We were lucky to catch up with Jessica Sharples recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jessica, thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

To be honest, after I successfully wrote, produced and starred in my first short film (“Jen, 28”), I did not expect to make a second one. All that time, money, blood, sweat and tears… I didn’t want to go through it again.

Then my beloved cat Frankie, who I adopted and took care of for 7 years, died. Within one week, he went from head bumps to kidney failure. Grief came over me like a wave that refused to retreat back to the ocean. The pain I felt after his death was more than I could have ever expected – he was “only” a cat after all. But he was my baby, always by my side for the last 7 years, and now he was gone. Forever.

A month after Frankie’s death, I was still crying myself to sleep. I was emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted from the grief that kept creeping into the most unassuming parts of my day. I couldn’t function like this. So I opened Final Draft and started writing.

I decided to write out the funniest experience I had with Frankie in the form of a 15 page script. It was the break up story of my long distance boyfriend. Frankie was living with him at the time in Sonoma because my current roommate in LA was deathly allergic to cats. When we broke up, we had to meet in the middle of the California desert to exchange the thing that was most valuable to us – Frankie. It was 104℉ and tumbleweeds rolled across the dusty road. It was a contemporary western showdown. And it was hilarious.

I couldn’t stop laughing as I typed up this wildly absurd yet truthful story. It was the first time in a month I had cried from laugher instead of grief. A tuxedo cat being exchanged by a hostile ex-couple in the desert – what’s not to love!? I knew this script was special because it came from the depths of my soul. It was born out of the sadness of losing Frankie and the joy that pets bring to our lives.

A few weeks later, I staged it at Script Shop, a writers and actors group in LA. I announced it was my first attempt at comedy but withheld that the real Frankie had passed. The actors brought the story to life and everyone was bent over with laugher, including myself. They begged me to make it into a film and one incredible woman, Samantha Grace Miller, offered to direct and produce it. I figured if this script could bring me so much joy when I was in a place of so much hurt, then it could do the same for others. And so it was! Samantha and I decided to make the short film, “Hostile Exchange.”

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

I am an award-winning actor-writer-producer-singer and NYU Tisch graduate, whose work in film, TV and live performance explores the innate power women have when they are able to break free of societal expectations and express their truth. By exposing the dark but very real aspects of my experience as a woman, I create containers for untold or ignored stories to finally be seen. My work inspires audiences to empathize with the Woman Experience and, in turn, treat women better in their everyday lives.

In 2019, I wrote, produced, and starred in my first short film “Jen, 28” – an every woman story about the misunderstood “gray area” of sexual assault. This film was based on my own survivor story and was selected to screen at 35 film festivals, winning 14 awards. The success of “Jen, 28” was greater than anything I could have imagined. I’m extremely proud to say that I won 3 Best Actress Awards for my performance.

I’m excited to see what my new film, “Hostile Exchange” has in store for us next!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Getting my undergrad from NYU Tisch, pursuing acting in New York and now in LA, there’s a lot of discussion about lack. “There aren’t enough jobs;” “I’m not skinny enough;” “I’m not old enough;” “I’m not young enough;” etc. When this is your mindset, of course you’re not going to attract the kind of jobs that you want. If you focus on the negative, that’s what you are going to continue experiencing. And it’s easy to get sucked in. Misery loves company, after all.

I wasn’t getting anywhere with this kind of attitude so I searched for a better thought. I read a ton of self help books and listened to spiritual leaders. I quickly learned that we live in an abundant Universe and there’s enough for everyone to have whatever they want! It’s our thoughts, words, actions and beliefs that stop us from getting where we want to go. So I became much more mindful about the thoughts I was thinking and the words I was saying. If the thought creeped into my mind, “Well, that audition totally sucked,” I would stop and reframe it to, “I did my best and there are more opportunities coming my way.”

I don’t think we put enough value on our thoughts, words and beliefs. But these are truly what make up our reality!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My mission is to tell untold and/or ignored stories about the Woman Experience. Women have been so grossly underrepresented in the entertainment industry and it’s amazing to see that this is slowly but surely starting to change.

I’ve been professionally acting for 15 years and eventually I got sick of auditioning for sexist roles like, “Hot Brunette,” “Busty Waitress,” and “Girl #4.” But that’s what happens when you only hire male writers! Men cannot understand the complexities of what it’s like to be a woman in this world. And they shouldn’t have to. I, as a woman, am thrilled to write stories about women, with genuine women characters, in order to show audiences how we are so much more than the roles society loves to box us into.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jessicasharples.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jess_sharples/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicasharples/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/JessSharples/featured
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4475471/

Image Credits

Jonathan Ward, Hannah Getz, Brian Parillo