We recently connected with Wyatt Slaughter and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Wyatt thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

I think this is a really important question, and I think being an “Artist” comes down to the way you think, the way you feel about things. As a kid, you may be an Artist before you even know it, which means from a young age, you’ll probably deal with unhappiness and depression, like me. I think no matter what, that feeling of depression will always be there, you just have to learn how to deal with it. I do sometimes think about having a regular job, a few years ago I used to work at a trampoline park as a sales manager, but while I was there I always thought about other ways I could be spending my time and energy, but I never acted on them, and it slowly killed me, I felt like I was supposed to be doing something else. Now, as I look around me and see other people still living that life, I’m grateful I’m no longer in that world, I would rather be broke, in another country, trying to do something that matters, then work for someone else, and that’s exactly what I’m doing. It’s your time, your life, a company doesn’t even deserve you, unless you’re sure that’s your future, I’d say, get the hell out of there, and try something else. 6 months ago, I was in a different spot, I could tell you that I didn’t wanna live like I do now, I questioned why I was still going, I was mentally at my lowest I had been in a really long time, I was burnt out from the film industry, and felt like even though I was doing “creative” work for 2 years, it wasn’t actually that creative, It was still a structure, similar to a normal job, and I had to pull away from that. I got a one way ticket to the other side of the world, and things changed. I made a “Documentary Film” with my friend in Japan, that went on YouTube, in 3 months, we wrote, researched, shot and edited, this project that meant something so deep to us, it was one of the hardest things I have done, and doing it took a risk, I had almost no money when we first got there, and I had nothing to lose, I put myself in a spot, where I had to believe in what we were doing, or else I was fucked. And we did it, I finally did something in my life that I’ve always wanted to do on my journey as a person, and an artist, and now, months later, I sort of have a direction, I’ve changed since then. Even though it only gets harder, after enough time being depressed, I don’t let that control me anymore, when you see how much your everyday choices affect your future, it’s really difficult to allow yourself to be unhappy, your energy, is real, and like I said, being unfulfilled will always be there, but why is it there? It’s a journey different for all of us, but once you figure that out, you can learn how to navigate it. I’m in a spot where I’m confident about my path, my purpose, and my ability to achieve what I want to do, I know it will take time, but I have fully given into the process, and I’m not the same person I was 6 months ago, so thats something, time heals everything, or at-least, it reveals everything. Im still on this journey, I’m still unsatisfied, I still am not financially comfortable, but I guess you could say, I’m happy. Happier then I’ve ever been.

Wyatt, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hey Y’all! My name is Wyatt Slaughter, and I make videos, I’m an Actor, Mascot, and Filmmaker. Here’s my story. My dad was a Police officer in Seattle Washington when I was born, just after 9/11. He was a dirty cop, he was acting as if he was arresting people, taking whatever drugs they had on them, and then letting the people go, and keeping the drugs for himself, never reporting it to the Department. He did this for over a year, before he got caught by the FBI somehow, they set up a fake operation and had him arrested, they dressed an FBI agent as a homeless guy, and caught the whole thing on video, articles can still be found online, but I’m yet to find that video. He went to Prison for 10 years, and I only met him for the first time, last year, at 22. Luckily I have someone else I call my dad, so I never felt the need to connect with my biological father, we stay in contact occasionally now, but we’re extremely far apart, and honestly it’s still weird. I just want him to heal on his own, I don’t think I’m apart of that, but I wish nothing for the best for him, and maybe in time, we’ll have another real conversation. When I was 16 I didn’t wanna see him, I couldn’t forgive him, he tried to kill my mom, then lied to me for 20 years, but after I went through my own experiences, and enough time passed, I realized why hold a grudge? This can be something more, if you let it, it at least doesn’t have to be something negative, no one will ever move forward with that mindset. Anyways, that’s my origin. What was the question? Oh yeah, about 3 years ago I was at an extremely unhappy place in my life, it was the middle of Covid, maybe nearing the end, and I was doing fucking nothing, it was killing me, having all of these thoughts and ideologies about what I wanted to do, but never doing any of them. I couldn’t choose a path for myself, because I knew it would determine my future, it was stressing me out like crazy. So one day, in early December, I decided to go out on the water, in an inflatable kayak, by myself. I needed peace, and time to think, it was my therapy, it was my escape. Little did I know, there was a small boat advisory, from dangerous weather conditions. I didn’t know this till after, so I went out into the middle of the puget sound, and there was no one, usually this place is full with boats, and at the time, I loved it, I was totally alone, exactly what I wanted. All of a sudden a gush of wind came and my boat flipped, a plastic bag with my wallet, phone, and car keys, started sinking, my life jacket flew off one direction, and my boat started floating the other, I was left in the middle of the freezing December water, with a decision to make. I dove after my wallet and car keys as instinct, wasting time, the water was too freezing, and my valuables were sinking fast, and I knew I had to get back to the surface if I were to survive, I could’ve gone for the boat, but it started floating away so fast, as an inflatable kayak, I got unlucky, so I had to go for the life jacket. Watching my kayak float off into the distance, never to be seen again, as I drifted, I found my paddle floating in the water, so I grabbed on to it, although I knew it wasn’t helping, it was something metaphorical to hold on to, while I was stuck in the middle of the freezing cold water, with no one in sight, i treaded water, swimming backwards for almost 30 minutes, trying to get back to where I launched. As I was getting colder and my legs were working less, I was getting tired, I was beginning to think it was the end of my life, I almost gave up, and tried to drown myself, I cried, wondering if I even deserved to be here, the only thing that kept me going was my family, it was selfish to kill myself there. But with all of these thoughts and feelings from this time period, my family wasn’t enough, I felt like a failure in my own way, I started thinking about what I want out of this life, what would I do tomorrow, if I made it out of this? Suddenly, I started thinking about acting, I couldn’t stop thinking about it, I was always an actor growing up, and all I wanted to do was try, in that moment, I was so sure I could do it, I was never that religious, always more spiritual and energy driven, but I was begging for another chance, to the clouds, to god, to the universe, whatever that higher power may be, I said i wanted to change the world, and I’m here to do something, here to do something that matters, and I’m not done yet, I begged, to just let survive this, so I could show, That tomorrow would be different. As I kept swimming in the cloudy weather, I looked up, and saw a beam of sun, shine through a small patch of clouds, right on to me, I looked around, and there was nothing else in sun but this small area I was in, I thought for sure this was it, it was my time to go. But then the sun cleared and I looked down, and a fucking rescue boat was flying towards me, they grabbed me and threw me up into the boat, I was so in shock, I felt like I was in a movie, I was shaking from my low body temperature, I could barely speak. Turns out, an off duty firefighter a few miles up the hill, randomly looked through his telescope and saw me, and he called the fire department, and saved my life. I’ve still never met this guy, and sometimes I forget about how I got to where I am. One week later, I had a backstage account, and booked my first acting job, a live performance job at a military base, and it paid 20$ an hour, I couldn’t believe it, less then 2 weeks later, I booked the lead role in a student feature film, we filmed for 3 months, and it was my first time ever being on a set, the other main actor opposite of me, was around my same age, and he had already been represented by an agency for years, because of that film and that actor I call a close friend now, I also signed with an agent, in those 3 months. Although I wasn’t making bank, my life had instantly turned around, from just months before, and I couldn’t have been happier. Two years later, and now I’m making my own films, I left the USA 6 months ago, because I was tired of the film industry, I worked in production for a year, almost every day, and I did countless acting jobs, that meant nothing to me, it’s funny, what started out as something different, eventually became the same. I had to pull away from this, and try to create something new for myself, I realized I never wanted to work in the industry, I just wanted to express myself, and I didn’t feel like I was doing that, so now, I’m in Malaysia. My friend and I just made a documentary film in Japan that has almost 1 million views on YouTube, we are still exploring and experimenting, and I am still finding myself, as I always have been, but for the first time in my life, I’m sure of what I want to do, and what I think my purpose is, it all comes back to that day on the water, I believe I can do more, and I don’t want to die, until I’ve done what I imagined. This is the beginning.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think people who are true artists, would die for their expression, we sacrifice our health and well being, every day, just to create something. Even if it’s just for us, there’s something inside of our soul telling us that we have to do this. I’m not sure society would ever support people like that, in an ideal world, there would be a junction of government dedicated to working with creatives, it would have to be run by people who care about this earth and this life, who care about art, not just business people or government officials. If creatives had a place to pitch an idea, and explain why we think it was valuable, then that would be enough, even if we got rejected, as long as we had a place to bring an idea that could get funded. Because creativity takes money, and time, it kills you, and this world already kills you, money rules the world, so don’t you think we should at the very least have money printed for something that might matter? Instead of funding the military, or other random shit, the government should actually help people, that’s all an artist is trying to do. It seems pretty clear to me.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Yeah I feel like there’s quite a lot of people who are naturally uncreative, and every day they try to be, but it doesn’t work. I think non creatives can absolutely understand a lot of what we’re trying to say, I think art takes from life, creativity isn’t defined by an action, it’s who you are, it’s the way you see things. So people should be able to relate to that, art is life. I think the biggest thing non creatives would fail to understand, is why we do it. Sometimes people break things down into a ration, try to understand something on a physical level, when this life, is clearly so much more then physical, I’ve noticed after years of non creative people watching what I do, they just think I’m crazy, and maybe their right, how could you not be crazy in this world? Why would you wanna be normal? I’d say that’s the crazy person, the normal one lies to themselves everyday and accept the reality they are presented, while a creative person pulls something deep from in themselves, and questions why things are the way they are. Most non creatives will tell you to give up, and they don’t understand that we would rather make no money and be on the streets trying to do what matters to us, then get a normal job and create a fake reality for ourselves, as creatives, we’re willing to do anything for free, if it’s for the art, it’s hard, and some of us may give in sooner then others, but I think if it’s that really who you are, you’ll never stop, and you’ll never give in to this fake world we live in. So yeah, I hope that non creatives can understand that we are giving our life to something, and they should at the very least respect us, because for some reason, we respect you, you’ve taken the easy route, and yet we’re painted as the bad guys, your the one who’s content, we have our whole lives to be content though, why now? I don’t know if I speak for all creatives when I say this, but I think we’re just trying to do something big for ourselves, for our families, for the world, something that we’ve always imagined, and whether that’s up to us or not, we feel it. We feel the need to do this, Whatever this is. We know that this world needs more love, and that our existence as humans, is a mystery, so as long as there are things to question, this is who I am. One Last thing, I’ve come to a new realization in my own desires, all of a sudden, I no longer want to create anything fictional, I sit with these ideas I have, a script, a video, a film, whatever it is, unless it’s real, I’m not doing it, of course, if I need money, I may work on other things I don’t want to, but in terms of my own creations, I’ve finally reached a point where I can let go of this idea of turning nothing into something, for someone else to understand, when I already understand, because it’s killing my day to day, after traveling the world, and feeing myself change, after all of this time, It’s clear what I truly care about, and that’s Real Life.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wyattslaughter/
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/@wyattslaughter
• Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/SuCq54BDaHyukH1MA
• Other: Partner Channel

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