We recently connected with Jennylyn Caterina and have shared our conversation below.

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

As an actor, I often find myself going out for parts with a lot of fluff. Those can be fun; however, I also want to go deeper and bring characters to life that fully represent different struggles of people and society as a whole. This is why I began writing in addition to acting.

My first film that I made helped me understand my adopted sister by telling our story from her perspective (with some fictional twists of course). How she felt growing up in an abusive home, being removed by child protective services, and placed in a family where she never felt like she could measure up and how that caused her to lash out because she felt unworthy.

My most recent project focuses on the issue of domestic abuse and the scarring effects it can have. It is a psychological thriller with a romantic twist that dives deep into real issues facing society today.

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

I am an actor originally from a tiny town in Tennessee. When I was little I used to go with my dad to play rehearsals and fall asleep in the wings. I loved watching a show come to life. I knew then that I wanted to be a part of that, so I started classes at The Dixie Carter Performing Arts Center.

As I got older my desire to perform all the time only grew. I decided to go to college and get a BFA with a focus in Acting/Directing. My senior year of college I booked two short films and realized that this was another beautiful and artistic way to share important stories. I decided upon graduation to move to LA.

I have been in LA for five and a half years, and I love every new project and opportunity to learn, share, and collaborate. In addition to getting cast in independent projects and commercials as an actor, I have also discovered a passion for making my own projects where I write, produce, and act in stories I feel need to be told with the best core team anyone could ever ask for. I have named my production company Middle of Nowhere Productions, in honor of the tiny Tennessee town I hailed from.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

As an actor, I often get the question ‘what have I seen you in?’

This can be a very discouraging question for actors. There are many actors who are making a living creatively and living their dreams, but they have not booked any big studio projects or commercially successful gigs that a non-creative would recognize. This can make the creative feel like they are failing, even though they are doing what they set out to do. That is not the questioners’ objective; they are just trying to show interest and have a conversation.

I would suggest alternative questions that show your interest:

What is your favorite project you’ve ever worked on?
What role would you love to play?
Who is your creative muse?
What genre is your favorite to work in?

Try these out the next time you’re talking to a creative and see how the conversation lengthens and deepens.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The world is full of grey space. A lot of times we want to make everything right versus wrong, good versus bad, etc.

My goal as an artist is to show every side of a story as well as the reasoning and backstory behind it. You can’t just play a villain as the villain. You have to ask yourself why the character became that way: what happened in their life up to this point and what is motivating their actions now.

In With Love, a pilot that I recently produced, we see a woman become a killer. However the goal is for the audience to understand and almost want to side with her despite that. For that to happen, we have to examine what led her to kill. We look at her childhood, her medical struggles, her relationship with her abusive husband, and so on.

The key is to remember that no one is the villain in their own story and everyone has people who love them. We have to examine each individual through those channels in order to get a full, three-dimensional character.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @jennylynforthewin