Iliza Shlesinger
speaker
495 appearances
4 recordings
3 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard Apr 2025
Iliza Shlesinger’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
You're forever climbing, forever failing. When I didn't get the things that I was hoping for, you know, when you at the buzzer, you get the call at 10 o'clock at night, like we're not going with your pilot, you know, and it was about you and it rips your heart out. Not so much anymore. It happens enough that I'm like, okay, whatever. Oh, you rejected everything about me. That's fine.
You always have, I always have the work. And so I think that I've placed, and I think I maybe should work on this now, I've placed so much in the work, the hustle, the grind, doing multiple spots because that's what was bearing fruit. I can't, you know, you can take an acting class, but like once you've done the audition, like there's not much you can do.
And I can work with better writers and I can always try to be a better writer, but I could always turn to the standup, to knowing that if I build that machine, like if I Frankenstein that together, that is what gets you to the next level. Like that's what's taken me the farthest. If I just did acting, I'd be a girl who was in like three things. And the actual writing, I do enjoy like a screenplay.
I like, there's a safety and a comfort for me in being in the document. So when you, When the network only gives you one season and it gets canceled and it was nothing to do with you or your sketch show doesn't get renewed or at the buzzer they don't go with you over someone else or they're not making a second franchise out of the movie you were in, you can turn to the document.
knowing that if I hopefully if I put work into this screenplay then that's another thing that I can work at so it's like digesting the failure and processing it as motivation not in a like motivation mondays like let's get this money like thick jewelry and posters of lions but like in um And doing something, doing what you can with what you have where you are, which is not my quote.
I think it's Teddy Roosevelt. That's good. But that's all you can do. Because I think a lot of people don't. And they go to the bar or they hang out at the club and they complain. And I'm like, you could have been in a final draft document creating something else. All your favorite things on TV are because somebody spent time in the document.
And so not all your documents are going to live to see the light of day.
So the good news is about that whole process is it doesn't get easier, but you do get a little bit better at not hurting from it. It's not to say that you go numb, but when you, I think it was from Hack, she said, I eat rejection for breakfast. But like when you are rejected as much as, and I'm saying I am, but like, I'm sure it's just for any person who's creative.
When I'm, when I've had this many at-bats, fellas, and to not, you know, at least get to first base, or you do, and just to not knock it out of the park. I guess I kind of, I'm like, I've been here before. And it's a good thing that I have these other three things, because I know you're gonna make the wrong choice and not pick this up.
And what you're gonna pick up instead will get canceled, but then you'll lose your job. And this was all just a dumb dance. And so I really believe, and I always have, I have note cards on my wall of all the projects we have, like a whole slate and where they each are.
And every time I feel powerless or tired, I look at that wall and I'm like, well, how can I have different colors for different things? I'm like, how do we get to that next color? And a lot of it is self-motivation. And nobody has to give you permission.
I've watched those Muay Thai videos on Instagram. Part of the reason I had to take it off my phone. It's like, why am I watching that? Yeah, you just get better at withstanding the absolute kick to the teeth. That is a rejection of you based on nothing about you other than that executive just couldn't pick up that show. Or they were going to lose their job or something. Or they didn't like it.
I find that hard to believe. That can't be it. That can't be it. And it's just constant. And there's just so much being created. And so you're like, oh my God, there's so much going on. If I could just grab one of those, if I could just get that. But it is... It's just a long process. And so I just believe in always having something that you can look forward to, that you can be optimistic about.
And that is the little... We're watching WALL-E right now at my house and I think about the little plant that grows on the like dead planet that was Earth. There's always some little sprig of something reaching for the sun. And I guess the good news about when you have something that gets rejected, chances are you worked at it for so long and your heart was in it.
But by the time it's at the end where it's with the executive or whatever, your heart's already being poured into something else. So it would have hurt to get it rejected at the beginning when it was my brand new baby. But now it's like a gnarly teenager and I'm like, whatever.
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