We were lucky to catch up with Alex Philpott recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alex, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

My most meaningful project is actually the one I’m currently working on. It’s a short film titled “Contaminant.” It’s the first time that I will be stepping into the role of a producer and really making a film from the ground up. It’s even more meaningful as I am collaborating on this film with a director I met while attending California State University Northridge. When I made the decision to go back to school and get degrees in Screenwriting as well as Creative Writing, I mainly did so in order to grow my circle and meet other creatives who shared my interests. So, it’s very rewarding to see that paying off and materializing into a film I feel so passionately about. I feel like this process has only made me appreciate the journey of a script from being words on a page to images on a screen that much more. Ultimately, I want to learn and grow as a writer, and this project has certainly done that and more.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Alex Philpott, and I am a writer living in Los Angeles. I’ve always enjoyed writing, whether it be a short story or a sketch for my friends and me to perform for our enjoyment, but I only recently decided to pursue it as a career. Like many creatives, I second-guessed myself and didn’t think my outlet could be a realistic career, let alone a viable source of income. So, when I enrolled in college, I decided to go with what I thought would be the “safer route” and become a history teacher. After a few years of dispassionately following this goal, I became burnt out and realized I simply wasn’t cut out for the job. All it took was one conversation with a fellow teacher to convince me to go back to school and pursue a career in writing. I guess I just needed someone to tell me that trying to follow my dreams wasn’t crazy or a bad idea and that it could actually work out. At the time, it felt like such a massive risk, but now I look back at it as one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. I’m proud of the fact that I gave myself the opportunity to pursue my passion as a career and it’s very rewarding to see my young career starting to materialize.

As far as my work, I’m someone who tries to infuse as much of their personal life into their writing as possible—the good, the bad, and especially the ugly. I’ve learned that the more I lean into the truth and let it bleed through into my stories, the more people actually connect with the material. I know it’s cliche, and as a writer, I should try to avoid cliches, but with me what you see is what you get. I like to write things that feel almost too personal to share. I’m not someone who thinks too much about the genre; I like to write stories and characters I think are interesting, and hopefully, audiences do too, and whatever genre it may fall into, then so be it.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

This story might not have much to do with my creative endeavors but it’s certainly the event that has changed the trajectory of my life the most and illustrates my resilience. In July of 2021, I was in a near-death accident when a car hit me going roughly 35 mph. My face smashed into the windshield and I went flying over the top of the car, into the air, until I came hurdling into the asphalt roughly 20 feet behind the car. I had four broken vertebrae along my spine, a torn ACL and MCL in my knee, a collapsed lung, and whole laundry list of other injuries. I couldn’t walk for months. I had to be assisted in every aspect of my life. When you come so close to death you would think it would give you a new affinity for life, but I found it to have the complete opposite affect. I struggled with finding motivation, I questioned my purpose, and I ultimately lost that connection to with my “self”. It took everything out of me to confront those negative feelings and push my mind and body to get healthy again. It took a massive amount of patience and grit to grind my teeth and battle through the pain with my physical training. I literally had to take it one step at a time. But overcoming my injuries and persevering through the pain taught me that if I could overcome that, I could overcome anything life threw at me. I’m grateful to say that now I feel stronger and better than ever, and the whole situation really taught me not to take anything for granted.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My favorite aspect of what I do is being able to collaborate with other fellow creatives. There’s nothing I enjoy more than having those conversations and creating something out of nothing. As a writer, I want to work with directors who push me to grow as a storyteller and challenge me to dig deeper. My goal as a screenwriter isn’t driven by the hopes of earning accolades or anything like that, but I want to know that I’m doing everything I can to be the best version of myself as a screenwriter. I want to collaborate on stories that resonate with audiences and leave them with a big smile on their faces.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alex_flipflop/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-philpott-amp/