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

Kelly, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?

Thank you so much for having me! For me, it’s important to protect and speak highly of the people that I love. It really means the world to me when I hear my friends were sticking up for me when I wasn’t in the room.

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

Of course! I’m an actress currently based in Los Angeles, California. I moved out here to complete a master’s program in filmmaking. From there, all of my job offers were for on-camera work! Now, I train really hard with my acting coach, Thomas Ardavany and my trainer, Ire Wardlaw.

I’m originally from the East Coast. I was born in Spanish Harlem on the Upper East Side of New York. My parents still have a place in Jersey; which is where I spent most of my childhood. I’ve also lived in Australia and spent a lot of time in the UK. I guess you could say I’m a little bit of a mutt.

I really love being on-set. I love everything about it. I love the rush, the pressure and how much everyone cares. I’ve always felt there was a flow to being on-set that few people truly understand. After I graduated, my goal was to be on-set as much as I could. I booked a couple of cool art directing jobs after I graduated. Once I started booking on-camera work, it all came together. I’m so thankful for my representation, Daryoush Ashtary- Yazdi and Justin Gray. I’m really grateful for the opportunities so far and what’s to come! It feels surreal.

My understanding of behind-the-camera work is what sets me apart. I also care so much about each project. I notice sometimes that I have little tricks where I know I can make the crew’s life easier. I think understanding all sides of filmmaking has elevated my experience as an actress. I hope people who’ve worked with me feel the same way and have had a positive experience!

I’m really grateful to say that I’m proud of each project I’ve worked on to-date for different reasons. No two opportunities are exactly the same and are meaningful for different reasons in my experience.

Outside of work, I really love taking care of my friends’ dogs and surfing. During Covid 19, I loved fostering and rehoming puppies. To me, there is something so unmatched about the energy animals carry. It’s so pure. I also plan to work with a couple of unbelievable charity organizations as my career continues.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I love this question.

For me, it’s so rewarding when a director signs you on to play a character. It creates a lot of trust and respect that you’re capable of bringing this person on the page to life. The beautiful thing about filmmaking is that it’s an opportunity to be apart of something bigger than ourselves. Entering this industry, it’s important to fall in love with the process of creating moments.

As an actor, we have the opportunity to match and elevate what the filmmaker spent so much time developing and visualizing. I’ve always thought it would be really fulfilling to create something that outlived me. It’s funny, I think I romanticize the idea of my future great grandchildren being able to watch my old movies. I think images and cinema are so much more than just what you see in the theaters or the press that they get. I’ve always felt that movies capture moments in time.

Scripts are developed based on experiences. As an example, even with Sci-Fi scripts, a genre that is based on creating another world, there is a human essence to them in some capacity. That’s why you understand and can connect with characters that are literally from another planet. I think art has the power to bring people together and assist us in understanding people and experiences outside of ourselves.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I definitely need to think about this one for a second…

The summer before my first year of film school. I remember I was staying at my grandparent’s house one night to help my grandpa. I bought this book. Honestly, I don’t remember the title. Haha, it was a while back. But, I do remember it was about cinema and there was a lot of Alfred Hitchcock content in it. There was one line in there that I think about a lot.

“No two people experience the same movie twice.” As people, we’re all made up of different moments and experiences that lead us to right now. We could watch the same movie and have entirely different perspectives on it, but that stems from each of our own set or unique experiences and memories. When you watch a movie a second time, you’ve had even more experiences and perspective than when you watched it the first time. Therefore, it’s a completely different experience than the first time. I think if we all applied this to life, it would create another level of compassion and understanding for the people in our day-to-day lives.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kellyelsas.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kellyelsas/
• Other: https://www.imdb.me/kellyelsas

Image Credits
Jared Fix