We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sean Szatkowski. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sean below.
Sean, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
Three years ago, on the advice of my mentor, I pushed my chips on the table to pursue making art through acting and stand-up. With everything that happened in 2020, it was a high stakes gamble that required work and commitment. After a four month dry spell, I would further up the ante and ask to see my college friend’s script over deep dish pizza just miles west of Los Angeles. Three pages in I knew I had to bring this script to life. I told my friend, Kevin Hickey, “You have something special here. You worked in so many warm facets of your life. This script is a festival darling waiting to explode.” He looked at me and then asked me to be the lead character, one that he said was not only inspired by his life, but also our friendship. Having already recognized the parallels between “By The Grape Of God” and my own life, I said jokingly, “I’d would’ve fought you if you didn’t at least give me a shot!” We laughed, knowing there may have been a nugget of truth. After the laughter subsided Kevin asked “Are we really doing this?” I replied “We’re doing this. Hell or high water I’ll bring in people who will make this film worthy of the script you wrote.” Here we are now with a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement film, a commercially viable script (rated on par with “Sound of Metal” & “Peanut Butter Falcon”), and a heavily accoladed cast & crew with long, successful careers. Suppose I was too stupid to know better!
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.
It was always my dream to pursue acting & comedy. Growing up in Chicago/Chicagoland, access to these opportunities were limited at best, so I put my dream aside to cultivate a fairly successful amateur athletics career in wrestling and soccer. Even there I did not fit in, but found comfort & respite in watching actors like Marlon Brando, Robin Williams, Shannyn Sossamon, Lisa Bonnet, Ethan Hawke, Jason London, DeNiro, Pesci, Washington, Hayek, and then with the newer faces that came along like Lupita Nyong’o and Lakeith Stanfield. Books, movies, television, music and comedy specials were (and still are) my source of escapism, romanticism, and inspiration. The arts inspire me to bring the kindness to a world that pushed me down through bullying and other traumatic experiences.
As an adult, I bounced around New York as a Madmen of sorts in entertainment advertising and marketing with a focus on movies, television and music. Upon moving back to California, I had a four month stint of homelessness. During this time I commuted three hours each way on public transit, showered at the beach and lived under the 405 freeway. SoCal Bulldog Rescue and Real Time Rescue graciously housed my dog during my housing search. With their support, I landed back on my feet, found housing and got my pup back. I still volunteer with these organizations, who help dogs and LA’s homeless community (Real Time Rescue). Much like the teachers of my youth, it didn’t take long for my work colleagues to notice my creative inclinations and encourage me to pursue the arts by recommending a prestigious acting school in LA.
I didn’t know if acting was for me, but there was an audition so I gave it a shot. They accepted me into the school and I absolutely fell in love with the craft. I was even nominated for a few awards. My mentor, Sam Miller of Greenshoes in London, then told me to pursue acting professionally. That’s what ultimately led me to where and who I am today: an actor, producer, and comic.
Sam saw my love of great writers and directors, but most importantly my empathy for misunderstood characters. These characters filled the landscapes of artists like Linklater, Tarantino, Scorsese, Duvrey, Glover, Zhao, Kurosawa, Del Toro, Eastwood, & Tennessee Williams and led me to my biggest acting showcase as Stanley Kowalski.
The aforementioned artists fueled and shaped my curiosity for the misunderstood “black sheep” characters, as I have perpetually felt like a “black sheep” myself. The guidance of these storytellers and actors emboldens my cause to a foster a kinder world; especially in an industry that has sold countless stories of second chances and opportunities.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I’m a dreamer–an idealist in all reality who can’t help but swing for the fences and dare to aim high. My pivot into the creative world of acting and comedy came through the signs the world was presenting me. It was certainly a scary decision to depart my stable advertising career for what others would call a dream, especially after being only shortly removed from Rock bottom, & only just a couple years prior there was a decently lengthed stint of homelessness, I’m talking showering at the beach homelessness having just rescued myself from living under an overpass on Sepulveda Boulevard; while maintaining a corporate nine-to-five no less!
After securing my footing with stability for some time, my body was telling me “You need to leave!!!”. Consistently, even when living under that overpass no less–I was improving companies, increasing their bottom lines, & providing valuable insight to company and customer alike. Yet, there was no passion to do it and the work conditions weren’t worth the toll the career was taking on me. Every nerve in my body was shaking when I was considering risking it all again; during the pandemic no less–my body was showing the physical signs from it all too.
I sat down with family, friends, and my mentor; to which not everyone was in full support. Many preached caution, rightly so, but all were aligned with going after my goals. In the end every single person my acting pursuits were discussed with understood a couple things: being an actor made me happy, and it was going to happen at some point; no matter what. So…why not now? When better than now? But, I had one more person to convince…Myself.
Finding myself disenchanted with the career and life, hearing from those in whose thoughts I valued in, put before me the full-bodied revelation to bet on myself–sure to make sound decisions, but to dare to believe in what good that could happen versus being held back by whatever fear was there. Never started out good at much, but happened to accomplish–in spite of few if anyone banking on me, along with seeing that others wanted the “ball in my hand in crunch time” flipped the switch in me to take control of my life, on my terms, and offer a hand up. Change is tough, that’s why pivots many times don’t happen unless forced, maybe the situation called for it.
The real pivot was going from looking for someone to looking inward and realizing it was and is all within me if I dare to gamble on myself the way I’ve gambled with everything else I both cared and didn’t care for all that much. It was the dare to be as bold as my goals and dreams, it’s not being unafraid of failure or humiliation, but to take that fear head on. Hence, why I was probably crazy enough to up the ante in going for it with “By The Grape Of God”. What a ride so far, huh?
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
You really can make a difference, especially in this space, one that touches so many. Support independent films and works by going to see them, donating to their fundraisers, and sharing their stories. Let’s get away from the “cookie-cutter” and lean into something that could stimulate your heart. It’s a mountain of a battle for those who are truly independent. Many of them come from similar walks of life like most of us do. They want to tell YOUR STORIES and tell you stories that will matter to you. The big players have the infrastructure to keep things going, to always catch your eye. Be on the lookout for the artist and projects who want to tell you something original, and in the day and age of connectivity every little bit of support goes farther than you think. These are people who not only want the opportunity to show you something great, but also give you the opportunity to be part of the experience. The “By The Grape Of God” team couldn’t have made our film without every like, share, comment, donation, interview invitation, and other forms of support that we were offered. By doing these things it does tell the markets that there is a craving for what will truly touch people.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bythegrapeofgod.com/
- Instagram: @szatsean
Image Credits
1st: Dani Keaton Second: Drew Langhart (headshot) Third: Movie Poster Seth Good Fellow (self in video city camera shot) & BTS shoot Fourth Image: Dani Keaton Zachary Smith (in hat and vest, scarf) Vasu Karla (black and white)