Life & Work with Sylvia Jefferies

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sylvia Jefferies.

Hi Sylvia, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
When I was a young girl, I was wildly addicted to the television show “Fame.” It was everything to me! I used to sing in the backyard behind the fig tree. I didn’t want anyone to see me, though I just had to sing. Mostly it was sad love songs from movies like “Tootsie” and “Arthur.” Lots of Christopher Cross! I would even sing in the car. That was mostly “Rhinestone Cowboy,” and I would hope that my Mama heard me and would take me to a record producer. She DID hear me, which is why I never got in front of a record producer. So, shy, gawky little Sylvia dreamed of being a singer and an actress. With no talent and no looks! I was truly a mess. When I got to college, over jalapeno pizza and a pitcher of beer, I was dared to audition for one of the college plays. I did and landed a small role and kept on having the audacity to believe that one day, SOMEone would figure out how fabulous I am. After college, I got accepted to law school and acting school in New York, and without a place to live, I took an overnight train to New York and got out at Penn Station around 8 am. Just me, my stuffed seal from the World Wildlife Foundation, 2boxes of clothes, and a big ole set of balls. I walked down the avenues because everyone was walking toward Penn Station. I looked up and saw a place that read Webster Apartments. My middle name is Webster, so I took it as a sign. It had been a former hotel that was turned into a women’s residence. I was home!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?

It was shockingly pretty smooth. I wanted something. I went after it. The lifestyle, I mean. I’ve always depended on the “kindness of strangers” (she says with a thick southern drawl), and the City was no exception. I believe that if you keep your inner world shiny and bright and believe in yourself, things work out as they are supposed to. Don’t get me wrong, booking jobs isn’t easy! This is such a big question. Hmmm. Struggles, you bet. I’m good when I can get in the room to meet the producers, director, etc. But booking off tape is hard, as we have to these days. One, I’m plain white when most things are listed as ethnically ambiguous, meaning they are looking for diversity. Two, when the casting directors who are unfamiliar with us know us from the minute and a half tape we turn in, they don’t get to see who we are or what we can bring to the table with some direction. In that respect, it is hard as shit! And it’s exhausting, turning in what we think are good tapes, over and over, and getting no feedback. I’m a Leo. I need feedback, ANY kind. Just something! Personal struggles, being broke and living on residuals. Also, being a single mother and praying to qualify for health insurance (we have to work either so many days or make a certain amount per quarter).

When not qualifying, make sure you meet the time frame to sign your son up for Medicaid and get food stamps. When not qualifying, make sure not to do anything ridiculous to hurt myself because I don’t have insurance. Being so broke that two days out of the week, you have “no electricity days” to save money, instead telling your small son that if we don’t use electricity, we can give our share to those who can’t afford it. Upside, when your sweet freckled-face bucktoothed son LOVES it, reading books with flashlights, taking baths with candlelight, and asks to give all of our electricity away because we don’t need it anyway. When I go out of town to work and sneak my son with me, asking him to sit under tables with a puzzle (before iPods) and be very quiet. Crying in the car when being on set with not the nicest people, and having just to take the abuse. So many struggles. But also so many highs.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
So, I’m an actor. I work in film and television. I love theatre, but as a single mother, I need to get paid, so I can’t do live theatre. I’m most proud of not having any fear. Which I’m wildly proud of! I believe it helps me play the parts I’m most known for: drug addicts, people with no filter, and horror victims. The best parts! In my opinion, most actors want to be pretty on screen, have their hair and makeup on point, and be given the most lines. I’m the opposite. I think it is much more interesting to play the raw, the real. Much like Stevie Ray Vaughan, who lets his guitar speak for him, the role is the character, not the actor playing an imaginary person. Our job is to bring this person to life, and if you let your ego get in the way, the character and storyline can suffer. For example, in the show “Nashville” on ABC/CMT, they decided it was time for Jolene to get out of rehab and pretty her up. I remember getting in the transport van with Gail and reaching over to get some hand sanitizer to rub through my hair. She asked what the hell I was doing. I told her that Jolene wasn’t quite ready to be prettied up yet!

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
Let me see, what else I can tell you. I’ve lived so many lives

Here are some points if you want me to elaborate:

• I tried to jump onto the subway tracks in NYC because I dropped a ring while putting on lotion; four cops showed up out of nowhere.
• I typically wear homeless-looking driving clothes when on the way to auditions and do full glam in rest stops around the country.
• I’ve driven to LA and back 5times.
• I almost got stuck in a hole in Cumberland Caverns.
• I was told I would never be an actor.
• My college advisor told me people need good secretaries.
• I gave my debit card to the band Molly Hatchet when I was under age, and they kept it but later sent me flowers.
• I cooked on the Ryman Stage with “Singing for Your Supper” with Bob Wagner.
• I was on Worst Cooks in America Season 12 and called Anne Burell a cunty thug – my dish exploded in the oven. I still have PTSD.
• I was so broke once that I flew to New York to test and audition for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
• I’m good friends with Heather on season 41 of Survivor.
• When I auditioned for AADA in NYC, I walked from 34th/8th to 30th/Madison in only a robe and slippers of bear feet.
• When I went to New York, my mother had no idea I was auditioning for acting school. I cut and pasted my law school application’s health portion onto the acting school application.
• I chose to have a child by myself, asking a friend to be a donor, but I wanted to boy, so I asked my best girlfriend, who is Chinese Lily Ni, for her ancient Chinese secret of how to have a boy – yep, put all my eggs in her basket! It worked the first time!
• I lived in New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina came,and I couldn’t get back. When I did, dead “things” floated around my apartment and complex.
• I stalked Rian Johnson’s blog pages when he worked on “Looper” and created a fake persona, telling him to audition me. He did!
• I just got married last year in a sushi restaurant. It was a surprise for my husband. I gave him a toilet for his birthday, and he proposed that instant.
• We live in two separate houses. It’s the best.
• I wear his ex-wife’s ring. It’s now back in the Staples family where it belongs.
• I want to work with Jodie Foster.
• My biggest struggle is how to get out of bed physically. I’m grateful that I can! But it’s. So. Hard!
• I told Donnie Wahlberg that I could cook and specifically make fried okra and fried chicken. Nope. I ended up causing all the sprinklers to go off on the floor of a hotel in Philly when we were shooting Annapolis.
• I dyed my son’s hair white and red yesterday, and my fingers tell the story of murder.
• I tried to run away with the band Alabama when I was 15.
• Erick Anderson is the BADDEST PHOTOGRAPHER!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @fouroscars

Image Credits
3 From Hell premiere in LA September 2019 Sylvia as Misty Dawn and Director, Rob Zombie, Halloween 2, 2009 Melvin Kearney, Sylvia, and Ed Amatrudo at wrap party for Nashville Sylvia a 13, stringy hair and headgear no doubt watching Fame James, me, and my Husband, Charlie Staples at our surprise wedding at the sushi restaurant, OKu, where we had our first date Sylvia as Jolene, Hayden Panettierre as Juliette, in Nashville Danny McBride as Kenny Powers and Sylvia as Tracy in Eastbound and Down, HBO