Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Richard Lounello. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Richard, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
I’ve been an actor for nearly 30 years and in that time there have been a number of meaningful work experiences, almost always in theatre. The first that stands out was doing the play “Tuesday’s With Morrie”. The play is a 2 hander and it was the first time as an actor, I could feel and hear from the audience that my work was affecting them. It’s times like those that are most meaningful and garnered a sense of pride in my work. Another was doing the play “In Darfur”. It’s a play about the genocide that took place in that region around 2004. It’s an important play and again I could feel from the audience that it was affecting them. Most recently, I was in a production of “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner”. The same sense of pride being part of that play.
Finally, on film, one of the only times I felt like I was doing anything meaningful was my own project “LifeQuest” that I wrote, directed an acted in. I also produced that film. It was meaningful to me because I got to really put my whole self into the project along with my ideas of life and death and science and religion and tackle some big ideas like why are we all here and what exactly is reality anyway. I loved every minute of the process of that project and so it’s incerdibly meaningful to me.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
As I mentioned, I started out as an actor and stayed in that lane for over 20 years. I ventured into writing about 10 years ago.
What I love about writing is that I don’t have to depend on anyone else to do the work. I can just sit down at the computer with my thoughts and type away. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had some very cool experiences over the years as an actor. I to work work with and get directed by Larry David on an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm”. I got to act opposite a few Academy Award winners/nominees like Melissa Leo, Charles Durning and Eric Roberts. I had one line on “Saturday Night Live” in the late 90’s and bummed into Jack Nicholson in the hallway. He had a couple of great stories to tell! I’ve gotten to do things and go places I never would have had to opportunity to if not for this business for which I am very grateful.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
The current goal of my creative journey is to get my latest project: A television series based on my short film “LifeQuest” off the ground. The short film has been very well received having been accept into over 60 film festivals and was named the winner at 38 of those festivals including Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Shot of Sci-Fi Short and acting awards for my 2 lead actors, Leighton Samuels and Tricia Alexandro and a Best Child actor award for Caroline Cook.
I am currently in pre-production for the series pilot and have an 8 episode 1st season mapped out as well as the set up for the 2nd season. Once the pilot episode is complete, I will shop it around and hopefully get the full series into production.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
The amount of times as an actor you are told no and get rejected is staggering! There are times when the string of rejections just seems relentless and then suddenly for no apparent reason you start booking work again. It’s not a career for the faint of heart. So there isn’t really one story but a million little ones. Some may call it resilience others might call it stubbornness but either way I’m still here plugging away!
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