We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cruz Formusa a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Cruz, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
When I was in the 7th grade, we did a character building workshop over the course of a week. As a kid I really really really hated doing anything related to school but I decided to give this workshop a chance. They walked me through how to build characters and tell a story as a character. When it came time to present, just getting up in front of people and being someone else, even if there was only about 20 other people in the room, I felt like this was one of the things I could do right. From there I started to apply for High Schools with acting programs, and in the 11th grade I started realizing that acting was not just something I could do right, but it was also something I had fun doing. Both of those experiences were the big motivators for me to follow my dream.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Cruz Formusa and I am a 19 year old acting student from Canada living in New York City. My story of becoming an actor is a long one but in a nutshell, it all came from a workshop I did all the way back in 7th grade which led all the way to where I am now. My main focus in school is primarily on scene studies for now, outside of school I am an Associate producer and Editor for Left Hand Studios, a production company two of my close friends started. Together we are making the first improvised film to be shot entirely on an iPhone, which is set to begin filming soon. Besides work, my skills in writing, production and most of all acting, have grown heavily since I first came to New York. With the help of my teachers I have become confident my abilities and can now say I am ready to work as an actor outside of school.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
My journey towards acting almost never happened because I had a completely different goal in my mind. Until I moved to New York, I spent most of my time racing go-karts across Canada, trying to be a professional racing driver. Around the 11th grade, I got really fast but I knew I could not race for a living on the budget I had. So I started to take my acting classes seriously and got really into performing. From there I did my first show in front of a large audience, which I was starring in. Although yes, it is just High School, being given the lead role was a serious boost in confidence. The next year, I got a pamphlet from The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York while sitting in my acting class. I debated going to the audition as I had a race that weekend, but as you can probably guess, I went to that audition. A month passed, then 2, then 4. I thought I would need to find a new opportunity so I applied to universities in my city that had good acting programs. Only to get turned down due to my grades in my freshman and sophomore year. Towards the end of my senior year my class did a film unit, and while covered in fake blood, in the middle of a take, my phone rang. I saw the number and before my director could even call cut I was out of the room on the call that changed everything. The audition that I thought I bombed 4 months prior, had got me into The American Musical and Dramatic Academy for the Fall 2023 semester. From there I did my senior show and prepared for my last summer of racing. With a Go kart that finally fit my driving style and a budget that finally did me justice I had my busiest and most successful season. The highlight of that last year of racing was when the Canadian nationals came around. I was fastest, and by a lot. I kept getting faster and at the end of that summer I got sponsored again. I turned it all down, but not because of the budget. I turned it down because my passion for acting and filmmaking was stronger, and I have never looked back. Racing was fun I will admit, but it will never replicate the rush I get from going in front of a camera and telling a story through a character.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I think my biggest lesson I learned was to take myself seriously. Growing up I was always the clumsy kid and over time I leaned into how goofy I could be at times which made me unable to do something serious without making a massive mistake because I did not trust my ability. I think what made my clumsiness into something funny was how I accepted it and didn’t work past it. Over the last 2 years I started to understand that I can actually do some serious things and I did not have to banish myself to being this clumsy guy for the rest of my life. That might just be growing up, sure, but I think there are a lot of people who genuinely need to have this realization.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Cruz_Formusa
