Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Samantha Grullon Ferrerr. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Samantha, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you wish you had started sooner?
Even though I have been acting since I was 15, I am very glad I fully started my professional career now in my 20’s because I was able to have a pretty normal childhood. Being out of the industry at an early age gave me the room to have important character-building experiences like navigating different kinds of relationships with people, making mistakes and learning/growing from them, taking my time to explore my identity, and cementing my self-worth. I was able to enjoy being a kid! I was able to have that privacy that not a lot of people who start off very early on have! I was able to grow up safely, as a girl, out of the scrutinizing public eye. Things like beauty standards or a respectful work ethic are things I know better about now, and I can enter the professional environment as a grown-up who is able to stand up for myself and know I don’t need to subject myself to unpleasantries just to get by or move ahead. Because of this, I had the privilege of not having to learn the hard way that I am good enough as I am.
Samantha, 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?
Well, it all started from the moment I was born, that’s what my parents will tell you, with my knack for memorizing songs and lines without really trying and general fearlessness to be silly in the public eye, but it really started standing in the wings of my grade 9 drama class in the middle of a rehearsal for my school’s production of The Wizard Of Oz. A fellow classmate asked me, “So, is this what you wanna do in the future?” and I was like, “y’know what? yes! This is exactly what I wanna do.” I got my roots in Toronto, then started doing theatre here in Atlanta, and now I’ve switched from standing in front of audiences to cameras doing film! I am a very expressive person. I have a lot in me that I want and need to express, and this is the one outlet that I can do this well and comfortably in. I love immersing myself in stories and taking pieces of myself and mixing and matching them to mold into a new person. I also feel that acting is arguably the strongest form of storytelling. When you present a story in person, live-action, people watch. They have to pay attention. All barriers kind of fall, because anyone will understand what is happening when watching other people’s interactions. So if there’s a story to be told, a message to get across, I feel accomplished and honored to be a part of it, that vessel that communicates a story across.
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 give up the mindset of comparing myself to others and rushing myself. I still have to remind myself of that to this day. I knew from very early on that the trajectory I chose to take my life in is untraditional and unpredictable, and even though I am totally okay with that and do not regret a single moment that has led me to the point where I am now, I put myself through a lot of agony watching others around me move and advance while I had certain goals with certain dates that I gave myself and it didn’t end up happening when I wanted or planned it to. The toll that I didn’t expect to take on me was that I felt like it diminished my self-worth. I was really thinking, “Oh, look at the calendar, look at what day we’re on already, and I didn’t do this. I’m not good enough.” It’s recently in my life that I realized I can’t measure myself on other people’s metrics, and just because something doesn’t happen exactly when I want it, doesn’t mean it’s not happening at all. I literally entered a depressive stage because I wasn’t getting jobs by the dates I had written out, which halted me for so, so long. But it took a good while for me to learn and mentally recover from the fact that goals don’t have an expiration date and I didn’t waste my life away because I didn’t reach that goal by that date and have to throw in the towel. Now I’m working again! A little later than I anticipated, but I’m never too old or too late to achieve what I want.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Look outside of the trending tabs and give the underdogs a chance! Yes, we all consume mainstream media a lot because that’s what gets pushed the strongest to all of us, but what’s mainstream is not the only thing available! There are absolute gems in other languages, the indie scene, and creators who do absolutely fantastic work running a one-person show. There’s so much great content outside of our main feeds! Now more than ever the public is becoming aware of music, art, or films from other names or other countries, and as someone who has always been a consumer of the non-mainstream, I love that! We should all keep an open mind to viewing something new that we might stumble upon and maybe find a new passion and support those artists that give us that, whether it be a J-pop or Bollywood song that you randomly found on your Youtube Recommended or a short film from a director whose name you don’t recognize pop up on your For You Page. So look up and click on those “what’s new” or “indie production” or “*insert your city* artist” hashtags and explore, because you’re giving us creators who want to be seen a chance! All creators, big or small start somewhere, and it starts with you, the viewers, broadening your horizons and giving us just a bit of your time and attention. We’re here, come find us!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.backstage.com/u/samantha-grullon-ferrer-1/
- Instagram: @samaramaaaa
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/dscIcUvTptQ
Image Credits
Zion Richardson, Darrell Coleman