We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rex Dane a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Rex, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you have an agent or someone (or a team) that helps you secure opportunities and compensation for your creative work? How did you meet you, why did you decide to work with them, why do you think they decided to work with you?
This has been quite a process. I sent over hundreds of emails to talent agents all over Los Angeles. The amount of response I received was truly overwhelming, a lot of meetings, followed by countless offers. But for me, selecting the right agency was very easy, because there was only this one agent who I felt I truly connected to during the meeting, it was Myreon Arslan from MJB Talent Agency. The conversation I had with Myreon transcends a typical agent client conversation. Without getting into every single detail of the things we talked about in our meeting, I would like to mention a few of them. First, it was very apparent from the beginning of our conversation that I won’t be treated like a number. Second, as an actor without a huge body of work you are basically a beggar, and beggars can’t be choosers, that’s how it goes for the most part. But Myreon mentioned creative freedom. I was blown away, I was like did he just say that? I knew right away I had met the right person. Plus, our broader views on acting as a whole were very identical. I am excited to join MJB Talent Agency and am looking forward to doing some good work together in the near future.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I was working as a police officer, I quit my job to pursue acting. Initially, I wanted to join a school to study acting but the school I wanted to join told me I was not qualified on paper to get admission, because I did not have a resume (experience). I was very green, I did not know actors have resumes, I thought people would only need resumes to apply for regular jobs like in banks etc. Anyway, so I started working for free in student films. Those film school students showed a lot of interest in me, and did that for almost a year or so. People used to ask me who is your agent, and I had no clue what they were talking about. I was like what is an agent, I didn’t even know that actors have agents. Then I learnt actors need a reel to get into the business, I didn’t even know what a reel meant. But, then eventually I got a reel done and signed up with an agent. Then I started going out for auditions and then years later I was able to move to America. What sets me apart from others is that I still could not give up on my obsession.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I try to avoid talking on these kind of topics because the answers are almost always very depressing and negative. To be very specific, when I started out almost 10 years ago, I did not have any money left on me, not even a penny. I sold everything I had, and there was nothing else left for me to sell. 4 days of starvation, I was only living on water for 4 days straight, because tap water was the only thing I could get for free. On the fourth day I couldn’t take the pain, so I decided I will ask money from people in the street. I still don’t know why, but I couldn’t put my hands forward asking random strangers in the street for money. I tried a few times but I just couldn’t do it. I physically felt I won’t survive to the next day. Later that day I walked to this place, I don’t remember the name of the place but it was some kind of a government/social service type of a place where they gave free food to people. That’s when I finally got one bread roll and a cup of water from them for free. At the time, mere survival became such a life threatening challenge for me that I had all the reasons in the world to quit this acting dream. I mean, you don’t really dream of becoming an actor in that situation, you just try to somehow survive. But, deep down I realized acting to me was not a dream or passion, it was an obsession, it was an addiction. And, as we all know, any kind of addiction is difficult to get rid off.
To all the readers who is reading this, do realize that this was an extreme situation that came and passed, which most won’t have to go through in life. There were a lot of unseen variables that played a part in putting me in that situation at the time, primarily because I was alone in a foreign country with zero support system. So, I do not want anyone reading this to feel negative or depressed about pursuing their dreams.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
For the most part, the difference between a non-creative person and a creative person is the amount of risk and uncertainty they are willing to take in life. Non-creative people will never understand your journey as a creative person, they are not supposed to. When you are trying to become an actor you are basically gambling with your own life with zero financial security whatsoever. In this kind of situation, it would be ludicrous to expect any non-creative person to believe in what you do. Earlier, I was told I should see a therapist. I was told I should look for a full time job, lead a regular life like everyone else does, and then any kind of creative work should be done on weekends for fun. That is the “normal” for non-creative people, and there is nothing wrong with that thought, because a non-creative person will have a different perspective on life. For a non-creative person it would be a scary situation not having money to pay rent. Either they will start working more hours and or look for a higher paying job; again, there’s nothing wrong with that because that’s what any normal person would do. On the flipside, a true creative person would find comfort in that uncomfort zone. To be more specific, I don’t care if I get to sleep in my room, or in my car or on the sidewalk as long as I am doing what I love doing. However, if I freak out and start doing a full time job or start working longer hours so I don’t have to worry about paying my rent on time every month, then I might miss out on an opportunity that could be waiting for me in the next stop, and under no circumstances can I allow that to happen.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.rexdane.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamrexdane
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rexdane
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@iamrexdane
- Other: Agency Representation: MJB Talent Agency Myreon Arslan +1 323 514 0231 [email protected] Instagram: @mjbtalentagency