We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dylan Duff a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dylan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

When I was a kid I was always captivated by movies and TV. I would get lost in the worlds that they created and dream of where I could fit into them. I wanted to be an actor. I begged my parents to allow me to reach out to agencies. They were very supportive but a bit apprehensive about the industry. Eventually, I let go of acting and decided that I was going to be a teacher. That was until my cousin convinced me to be in a play with her. When I was around 13 I was in my first community theatre production of Bye Bye Birdie. After this, I never went back. I caught the bug as they say. It was so much fun. One of my castmates was in a small TV show at the time and I managed to get a tiny part in it because they were looking for extras, and whilst on set they needed two people to say a line or two. I volunteered. After that, I was relentless. I needed an agent and I needed to act, and so I found one. I have now been acting and auditioning for seven years, but I moved into writing, directing and producing as well as acting during the pandemic. It was then, four years ago in July 2020 at the age of 16 when I founded my production company Purple Monkeys Pictures Inc.

Dylan, 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?

In terms of my work as a filmmaker, I find myself telling a lot of grounded stories generally revolving around family and interpersonal relationships. I find people so interesting and how they operate and interact with each other. The simplest, tiniest things can be the most impactful a lot of the time. I often sit down to watch a film or read a book and the slightest scrunch of a nose or the wording of a line will send shivers down my spine.

I have written directed and produced a myriad of short films and short-form series under my company Purple Monkeys Pictures, including Phobia, streaming on Amazon Prime Video, and The Girl in the Road, which had its world premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatres as an official selection of Dances With Films LA. My most recent short Terry, starring Lennox Blue Powell and Women Talking’s Kira Guloien premiered at NFFTY in Seattle this April. I am a three-time Young Artist Award winner for acting and writing and have received a myriad of other awards and nominations. Most recently I have received a grant for a series that I co-created with my great friend and incredibly talented writer/filmmaker Brianna Russell, who was also the producer of Terry, as well as all the other incredible things she has done.

As well, I just produced, co-wrote and post-directed a music video for the iconic Canadian band The Tragically Hip for their new single Get Back Again. The video is available on youtube, Vevo, Apple Music and everywhere else that music videos are available and I highly recommend checking it out and listening to the song. It’s a banger!

Overall, I just really have not found anything else that excites me and fuels me the way that film does. It is such a collaborative art form. Every project I have ever done has been made what it is by the incredible people who worked in every department. I love communicating a vision and then letting a team run with their own vision and infuse it into the work. When you watch a film, you can see all the little pieces that came from different minds and come together in harmony to create something lovely and interesting. I think that’s the coolest thing.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I have been working in this industry since the age of 13. And yet, there have been many times in my life where I have not been making a living or getting work at all. I feel that in this industry it can seem like you are jumping ahead and then falling behind over and over again in a bit of a cycle. It is really easy to let this get to you. I let it get to me often, but I always manage to push through it, eventually. I just remember that this is what I love and what I’ve always wanted to do with my life. I can remember a specific time when had an opportunity that I really thought would open some massive doors for me, and then I found myself searching for work to make ends meet doing any part-time job I could find. The doors did not open in the ways that I thought they would and it was really difficult to feel like I was on the right track. I seemed to forget to even celebrate the accomplishment that I had just had because it didn’t seem to lead to another opportunity right away. I was able to remember though, that I am growing and getting better, and I am so proud of how far I’ve come and I must keep going. If I gave up it would be a huge disservice to myself and to that little kid that dreamed of being a part of the movies. Now I am a part of the movies, in whatever small or large way I happen to be at any given time. I am actively pursuing what I have always dreamed of, and every little win is important, even when it’s followed by feeling like you are right back where you started and you are searching for a part-time job to pay the bills until your next opportunity comes along. As an artist, you are never really waiting around. You are always pushing and learning and growing and doing your best to make things happen.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2020, the pandemic hit, as we all know. I was 16 years old and in my third year of actively auditioning. Suddenly, there were no auditions and the entire industry was shifting. I wasn’t sure what to do with myself and I felt uncertain about my career and the future. I had always written scripts. I wrote my first feature-length screenplay when I was in grade 7, around 10 or 11 years old, and managed to pass it off as a school project. That said, I had always been so focused on acting that I didn’t devote as much time to writing. When the pandemic hit, I suddenly had all the time in the world. I really dove into my writing and loved it so much. It was that very year that I decided to direct my first short film Perspective. I wrote, directed, and starred in it and it was not very good, but I had a lot of fun and it got into some festivals. I learned so so so much from that experience. I started Purple Monkeys Pictures to produce Perspective and this is when my love for filmmaking really developed into something that I could pursue as a career on top of acting. Since then, I have not slowed down. I am so passionate about directing, writing and producing. I had to pivot to discover what I was meant to do. Though I still love acting and am very much still pursuing it as well! hopefully, I am meant to be behind and in front of the camera. I love it all!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.purplemonkeyspictures.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsdylanduff/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-duff-173b8115b/?originalSubdomain=ca

Image Credits

Depetris Ludovic
Mark Alexander
Lucia Fella Pellegrino
David Rzegocki