Take One Press

For much of her career, Meaghan Martin’s job was simple.

An audition would arrive. She’d prepare, perform, and wait for the phone to ring.

Like countless actors who came of age in Hollywood, she spent years trusting someone else to decide what came next.

Today, that approach has changed completely.

The actress, voice performer and producer says she’s no longer interested in simply waiting for opportunities. Instead, she’s helping create them.

“I think the industry itself is changing so massively,” Martin told Take One Press. “You can’t be just an actor anymore.”

That evolution is perhaps best represented by Red Flags, the upcoming feature she stars in while also serving as a producer and story collaborator.

Working alongside writer-director Bradley Porter, Martin spent years helping shape the project before cameras ever rolled.

The story follows a former child actor navigating trauma, identity and control, a premise that borrows emotional truths from Martin’s own life while ultimately becoming something entirely fictional.

“It healed something in me,” she said of the experience.

Unlike earlier points in her career, producing allowed Martin to become more than a performer on set.

She became an advocate for herself.

“The ability to be on a set and say, ‘This is what I want… this is what we’re doing,’” she explained, describing how stepping into a leadership role gave her a new sense of confidence and ownership over her work.

That confidence didn’t appear overnight.

Martin reflected on beginning her career as a child actor, entering an industry where young performers often have very little control over the projects they’re part of or the decisions being made around them.

Looking back, she believes creating Red Flags allowed her to reclaim something she’d been searching for throughout much of her professional life.

“This is my story,” she said. “I’m going to tell it how I want to tell it.”

The conversation also explored the remarkable range of Martin’s career.

Having worked across film, television, theater and voice acting, she sees each medium as offering something completely different.

For her, theater provides the irreplaceable energy of a live audience.

Television offers the gift of time, allowing characters and relationships to evolve over months of production.

Film gives actors the opportunity to carefully shape and refine a performance.

Voice acting, meanwhile, remains the most unpredictable.

“It’s ever changing,” she said, explaining how modern performance capture, interactive storytelling and evolving technology continue to push the medium in exciting new directions.

That willingness to embrace new challenges extends beyond acting itself.

Martin revealed she’s also training to become a therapist, explaining that she never wants to limit herself to a single identity or career.

“I think life is… there’s so much to learn in the world,” she said. “I don’t want to limit myself to one thing.”

It’s a philosophy rooted in curiosity rather than comfort.

Throughout the interview, Martin repeatedly emphasized the importance of continuing to grow, not only as an artist, but as a person.

Even discussions about social media became less about algorithms and more about mental health.

She recalled deleting Twitter years ago after enduring relentless online harassment, admitting that while the decision was controversial at the time, it ultimately became one of the healthiest choices she could have made.

“It lifted off my shoulders,” she reflected.

When asked which role changed her most as an actor, Martin didn’t hesitate.

“Red Flags,” she said.

Despite decades in the industry, the project reminded her that she already possessed everything she needed.

“It unlocked something in me,” she explained. “A confidence. A belief in self.”

“It was magical.”

For someone who has spent most of her life in front of a camera, that may be the most meaningful milestone yet.

Not because it marked another credit.

But because it reminded her that the most powerful stories are often the ones we finally decide to tell ourselves.