We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nora Freetly a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Nora, thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been interested in anything and everything that is creative, artistic, and performative. From a young age, I was taking art requests and crafting gifts for loved ones. I would memorize our favorite scenes from movies like Pink Panther or Liar Liar and preform them for my friends as entertainment when we needed a laugh. Although it has always been my ultimate dream, I didn’t consider pursuing my creative passions professionally as being a choice I could make until I grew an online audience.
I was at the end of my Master’s program preparing to enter into a stable nine-to-five job in a reliable career; as many of us are encouraged and expected to do. Content creation became my fun creative outlet. In a digital world filled with so many talented and creative people, I never expected this to be something that others would enjoy or appreciate much. As my audience grew, so did the overwhelming amount of positive feedback I received from supporters wanted me to create more.
I completed my education and had a choice to make. I could continue with my original plan and start working professionally in my field of interest, letting go of my lifelong dreams and forever wondering how different things could’ve been, OR I could give myself the chance to pursue my passions professionally, risking failure, but ultimately avoiding the regret I’d feel if I had never tried. It’s safe to say that my fear of settling into a “safe” career just to have a future filled with “what if”s greatly pushed my decision. However, without having such amazing supporters online who have always encouraged me and who believe in my ability to succeed in this industry, I would have never had the strength to follow my dreams and pursue being a creative performer. I am forever grateful for how much they continue to push me to believe in myself.
Nora, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I started to gain recognition online for my expressiveness and use of non-verbals to amplify or communicate different interpretations of a scene or song through lip-syncing. While I tend to be known for performing hyper-animated characters in the styles reminiscent of Disney or Pixar, I also like to tone it down and practice more “realistic” acting performances. I love how the subtle use of micro-expressions and body language alone can drastically change what is being communicated to the viewer. If the audio says “how could you do this?”, the audience can be informed whether the character is angry, confused, impressed, disappointed, shocked, or even heartbroken simply through the performers delivery. With the use of other’s voices in a chosen audio, there is also the added challenge of making sure your affect can match different vocal characteristics. Vocals have many unique traits which means their pitch, speed, or accent already gives so much character information. This means the delivery should naturally look different when using an audio with a deep raspy male voice compared to say a more delicate higher-pitched feminine voice. I fell in love with taking on the challenge of trying to match these characteristics and I was having so much fun doing it.
To my surprise, this brought me my first professional acting role for the movie Bad Haircut where I was hired by filmmaker Kyle Misak. While deciding who to cast for this film, my name was brought up by Production Designer Don Chase who had been following me online and thought I would be a great fit to play the character Sam. I always feared that my tendency for hyper-animated performances could prevent me from being seen as an actress who can perform realistically for film. The words of online trolls telling me that I’m “just a ‘Tik Tok Actor’ who could never book a real job as a professional actress” echoed in my head as I made sure not to get my hopes up.
When Kyle reached out to me about this potential opportunity, I was cautiously optimistic since this was my first experience even filming and submitting audition tapes. The feedback I received regarding my audition was overwhelmingly positive which I was not prepared for. I learned that my expressiveness was appreciated because it communicates listening skills, helps show the character’s internal thought process, and indicates how they’re interpreting information they’re being given. What I was so worried about turned out to be the very thing that set me apart. Their confidence in my abilities, despite my lack of professional experience allowed me to believe in myself more. When they told me I got the role and would be playing Sam in the movie Bad Haircut it didn’t just help me prove to myself that I’m capable of going further in this industry. The experience on set and the filming process as a whole also confirmed to me that acting is something I truly love to do. It motivated me to keep following my passions professionally for my childhood self who thought this could never be more than just a dream of mine.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Whether it’s acting, creating content, performing, or making art, the most rewarding thing about being a creative for me is the freedom it allows me to have. You don’t have to do exactly what everyone else is doing in the same way they do it. With acting you can be someone outside of what is “socially acceptable” or “normal” for you to portray. You can be anything. When it comes to works of art, while people can have different styles or techniques they may prefer, there is always room for the audience to interpret the art for themselves regardless of what the artist’s original intent may be. Whether we love or hate a piece of art, it can push us to reflect, to question, to be introspective. Even if there is a trend on social media you want to participate in, you can still put your own twist on it to make the product more unique to you. There is no rule book. You can play around and have fun with trying new concepts or ideas, which can help others do the same. Individuality and creativity are welcomed and we can be inspired by each different interpretation.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I started out posting art related content. Then I started to include topics of ADHD and mental health because of my experience with these topics along with being in the middle of my Master’s program in Mental Health Counseling. As I began to show myself more in my content, people started to notice my expressiveness as I took on different characters and my tendency to be a bit of a lip-sync perfectionist. As my audience kept growing, so did the amount of requests I’d get to do different characters, trends, and lip-sync challenges. This is when I learned a big lesson. For a while I got caught up in only making content that my audience wanted. It was one complex lip-sync challenge after another. Every new post led to more people requesting and even demanding that I get to their specific request next. It overtook my comment section. Looking back, I can’t really blame those who grew a sense of entitlement. I did set that expectation by only doing what people wanted me to do in an effort to please my audience. While I have and will always love taking on different challenges, doing this started to take the fun out of it by putting myself in a box. It halted me from feeling able to play around with different content or my own ideas again. It can be scary to put yourself out there, especially with millions of online eyes watching you. I decided to break out of the box I put myself in and regained the freedom to not limit the type of content I put out. Today I still like to hear requests and ideas from my audience because they inspire and push me to try new things; but limiting yourself to please your current audience is simply unattainable long term.
The advice I would give you is to stay true to yourself and your passions. Allow yourself the freedom to try different things and do whatever you want to do! Try not to worry about losing those who only followed you for one specific niche if you don’t want that to be the only form of content you post. You want an audience that supports you for who you are and what you bring to your platform. They will allow you to branch out and support you throughout your growth. These are the people who will stick with you long term. Quality over quantity. We can’t be everyone’s cup of tea, so don’t bother molding yourself into a person you think will be better accepted by the most amount of people. Staying true to yourself on your platforms sets an expectation that can realistically be maintained. It will attract those who appreciate your unique individuality and allows you to gain a loyal audience who supports who you are, which is much more rewarding. BE YOURSELF AND LET YOUR AUDIENCE FIND YOU!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://beacons.ai/nobosart
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/simply_nobo
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@noboschannel
- Other: Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nobosart IMDB- Bad Haircut (Movie): https://m.imdb.com/title/tt27991693/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk Business E-Mail: [email protected] Cameo: https://www.cameo.com/nobosart
Image Credits
Max Pippel Alexander Rynkiewicz Melissa Clark Freetly