We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jess Kean . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jess below.
Hi Jess, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
My professional acting journey started about 3 1/2 years ago. I had almost given up pursuing anything creative before finding a wonderful group of artists at The 4th Wall Acting Studio. I went into my first class just looking for some kind of outlet and I found much much more. I found my people, and ultimately, I think, my purpose. I don’t think I would change a thing. I look back now and think that rebellious little me would have tried to cut corners and that’s not how you learn or grow or get any closer to becoming an authentic storyteller.
Jess, 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?
Hi my name is Jess. I’m an actor living in Nashville, TN. I’ve been here for about 12 years. It’s taken me 35 years to find what I feel I’m meant to be doing- acting. Marlon Brando I think once said, “Acting, in general is something most people think they’re incapable of, but they do it from morning to night. The subtlest acting I’ve ever seen is by ordinary people trying to show they feel something they don’t, or trying to hide something. It’s something everyone learns at an early age.” Well I can say with total confidence, that’s basically what I’ve been doing from a very early age- convincing myself I’m not capable of much when I’ve been pretty much been doing “it” all along. It’s not a negative or positive thing, it’s just something I guess, now, I’ve fully accepted. And now, can have some fun with and finally find joy, adventure in the ordinary world.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
This industry presents opportunity after opportunity to showcase one’s resilience. Its rejection will constantly seek to push you out of the ring but you have to keep fighting. Cliche, for sure but it’s the ultimate truth for any actor. You gotta love it. To your core. It’s hard to pinpoint one story of resilience. 99% of my auditions are rejected most of the time and the reasoning for that is out of my control but I’ve also been learning slowly and in some cases, the hard way, to take my ego out of the equation and look at that part of it as pure business unfortunately which is a part of it I truly loathe half of the time. But with that, comes clarity in the fact that I’m still an actor, which means just like in ordinary life, I can regroup, strategize, lean into community, trust what I have to offer and come out on the other side with more vulnerability, but also strength. It’s truly a game sometimes it seems.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I suppose my only mission is to create a life I’m content with which is ironic because being an actor doesn’t come with much contentment. I was constantly told growing up that my dreams weren’t realistic and I’ve always been a bit rebellious so naturally my goal is to prove everyone wrong.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: jesskeancreates