The Impeccable Work Of Aussie Actress Jessica Joseph-McDermott

There is more to this actress than meets the eye. Jessica Joseph-McDermott, the Australian actress who currently resides and works in Los Angeles, is someone who feels deeply and is able to express true emotions demonstrating accurate observations of the human condition. Besides being a well-established, top-notch actress on stage, TV and films, Jessica is a superior writer who, as a columnist for AussieTheatre.com, shares her own personal story in “Notes Toward A Definition of Actress.”

Her column shares with thousands of readers globally her journey as an actress. It’s a brilliant idea for a column and it is brilliantly written by Jessica. The several I’ve read only made me want to drop everything and read her whole archive in one sitting – but there are too many for that. In one she writes that she lives only ten minutes from her acting school, which is the famous Stella Adler Academy of Acting & Theatre in downtown Hollywood. She speaks of that milieu as her zoo, which is understandable if you have ever walked or driven on Hollywood Blvd. But she doesn’t mean it in a pejorative way; it is what it is and she is part of whatever that is and she has been a part of it every day for almost two  years.

She looks at her daily ten-minute hike as a wonderful adventure where she experiences new things daily and sees new things in the same old things she sees every day. She writes about the tourists and the costumed Hollywood Boulevard regulars who are part of the colorful parade of characters trying to earn tips from the sightseers.

But she also notices the homeless people in their cardboard box homes with their dirty hands and feet and Styrofoam cups to hold any donations that a generous passerby may toss in.

Reading Jessica’s column is eye opening. Not just because of the unique people she mentions but because of how she mentions them. Jessica has a warm empathetic heart in that wonderful actress’ exterior. And her writing goes beneath the surface of the obvious and gives us a new and refreshing vision of what most would classify as people not worthy to be near. She has the ability to feel what is real and then to express it in words as a writer, and as an actress, through actions and emotions on the stage or movie set. Isn’t that moving Towards a Definition of Actress? We certainly think so.