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

Hilary , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you signed with an agent or manager? Why or why not?

I have the most amazing manager and agents! It is so rare to have a team that you can regularly text or call and not feel like a nuisance. And to have a manager who randomly calls just to say, “Hey! I haven’t heard from you! How are you doing?”, in my experience, is unheard of.

How I came to meet and be signed with this team is a bit of an adventure that took a couple of years to play out. When the story started, I had NO idea where it was headed. I guess you could say, I don’t really do things conventionally.

Almost 9 years ago now, I moved 3000 miles from Wichita, KS, into the up and coming (at the time) neighborhood of Echo Park. I fell in love with Echo Park and my situation there, but a year later, I found myself struggling with a decision of whether or not to move to a new location.

Looking for a break from the decision making process, I opened up my Netflix one night, and a little indie film, called “Echo Park”, was first in my suggestions. *spoiler alert* At the end of the film, the lead character moves out of Echo Park, and naturally, I saw all of this as the sign that it was time for me to leave that sweet neighborhood and move on to the next.

A few days later, I was shopping at Trader Joe’s. As I turned up the TJ’s version of the freezer aisle, I turned into a gentleman who I immediately recognized but could not place where I knew him from. Not wanting to be rude, the question of how I knew this person haunted me.

And then it hit me.

He was the actor from “Echo Park”.

The decision to move out of my living situation, for many reasons, was excruciating. I cannot describe the relief found in watching a story that provided the freedom to make my choice. I had to thank this person! So like any normal, albeit borderline crazy, red-blooded Midwesterner in LA, and fueled by extreme emotions of newly found hope, I hopped in the check out line behind him and promptly thanked him for his service to humanity.

This hugely gracious and humble man, Tony, took me in stride and for some reason allowed the conversation to develop and for me to share a little about a short film script that I had written. He invited me to a filmmaker networking group, and I would see him occasionally when I could make it out for the film screenings.

Then Covid…

Four years after our initial meeting in Trader Joe’s, and now in a world where masks were the norm, 6 feet was the standard, and the game was “just how long CAN I go before I absolutely have to wash my hair…?” (well, this was my experience, at least), I was standing in line in the same Trader Joe’s, literally having thoughts of extreme gratitude for my mask because I assumed no one would recognize me and my disheveled appearance. Then I heard my name, shouted from behind. I turned to see Tony rushing past, arm raised in greeting. So much for hiding behind a mask…

We reconnected. My friend, being the natural mentor that he is, started asking me how my acting was going and where I was with the script I had written way back when, before pandemics and lockdowns and such.

As far as auditions go, we were still in lockdown. I wasn’t washing my hair on a regular basis much less auditioning! But before Covid happened, I had managed to produce my short film, “Still.”

I sent the film to Tony, and he asked if he could send it to his friend, Francis, who was a talent manager in LA. Tony encouraged me that Francis might be able to give me some career advice and help me move forward if acting was my goal.

Normally, when going into a job interview or any kind of interview, and being asked “do you have any questions,” even if I prepared questions ahead of time, my brain goes blank. I can’t think of a single question to save my life. Not with Francis.

We hoped on a call, and I had my questions, thus proving (in my mind) when it’s right, it’s right. We did a representation trial run of 3 months, and then I signed with Q4 Entertainment. Francis worked to get me interviews with the Coast to Coast and Daniel Hoff Agencies, and I signed with both theatrically and commercially respectively.

Why did any of them sign me? I think it’s not just talent, but it’s personality. Talent for sure! Obviously, but I think if it’s a match and you know you can honestly represent someone to casting, it’s a match. As the actor, if I don’t think the agent understands who I am, I’m not going to sign with them. I guess that’s one of the positives about getting into the industry later in life. I know who I am and if my representation doesn’t understand that, I know they and I will be better served if I go elsewhere. I’m just super lucky to have found, through a random meeting at Trader Joe’s, the team that gets me and I get them.

Hilary , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Growing up, I was obsessed with performing. My inspiration wasn’t taken from the pop culture trends of the time, but rather from classic Hollywood, black and white cinema of the 1930’s and 40’s. I wanted to be Ginger Rogers and to marry Cary Grant. I think I even dreamed in black and white.

When I moved to LA to pursue that acting dream, I started writing more seriously. I knew when I moved here that being a little Nemo in the enormous Pacific Ocean that was Los Angeles, I was going to have to create my own opportunities.

So, I did.

I don’t know if it was the physical act of being in the historic location of all the past movie magic, but I never once associated the word “impossible” with the process of transposing my words from the page to the screen. I wrote my first short film, “Still,” to give myself something to act in.

The simplicity and purity of storytelling found in the old classics, influences my approach to filmmaking today. I write from experience, and I like to leave something for the imagination. The art of filmmaking is team endeavor, and allowing the audience the agency and freedom to employ their own imaginations and to be an active participant in that storytelling process is risky but in my opinion, worth it. This was my goal with “Still,” and I love how the team accomplished that.

I am fascinated with the approach of addressing difficult or sensitive subjects by using the medium of comedy or horror. I am continuing my own exploration of genre in storytelling by venturing into horror with my second short film. “Playmates” deals with a sensitive topics of eating disorders, addiction and mental health. It comes from a very personal place, stemming from my own battle with anorexia. My goal in producing this film is to expose the horror of being trapped in an eating disorder without focusing on the habits of this mental illness. In doing so, I hope to educate those who have a loved one struggling and to offer encouragement to the one who struggles. They are not alone. Finding funding is the current challenge, but again, nothing is impossible.

In the meantime, while I am working to find funding and hunting for the right connections, I have to keep telling stories. So, I am shifting some of my attention to the podcast world and starting my own podcast, and again, I am drawing from personal experience, letting life’s events inspire creativity.

I recently experienced the ending of a relationship which I had begun to hope was one that would last. It didn’t, but in the pain of letting go and wondering why it had happened at all, I realized that if given the chance to go back and do it over again, I would not have changed a single thing. Even though the relationship did not pan out as I had wanted it to, those memories — the experiences shared, the stories created — are what makes life multi-dimensional, beautiful and worth living.

“My Dead Ends” is a conversational interview podcast, exploring life’s dead ends. Avoiding any toxic positivity, the podcast will dive into the pain of these moments with those who have lived them. Sometimes, it’s a definite ending, but the experiences feed and fill the soul. Sometimes, it’s a pivot, a point in the right direction. Sometimes, what is currently has to end so that what’s new can begin.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Acting and performing has always been in my blood. I quit dreaming about it, though, in middle school and didn’t pick it back up til I was a junior in high school. After graduating, I was given the opportunity to travel with a touring drama troupe, and I was hooked again.

I graduated college with a BA in Musical Theatre, minoring in Dance. I got married pretty quickly after college, and we moved to Chicago, so I could continue to pursue an acting career. Right in the middle of the financial crisis of 2007-2008…

City living was very hard for my husband, and just as I was starting to make serious progress in my craft and my career, we decided to move back to Kansas. It didn’t make logical sense. I as just starting to be recognized in the audition room. I’d signed with a well respected Chicago agency, and I was working with the film department faculty at Columbia College Chicago. However, I knew deep down moving was the only option.

It wasn’t long after moving back that the marriage ended, but it was through that ending that I truly found myself again. The opportunity to move to LA presented itself, and I jumped!

In my first year in Los Angeles, I landed my SAG Eligibility, By the end of my second year here, I’d written my first short, and we were well on the way to making my first film. My short film, “Still,” was soon starting to make its way through the festival circuit winning awards and picking up some momentum. And then Covid.

But with my short film and in the middle of a pandemic is how I met and signed with my manager. My manager worked hard to get me into the (Zoom) meeting rooms with agents and I signed with my commercial and theatrical agents before the state started to consider reopening. Things started to reopen, and I was learning in real time the art of the selftape audition. And then the strikes.

But because I’m still non-union and long ago commercials transitioned to be mostly non-union work, I was auditioning more than ever. I started booking work for the first time in 7 years.

This week, I booked my first union job.

My time of actively pursuing an acting career spans the length of 17 years. Looking back, I honestly am grateful it has taken it’s time. I wasn’t ready. I had a lot of maturing to do. I feel so protected, seen and loved in the space and time it took for these opportunities to unfold, and I am calmly looking forward to what is ahead.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The affect it has on the audience. Nothing can compare to satisfaction of affecting someone so much that they laugh or cry. Not that I live to make people cry! But the release of an emotion indicates a human connection. And that is epic.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.stillafilm.com
• Instagram: @hilarystaton, @playmate_a_film, @mydeadends
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hilary.staton
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@hilarystaton

Image Credits

Jaime Goto, Cameron Radice, George Lako