We recently connected with Reyna Papotto and have shared our conversation below.

Reyna, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

Do I wish I started my creative career sooner or later? To be honest, for the longest time I had a different answer to this question every day. As a twenty-three year old, I am finally at peace with saying I wouldn’t have changed a thing within my creative career timeline. I’ve rushed for things to happen in my creative career, the outcome was never satisfying. I’ve played the waiting and sulking game in my creative career, that was always an even bigger let down. Finally, I’ve learned to meet everything in the middle, a neutral playing field. Taking everything day by day. I’ve made room for my creative gifts, and the gifts have made room for me. Once I realized that my timeline/ creative timeline is strategically crafted for ME and ME ONLY, I was set free of throwing this pity party for myself every time I saw my peers “moving up” in their careers. In conclusion, I’m happy with taking the long road in life. There are more scenic routes, more treacherous roads, more vast wide open spaces travel through.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am an Actor/Singer/Model. Starting off early in my career, I wanted to be a singer, and a singer only. My goal was to be the next pop star like Hannah Montana (this was me at seven years old, and maybe still me today). As soon as I auditioned for my first ever musical in middle school, I wanted to do it all. I started to pursue musical theatre in high school, and then dove into the realm of straight plays. I never wanted to leave the stage. Performing has never been an escape for me, but more of coming back into myself. And who wants to be away from themselves? Not me! I have continued to do all things “live theatre” through both Universities I’ve attended, and I have even gotten to explore acting for the camera since moving to Savannah. A completely different world, that I never expected to fall in love with as well. On top of that, modeling has been a goal of mine since I discovered America’s Next Top Model. When I moved to Savannah SO many doors opened up for those dreams to come true. I never thought I would ever be seen as a model because of my height, even as an actress in film. This city has opened so many doors that I couldn’t have even prepared for. I have gained so much confidence as a an actress, singer, and model collaborating on photo projects & film sets with SCAD students, local businesses, and boutiques.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I don’t know if this is an unpopular opinion but, something that I’ve had to unlearn (that has worked in my favor) is to stop planning. I have always been a strategic planner. The thought of not knowing my next move used to terrify me. The fear of the unknown has always lingered in my mind. This mindset was completely turned around when I was offered a performing opportunity across the country this past summer, and right off the bat I agreed to it. I suppose the first big moment that was completely unplanned was moving to Savannah for school. From then on, every single thing relating to opportunities in my field has come out of thin air. They weren’t even a thought in my mind. I never imagined that I would be where I am today if I completely surrendered and trusted the process. So from moving to Savannah, I was provided with an opportunity of a life-time that I couldn’t pass up. TOTALLY unplanned. All because I have lived day-by-day. Although I had no exact set living situation, transportation, etc. I knew everything was going to work out, because I’ve seen it for the past almost two years living in Savannah! A true blessing!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist has to be, seeing people believe me. Not believing IN me”, but “believing ME”. There is so much more truth in that statement. I love to hear gasps in the audience, cheers when something grand happens, sobs when a tragic event takes place, etc. It is my all time favorite thing to know that someone is in that place with me. Whether that’s on stage, or on a big screen. I just want someone to listen to me. To REALLY listen. Although I might be playing roles that are the complete opposite of Reyna Papotto, I’m still Reyna Papotto. The words, movement, articulations that I express in a play or a movie are still connected to me, it’s impossible that they couldn’t be. Overall, the biggest gift is recognizing that I’ve conveyed truth.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @reynapapotto
• Other: Tiktok: reynapapotto

Image Credits
photo 1: @cosmiceilia – Cece Kirksey photo 2: @madisonn114 – Madison Lambert photo 3: @kyla.rys – Kyla Rys photo 4: @maddiemurphyphoto – Maddie Murphy photo 5: @kendrafrankle – Kendra Frankle photo 6: @decoroimages – John Hopper