We were lucky to catch up with Vanessa Cozart recently and have shared our conversation below.

Vanessa , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I majored in theatre at Birmingham-Southern College, but I truly learned how to act when I moved to Atlanta and started taking classes from local studios.

I wish that I could have stopped comparing myself to other people so much. I had such bad insecurity issues, and I wanted to be perfect. I really think I got in my own way a lot.

I think time management ( which can be a curse word to creatives) is important when working on your craft. Because you still have to function as an adult. You still have to pay bills. But you don’t want to half ass your work. Also sometimes you can lose yourself in the prep work. You ask so many questions about your character and the story that you fall down rabbit holes. You have to have some structure to pull yourself back out.

I think obstacles to learning more is thinking that you have to have a perfect performance ready to go when it’s time to go. Acting is living truthfully under imaginary circumstances. Life is not rehearsed. It’s not perfect. So you have to be alert and flexible.

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?

I grew up in a small town in Alabama, and I never had any idea that I wanted to be an actor. In fact, I was in a school play in fifth grade ( The Wizard of Oz) and I really really sucked. I kept getting yelled at. But I always had a big imagination. I wanted to be Xena Warrior Princess or some powerful female character I saw on TV. I had to step in for my sister who was cast in a play in high school, but she ended up going to live with our dad in the middle of the rehearsal process. I just stepped up not knowing anything about it, but I instantly fell in love with being on stage. I love making people laugh.

Fast forward to college, I was going to major in political science with the intention to be a lawyer, but the theatre kept calling my name. I switched my major which REALLY made my mother angry. I just wanted to be somebody important that could affect the way people thought/felt.

I’ve always loved the power of storytelling to influence the way someone thinks and feels. That kind of sounds a bit Machiavellian and I guess it can be dangerous if you only want to use that for propaganda. But I spend a lot of time in introspection and I ask a lot of questions. I love to learn. So I really love the power of acting/storytelling to make someone see himself/herself in another light or ask questions about the world around them.

I’ve been a bartender for forever, so I say that I am also a professional eavesdropper. I am really good at watching and reading people. And as I have learned more about myself and gotten. comfy with Vanessa, I can mesh the things I have observed about other people with things I know about me. So I think as of now, I have got a pretty good mix of being sweet, empathetic, nice coupled with I will absolutely kick your ass if you push me or hurt someone I love. And the characters that have a duplicitousness about them like that are super interesting. The girl you underestimate, but then ” Surprise!!” I feel like that’s me.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My mission now is to hop more into the driver’s seat of film. I want to produce more, direct more, collaborate more. I find that especially after Covid and the recent industry strikes, the only way to stay resilient is to create. Don’t wait. Our industry has changed a lot and I feel like if you sit around waiting for auditions to come, it’s easy to entertain ideas of quitting.
I forgot to mention that I am a Christian and that beats everything else in importance in my life. So one thing driving me is to create more projects that show people how fascinating the Bible is. It has been very misunderstood and manipulated to exert control over people. I would like to create films that glorify God and give a new perspective on the Christian Faith -without being to campy or preachy.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I think this is an evolving lesson for me. Social media is constantly changing. And in the acting industry there are conflicting opinions : 1. your social media isn’t important 2. you need to optimize social media to build a brand and stay relevant.

I think that with the landscape of the industry, the second opinion is becoming more of a must do. Like I said, you can’t just rely on getting auditions. You need to create. So learning about how to build your brand on social media is crucial to pitching yourself and finding people to collaborate with. It’s a necessary evil.

With that said, you can’t worry about being so perfect or only posting about acting. People will get bored if that’s all you post. I think learning how to share the different facets of who you are as a person with your acting sprinkled in is a good way to not get burned out.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vanessacozart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/actressvanessa.cozart/

Image Credits

Ted Eley Photography

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