Beating the Odds: How Elisa Lucia Made Her Hollywood Dream a Reality

Dreams have a peculiar way of shaping our paths, sometimes leading us across oceans and borders. For Costa Rican-born actress Elisa Lucia, a childhood fascination with Hollywood transformed into a life-changing journey that brought her to the very streets she once only visited as a tourist.

Elisa's story begins with movie nights led by her mother, who instilled in her a deep appreciation for cinema and performance. When given the chance to choose a destination for her Quinceanera celebration, she immediately selected Los Angeles – a city she'd never visited but somehow knew was where she belonged. That first trip confirmed her intuition, leaving her in tears when it was time to return home. "I felt such a belonging in a way," she shares, describing the powerful connection that would eventually pull her back to pursue acting professionally.

The path hasn't been smooth. Elisa candidly discusses the challenges of building a career as an international artist in Hollywood – from the comfort of having her sister blaze the trail before her to the complex, expensive process of securing an artist visa. "It's a really tough process," she explains, detailing the requirements for press coverage, recommendation letters, and proof of future work – all while paying substantial legal fees. These hurdles came alongside the typical struggles of the entertainment industry, further complicated by recent writers' and actors' strikes.

Yet through persistence and passion, Elisa has carved out her place. She's produced theater shows at the Hollywood Fringe Festival, created a solo performance about pioneering journalist Nellie Bly, and now celebrates having her work featured at the iconic Chinese Theatre – a full-circle moment for someone who once visited as a starstruck teenager. When asked how she maintains her mental health through it all, her answer is beautifully simple: connect with loved ones, surround yourself with supportive peers, and remember that "the only voice that matters is the one inside your head." Ready to be inspired? Listen now to hear how one woman's determination turned a childhood dream into Hollywood reality.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introducing Elisa Lucia
• 1:37 Childhood Dreams of Los Angeles
• 3:55 Moving to America and Finding Support
• 6:35 Current Projects and Film Festivals
• 7:21 Artist Visa Journey and Challenges
• 9:15 Mental Health and Staying Grounded

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome to Outlaw Wisdom. Outlaw Wisdom.

Speaker 2: 0:05

Elisa Lucia comes to Outlaw Wisdom. Listen as Elisa talks in detail about her struggles and reveals how she beat the odds and did what no one thought she could. This is Outlaw Wisdom. Let's begin, shall we?

Speaker 3: 0:23

Elisa, how are you doing today?

Speaker 4: 0:24

I'm doing great. Thank you for having me. How exciting.

Speaker 3: 0:27

Help me say your name correctly. Say it for me one time, will you Please?

Speaker 4: 0:31

Elisa, lucia, what I tell people. It's almost like Melissa, but without the M.

Speaker 3: 0:37

Let's start by telling our listeners who you are, what you do, where you're from.

Speaker 4: 0:41

I am a Costa Rican, born and raised actress. Actress. I've been living in los angeles for almost four years now. I came here to pursue acting and I went to acting school, and now I have been doing different projects, and one of the many projects that I worked on when I moved to la I met drew, and now here we are. I I'm losing track of time, but last year I produced a show for the Hollywood Fringe Festival, which is a theater festival in Hollywood. I was a producer of a show called Beautiful Little Fool, which was about the life of Zelda Fitzgerald, who used to be married to F Scott Fitzgerald, the author of the Great Gatsby and so many other works Before that. I also wrote and produced my own solo show about Nellie Bly, who was the first female investigative journalist of the United States. My producing has been mostly theater. You know you got to start somewhere.

Speaker 1: 1:36

You've been listening to Outlaw Wisdom. Outlaw Wisdom the outlaws are here to stay.

Speaker 4: 1:44

Whenever I tell people I'm an actress, they're like oh, what do you want to do? You know, and like what kind of genre? And I never have an answer because I want to do a little bit of everything. But that also means that not just as an actress I want to like work, every single genre, and I think right now we're in an industry in which sometimes you have to create opportunities for yourself instead of just, you know, sitting down and waiting for them to come to you.

Speaker 3: 2:09

Being somebody who moved here from another country. Was it easy, Was it hard? We never discussed that.

Speaker 4: 2:14

It was difficult in some ways and very easy in others. Something that definitely helped me is that I grew up like dreaming of LA I had never been to LA, to California. Up like dreaming of LA, I had never been to LA, to California. So growing up, you know, I would travel with my family, with my parents and my sister, and we would usually go to I don't know Disney World or stuff like that. And I remember one year my dad was like oh, we should, you know, plan a trip. And I was like could we please go to LA? And he was like oh, but there's not much to do over there. And I was like okay, well, at the end of the day, it's a family decision. But then my 15th birthday birthday came along and it's not that I travel for every single birthday, we're not that kind of family but it was my quinceanera, which is a very big deal in Latin America. Some people throw parties, other people go out on trips, some people do both if they have that much money. But it was my quinceanera, so I got to choose what I wanted to do and I was like I want to go to LA. And that's what we did as a family. We came to LA, we instantly clicked, because maybe my dad not so much, but we instantly clicked with LA because my mom raised me and my sister watching so many movies, knowing every single actor and actress's name, like he was just part of how we grew up. So it was like where we were meant to be at and and, yeah, we all instantly like knew this was the place to be at if we wanted to pursue the career you know that we dream of. So, yeah, that was like it was easy to come here as a tourist. It was so much fun. It was so hard to leave. I remember crying when we were leaving because I felt such a belonging in a way and I love my country, don't get me wrong but I felt such a belonging to LA so we went back home, we started looking into moving here, like ways to study, acting and make a living out here, and we found this professional conservatory and my sister's, older than me by two years, so she started first after she went to high school and then a few years of college, she went to the professional conservatory and then covid hit and yeah, so she was here before me and then I got to have the same experience, and so it was way easier moving out here, having her already as a huge part of my support system and knowing that I wasn't alone and that I have my older sister and that we're here together, my parents are back home together and we all have someone. So that was very easy in that sense.

Speaker 4: 5:03

But, of course, you're always going to like fear and it's always gonna be a cultural shock and it's always gonna be something new and different. I had never lived without my parents, you know. So that was scary in a way. But I also, you know, made some amazing friends and when I started school and you know, my best friend, she's from Mexico and she came here alone and like pretty much the same story of, you know, being here, living here for the first time, and, yeah, it's, it's. It can be scary, but once you have people around you, they definitely make things, you know, not as scary anymore, and not just it's a fear of like oh yeah, I'm here in a new place but it's also excitement of like here, where I've always dreamt of being at. So that's, you know, it's like a nice balance, but I think that now I feel very comfortable here and and I actually feel more like a tourist when I go visit my parents back in Costa Rica.

Speaker 2: 6:07

The podcast is only the beginning. That's right. Outlaw Wisdom is coming soon to internet shelves everywhere. Join the official Outlaw Wisdom Patreon and reserve your free copy of the upcoming book, the Greater Book of Outlaw Wisdom.

Speaker 3: 6:25

Visit wwwoutlawwisdomcom to learn more so what are you up to nowadays? What are you working on?

Speaker 4: 6:35

anything I've got some film festivals coming up for some short films that I made, that I was in, and this week one of them is showing at the Chinese Theater, which is really exciting, wow, because it's such an iconic place, you know, and it's like I'm going to be there on the screen, which is, you know, insane to think about. But yeah, that's pretty much. I don't have much acting-wise going on right now. I've been busy moving and stuff and I was just back home visiting my parents, but I'm excited because I got my artist visa, which is a huge accomplishment, getting my artist visa, as amazing as it is and as rewarding as it is. It's as rewarding as it is because of how hard it was and how many things I had to like get together and like how much money, honestly, I had to spend on a lawyer, which I want to give a shout out to my lawyer, alex Martin. She's amazing.

Speaker 4: 7:38

Yeah, it was a really tough process because there's so many requirements that they put for you to get that. It's a three-year work visa, so this is not even for life, but it is a tough process in which you have to get press, you have to get articles written about you and you have to get recommendation letters and you have to get letters, letters, and you have to get letters that prove that you're gonna keep on working for the next three years and and you have to pay your lawyer and you know, and it's not very cheap and yeah, it's very, very tough. And it was very tough when I was in acting school for, for example, like thinking about the future, like sure, I'm here studying right now and I can't work, but once I graduate it's go time and I have to work, work, work, work, work in acting and everything related, and like it's pretty much like there's a ticking bomb, you know, and you got to do as much as you can in such a short amount of period. And like the industry has been through so much, you know, with writer's strike, actor's strike, all of that, you know, and so it's very unpredictable.

Speaker 3: 8:52

I would say it was very unpredictable, it was very stressful, it was a lot mentally and emotionally and even physically, but yeah, now I do want to ask I'm sorry, I do want to ask you yeah, how did you care for your mental health with all that stress? I'm sure it was overbearing at times. How did you make sure that, like you, weren't losing grip on reality?

Speaker 4: 9:24

yeah, I would say connecting with your loved ones for sure like I have no better cheerleader than my parents, for sure they're, they're amazing and I talk to them. I try to talk to them every single day and that has helped me a lot mentally and also connecting with my friends, especially friends that are also going through the same situation. You know, you gotta learn that in life you have yourself, sometimes no one else. You know it's. I believe it's all about energies. You give what you receive. You should be giving what you're receiving. You should be receiving what you're giving. So not wasting your energy on negativity or people that are bringing you down or people that are, like you know, not in the same, in the same kind of headspace reciprocity.

Speaker 4: 10:11

Yeah, headspace and reciprocity. I believe in all of that, for sure.

Speaker 3: 10:15

Yeah, like like I always tell people that the only voice that matters is the one inside your head. Shut out the outside voices and life will be a lot better and a lot easier, you know.

Speaker 4: 10:26

Totally, yeah. Yeah, I totally agree with you. I'm back.

Speaker 3: 10:30

So well, Elisa, it was great to have you. Hopefully we get you back on the show in the near future, maybe for season two. Yes, Bye-bye.

Speaker 1: 10:39

You've been listening to Outlaw Wisdom. New episodes drop every week. Yes, bye-bye.