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

Renee, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

It is important to continue learning. I was trained in stage acting. On stage you are taught to fill up the stage, to project and reach out to the people in the back row. As a cinematic actor you are taught to draw people in to you, it is much more intimate, you make them come to you.

The most important skill for me to learn was to get in touch with my emotions, let down a lifetime of walls and emotional armour and allow the audience to see inside and expose my vulnerability.

When I first began camera acting, I was told to deliver lines as if I was speaking to myself. But that made me withdraw inside of myself, and you could see that in my eyes, like when someone asks you, where did you go?

But, if you can allow the audience to see into you through your eyes, you take them on your journey of joy, fear, pain, anger, then you have captured their attention, you have them. It is true, the eyes are the windows of the soul, let the audience see your soul.

Renee, 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?

When I was a child, my family called me Sarah Bernhardt, after a drama queen silent screen actress.

I use to grab the kids in my neighborhood and put on plays in my family’s basement, with the other kids’parents as the audience.

Children can be amazing actors. Children don’t act, they make-believe. Actors should do what children do, make believe you are the character, feel, see, smell, experience as if you are really in that world. This is what I have learned.

In college I took acting and theatre arts, I did everything from costumes, scenery, properties, and acting! Then life took over,

Around 2000 I had a chance to revisit. I got involved in celebrity interviews for a YouTubechannel called Celebrity Biograph. Some of my favorite interviews were Lyle Waggoner, Richard Dreyfuss, William Katt, and Matt Frewer to name a few. I loved learning and listening to successful actors’ stories about their journeys and careers. At the time my day job was as a Web Producer. Then in 2018 I decided to learn media production and my cap project was a short film called An Interview Gone Terribly Wrong. I wrote, shot, acted, edited, produced. At the final class project showcase it got a standing ovation. An Interview Gone Terribly Wrong, pulled me back into acting. I realized, instead of hearing other actors stories, I wanted to make my own.

Since 2018 I have had some wonderful teachers and I have been learning cinematic acting. I have been fortunate to have worked on projects with some very talented cast and crew, mostly in the DMV area. I do have an Amazon and IMDb profile and you can see details of these various film and TV roles.
My IMDb About:
I am Renee Gelinas is an actor from Maryland, best known for movie roles in Serious Profession, Necropolis, Goodnight Light, Bullet, and Rekindled for Christmas. All available on Amazon. I am also known for An Interview Gone Terribly Wrong available on YouTube.

I have been married to fellow actor Robert G. Gelinas since 2015. I have a background in theater, and has been training as an actor for movies and television for 8+ years.

Known for creating emotionally complex characters such as in the roles Detective Martin in Reckless Endangerment, the Homeless Woman in EXIT, Martha Madwhip in Madwhip (YouTube), Gloria in Surreal, Joan in Goodnight Light (Amazon), Jeannie Pretty in Serious Profession (Amazon), Woodperson in Necropolis (Amazon). Also in post production roles as HR in The Exchange, Gloria in Surreal, A Subject in Deprivation, CIA Agent Maureen in Parallel, and Doctor Anderson in The Man Behind The Curtain.

I wrote, produced, and starred in her short film/drama-comedy An Interview Gone Terribly Wrong (YouTube).

My latest role is as Grace Hale in a feature film Proof I am on set in March 2026. I am also cast in future roles in Monster On, Witches and Warlocks, Summer Break 1929, and My Sakawa Lover.

I can be found on Amazon in movie roles for Serious Profession, Goodnight Light, Bullet, Necropolis, and Rekindled for Christmas (distributed by Amazon).

An Interview Gone Terribly Wrong can be found on YouTube.

I am also known as a celebrity interviewer and producer for Celebrity Biograph on YouTube. Interviews with Lyle Waggoner, Chase Masterson, Aron Eisenberg, Peter Kelamis, Envor Gjakaj, Shawn. Ashmore, Matt Fewer, Nana Visitor, Sam Witwer, Peter Williams, Richard Dreyfuss, William Katt, and Nicholas Meyer!

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Most people only see the glamorous side of being an actor. They see the stuff that comes after the hardwork, they see the celebration, the premieres, the finished work on the scene.

But, being an actor takes a lot of hardwork and resilience. It is classes, and studying. Tons of auditions that never amount to anything, yup dealing with rejection. Then studying more to perfect your character and your lines. It is emotionally exhausting, because a good character digs into your experiences and emotions.

It is about the expense and the travel, the time away from home. It is getting up early to show up on time, being professional, and easy to work with, staying long hours and hurrying up and waiting for your scene. Hearing, ” That was perfect, do it again”! And maybe doing it 10 more times! It is about being a team player and doing whatever it takes to get the scene right.

It is reading that script so many times that you know it in your sleep. Because once you are off book, then you can incorporate those lines into creating your character.

Then being patient, because it can take years for post production before a film is released. Then you can finally get all dressed up, and enjoy the red carpet premier and applause.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn stage acting. Stage acting is about filling up the stage, projecting, big gestures to play to the people in the back of the theatre!

Camera or cinematic acting is subtlety, intimate, Instead of throwing your energy out to the audience, you compress it and pull the audience into you.

Me analogy is being a celestial star. On stage the star is exploding all of that energy is filling up the stage, but on camera the star is imploding. All of that energy is still there just compressed. Onstage you scream when you are angry. On camera you have a low growl and all of that intensity comes out through your eyes.

On camera, I had to learn not to project. Instead to speak to someone, even whisper to someone, instead of yell at them.

Contact Info:

• Other: Renee Gelinas IMDb:
  https://www.imdb.com/name/nm11656176/Renee Gelinas IMDb Pro
  https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm11656176