We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Adrian Rashad Driscoll a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Adrian Rashad, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
I’ve actually wanted to be in entertaiment since I was a really young child. At 4 I would love to sing and dance for my family. We were from a really small town (Barstow) so there wasn’t really a scene but I did everything I could to entertain. At 5 I would sing the iconic song from the Bodyguard at Wal-Mart and get people to buy me legos in exchange for my performances. I’m sure it was embarrasing to my mom and grandma. At 6 I started acting in the church in a play and from there I was hooked.
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?
Sure. So, I started acting in the church at 6 and from there I wanted to be in every production I could find. It’s strange to think of now but I would write mini episodes of tv shows on 3×5 postcards. I would get in trouble for trying to imitate the language in shows like Martin, but I didn’t care, it was a blast for me to create these stories. Little did I know that it would translate into a skill so many years later. Anyways, I kept acting in school as that was our only real option in Barstow. All through grade school up into college acting was all I wanted to do. I branched out and did some Army base competitions and we did well in those and finally I decided I wanted to move to LA to make it big. I moved to West Covina with 2 roommates at around 23. All I had was my $1400 tax check and that was gone by the time I paid the deposit and got a bedroom set from Rent-A-Center. I wanted to be on set as much as possible and did background acting 4-5 days a week. Although the PAs basically told us to sit down and shut up, I talked to every member of the cast and crew. I needed to know how things worked. While all the other background talent stayed by crafty or on their phones, I studied every move that was happening on set. From Director, to Actor, to stand-in, I studied them all. It was so different from the acting that I was used to (being a theatre geek) on camera acting was subtle even the soaps were very subtle and reserved. I did background acting until I had enough Union vouchers to get the iconic SAG card. Now I knew I was a real actor, right? Now the big studios would have to notice me, right? NOPE! All the auditions I would get would ask for the same thing, a reel. Now of course I had footage from the theatre shows I had done but whenever I would submit it, I would hear the equivalent of “It’s cute you were in a play, but we need on camera footage.” Harsh. So out of necessity, I convinced my mom to buy me a DSLR and I started writing and shooting short roles for myself. I (incorrectly) implemented all the things that I learned from set. I taught myself how to edit via YouTube academy. I booked a bit of work, but I knew if I wanted to be taken seriously, I would have to stop the background work all together and focus on the craft. I did modeling gigs to (barely) stay afloat financially and made some money creating reels for other actors in my same situation. I fell in love with the production process just like I had loved being on camera. I also found a lot more success with the production side so naturally I focused more on that. Luckily one of the modeling gigs was for Oculus and introduced me to another level of VR and I was hooked. The rest is history.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Honestly, I had to unlearn most of what I was taught growing up. I was always smart; I was in the gifted and educated programs in school and they constantly wanted to skip me up a grade which my mom refused to let me enjoy being a kid. But the weird part was, the teachers, counselors, and of course the kids weren’t really in favor of the young brainiac getting all the attention, so I was taught to downplay my intelligence. I even had teachers try to fail me because I didn’t want to do Arbitrary homework assignments when I was getting 100% on every test. So, I played small. I hid the fact that I was really smart. I stopped doing so well in school in a ridiculous attempt to fit in. I was still scoring top 10% in the nation on the SATs and such but when it came to classwork, I wouldn’t want people to feel uncomfortable, so I sabotaged myself. I’m sure it’s no surprise this translated into a crippling case of impostor syndrome into my early 30s. I would purposely sabotage A LOT of opportunities for fear of someone thinking I was a fraud. I had played small for so long that I lost confidence and convinced myself that I couldn’t do the things I was really good at. In fact, it wasn’t until I read “Own Your Greatness” by Lisa Orbe-Austin, that I even knew what impostor syndrome and survivors’ guilt even were. Only then could I start to fix it. Sadly, it’s something I’m still working on but I’m at least getting better.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
I have a really long list of books that I say are a MUST.
Here some are in no particular order:
1. The 4-Hour work week.
2. The Like Switch
3. Own Your Greatness.
4. How to Win Friends and Influence People
5. The Alchemist
6. Veronika Decides to Die
7. A Course in Miracles
8. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
9. Deep Work
10. How to Talk to Anyone.
11. The Secret
Bonus – The Magic of Thinking Big.
Bonus Bonus – I read Bible verses daily, they are magic.
Contact Info:
- Website: Collimation.tv
- Instagram: instagram.com/driscool
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AdrianRashadDriscoll/
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/driscool