I was going to have this deep connection to my community and I was really shocked that I didn't.

Amielynn Abellera 9:08

And I think that was a little bit traumatizing for me and I haven't gone back at my own volition since then. I've gone for a couple times for more weddings or had to go over with my mom or things like that. But I think I can't wait. Uh, now with a new awareness that I have in as adult and like being able to kind of process those feelings, that I had to be able to go there now, bring my daughter, bring my girlfriend and like, celebrate, celebrate it. Because it wasn't until I think, like my 30s, when I realized I want more connection to my culture, because I was so Americanized here growing up and I didn't speak the language. I didn't do anything. Now I just I'm voracious for it. I want to learn Tagalog, I want it in my life, I want it in my daughter's life.

Greg Staffa 10:03

Wow, that's a powerful. Thank you so much for for sharing that. I don't know if that's something you've shared often, but thank you for sharing that. What got you into acting then?

Amielynn Abellera 10:12

Oh, acting, yes, what got me into acting? Well, growing up and this is something about, I mean I guess I'll just speak for myself, but Filipinos, at least my parents, like we loved the arts. We loved the arts. Growing up, my parents loved taking me to. Since we're in Stockton, we'd go to the city, we would watch theater, we would watch musicals, we would go watch the symphony in San Francisco Symphony. We'd watched movies. All the time we just we, loved it. We, you know, we're such a, we're such an artistic, creative, uh, musical people and, and I fell in love with musical theater at first I loved Miss Saigon that was my favorite and La Missa Rob, and it was just something that I was so drawn

Navigating Passion

Amielynn Abellera 11:04

to.

Amielynn Abellera 11:04

Every time we would go and like in an obsessive way as a kid, just being so taken by the stories that I was seeing and the experiences that were and the emotions and feelings that were being, that were so hyperbolic on stage or on screen, and I would feel that with them and I just wanted to do anything to be a part of that process. As a kid, I just I wanted to be backstage. I would get so, I wanted to see if I can do. I loved trying out for theater and so that was a big part of my life. Just growing up. I did theater and music and everything all through school, all through high school. That was like my biggest hobby, that was my biggest extracurricular activity that I just was so passionate about. But it never was really seen, and I don't want to say it wasn't encouraged, but it was. I never really saw it or it wasn't really modeled to me as like a real career path. Uh, and my career path was to be a doctor. Actually I was.

Amielynn Abellera 12:18

I was on my way to medical school and doing theater and all that on on the side, quote-unquote uh, and I, I think, deep down inside, I wish that I was like that. I wanted to be an actress, um, professionally, but it just wasn't in. That just wasn't, I think, at that time, like something that I really felt confidently to do as like a real thing. So I, you know, followed all the steps of the familial pathway to go to medical school and I was really interested and passionate about that too. I love human biology, I loved studying the tools of medicine, I loved biology, I loved chemistry. I was terrible at physics but I really got.

Amielynn Abellera 13:10

I took my MCAT twice. I did the pre-med track at Santa Clara University and I was getting interviews for medical school. And again throughout all that time I still did plays. In college. I auditioned even though I wasn't in the theater department and I got in and it was great and I had roles and it was so fun. But really I was determined to be a doctor because that was the successful, right path to do. That was modeled to me and my family do. That was modeled to me and my family. And so I got pretty far and then just kind of took pause, took pause to. I didn't go to those interviews. I to medical school.

Amielynn Abellera 14:00

I said you know, I think I'm going to take a break and work for a little bit. I moved to San Francisco and I got a job at Stanford Hospital doing cancer research and then while I was in San Francisco I was also again doing plays, because I wanted to, because I loved that. So my day job was cancer research and then I was doing plays at night and I thought that was just going to be sort of a year long. You know, little adventure for me. But then that turned into three years of this sort of back and forth and I remember experiencing a very like difficult conflict during that time of working at this hospital with these top-notch doctors and really getting extreme experience of this doctor path. That was what I wanted to do, but deep down I was not passionate about it at all. Like what I was passionate about was getting back on the train from Palo Alto to San Francisco and like going to rehearsal for a tiny podunk play in a black box for no money, no money.

Amielynn Abellera 15:21

And once I and I was doing that, and once I realized that that was happening to me, I was thinking I think I want to, I want to be an actor, this is what I want to do. And so I had to switch gears. And so what I did was, you know, if I had I tried out for these. I kind of didn't tell my parents or anybody really, but I I auditioned for MFA programs. I didn't have any formal training. I didn't, uh, mfa programs in acting, and I didn't have, I didn't study it in college, I didn't really do any of that.

Amielynn Abellera 15:56

So I and I knew it was challenging to to get into these programs and I thought, you know, if I get in, maybe that means I have something to offer, maybe that means I can act. Maybe, maybe, maybe. That will validate my feelings of passion here, and I did. I got into DePaul University in Chicago, which is an excellent MFA program, and I was thrilled. And I also got into USC, and I was thrilled, and the rest is history. I chose USC, I went, I quit the cancer research job and moved to LA. And here we are. But yeah, that was the path fascinating.

Greg Staffa 16:49

Now feel free to completely shoot me down and, yeah, reject what I'm about to say. Uh, but listening to your story and everything you've said, there's a sense of of not knowing who the inner you were was. You talked about, you know, being a young girl and looking in the mirror and not seeing yourself as American, but seeing yourself as Filipino. But then going to the Philippines and not seeing yourself, there Was acting kind of a way to fill that void. You could be any character that you wanted to. You could create a story in your own mind and be that person. Is that something that acting kind of opened up for you? Because it sounds like during your earlier years you were really lost in finding who you were and what you wanted to become and where you kind of fit in life. Did that mold the acting bug or is it something completely different?

Amielynn Abellera 17:42

Hmm, that's I. I'm sure that played into it in terms of what acting can provide for me and filling in those

Navigating the Unpredictable Acting Industry

Amielynn Abellera 17:54

voids. For sure I do reflect on what you're asking a lot and, and there and again I can speak for myself and I don't want to generalize it to Filipino culture or Filipino parenting, but I think something that was happening for me as a child was that there and my parents, was that there was a lack of emotional like, a lack of knowing how to speak about feelings, knowing how to express feelings. There was a lot of tamping down of that. There was a lot of like that wasn't okay to feel passionately and deeply and to and how to articulate that, even how to talk about it. We just kind of shut it down and kind of hide from it. At least that was my experience in my household and I think and sure it could be that I didn't know how to express my conflict of being a doctor or like.

Amielynn Abellera 19:02

What I really wanted to do was, you know, follow the acting bug.

Amielynn Abellera 19:06

And I guess what I did see on stage or in film was that these were these people, these characters that were experiencing these feelings so like, so truthfully for themselves.

Amielynn Abellera 19:19

And I think I, yeah, I think I wanted that, I think I wanted what was happening for that character, and then I think I also wanted to be that person who was portraying that character, because deep down inside I know that this person on stage isn't actually they're not actually dying holding their child in their arms as they, you know, describing the Saigon, but there was something about how she was so open to her feelings and taking charge or whatever.

Amielynn Abellera 19:54

That character and then also the actor portraying that was blowing my mind on how she could do that night after night and how like cathartic could that be. So, yeah, I think I I maybe I didn't know how to really do that for myself as a real person and therefore I could, I could do that on stage and and the times when I do hit that high of being able to just really truthfully, authentically feel something and experience something of a human condition that either I wouldn't be able to do in real life or I'm just not in that situation is isn't is the incredibleness of being an actor, one of the incredible things of being an actor?

Greg Staffa 20:49

What made you take the leap from stage to film or television?

Amielynn Abellera 20:54

Sure, that's a great question. I don't think it was ever really like a conscious. I want to leap from stage to film. I want to leap from stage to film. I think, coming down to LA, we're, we're more, almost that's more what's saturated here in, in the industry, in the, in the like you know. So I feel like that's just the thing to do. Is we?

Amielynn Abellera 21:20

We like to, to be visible, to be recognized, to be like making it or however you want to call it, or being a successful actor I'm air quoting right now is to also be able to be on screen, which, you know, I say it like that now, in terms of I don't know what kind of pushed me to that. I feel like getting an agent and getting a manager that's mostly also their focus here in this town is getting you on a screen, and that is, of course, wonderful. I've loved learning how to do that and I'm happy that I'm on screen and the many, the scarce times that I've been on screen before I haven't done a lot of TV, but I've still mostly done plays in LA and regionally, um, and that's still kind of I don't want to say it's my number one thing to do, but I love theater. I still love theater, so much I'm doing a play right after, right after the pit and I'm totally, I'm totally stoked.

Greg Staffa 22:23

Is it just because the immediate response, the feedback is right there, versus filming something that might not come out for weeks or months?

Amielynn Abellera 22:33

Sure, I think it. Uh, not just that, but in terms of, I mean I honestly, I mean you're. I feel like you're asking me in terms of, like I didn't it's not that I had a choice to choose Like I would love to do more, I would have loved to do more TV, or as much TV as I did, uh, either, in my entire life. But it's hard, it's hard to. It's hard to. It's hard to book a job. It's hard to book TV, tv.

Amielynn Abellera 23:03

It's so like, it's so challenging to get a line in a show. You have to audition. I mean hundreds and hundreds of auditions come through, you don't hear back anything. So it's not for lack of trying that I've tried to be um, on screen, uh, before theater, and I think, like theater is more. I don't want to say it's hard to be in theater too, it's hard to it's. It might be more accessible, it might be more accessible. But I I'm not trying to make a conscious leap from theater to TV. I'm lucky, I feel blessed, I feel like so excited and thrilled that I, that I this lottery, because it it feels there's no control how does it impact your drive and motivation?

Greg Staffa 23:51

I mean employers. When you're at a temp agency says what's your, what's your five-year goal, like, what is your two-year, three-year goal, other than hopefully getting more seasons of uh the pit, what is? Or is it just kind of go with and see what happens as your career? I mean it's uh. When I talk to actors and actresses, it sounds more. It's different because when you talk to people talking about their life and their job, it's all hinged on you know the work that they do, whereas actors and actresses it's a lot more of a fluid type thing where I need to find out where this flow goes, because it's not in my hands, it's in casting, it's in so many other people's hands. I just have to try the best I can and see where it goes. Or do you have set goals of? This is what I want in the next few years.

Amielynn Abellera 24:44

Sure, oh, man, I mean I, I think you're, you are right, I don't think there's any control from. From my experience I have not felt that there has been a lot of control. Five-year plan I hope I'm a working actor still. I hope that I am. I hope there are seasons and that I am in them. I hope that I'm in plays. I hope that I'm still doing audiobooks. You know, I hope that I am just consistent and constant with work.

Amielynn Abellera 25:20

Can I plan for that? Oh sure I could try. Can I plan for that? Oh sure I could try. But you're going to, I'm going to have Like really hyped up years where stuff is consistent and great and and constant, and then there's going to be years where I'm probably not going to book a job at all, and then not just because there's a strike or there's covid, it's really just that unpredictable in my experience. So I don't feel like I have a lot of control with how I want to plan things out. I just have to be ready and stay ready for the opportunities that come my way, and that is the work. That is the work for me is to be ready when that door opens. And being ready means staying trained, you know, keeping your mental health up, learning how to manage being a working actor that didn't have a job for a whole year, and hopefully the stepping stones will just solidify more and more. Yeah.

Greg Staffa 26:30

Is that a stressful thing? Or is that something that you've learned over the last few years to incorporate that this is how it is, that all I can do is put out the best demo reels. All I can do is put out the best characters when I get a role that I can do and I just have to trust the system that when I put in the work, the work will be rewarded. How does that kind of translate in your own personal life?

Amielynn Abellera 26:55

I feel that it is stressful. I mean, to be honest. I mean I live in anxiety and wondering how it's going to be and even though I'm in a dream right now, I don't know what comes after. I don't know what next year looks like, and I have sort of come to peace with that's how my life is going to be and I wish I had some control over that, over that.

Amielynn Abellera 27:32

But I do feel that I have come to peace with the uncontrollable, sporadic nature of things. But I have found ways, I think, mentally, emotionally and actually tangibly to not be defined by that uncontrollability of my career. Like I have a family, I have relationships with other types of interests, but I still am going to run this acting marathon for as long as my knees won't give out, Because I think like I don't know how to do anything else, Not in a way where it's like, oh, I don't, I don't know how to do anything else, but this is what my heart wants. Like it's keep going is what I mean, and I think like I just have to find life around that and know how to manage it.

Greg Staffa 28:26

And one of the things that the unions did that I found disappointing a little bit in talking to so many actors and actresses is that they failed to kind of educate the public of what these contract negotiations were for. They weren't for the Brad Pitts or the Harrison Fords, you know they weren't. The strike had nothing to do with, for the most part, with those kind of actors and actresses. It was more for the actors and actresses like you who are going through all these things. And so we hear, you know, actors going on strike and the general public says, well, they make millions, why do they? Why do we need to do anything?

Greg Staffa 29:04

And I think there's a a disconnect with the unions kind of conveying a better message of it's not for brad pitt, we're Brad Pitt, we're not doing it for him. I mean he does get help from it. But I think there's a lot that people don't realize. You guys go to a temp agency basically every month. I mean acting is not a career. That, for a major majority of people, is something that is a regular basis. It's. I got to roll on this and I don't know what's going to happen next month, and so I got to focus on that and to have to go to a temp agency or to have to be on unemployment mentally every other month just has to take a toll that I don't think gets addressed on all the talk shows or everything else that people see in the cinema actors and actresses.

Amielynn Abellera 29:57

I agree with you. I agree with you, Greg, wholeheartedly.

Greg Staffa 30:01

What has been the learning experience on coming on a set like NCIS, coming on a set, even a small role, like Shrinking, which are, you know, major popular things, and learning from being on those kind of shows?

Amielynn Abellera 30:16

Yeah, yeah, it's like throwing yourself into this well-oiled machine that I mean. Again, in my experience I didn't learn in graduate school or from somebody. No one teaches you how to go on to a set or what to expect, and it I kind of it's just kind of on the job training, to be quite honest, and like I didn't even know how to read a call sheet, you know, I didn't know what any of that meant. I didn't know what I needed to do. I didn't know how to stand on a mark. I just kind of had to learn and, you know, fake it till I make it. And I mean I kind of I know other people, I don't know what other people do. I didn't even really know how to ask around. I just kind of had to show up and learn.

Learning and Growing in the Industry

Amielynn Abellera 31:18

My first, bigger one was NCIS and you know that was on location at a Navy base like two hours from LA and the call was at five in the morning or something like that, and I didn't really know what was happening. I didn't know that. It was like hurry up and get there and then you get in here. I didn't know any of that stuff. So and it's still, it's still on the job training, learning now, because every, every set is different. Every machine works differently. Every set is different. Every machine works differently.

Amielynn Abellera 31:56

Uh, and this machine of the pit um is is also very different in my experience being put in there because it was I. I started with them. The machine hadn't been totally created yet. We were all getting there day one, all of us getting there day one, and so that has been an incredible experience of learning alongside the actors, learning alongside the crew members, like learning what this machine is, and now that we're at our sixth month of seven months shooting our sixth month of seven months shooting we are a machine now and it's cool. It's cool We've become an ensemble, We've become a team and to be a part of that from the very beginning. I don't think I can learn that, I think I just had to learn and it's been incredible.

Greg Staffa 32:56

Was there anyone along the road that was instrumental in taking you under their wing or pulling you aside and giving you some advice? You know, maybe another actor, maybe a director? Was there anyone in particular that really stood out as being a kind person, that realized you were new and just said you know, hey, here's how we do things? Or pointed things out or educated you? Just said you know, hey, here's how we do things, or pointed things out or educated you.

Amielynn Abellera 33:20

Anyone like that that was instrumental. You know I can't think of anyone specifically, but on every set that I've been in, even the ones that I'm describing to you NCIS and you know, shrinking my experience is that everyone was was very, very accommodating and very welcoming, um, and really telling me where to go and, seeing that I am a fish out of water and sure I and not knowing where to go and I'm really good at asking questions and, you know, looking like a deer in the headlights, so they would just redirect me and shift me over there. Um, but, and I mean I don't it usually, honestly, I connected always with the hair and makeup people, because that's where I sit, in that chair for an hour or so and I ask them questions. And those are the people on set that I remember were were the ones that I felt most comfortable to ask like, oh, where do I go, or what's that mean about the thing? Just, they're just the greatest cheerleaders, they're. They always have my back and I mean every hair and makeup team that I've been on on the set has been, has been fast friends and those are the ones that actually helped me learn and help me feel comfortable and and have shepherded me, those and in terms of theater, which a lot of my experiences is my graduate school, that was a real big learning just of my confidence, because, again, I didn't have any formal training and what brought me to USC was the faculty, this passionate faculty, faculty, and they were the ones that really, you know, took me under their wing and taught me everything, just about how to, how to be an actor.

Amielynn Abellera 35:20

But the thing that was lacking, I think, in the MFA program was that they didn't teach us how to be on the set, unfortunately. So I just kind of had to learn that when I got there and let's focus on the Pit Again.

Greg Staffa 35:32

it premieres January 9th on Max. It's a medical drama, so you've come full circle pretty much. Was the medical experience the limited medical experience that you had in the beginning of your career? Did that impact anything at all? Or was it all foreign and lost? Or was some of the terminology? Did it come easier for you because you had studied some of that?

Amielynn Abellera 35:57

Absolutely, absolutely, greg. I feel like I do feel like I have come full circle, which is really really an incredible thing to feel, because I really I did learn so much on my way to medical school and I did learn so much working at Stanford Hospital for three years. I really worked closely with patients and with doctors. I learned all that medical terminology. I learned, you know, patient practitioner interactions and I also, you know and I also, you know, garnered so much from just my childhood.

Amielynn Abellera 36:34

I grew up in hospitals. My dad had a private practice as a family practitioner. I was always at his office. I was always around patients. My mom was a nurse, so I was always, you know, around patients also then and just seeing how they, you know, talk to each other about medicine and things like that. So it was, it has been a real asset on set playing this nurse, because, sure, I can do what is scripted, but I can also bring like a sense of like other you know tidbits of nuance, just from what I've seen in hospitals with nurses and interacting with them so often throughout my life. And what's cool is that I think all of us on the pit are bringing like our own sense of. You know we all bring our own sense of little character twerks, twerks, tweaks, tweaks, tweaks to our character. And for me, I just have these other real life experiences growing up around health, healthcare workers.

Greg Staffa 37:43

And you said your character is actually Filipino. Also, is there anything that you've learned from the character in doing the research or the background? Or there might be a scene where you're talking about something that you didn't realize about your own culture, that you're learning more because of this role, or are they? Do the writers go to you a lot for input on on certain aspects?

Amielynn Abellera 38:09

Huh, Not not necessarily about being Filipino, but something that I could share about my role is that not only is she Filipino, she is Filipino Muslim, and so that part for me was actually more like I had to prep myself for that because I grew up Catholic.

Amielynn Abellera 38:36

The majority of the Philippines, like that's the dominating religious, you know denomination- Even I knew that, yes, and then, but you know, there's this, this subgroup, subpopulation of Filipinos who, you know, I, I am not, I was not knowledgeable and I'm still, you know, I, I'm not, I was not knowledgeable and I'm still, you know, like baby steps, knowledgeable about this, about her being Muslim, and so they are a minority within a minority, uh, and so it's even harder to even find any representation of a Muslim Filipino, of a Muslim Filipino, and so that was something where I needed to research, I needed to really get on top of how does her being Filipino Muslim affect her work, if there is anything that affects her work in the hospital, because I've heard, like Jehovah's Witness, I think, they don't touch blood or something like that. Someone had told me that antidote or, you know, are there any types of situations that you know, I know Catholics, you know, have I don't know if there's any conditions that they wouldn't treat or anything. And so I had to. I really went to try and find Muslim Filipinos who could give me any sort of insight of what it meant to be Muslim Filipino, cause I had nothing and there was, there was nothing different, there was nothing different.

Amielynn Abellera 40:07

They, they treat anybody, uh, and they, and so that that was was fine, but there were actually some, some parts in the dialogue, uh, that I really had to take pause and say, oh, would I? Would I say that, um, and and I won't give any of it away because I don't want to talk about the script or, you know, spoilers or whatever but yeah, there were some times where I had to collaborate with the writers of, oh, you know, I actually don't know if, with me, being of Muslim faith would actually say that, and you know, I talked to an actual Muslim, filipino and, you know, got that feedback and yeah, we don't, we don't, we wouldn't say that. So, and the writers and showrunner, very, very accepting of all my feedback and and welcome it and rewrote those lines.

Greg Staffa 41:08

That's great to hear that they're that accommodating to someone new and showing you that kind of respect of you. Know you may not be the most well-known actress but you still have a voice in your character and who you're representing for other young Filipino women to see on screen. Amy Lynn. I thank you so much for coming on Again. The Pit premieres January 9th on Max Fans should check it out. It's a medical drama series. I look forward to following you and seeing where your career continues and sincerely appreciate you coming on.

Amielynn Abellera 41:45

Yeah, thank you, greg. I've really had a good time talking with you. Your questions really made me think and reflect on my life. So thank you for getting in there and I appreciate. I appreciate you. Thanks for having me.

Greg Staffa 41:59

That does it for this episode. Thank you.