Category Archives: Screen Actors Guild

Udana Talks About Her Present…and Future, Pt. 7

Posted on by
Reply

NOTE: In this installment of their seven-part interview series, publicist Bill Murphy (BM) and multi-talented Udana Power (UP), discuss Udana’s life now…and her exciting plans for the future.

12241712_10206971079971278_306436462961486864_nBM: In our previous interviews we talked about your screenwriting, your commercials, your Broadway work, and your TV and movies. That brings us up to the present year, 2015. Tell me what are you doing now and what do you plan to do in the future? What’s next for Udana Power?

UP: Oh, my gosh. That’s a wonderful question because when I began to realize that we stand on everything we have already done that we stand on our past. We stand on our mistakes. We stand on our “approximations,” which is what I call “mistakes” now. There are no mistakes. We stand on the good and the bad and the wonderful things that have happened, and from there move into the next place because life is all about change. It’s all about blooming as. It’s not just random change. I believe that when we are accessing energy from our inner source like all the great religions say, it is blooming us. It’s inside of us. Enlightenment is inside of us. Everything we are looking for is inside of us, and we forget that at every sound, and so that inside of us is just what I call the Law of Blooming.

So right now I am working on a book about that, and I am also working on a book called, the Friendchise. There are two parts to this.

Number 1, it occurred to me, oh, about ten years ago. I saw it in a flash of inspiration. I thought, oh, my gosh, why does the law of attraction not always work? Why doesn’t it work for me all the time? Come on, what is this, God? Tell me. And because you know you plant a sunflower seed, and it’s not going to grow up and be an avocado tree. It’s just going to be a sunflower. It’s not even going to be a daisy. It’s still going to be just a sunflower. I was sprouting things for many years and eating living foods, and I would sprout mung beans and I would look at that little tail that comes out of a sprouting mung bean and go, “Wait a minute. Where does that tail come from?”

MungBeanI asked that question of audiences all the time. They always stop and consider and then someone says, “Uh, uh – inside the bean.” I always look back perplexed and say, “Well, it’s too big to be inside the bean.” And then nobody knows WHAT to say.

[Here’s a video of a mung bean sprouting that I think is fantastic.]

When I asked myself that question and seriously considered it, it made me realize that everything organic and alive and growing is an opening to Continue reading →

Udana Talks About Her TV and Movie Career, Pt. 6

Posted on by
Reply

NOTE: This interview with Udana was conducted Spring, 2015. In this installment, publicist Bill Murphy (BM) and multi-talented Udana Power (UP), discuss Udana’s career from Knot’s Landing (1979-1993) up to the present day.

Screen Shot 2015-05-25 at 9.22.56 PMBM: Let’s talk about Knots Landing, 1990. You played a servant in an episode called, “Side by Side.” What do you remember about Knots Landing?

UP: Wow! I can’t remember a whole lot, actually. It wasn’t a big deal, it wasn’t a big role. There was one day maybe two days, I can’t remember, I just remember that I did it.

BM: Let’s see, yeah, in that episode, Servant. I wouldn’t imagine would be a terribly important role in your career. [Both laugh.]

UP: No, not a big one, no. Two days pay. The interesting thing about this profession is that there are wonderful actors who got into acting because the LOVE to act. Not just love to act, they devote their lives to the profession. They don’t care about money. It’s a passion. A calling. And the wake-up call is that they have to also make a living. That doesn’t matter much when you’re young. When you are young, everything is possible and you’re willing to do anything it takes to be one of the chosen 3% who make a living as actors, sleep on the floor, eat a half an apple a day, whatever. Then life happens along the way and if you are not subsidized by wealthy parents or a rich spouse, you learn that you have to make money. That’s a very rude awakening. That’s why I encourage actors and filmmakers of all kinds to become financially solvent and responsible at the very beginning. Before you come to Hollywood, have a business in place that will give you the flexibility and financial freedom to go on auditions as a profession – because, let’s face it, going on auditions is the actors’ life here in Los Angeles. Just getting the auditions and going on the auditions is all that you can be proactive about. Getting the job and doing the job are just the icing on the cake. So I work with actors and filmmakers to show them how to create that residual income on the side so that they are freed up to actually concentrate on their work, rather than stress about how to pay the bills. It’s important. Because when you go into an audition when you’re broke…well, it shows. You need to have a stable foundation to play in the A-Game here.

Screen Shot 2015-05-25 at 9.24.48 PMBM: Well, let’s go to the next one then. In Life Goes On you played in two episodes as a character named Kathy Gutman.

UP: Yes, that was wonderful. We spent about two weeks on that. It was at least two weeks – lots of overtime. Patti LuPone was the star and we were out on the back lot at Warner Brothers in Burbank playing neighborhood football. We were just a bunch of husbands and wives out in the park playing. My husband was playing on the opposing team and he pretended to get a heart attack. When he fell down clutching the ball, everyone panicked and ran over to him and then he jumped up and ran across the goal. It was only a trick. So later in the game he had a real heart attack and Continue reading →