We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sean Berube. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sean below.
Hi Sean, thanks for joining us today. Have you ever had an amazing boss, mentor or leader leading you? Can you us a story or anecdote that helps illustrate why this person was such a great leader and the impact they had on you or their team?
The best boss I’ve ever had was Kyle Sitkowski. He was my boss when I was on active duty orders with the Air Force and he was in charge off the investigations section. His leadership style was exemplary, fostering a fun and very productive section. Kyle really knew when it was time to work it was time to work but also knew when to give us time to unwind. If we had cameras going in the office full time we could’ve had a hit show like The Office. We were always pulling pranks on each other. We had a moment where I was on the phone with a local police department commander and I incorrectly said the name and out of nowhere, Kyle says “you really are one dumb son of a bitch!” This had all of us in tears as Kyle was visibly upset and it wasn’t that big of a deal. But that’s just the kind of relationship we all had. Kyle also had a huge impact on my decision to pursue acting. His constant joking about how bad I was at it just made me want to work even harder at improving my abilities and making it that much sweeter when I accomplished goals in the acting industry. Kyle is the type of guy that won’t ever say it but I know inside he is proud of me!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
In 2018, I had served as a law enforcement officer in the Army, Tucson PD, and the Air Force Reserve for a combined total of 25 years. On the 4th of July of this year, a friend of a friend, Danny Ray, had told me he had a western wardrobe business. Danny said he ends up being on a lot of sets of movies, commercials, and music videos. Danny said there was a local filmmaker who was casting for a new Indie horror film and I should audition. I really never thought about doing this before so I just decided to go with it and I auditioned. I was offered a lead role and fell in love with the process of making movies! After that, I got involved in every acting class I could find locally, Indie films, short films, student films to get exposure, experience, and to network with fellow thespians. The best decision I made in this journey was signing up for the Hollywood Winners Circle program by Wendy Alane Wright. This program gave me the much needed foundation to get ready to be competitive in this ruthless industry and make my materials look very professional. My first big break happened in 2019, when I was invited out to Netflix studios in Albuquerque, NM to audition for a new zombie movie they were making. What a complete shock to find out when I arrived, I was greeted by the legend himself, Zack Snyder. Zack was making his movie Army of the Dead and he was looking for people in great shape with muscular stature to play Alpha Zombies. Zack put me through some choreography and offered me the role!! Imagine going from doing low budget Indie/student films to being onset for a monster of a film like this!! I was having so much fun with this new endeavor, my wife and I decided to retire from the Tucson PD in 2020 and move to California to continue working my way up the ladder. During this time, Covid had either shutdown or severely shutdown the industry. But in 2021, I hit the ground running and ended up being in so many amazing projects and working with so many awesome people. I have over 80 IMDb credits now and have had the honor of working with some of the biggest names in the industry, such as Will Smith, Jon Bernthal, Wesley Snipes, and Kevin Hart to name a few. In 2022, I was offered another huge break in the world of television. I booked a costar role on the blockbuster show, Better Call Saul, thanks to my amazing team of representation, Gina Birnbaum (TopTenTalent) and Jillian Oleary West. I got to arrest the man himself, Saul Goodman, played by Bob Odenkirk! I had arrested a lot of people up to this point in my law enforcement career, but this arrest took the cake! During this time, I also began doing stunt work with some of the best in the business, Daniel Locicero and Tony Surphman. I have honed my skills in the art of stunt fighting and continue to improve in areas such as stunt driving, falls, and wire work. I even got to do a stunt fight with Drew Scott from the hit show, Property Brothers! I continue to submit to so many projects but have now also got into producing my own stuff with a group of talented filmmaking friends, Carlos and Jasmine Berber, Paul Winters, Daniel Miller, and the team at Amped Marketing. Our first feature film titled Case of Acacia Thatcher will be released in 2024, starring Elley Ringo! We have some great films on the horizon and the thing I love the most about this is giving back to my community of friends in the industry and getting them paid work. I try not to turn down any opportunity because you never know which project could catapult to the top and be a hit with audiences. I hate being at home not working on something because my mind is thinking, somewhere, someone is working on a film and I could’ve been part of it. It’s a very exhausting pursuit and many sacrifices are made going after it but for me it has been so worth it!
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is seeing the hard work of sooo many people come together in the final edit of the project. We pour our heart and soul into our films and to be able to watch it on the big screen after is just so rewarding. It absolutely takes a village to produce these movies.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
The best thing society can do to support us artists is help us share and advertise our finished projects. Social media gives us the ability to share this for free. People just need to take a few seconds and hit that share button. I have found it very difficult to get people to do this. We as low budget Indie filmmakers do not have the funds to pay for marketing and advertising so we really need the publics’ help with this.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/seanberube
- Instagram: @seanberube_
- Facebook: @seanberubeactor
- Youtube: @seanberube7702