The Set Horror Story That Made Me Rethink My Boundaries

Ever said yes on set when you really wanted to say no?

In this episode, you’re coming with me inside a real set horror story — the kind that forces you to rethink what it means to be “easy to work with.”

You’ll hear what happened when I tried to be the chill, go-with-the-flow actor… and how it backfired in a way I never expected. More importantly, you’ll walk away with the mindset shift and boundary tools that help you protect your craft, your safety, and your confidence on set — so you can book the right roles, not just any roles.

If you’ve ever struggled to speak up, wanted to be liked more than you wanted to be respected, or felt nervous to draw a line in a professional space, this episode is for you.

Because actors who book aren’t just talented — they know when (and how) to say no. And if you’re ready to strengthen that muscle, I’m also giving you a fun resource to help: Boundary Bingo — your daily challenge to practice one small boundary at a time and build your confidence brick by brick.

Grab your coffee (or matcha) and let's dive in. 🎬✨

2025 could be the year everything shifts for you—and I want to be right there with you on the journey.

Follow along for the real behind-the-scenes of acting, modeling, and mindset growth—you’ll see the wins, the lessons, and what it really takes to build a creative career.
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Chapters

• 0:00 Cold Open: Asked To Fight Blind
• 0:53 Meet Meg And The Show’s Focus
• 1:41 Halloween Theme And Set Horror Tease
• 3:04 New Video Format And Show Updates
• 4:06 The Student Film Setup
• 6:00 Makeup Meltdown And Lost Vision
• 9:02 Safety Standoff And Saying No
• 11:44 The Unpaid Lesson And Budget Irony
• 12:39 Pivot To Boundaries: Why They Matter
• 14:23 Emotional Boundaries And Safe Tools
• 16:12 Professional Boundaries And No List
• 18:10 Personal Boundaries, Rest, And Special Yeses
• 20:06 Spotting Boundary Crossers And Your Tribe
• 22:00 Boundaries Bingo And Resources
• 23:10 Course Promo: End Self-Sabotage
• 26:05 Pricing, Dates, And What’s Included
• 28:13 Closing Notes And Listener CTA

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

I could not believe that they were asking me to fight blind. Like, in what world do you think it's a good idea in your student film for me to fight somebody when I can't see? What I'm telling you right now is I cannot see. And I had to really fight and stick to that boundary that day. You always have the right. I think we forget a lot of times that we conform to script, we conform to job, that we have the right and the opportunity to say no to any moment and any time at any job in any scenario. I'm Meg, actress, model, and mindset coach for actors. Think of me as your behind-the-scenes bestie for chasing dreams, surviving plot twists, and building something big. Here we talk about it all. Auditions, photo shoots, mindset chips, script prep, and the career curveballs that nobody prepares you for. I'll share the highs and the hard lessons in real time because growing in this industry isn't always pretty, but it's always worth it. If you're ready to ditch self-sabotage, step into your confidence and build the career and mindset you've been dreaming of. Grab your favorite drink, get cozy, and let's dive in. Hey y'all! Welcome back to another episode of the Glow Up Year. Yeah. Okay, today is a Halloween themed episode, and I'm so excited. We're uh yeah. Oh, I have so much to tell you. Okay, we're gonna stick to the Halloween-theme, even though the episode is gonna um drop a couple days after Halloween. But I have been looking forward to this episode. I can't tell you how long I have had this plan for this episode for months now, and I've been so excited for this episode. So here it goes. Today we are talking about horror stories on set. Ooh, I'm gonna bring you through one of my set experiences that was crazy. We're gonna talk about my horror story on set, and then we're gonna bring it back to y'all, and we're gonna talk about some mindset. Before we get started, you're gonna start to notice some changes with the podcast, and I'm not gonna get too deep into it because we're gonna talk about it next episode quite thoroughly. This episode, I just want you to start to notice you're gonna see some changes. The outro, the intro is gonna change a little bit. So stay tuned. We're gonna do some really cool shifts in you guys' favor. So I'm very excited to share those with you, and they're coming up soon. One of the biggest shifts, though, that I the reason I had to talk about this today is because, well, not because we are starting a video podcast. This is all on video now, y'all. So we can sit here and sip our little cuppies of tea together or coffee or whatever and talk about all the amazing things. So if you're with us joining us today via video, then you'll see that my beautiful mug today is a little hedgehog. She's so cute. So I'll be sipping out of my hedgehog the whole episode. I encourage you to have a cool ass mug to sip with me. And if you are listening auditorily, you can just imagine my cute ass hedgehog mug. It's in it actually looks like a hedgehog, like it's a little shape of a hedgehog. It's very cute. So you know what? Let's just take a let's take a sip together. But back to set horror stories. Ooh. So this is my worst set horror experience. I can't okay. We'll just start at the beginning. Okay, so this was a student film. I was aware it was a student film, okay, and this was back in the early days, but I got a script for this like alien short film, and I had to drive down to like New Hampshire, Vermont. I can't remember. Um, but it was like a six-hour drive. It was a long drive to do this unpaid student film. They had sold to me that so uh spoil alert, I'm the alien. So they had sold to me that the alien makeup was gonna be really cool and veiny and very awesome. These cool opaque contacts, so my entire eye would be white. I was so excited for this like crazy makeup transformation. It's gonna be really fun. And I'm not gonna go too deep into the story because there are a lot of like weird things, but like leading up to this, but I'm just gonna give you the like the main crux of the story. So I've driven a long way to get to this place. We're gonna stay overnight in the house we're filming in, which is kind of convenient and great. I pick up the hair style or hair and makeup stylist. She lives in um Maine as well. And last minute her ride fell through, so I picked her up and we drove the entire way down this like six hours. It was crazy. It was kind of an awkward car ride because she wasn't very talkative and I didn't really know what to do. So, but whatever. I was like nice to like have an opportunity to bond with your hair and makeup artist before the like did the day of crazy makeup. And I'd looked at all of her social media and she had some really cool things up there, and so we go, we're filming, right? And it's like I think it's a second day, and today is the this the day that we're gonna do the crazy like makeup. My call time's first. I'm early in the morning because I have like four hours of makeup to happen. And it turns out that the makeup artist was fighting with the director, and so I wake up that next morning, I come to sit in the chair, I've heard the the ideas, he wants to do like crazy, like veiny things going across my face, and the makeup artist is angry with him, and so she tells me, I'm just gonna do what I want. And of course, this is like an awkward position for me because I'm like, do I uh like I can't piss her off more because she has the power to make me look like crap. So I guess I have to like kind of side with her, or not necessarily side with her, but I've got to like stay engaged with this girl because she's gonna be doing my makeup and I'm gonna look crazy if I don't stay engaged with her. So I'm like listening to her event and all of the things. Before I know it, she's decided she's gonna change the entire look from what was agreed on before, which was crazy veins all over my face, to this is gonna sound so rude. But I ended up looking like a burnt marshmallow. Like burnt marshmallow. She just kept gluing cotton balls to my face and then like painting them and gluing them and painting them. This is I'm gonna drop a picture if you're listening to the video podcast. This is what I look like, but I didn't know what to do, and I sat there for four hours, like getting worse and worse and worse looking. And at first it looked like kind of okay, but as the day went on, like more of my skin started like peeking through in different areas, and so I just look like burnt marshmallow, like it just looked like bad makeup. Let me let me just reel. Without like without being hate, I'm not saying her name. I I'm not saying that this one look defined her entire career because it does not, and if you're listening, it did not, but I looked wild, like wild bad. We go to film, and this is this is where the story gets crazy. So the night before we had scheduled like some practice because there's this whole alien fight scene, right? And so we are fighting, we've scheduled the practice. I like jump on somebody on the bed and like straddle them and punch them, and then I roll off the bed, and I go over to the other guy and I grab him by the like the neck against the wall. It's like crazy wild stuff. And I had recorded it because I wanted to kind of like continue to practice it in my mind and do all like of course we practice it physically for safety purposes, and all of this part of this was safe. Everything was safe. Let me say that because you're hearing horror stories right now. So everything's safe, everything's planned. We go to film and we decide we're gonna put the um contacts in, and I've never put contacts in before, y'all. So I was not prepared for this. Not prepared. And so she puts the I couldn't do it myself because they're full, like they're not just over the iris, they're like full eye contacts. And so she's putting them in. We're struggling. It took like 20 minutes to get them in my eyes because my eyes are just so sensitive. She finally gets them in and I'm blind. Like they're not opaque or see-through or whatever that word is. I cannot see anything. Not being able to see anything wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have a fight scene issue. And I kid you not. The guys, the director and the like camera op, they come up to me and they say, You can still fight though, right? I'm just gonna leave a moment of silence here. You can still fight though, right? No, I can't fucking see. I would fucking hurt people or I hurt myself. I was like, absolutely not, I cannot fight. Like, in what world do you think it's a good idea in your student film for me to fight somebody when I can't see? What I'm telling you right now is I cannot see. And I had to really fight and stick to that boundary that day because I was like, safety is very important to me, especially on set, especially as talent, but and crew as well. But I could not believe that they were asking me to fight blind for a student film. And I had to stick so hard to that boundary because they kept trying to convince me. And finally, I said, This is my solution to this, guys. You can shoot the coverage you want with my eyes like this right now, because this took 20 minutes to get my eye. You can shoot whatever coverage you want face forward of me like this, any like still moments. We can like I can straddle this dude on the bed, and I can look up at camera, whatever you want. Not that I know where camera is, but whatever you want. I just cannot actually do the fight. You so you can shoot all of the front of my face where you want to see the contacts, and then I can take these bad boys out, and we can shoot all the other shit. Like where I'm running at them from behind, all of that stuff. But you cannot right now ask me to shoot like this. No way. Absolutely not. No. Later on that day, I was sitting there getting my makeup taken off, and mind you, I'm not getting paid for this. This was an unpaid opportunity that I drove very far for to get something for my reel, and ended up being not real worthy at all at the end of the day. The director-producer guy, again, we're talking about children and short films and all of these things, so I'm not saying what they did is right or appropriate or correct, is sitting on the stairs complaining about the fact that they have so much extra money left over in their budget and they don't know what to do with it. And I'm sitting there, not getting paid for this opportunity. I didn't say this out loud, and I totally wish I did, but I didn't say this out loud, but I was like, you could pay us, like in my brain, my brain was like screaming at me, you could pay us, you could pay us, you could pay us, say it out loud, say it out loud, but my um wouldn't let my brain, my I wouldn't let my body say it out loud. But now I wish I had kind of had, because why not? Like, I've never met these people again and all of these things, but you don't necessarily know that. But that is my set horror story, and there's so many other little details, but I want to get to like what is the important part and the meat of this episode today, which is boundaries. Here's my situation with boundaries. I have always been terrible with boundaries, literally terrible. It's always been very hard for me to uh set clear boundaries in my personal life and at work, really honestly everywhere, because there's several different areas of your life that you can have boundaries in. It's always been hard for me. It's always felt like I wasn't I I have a lot of people-pleasing behaviors too, so I think that like uh bleeds into this too is like not wanting to make people upset, is like setting a boundary, is ultimately making somebody upset, which can and cannot be true. Boundaries are such an important thing, and something that I've been putting a lot of emphasis on lately because ultimately a yes means very little when you can't say no. Yeses can be so special if a yes actually means a yes. And I figured since I struggle with this, this is probably something you guys struggle with, and something that you might want a little bit of help with and or be seeking a little bit of extra guidance. And so I figured today, on theme with our Halloween episode and our horror stories on set, that we could talk about boundaries. And I have several like little fun things for you guys today. You know, use these resources if you want to and if they feel like they'd be helpful. Because I struggle with boundaries, I want to do this with you guys. And there's a ton of different types of boundaries and plays that you can protect yourself and protect your energy. So we're gonna talk a little bit about each area of boundary today and how you can expand your awareness with boundaries. So let's go through the types. There are emotional boundaries, there are professional boundaries, and then there are personal boundaries by far the hardest. Personal boundaries are by far the hardest. Is for me specifically, maybe not for you, but for sure the hardest for me. Let's start with some emotional boundaries. Let me just start by saying you don't owe emotional access to everyone. That is so powerful. You don't owe emotional access to everyone. One way that you can separate your craft and your career and your creative spirit from your personal wounds is to like lean on resources like tear sticks. You don't have to like build up all of this baggage or hold on all to all of this baggage just to have emotional depth in your scenes. I used to believe that I had to hold on to like if my life started to get good and I didn't have anything bad to pull from, that I wouldn't be able to show emotional depth or vulnerability within a scene, and that's just the farthest thing from the truth. It's just not true. It's a total limiting belief. Lean on resources like tier sticks. There's nothing wrong with it. You don't have to dredge up this terrible memory just to get a beautiful performance. So, I mean, that is an emotional boundary, but it kind of leans towards professional as well. And then also your vulnerability, it doesn't have to be a skill, it's not a public resource, and it's okay to have emotional space with friends and family. I actually, here's a like quick little pro tip for you. Um, this is something that I do with my closest friends, and it's a way to just like protect each other's energy. If I need to vent or I need to yell or scream or whatever it is to like get it out with a friend, I always ask before I vent and before I know that I'm gonna impart some sort of negative energy on somebody else. I always ask permission. Do you have space for me to vent to you right now? Because there are so many times where I haven't had space for people to vent, like I've been going through my own shit and they don't have that space. And for somebody to vent to me is just like adding this extra negative energy. And it is always okay with these people that I do this with for them to say no, I don't have that space today. And for me to call on another resource, another friend for that emotional space in depth. But we always ask permission to vent, to impart whatever needs to come out before we just like drop it all on somebody. Let's talk about some professional boundaries. Shoots can be vulnerable in more ways than one, right? Sometimes we're having intimacy shoots, sometimes we are doing things we're uncomfortable with or being touched in ways that we're uncomfortable with, even if it's not in like an intimate or sexual manner. So this is how you know if you're on a set that's got good boundaries, good professional boundaries, is if the expectations are clear and agreed on before the shoot, and all of these clear guidelines are written agreements that clarify any intimacy or stunts or hours or safety, and that there is no like last minute asking for things that are not written or not clear ahead of time or on the day. Let's say you're showing up to set for the day and you are supposed to be in lingerie for your shoot that day. You have an intimacy coordinator, you're feeling good, and all of a sudden, last minute, they ask you if you will go full nude or semi-nude. That's a great time to realize that maybe this set doesn't have great boundaries. And what do you do in that moment? Here's my next pro tip for you. Before you go on set, create a null list of what you're unwilling to do on set. Your null list can include or not include anything you want. And I'm gonna read you my null list so that you have an idea of what you can put on it. I don't do nude shoots and I don't do semi-nude shoots. I won't do sheer anything unless I get to pick the bodysuit that goes underneath it. I don't like to do anything with religious themes because I'm just uncomfortable with it. That's my no list, and my no list grows as I'm having new experiences. And here are some more things, types of things you could put on it. Maybe you don't want to show yourself doing drugs even if they're pretend drugs. Maybe you are um a pacifist and you are non-violent, you don't want to sort of show any sort of violence. Maybe you don't want to do anything provocative, maybe you aren't about political statements. Maybe that's something that you don't want to show in your work. You always have the right. I think we forget a lot of times that we conform to script, we conform to job, that we have the right and the opportunity to say yes or no to any moment and any time at any job in any scenario. So that's my little pro tip for you for professional boundaries is create a no list ahead before you go to set and continue to add to it as you have more experiences. And the last and hardest is self-boundaries and personal boundaries. This one is so hard. Here's a few things that I've noticed myself and my clients on what they struggle with in terms of self-boundaries. First and foremost is rest before you burn out. The one of the hardest things is just to make sure you rest so you don't burn out. And rest is 100% a boundary with yourself. I know I'm doing too much work. My body knows I'm feeling uncomfortable. It is time for me to rest. Another boundary that I notice people crossing with themselves is doing this thing where they're moving the goalpost every time they hit a goal instead of stopping and celebrating that goal. When you think about it, this is you just disrespecting all the hard work you did by not taking time to celebrate and just hopping onto the next goal and onto the next train. You're not respecting all that hard work you did for yourself. So that's another hard boundary that I see people like kind of skipping over, not doing. And then another boundary I see people cross is saying yes to too many things, is going back to something we talked about a little bit earlier. Was your your yeses aren't special if you always say yes. If you can't say no, then your yeses can't be special. You can't say yes to the beautiful things, the right things, the things that make you feel aligned and special because you're just always saying yes, and that leads to burnout. And if you're somebody who struggles with saying yes too often or people pleasing or any of those things, here is a great little thing for you. Let me think about it. Let me think about it. It's not saying no, it's not saying yes, but it's giving you the opportunity to reflect and say, is this something that I actually want to do? And come back with a strong yes or no answer. Let me think about it. Those are special, special, special amazing words. And if you're somebody who struggles with setting boundaries, how do you know? Because it's not always clear, somebody is crossing a boundary. This is like a little like simple thing that you'll know right away without having to like overanalyze it or overthink, because I'm a textbook overthinker. Is do you feel uncomfortable? Do you feel uncomfortable when you say no or yes or whatever to something? Is that person a repeat offender of crossing your boundaries? And if they are, what does that mean for that relationship that you have? How how is this a relationship you want to continue with somebody who continues to cross your boundaries? What would your life look like without this person? What does it look like with this person? Is this person best for your growth? Your continued growth? Let me make this super clear too. People who love you and who are in your tribe and who are your ride or dies will always listen when you are setting a boundary. They will always listen, understand, and ask you questions about your boundary. Because they love and respect you. You might be surrounded by a ton of people who consistently cross your boundaries. I've been there before where I've just like my entire tribe has just been people who push my boundaries. And slowly I was able to like recreate a tribe of people who respect and understand what I need and sometimes can anticipate my needs before I even know I need them anticipated. That is a really special, special place to be in. Before we wrap up our boundaries conversation today, I wanted to let you know that because I struggle with boundaries so much, I created this thing called boundaries bingo. Hee, it's so like cute and nerdy. But it's like a bingo board where I put all of these different like opportunities for change in, and all these different opportunities for boundaries, and so you just go through and cross off a little um bingo square for every day, as you as you do the boundary, obviously. You don't just like cross them off, cross them off, but you find a way to like set a boundary every day. And the cool thing about this boundary bingo, it really makes you excited to find some way to set a boundary that day. So if that's something you're interested in, there'll be a link in the show notes, I'm sure. But yeah, check that out. I think it's gonna be really fun. And before we wrap up this episode, because I'm trying to make these 15 minutes and somehow they end up being 35 fucking minutes every episode. Jesus, I just have so much to say. The podcast is live. No, fuck. The podcast is also live, but the website is live, and it's been live for a while now, but because stuff gets behind and not everything comes at the same time, it's live. It's live, yeah. So check out my website, it's beautiful, guys. It's beautiful. So check it out, it'll be in the show notes. And the last thing we gotta talk about today is next week I am running a promo. It's my first promo ever. Have a DIY, stick it to self-sabotage course. I love this course, it's a great way to get like a huge major momentum boost in your career in six weeks. It's amazing. The people who've gone through it, and my beta uh round were incredible, and I saw such amazing growth in everybody, which was really exciting. And this course is going to be on fire soon. So let me tell you about this course. I realize I haven't told you even about the course yet. So this is a six-week stick it to self-sabotage course. It helps actors overcome self-sabotage, build the confidence that it takes to book consistent, meaningful acting work. This course helps you audition with confidence, feel worthy of the roles that you want, overcome self-doubt and fear of failure, stop procrastinating, build some momentum in your acting career, and helps you book consistent, meaningful acting work. And it's not just like some boring old six-week course. It has like mini games and all of these fun things tied into it because I know that a lot of people will buy a course, myself included, and never finish it because it's just not as fun or as enjoyable as it sounds. So I've really built this course to be fun and continue to be fun as you're learning how to build positive new habits and as you're learning about the alter ego method, it's gonna be fantastic. So you honestly really don't want to miss out on this course. This is like the last time to get it at the cheapest it's ever, ever gonna be. What's included in this course is lifetime access to six weeks of modules, worksheet and bonus resources to help you implement all the things that you learn. There's also a bonus module that's all about tapping into the it factor and how to make yourself magnetic. And then you get two free bonus meditations to help you stop self-sabotaging and start expanding your comfort with success. And the best thing about this whole course is that you get a seven-day money-back guarantee. If if you go on the course, you explore it a little bit and it feels like it's not right for you, there's no worries because you have seven days to get your money back. And the cart is gonna close on November 12th for this, and it's not gonna reopen because, like I said, it's gonna be the new revamped course. We're not revamping the course content for the most part, but we're gonna change the name of the course. I'm gonna make it a little bit more accessible. We're gonna change the platform it's in. There's just like a lot of little things that are gonna change to just make it better and better based on the feedback that I got in my first beta round. Right now it's priced at$2.97, but we're gonna revamp it, right? And the price is gonna go up. And so now is really the best time to buy because you're gonna get the OG course, but then you're also gonna get the revamped new course when it comes out in the spring. Here are the dates. So we're gonna start our promo on November 5th and go till the 12th. So 12th is the last day to get this course at 297. So check out my course because seriously, it is a game changer and I've seen it change actors' lives already. But thank you guys for hanging out with me today. I hope you enjoyed this conversation on boundaries. It really is an important one. And check out that boundary bingo. I think you'll find it very helpful. That's a wrap on today's episode of The Glow Up Year. Thanks for hanging out with me! I love having you along for the rides. We're just getting started, and your glow-up is only getting brighter. If you felt inspired today, hit subscribe or leave a quick review or share this episode with another fellow dreamer in your circle. If you want more support, you can work with me one-on-one as your career mindset coach. I'll help you clear out those mental blocks, find balance, and take some bold steps towards your career goals. You'll find all the details to work with me in the show notes. And of course, come hang out with me on Instagram or TikTok at MegSallsberry Creative for more behind the scenes and pep talks and just fun. Remember, your glow up is unfolding one bold move at a time. Keep going, keep dreaming bigger, and I'll catch you on the next one.