We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Will Madden. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Will below.

Alright, Will thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is a feature film entitled, Jethica. At the height of quarantine lockdown December 2020, my friend and film collaborator Peter Ohs decided to make a movie. It’s fair to say most film artists are frustrated at the industry of movie making. A labor intensive and very expensive art form, feature filmmaking can seem to be reserved for the unbelievalby lucky or wealthy. My pal Pete (and consequently I) set out to challenge that notion. With his humble camera, two body mics, four actors, and half an outline for a script we set off to Estancia, New Mexico to shoot a feature film with a budget just shy of $15,000.

Writing by morning, and filming by day and night, we shot a 72 minute feature film in chronological order over the course of 10 days. Not knowing where the film’s plot would lead, we trusted our instincts and followed our impulses down the rabbit hole of creation. We leaned on one another and were challenged to accept what was present and run with it. It was an exciting, fulfilling, challenging, playful experience that taught me how to accept the present moment and suspend any notions or desire of an outcome. I felt like I was on a frontier of sorts, pioneering through uncharted territory as we zigged and zagged through our story and submerged ourselves into some heavy material. As actor and writer (a role previously uninhabited by me) I had a say in my character’s destiny and contributed to the telling of the story from the inside out, a rare luxury for most actors lucky enough to work a job.

As actors there’s always an overarching lesson from each job. In my experience each production, whether it’s a day long shoot, or a year long run of a play, has that one teaching in which the experience could be boiled down. For Jethica, I recall a sense of deep curiosity I hadn’t before, as if I didn’t care if the camera was on me or not, I was going to be exploring the given circumstances and imagining myself in the shoes of this character I was playing. Kevin, the name of the guy I was portraying, is a ghost. He stalked a woman named Jessica and got himself killed by her. Now he roams the world still following her around (quite impotently as he’s unable to touch or affect anything in this reality) but still very much on a fervent journey of terrorizing her. I remember, despite the humorous take we prioritized on this kind of a character, feeling a responsibility to embody a truthful rendition of this type of person so many people are affected by in this world. I simultaneously felt driven by a curiosity to understand how someone could behave so reprehensibly and a responsibility to not make a shallow mockery of a real world character who brings harm to many people. I just took the ball and ran with it, learning every day by making choices and going out on a limb to see what we could learn to get closer to the truth.

At the end of the day, the production of Jethica was an empowering artistic experience in which I learned invaluable lessons that I have taken with me on each subsequent job. We were lucky enough to premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2022, and the movie’s been well received by some groovy publications (although this is all icing on the cake). I try to take with me a spirit of fearlessness, curiosity, and rebelliousness when I work, and without the experience of making Jethica I’m not sure I would be endeavoring in my work in the same way. I have much gratitude for this experience and it lives in a special place of meaning in my heart.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hailing from Atlanta, GA and educated by way of Boston, MA I am a theatre/film actor & writer currently based in Los Angeles, CA.

I work towards a spirit of fearlessness and curiosity in my artistic & life endeavors and cherish immersive experiences as the most educational of learning methods. I prioritize learning, experience, and personal/spiritual growth over traditional career tentpoles, and frankly find those priorities to result in more valuable payoffs in my career path.

I consider myself uniquely blessed by the people in my life and work to retain professional relationships by encouraging personal connection and shared goals. I think artistic collaborators and acquaintances should engage in a healthy challenging of one another’s work so we contribute to the elevation of our art form to reflecting life back at us in more authentic and bold ways.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

The more we as audiences recognize well-told and truthful stories in television and film and celebrate them (ie pay to see them and spread the word about them) the more studios will recognize the value in the craft of storytelling over the thrills and frills of cheap Hollywood effects and artificial intelligence churning out shallow, forgettable entertainment.

If we cherish and understand how great storytelling is woven into the fabric of our society and helps us to understand our humanness in a challenging and scary time, the artists who make these stories that affect us so deeply will be given by large studios more opportunities to provide for themselves and their families, and continue to bring us the stories we need. So I’d say educate yourselves on the truly great and nourishing cinema and TV ( at the risk of trying something you may not even like) and demand more from the studios that are supposed to be providing us with great art.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The sense of purpose and direction when working hard and diving into an artistic project is incredibly rewarding. Having an outlet to let my curiosity feed on a specific subject can be so electrifying and exciting it becomes a journey all on its own. And frankly a deep feeling of relief and freedom that comes with giving over to a character’s life and allowing something else to take over for a while is a pretty unbeatable reward.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @willrmadden