We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Roy Cruz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Roy below.

Roy, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

After quitting last 9 to 5 / regular job around 2016

Roy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am Roy Cruz, born and raised in the Philippines and moved to Los Angeles in 1995. I started out first as a stand-up comedian. I did it for about 15 years. Then when i got talent representation, I ventured into acting. I did some commercials for a couple of pilot TV shows that never aired and after impersonating Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada as part of my standup comedy routine, I developed it into a live theater show called Streep Tease: An Evening of Meryl Streep Monologues Performed by an All-Male Cast. The show was a success, it ran from 2009 to 2010 then came back from special engagements in 2011, then in 2012 it was part of the Hollywood Fringe and then it had a limited run in 2015.

In 2008, I read the book Drawing From the Right Side of The Brain, and I enjoyed drawing so much that I started producing artwork. I started out doing portraints. Then in 2018, I started experimenting on abstract designs, and since then I’ve been hooked. From standup comedy I transitioned to Storytelling upon the encouragement of my friend and mentor the late actor Taylor Negron, I learned so much from him, about writing and also art because he is also an accomplished painter. He taught me a lot of things about sketching, especially gesture drawing, acting, and writing.

I love being able to create in different platforms. I always believed that creatives hear different callings, and there are some of us who answer to all, and some who answer to just one. I try to answer to all the creative voices I hear because learning something new or discovering is always fun.

I knew I had talent in drawing before but since I am red and green color blind, I was always afraid to dabble into painting. The way i approach colors in painting is as long as I see a contrast in colors, then I can work with it. I have problems seeing green, mint green to me is gray, pink is sometimes gray, and lime, and chartreuse are all yellow to me. But there’s something magical when you commit to painting, there’s always an element of surprise when you put colors side by side.

My art style right now, if you have time you can checkout roycruzart.com, is all about movement. I am mesmerized with dance. Especially in a dance ensemble, seeing a group of dancers whether they are in sync or not, creates an ethereal movement of souls in between their bodies, and that’s what I’m trying to capture. If you see my art works there are lines of negative spaces because to me that represents the energy that is passed on by each dancer. I try to express that in my work.

I transitioned from stand-up comedy to storytelling because I like writing and reading an essay in front of an audience. Standup comedy is fun, but I find essay writing/storytelling shows more vulnerability, there’s also more emotional connection from the audience, and very cathartic too.

I was fortunate to have done several showcases and that landed me some pilot projects, although, those shows never aired, I was able to get representation. When something new like that happens to me and it’s in line with the creative process, I have to follow that lead.

Of the three median that I engage in, writing for me is the hardest because, even though I write things that have happened in my life, memory is very abstract, there are so many times that I cringe at what i write, but that’s a good sign because that means, there’s a corrective or reparative element that I want to process. Writing changes who you are and at best, changes the perspective of your reader.

I am fascinated with acting. I am invested in it because It’s a rare privilege to play someone who is a different character from you. I’m always intrigued by the process of breaking down a character. Also the discipline of being in character, or practicing speech. Any art form requires discipline. Discipline is one thing that I constantly work on. I strongly believe in what the great James Baldwin said, “Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but most of all, endurance. Endurance, indeed, is perhaps the sole common denominator among successful authors”

I get asked what art form I put on top of my list. That’s a hard question because all of them provide fulfillment. They also complement each other. One of the things I do before I write is to sketch. I feel like I open the door to my muse whenever I start sketching.

For acting, I’m proud of creating Streep Tease

For writing, I have an essay that was published in Salon.com “How Faye Dunaway Saved the Christmas Pageant” then in the book Rebel Comics, an anthology of essays by queer comedians, the title of the essay is “Janeane Garofalo’s Greasy Hair.”
For visual artist, I’ve had three art shows in the last three years.

Currently, I’m working on a new collection of artworks and I plan to show them next year. I am also a co-producer of Strong Words, a monthly storytelling show. I am also waiting for the SAG strike to be over so I can go back to auditioning. In my spare time, I like baking and cooking. I just recently learned how to play the guitar.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The freedom of expression. There is no end game in being an artist because once you’ve started to claim that title, even after death the title remains. Art is so subjective but it’s permanent. It’s the alchemy of fantasy and reality. Artists trek the path to creativity not thinking of the destination but enjoying the bumps and detours of what the muses show us. Stephen Sondheim once said that art is craft not inspiration. I agree 100%. You can be inspired with what you see in front of you, like a place, a pattern or poetry but when it’s time to create your own, you rely on discipline to craft your story, artwork, or role. When a project takes the shape of an unexpected format, image or story, to me, that means a unique technique or craftsmanship had been developed by that artist/writer/actor. Having a catalog of works is an enriching feeling. Its like reading an immersive and multi-media diary.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Okay, here’s a story, I just got my SAG card last year. After auditioning for 17 years, I finally got a project that qualified me to join the union. I thought about quitting so many times. Auditioning is not cheap, the clothes, the make-up, and the accessories that I have to collect in character building. Also at the time I started, roles for gay Asian men like me were few and far between. In my early years of auditioning, I lost roles because I had a Filipino accent but, I just kept on thinking, during auditions I only lose about four hours at the most, if you don’t book the gig, I look at it as an acting lesson for that day. If I book it, great, I just kept on showing up. Finally, I booked a gig, It was for a Limited Series, and then I found out my scene was cut. But it’s all good, I got paid and as I said, I’m in it for the long haul. Last year I got cast in a TV show starring a famous sitcom star from the 90s. When he couldn’t get my attention he called me names for being gay and Asian, it was hurtful, he didn’t apologize and even claimed during the investigation that he could not be racist because his wife is Filipina (we all know that excuse) when that happened I wanted to quit. But even though it was a hurtful experience I won’t stop from being creative, as an actor, writer or a painter and that will never change.

Contact Info:

• Website: roycruzart.com , streeptease.net
• Instagram: roycruzart
• Facebook: roycruzart
• Youtube: Streep Tease / @roydcruz

Image Credits
Caroline White for the picture of me wearing the Black Turtle Neck