We recently connected with Farah Merani and have shared our conversation below.
Farah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
In my heart of hearts, I think I knew I was an artist really young but grew up in a world where arts were hobbies not careers, so I didn’t consider it seriously until I started applying for universities. My high school drama teacher was known for staging provocative works. In my graduating year, I was cast in a play called RAFT OF THE MEDUSA. It’s about an explosive AIDS support group session, where the diverse members discover the disease they share can divide as effectively as it conquers. I played a woman named Nairobi, a homeless prostitute junkie who’d just lost her baby to AIDS. Hardly the kind of material you’d see on a high school stage! But I took the role seriously and really explored how a character with so much heart could find herself in such a state. It was the first time I’d ever done anything like this but I’m the kind of person to go all in, so short of going to the streets myself, I immersed myself in movies and met with AIDS patients at a local clinic. You could say, I went full Method :)
However, the real moment of knowing came after opening night. The show ended and we got a standing ovation (full of proud and possibly concerned parents). As soon as I came out into the lobby for the reception, my mother ran straight to me and pulled me tightly in an embrace. She was crying, almost sobbing, and kept saying, “It’s ok, it’s ok. I just wanted to run down on stage and give you a big hug and tell you it’s ok.” I had never seen my mother this distraught over me, given that I was a straight A student and Head Girl of the school. I told her, “Mum, I was acting. It was just a play!” But she saw her daughter on stage with track marks up her arm, disheveled hair, and deep sunken eyes always on the verge of either fight or flight. And it broke her heart.
My guidance counselor then came by and told me that his “door is always open, if I ever need to talk.” All I thought was, “Why would I need to talk, I’m fine.” Then it clicked. They believed in my performance so deeply, they thought I was actually tapping into some real experience with drugs! The best was when my mum handed me a business card as we walked back to the car. It was from a woman who’d seen her envelop me in the lobby and went over to introduce herself after I’d moved on to my next fan :) I read the card and the only thing that popped out for me was: Psychologist Specializing in Addiction. I burst out laughing and my mum glared at me with concerned eyes. “You’re sure you don’t need to talk to anyone?” In that moment, I’d discovered the power and impact that storytelling could have and knew I had to keep doing it.
Farah, 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?
It’s always interesting to me when I’m asked to talk about who am I and what do I do. The simple answer is I’m an actor and a writer who wants to create and I get creative with how I make that happen! So, yes, I act and I write, but I’m also a life coach for artists and multi-hyphenates. Basically, folks who are seeking a more fulfilling creative career. One of my superpowers is being able to see the bigger picture and ask the right questions. I love making connections between seemingly disparate experiences or topics and seeing my clients’ eyes pop with a realization. It’s a skill I’ve been blessed to hone throughout my career as an actor and a writer, as well.
As a Canadian living in the California, and someone who has lived abroad internationally for many years, I’ve come to reimagine what it means to me to be an actor. It’s so much more than acting. It’s leaning into the soul of being a storyteller. How those stories come to be and get told is what makes me an artist and what excites me about what I do. When I look at the common thread and core of everything that I do, what’s most evident to me is how it all starts from a place of playfulness and curiosity. It’s not something I always leaned into, though, spending much of my 20s living up to the image of the struggling ‘artiste’, but as I’ve gotten older and experienced more, play is something that I am very focused on now. Since recently becoming a mother, I get to be silly in ways I never imagined and it’s really helped in my voice career. I’ve always loved accents and can speak a few languages, so I do a lot of voice work for video games and animation, which is the epitome of play for me. I also teach an acting class for people with Parkinson’s and other neurodivergent needs, and this concept of play and curiosity has changed how I approach my own work as an actor and a writer.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
I love that you called it a creative ecosystem because that’s ultimately what it is. We all know it’s through the legacy of artists that we stay connected to our past and reach for the future. It’s why we go to museums, watch Shakespeare, or listen to Mozart. I have a very strong opinion about why the arts are important and believe in nourishing that appreciation at an early age. Including children in these experiences is such a vital aspect, teaching them music or taking them to a museum or a theatre play helps expand their own ideas and what they can see in the world. It’s also how we encourage and engage future generations of creatives and artists. In terms of supporting the work of the artist, I really think it comes down to providing a kind of social safety net whereby artists can have the physical and mental space to create, whether that comes from a robust granting system, private patronages, or providing a liveable wage to artists who demonstrate a real commitment to their craft. Providing artists with a foundation upon which they can thrive is something we can all be a part of. Another way to support artists is by going to see their shows, buying their art, and listening to their music via independent means. Being more intentional with how we consume art and where we get it from is so important. Our eyeballs and our wallets have power and we can’t forget that.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
This is a lesson I feel like might be an ongoing one for me and for many of my peers. It’s the idea that choosing the life of an artist is committing to a life of struggle, hardships, and poverty. It’s total bullshit! Nobody ever goes into something aspiring for poverty or lack, and yet when it comes to creative endeavours and a career in the arts, people are so quick to say, “Oh that must be so hard,” or “That’s such a tough industry to break into. You’re so brave.” Let’s be real, becoming a lawyer is f*cking hard, pardon my French. Becoming a doctor is hard. Doing something you hate for the rest of your life is, frankly, the hardest thing ever. The lesson I had to unlearn was the story that I was signing myself up for a lifetime of struggle, that I was Sisyphus pushing this boulder uphill every day, with no end in sight. What I came to realize, however, is that there is so much opportunity and abundance all around me and my greatest resource is my community. I have so many examples of artists who live abundant and beautiful lives all around me. It was when I started seeing this reality and believing it was a reflection of my own potential that I let go of the deeply imprinted story. All I have to do is think of that 11 year old girl, sitting in her room up in Canada, dreaming of being on screen and playing on the Mighty Ducks with Coach Bombay. She is so proud of me for getting to where I am. I met my husband in this city, got married in this city, had a baby in this city, and get to work with incredible people every single day. I get to create cool things, support people in their dreams by telling their stories, as well as my own, and building a community around me that’s truly my chosen family. In this day and age, that’s no small thing. Thank you so much for giving me this space to share! fx
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.farahmerani.com
- Instagram: @fa_me
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/farahmerani
Image Credits
Joanna Degeneres