Page 5 - MidWeek Kauai - May 4, 2022

MAY 4, 2022
KAUA‘I MIDWEEK 5
Agudong Finds Her Place In The Spotlight
FROM PAGE 4
ments to it, but I don’t think that takes away from the experience at all. There’s so much to learn when you’re on set, doing it instead of hearing about it. It was really cool because I still feel connected to everybody even though we haven’t spoken in a little while. We created a family.”
as (writing my own movie) goes, but right now I feel the urge and calling to speak and bring to the surface mental health and the normalcy of how things can appear when someone is go- ing through something that you have no idea about because you can’t see it,” she explains. “Hopefully people can either relate to it and feel better or learn something that they didn’t know before.”
of it and that’s why a lot of my music is going to resonate with real life.”
So far, Agudong has recorded and re- leased Welcome To Hollywood, a song that depicts her conflicting relationship with the place that she always yearned for.
With exciting film projects coming up, Sydney Agudong looks forward to the day when she can write and direct one of her own.
Born and raised on Kaua‘i, Sydney Agudong is exploring her early 20s in the heart of Hollywood. PHOTOS COURTESY NICHOLAS POWELL AND SYDNEY AGUDONG
That ‘ohana mindset follows Agudong wher- ever she goes, a nod to the close-knit commu- nity she was raised in. She cultivated a similar feeling on the set of Netflix’s On My Block, her first TV show appearance. It’s a far cry from an obstacle course game show like Wipeout, but that didn’t take away from the fun of filming it.
Outside of showbiz, Agudong plays another character: Jayne Doe, an alter ego of sorts and the moniker in which she released music under.
“Even though it’s saying ‘welcome to Hollywood’, there’s a weird mix of feelings you tend to feel in the song,” she elaborates. “There’s a melancholiness to it, there’s a heartbeat, there’s a rush, there’s energy, there’s this lackadaisicalness to it. I was going through a lot of mental health strug- gles during that time when I moved out to LA.
I had culture shock. I think that people don’t realize and take into account that ... it’s a very vulnerable thing to try and chase your dreams — to put yourself out there, to get your heart- broken over something that you want so badly.”
“I got to play Jamal’s (Brett Gray) girlfriend and date to prom,” she says. “I was extremely grateful and lucky to have the cast and crew that I had because they were already family and had been there for seasons before. It was their last season, so they just wanted to have fun. They were so welcoming, which I know is not always the case on a set.”
“The meaning of ‘Jane Doe’ is an unidentified female, but in general, I think my biggest point was that I wanted to make sure that people knew we’re one of the same,” she says. “The things that I’m going through are things that everybody is going through and vice versa. It’s not to say that it devalues any sort of feelings but it’s more of a way, like, I’m unidentified because I don’t knowwhoIamyet—noneofusdo—and that’s the whole point.
Agudong teases that the album will release before the end of the year. Till then, she’ll be working hard and having fun while her career continues to escalate. She attributes her down- to-earth outlook on life to her local-style up- bringing.
Coming up, Agudong stars in a yet-to-be-re- leased interactive web series called Find Millie Martin, where she plays a social media influ- encer whose friend goes missing. Meanwhile, production is currently underway for At Her Feet, a project she can’t spill too much infor- mation about, but says it’s filming on the Big Island and includes “known Hawaiian actors that will be really fun to shoot with.” As far as her dream role goes, Agudong would love to work with Marvel or DC, but more than that, hopes to compose her own script, adding that it would be a coming-of-age story.
“I was growing up with that whole perfec- tionist side; I wanted to be good at everything and I wanted to know everything and answer the questions I had about everything. That was the biggest thing about my mental health, too. It came crashing down when I realized that I actually don’t know anything. There should be a comfort to that.
“Growing up in Hawai‘i gave me and my sister humble beginnings and helped us stay grounded,” she says. “We were very accustomed to different cultures and backgrounds, which gave us a really nice foundation for our own morals and the way we go about things now.”
“I’m not really sure what my purpose is as far
“I wrote something down about the whole point of Jayne and the music: ‘I’m constantly and comfortably sitting in the middle of an iden- tity crisis.’ That’s what I feel like I go through at any point in the day. I don’t know what I’m go- ing to do next — and that’s OK, that’s the point
Unlike Dorothy, it takes Agudong a little more than just three ruby-red heel clicks to go back to home. But she’s comforted knowing that it’s only a six-hour flight away — and for- ever in her heart.
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