We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lanny Joon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lanny , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

To be a creative takes a lot of endurance and thick skin to be able to whether the storms of the highs and lows. But that’s just it, because the arts are so inconsistent and unknown, when you do have an accomplishment, it’s that much sweeter and that much more fulfilling than the 9 to 5 life.

So to answer the question of whether or not I’m happy as a creative, the answer is absolutely yes. But when the curveballs are thrown your way, the 9 to 5 life tends to become the forbidden fruit. You must be able to handle and adapt to the many curveballs thrown your way.

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?

What most people don’t know about me is that I was actually born in Cincinnati, Ohio and moved to Los Angeles as a month old. I don’t come from a pedigree of artists or entertainers. I always just thought everyone was completely enamored with the movies. I didn’t understand the feeling I had would be a driving force for the rest of my life. The movie theater always had a gravitational force on me, dragging me inside with the aroma of freshly popped, popcorn. I would take lunch into the theaters spending the entire day sometimes watching 7 to 8 movies, basically stealing from the cinemas. I was in high school and the summers were hot in the OC, so the theater provided an escape from the heat and a place to forget reality. My childhood wasn’t the norm.

At the age of 9, I had contracted a bacteria in my left elbow that started to eat my bone. This disease was so rare at the time the Jerry Lewis Foundation paid for my medical bills at the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital, saving my parents from financial ruin. I had spent 3 months in the hospital and had to have an IV for 6 months after being released. Up until that point I had been swimming competitively for six years, but the doctor told me that I would have to take a 4 month hiatus. This did not sit well with my father. He understood to get back to normality it would take tremendous effort, so instead of waiting four months, he waited one month then wrapped a trash bag around my my cast and said, “Kick until you can use your arms, I know you can do it”. To most parent these days this is straight child abuse, but it was the best thing that could’ve happened to me. Not only did it teach me resilience and endurance, it set the stage to becoming a young adult. Kicking for 1 month then being able to use my arms, I fully trained for another six months, making it to the Junior Olympics and winning my age group. This gave me a spot on the coveted national team to compete in my first ever national competition known as ZONES held in Maui, Hawaii that year. I thought to myslef, “ Finally my life would become normal again”. So I thought.

That next year when I turned 10, my older sister and I, who was 14 at the time, moved to Ventura, CA where we were living by ourselves in a one bedroom apartment while my parents were still living in Los Angeles. I know. Let me explain. My sister had been a top national swimmer and training with an elite coach with his team, Buenaventura Swim Club, who happened to reside in Ventura, hence the move. Maintaining their businesses, my mother owned a restaurant in Los Angeles while my father had a Mexican market in Long Beach and through my parent’s sacrifice they supported my sister’s swimming career. They came to see us as much as they could. My mother would freeze weeks worth of food at a time while my dad would drive an hour each way, sometimes 2, just to have dinner with us. Same with Mom. Parents on the swim team knew of our situation and would help as much as they could. Carpooling and inviting us to their dinners. I can only imagine how difficult it was for my parents not seeing their children everyday. I know it was dreadful on us, so I can only imagine the weight my parents had to endure.

Coming out of the elbow injury, I had gained significant weight having had a lengthy stay in the hospital, so the beginning of middle school was a tinderbox waiting to be ignited with racial slurs and fat jokes from fellow students. And boy did they not disappoint. Every day felt like a war zone. Racial slurs whizzing by your head while trying to hide the fact that each slur was hitting its mark. The more I showed fear the more they would press and so I learned to wear a stone cold mask, a mask I still have at the ready today.

High school was slightly better but still had to battle rough waters of being different. Even being the captain of my swim team, I still had bullies to confront. God, I really hate bullies.

I understand now that all those years would be the training grounds to building a grittiness necessary to sustain myself in the industry and more importantly in life.

My first professional job as an actor came in 2006 being in the ensemble cast of the play “Take Me Out”, which was a Tony award-winning Broadway show that was on its regional release in Addison, TX.

Fresh out New York University in 2005 with a Theater/Journalism degree, I considered myself extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to book my first professional job the year after graduating allowing me to get my Equity union card for stage. Seemingly that same year in 06’, I had booked my first film called West 32nd which gave me my SAG union card for film/tv. Understand that for some people it takes them a decade just to get their SAG card. I was on cloud nine, who wouldn’t be? The film allowed me to move back to Los Angeles with a new manager and a couple gigs under my belt, setting the course for my film/tv career.

Lo and behold, that same year in 2007 moving back home to Los Angeles, I booked my first Hollywood job on the hit show “LOST.” I’d been a fan of the show since college so you could imagine the screaming excitement. The next couple of years were very nice to me booking shows like, “CSI”, “NCIS”, and the movie “Takers” to name a few. It was a very proud moment in my life. I thought finally the universe is on my side. So I thought.

The next several years were extremely difficult booking very minimal work. Money was scarce, the momentum had gone and the self doubt would be the boulder that would always be a bit too heavy to push over the hill. That’s what it felt like. But I never quit. And I think the movie gods were listening.

In 2016, I booked a movie called Baby Driver which would be a massive hit. I truly believed this was the project that would finally catapult me into the next stage of my career. I was ready. I had been through the gauntlet and I said to myself let the career finally flourish. It would be the beginning of another dry spell that would truly test my endurance.

While Baby Driver was being advertised all over major networks especially during the 2017 NBA finals, I had to bite the bullet and become a server while the movie made its worldwide release. At a certain point some customers started to recognize me. For most actors being recognized would be a benchmark of success, but this felt more like a scarlet letter. Some even had just watched the film and come to dinner only to recognize me having a confused look as to how someone in such a successful movie was a server at the same time. I weathered the storm for a year and a half realizing that working for somebody was making me into a miserable person. That’s how Joon Boxing came about.

I started boxing in 2006 while living in NYC, instantly falling in love with the sport. Through years of dedication, I became quite effiicent and knowledgeable. After quitting my serving job, I’d realized there wasn’t a market that taught the everyday person proper boxing mechanics. I always noticed most people had incorrect fundamentals due to lack of focus on proper form in most gyms. So I focused on teaching fundamentals for the common person. I found my niche.

Teaching a handful of clients for a couple months, I started to find my balance as a boxing coach and actor. The next 4 years I’d mainly be a boxing coach while booking guest star work here and there. It wasn’t until 2021 where I booked my first recurring job on the show “Wolfpack” that would take over my life for the latter half of 2021. We were a major hit. With high ratings and a nomination for best new show for the MTV awards, the cast and crew were ready to get back to work for another season, knowing how well we did out the gates. Then the strike hit. The largest strike to hit Hollywood, which would leave the industry debilitated to this day. We got canned 2 days before we were supposed to announce season 2. The strike ripped the carpet right from under us.

So here we are today, the state of the industry being at a low point, forcing seasoned professionals who have been in the industry for decades to find other forms of work or leave the industry altogether. But I’m one of the lucky ones who can ride out this storm.

My strength is endurance. All those early years of trying to find my place in this world, not being accepted by most, was the biggest blessing in disguise. It allowed me to find my own, true voice. It’s so easy these days to be persuaded by the deafening roar of the sheep herd, but we must stay course and be true to ourselves. This is my biggest strength. Not playing the victim and always being true to who I am.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think the biggest difference between creatives and non creatives is how their industries are structured. Most common professions have a trajectory, a blueprint as to how to get the job. If you want to be a lawyer, you go to law school, then take the bar, then apply to a law firm. If you want to be a doctor, you go to med school for ungodly years, do your residency, then apply to a hospital. I’m sure there are more intricacies than what I just explained, but you catch my drift. These industries are also based on data that can be compared to give a clear vision on who is the best candidate. Creatives work under the umbrella of subjectivity from other creatives. Our industry is mostly not based on hard facts but on personal preferences and popularity. We can call them the gatekeepers.

Also for us actors, each audition is basically a job interview which tends to have, more often than not, no response from the employer. I. E. Casting. It’s only when you actually book the job they contact you. This type of rejection, a constant rejection, is one the main reasons why most actors fall off the wagon.

It’s the unknown and the unpredictability
that mostly dictates the wind behind our sails. This is why most people can’t handle being a creative. They can’t handle the curveballs.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The goal has always been to be able to sustain myself and loved ones with what I love to do professionally. I mean that’s everyone’s dream I would hope. Maybe when I had just started acting, the awards circuit was something to look up to, but then I quickly realized that it was just the conditioning of the ego to strive for something that is purely based on popularity and subjectivity. I decided to enjoy the journey rather than to keeping looking at the destination.

I’ve never really had illustrious long-term goals. I’ve always felt that to plan so far ahead you might miss out on the present and the improv to life. Everything is about balance. Of course, you have plan ahead and prepare for what you know is coming, but in most cases you get thrown off a cliff and have to find a way to catch yourself and keep going.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @lanny.joon

Image Credits

Kent Hwang Photography

Jesse Grant (Getty Images)