Tell us about yourself and what brought you to Los Angeles:

Well, my name is Reid… my first name is Josephine but I’ve always gone by my middle name, which is Reid. Born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina so I’m a southern girl at heart. I made the move to Los Angeles the day after I graduated high school when I was 17. I feel very blessed to have such solid friends out here and to be surrounded by a community of incredibly artistic people. I was giving myself a pep talk before an audition the other day and was like “You know what Reid, at the end of the day you’ve got a lot of people you love and who love you back, so no matter what happens in there you are going to be okay.”

Have you always wanted to work in a creative field? When did you realize acting was for you? 

Ha. It sounds a bit cliche but I’ve wanted to be an actor ever since I can remember. I remember putting on these little shows for my family. My poor parents… I would come up with the craziest characters and I took everything so seriously. I also remember spending a lot of time alone deep in my imagination… I would do this weird thing where I would picture the most devastating thing happening to me and just cry for hours. It was some weird sort of cathartic thing I did, but then I found the theatre which gave me an outlet and helped me make friends. Then in my early teens, I became obsessed with movies like American Beauty, Fight Club, Requiem for a Dream, All the Real Girls… I just loved movies so much and I felt like they understood me as I understood them so I knew without a doubt I wanted to make them. Oh and Pootie Tang… I LOVED Pootie Tang. My family freaked out when I told them I didn’t want to go to college, but they realized I was going to go for it whether they liked it or not, so they have been extremely encouraging from the moment I got out here.

How important is fashion in your craft? What is your go-to denim style?

Fashion definitely helps me get into character. If a part I’m auditioning for is from a certain time period or calls for something specific, I’ll buy an outfit and then just return it…I have a running tab at thrift stores like Buffalo Exchange and Crossroads. I'm always experimenting with my style but simplicity is key… I don’t like putting much time or effort into putting an outfit together. My style is constantly changing day to day, kinda like I’m expressing different parts of myself, or if I'm honest I'm probably just trying to figure myself out.  My go-to denim style is hands down without a doubt bell bottoms. I gravitate towards that 70’s hippie look a lot. I wish I got to experience that time. 

Your IMDb is loaded and shows your amazing acting range. What character was the most difficult for you to tap into? What method(s) helped?

That's very sweet of you to say. I think the character that was the most difficult was also the easiest at the same time. I lost a lot of weight to play a girl struggling with anorexia for Mackenzie. It was easy because I had my own experience with the disease a while ago, and difficult not only for the weight loss but being in that frame of mind was a lot more painful than I had expected. I felt some need to revisit that time in my life and to tell that girls story, I guess I thought it would bring me some closure. But all the old thoughts came flooding back only this time It felt more like I was observing the feelings that were coming up rather than becoming them. It was oddly reassuring cause there wasn’t anything I wanted to do less at the time than lose weight. I had these old diaries from when I was going through it, and those really helped. I gave my diary to Sofia our director, so on the day she would be like “Remember when so and so said such and such and how that made you feel” and I'd be like “oh yeah” and apply it to the scene. 

If you could give advice to someone pursuing a career in the arts what would it be?

Persistence. Just keep going. You’ve really got to be obsessed with what you do and actually enjoy it. Also, the best work comes from your most raw authentic place. Some people fall into the trap of stripping themselves of everything that makes them unique in an attempt to be liked, fit in, be good enough… I know I sure have at times in the past. I had to make a pact with myself to never compromise my point of view. When you free yourself from the need to please life becomes a lot easier… and your work gets a hell of a lot better. 

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Wearing MARGAUX Cropped Demi Flare in Amend  and MARGAUX Cropped Demi Flare in Shady by Unpublished