We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Emile Aslan Lacheny a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Emile Aslan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

When I was growing up in France, there were only three options once you got to your final three years of high school. Science, Economics or Literature. Acting wasn’t any of them and schools rarely if ever had a theatre or film department. I would have had to leave the normal school structure to purse what I already knew back then was my calling. and I would have had to have the courage to voice this to my family. I did not. I chose Maths, as it is the one that is best seen in society, and I suffered for it. Years later I finally had enough and put my foot down to myself and everyone else and started actively learning and pursuing art in the country I knew I wanted to be in for that: the US. Every classmate and colleague since that were at my career level has more or less been younger than me. nAnd I often wondered if I started too late. But then I realize that it gave me something that others don’t always get: clarity. I know this is all I can and all I want to do with my life. There is no hesitation in that. And I spent my formative years away from that niche, suffering from it. But also developing in circles outside of the bubble that the arts can be. Which gave me a perspective on society that is unique to me.
I am still learning to own who I am and develop my voice, but I find the thought exercise of “should I have started sooner” to not serve me.
Start when you start. Do it because you want to. Kepp doing it because you cannot do anything else. It’s in our bones. No matter when, no matter how.

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?

My name is Emile Aslan Lacheny. I am a Franco-Turk actor located in New York City. Born and raised in Paris, I developed a love for the art of storytelling from an early age where he would create and act out stories with his friends during recess. After falling in love with film in particular, I focused on learning English and the American dialect by watching movies and recreating the sounds I heard.

I then went to the U.S to pursue my art. I first obtained a BFA at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas where I studied Meisner and Suzuki among others. I interned as the assistant of the Artistic director of the Playwrights Foundation in San Francisco. Worked for the Austin Film Festival. And learned how to write.

Then I moved to New York where I recently graduated from the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. I interned at the Acting Company and worked on two of their projects. I’ve been in multiple Off Broadway shows since (some award winning ones), wrote and directed short films, won awards for my writing, sold my first screenplay (An award winning horror story) to be produced by a streaming service in Los Angeles and got three of my plays produced in New York theatres.

I also co-founded a Theatre company called “Between US” for immigrants by immigrants to help this often overlooked community.
On my free time, my biggest passion is consuming all forms of art, especially all things Dr. Who and DC comics. (I really loves those!) @chynelaslan

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

As an immigrant, moving to the US and working hard to stay is already a very difficult. You often leave your whole family behind, your friends, your culture. The US can be a very unwelcoming place to new arrivals and as an artist, you have to work twice as hard to get opportunities. On top of that, I had the bright idea to move to New York in 2019. So my second year fo school was plagued by the pandemic. When you are an immigrant student, you are not allowed to do any paid work until your studies are done. then you are allowed one year on a temporary work visa to get as much credits as an artist as possible. It seemed like an impossible task but I started planning early by auditioning while being in school and working for free, gathering credits even before the one year period. It was a difficult year where I had to choose between touring outside of the country, risking my temporary visa status to be the Phantom of the Opera on tour but potentially build for my artist visa. Suffered heartbreak. Was part of horrible productions where the producers knew I was an immigrant and therefore more easily usable. All culminating in having to do a fundraiser (which I hate doing. Asking for money is very against French and Turkish culture. At least how I was taught) for the 9.000 dollars I had to pay in lawyering fees. I was terrified and convinced I would fail every step of the way but nonetheless: I persevered. And here I am today. Almost two years into my artist visa :)

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Yes Storytelling.
I believe humans at our core are storytelling creatures. Social creatures for sure but in order to stay social and built the society we live in today. Stories were everything.
Everything and everyone is only a story in the end when you think about it. Since all we have is the present moment, because the past is gone and the future is yet to be. Everything that isn’t happening right now is a story. Biased by whoever is telling it.
I felt that power early in my life and my goal is to be a storyteller (actor, writer and director) for the rest of my life. I always wanted this. But I have more specific goals as well. There are shows and films I’d like to produce and others I would like to star in. Some are quite ambitious and would require me to gain notoriety and enough capital for it to make sense.
I never wanted fame and money out of art, just enough to live would be fine. But for the goals I have long term, they would be an inevitable consequence and in some instances, a necessity so I am aiming for that and seeing where it takes me.
I am nothing if not ambitious.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.emilelacheny.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chynelaslan/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emile.lacheny
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emile-aslan-lacheny/

Image Credits
Actor Bestie Kat Vecchio Natalie Benson Katie Mollison