We were lucky to catch up with Shaun Duke Jr. recently and have shared our conversation below.

Shaun, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on thus far is probably Baby Elephants. Baby Elephants is a short film I wrote, produced and starred in that is loosely based around a friend of mine who passed away and his relationship with his mother. He and his mother used to do heroin together.. It was sort of an abstract darkness that existed in parallel to an otherwise loving, healthy and ordinary mother/son relationship. The film was extremely personal and cathartic to make. It also served as the first project I’ve ever written and produced and shot. Both my friend and his mother have passed away from overdoses, but he was actually still alive at the time that I made the film. He was a really special person. He could make just about anyone he encountered laugh and dance, and feel connected. I feel his presence often in my life and I expect that his spirit may continue to find its way into my work in projects to come.

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/film maker. More simply, I usually refer to myself as an “artist” because I also paint and have a background in audio production. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that acting is just the form of expression and creativity that I’ve found enjoy the most so far, but I think the root of my passion truly lives simply in the creative process. I love to create and to inspire or at least affect others through art. I have also founded and operated various businesses alongside my artistic pursuits. I live in LA currently but recently have had an itch to move to New York or Chicago to get more theatre experience.

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

Getting to ‘take the ride’ and let go. Sometimes getting into the creative process feels like taking off shoes that are too small in daily life. When I begin my work on a character, I typically try to start as open and free as possible while I take my first passes through the script in exploration. That might be my favorite part of the process, as it’s usually the most liberating and in some cases therapeutic to just do whatever comes to mind. So often in life we refrain many of our impulses to avoid the potential consequences in our lives whether they be physical, emotional or spiritual consequences. Often I think its as simple as being afraid of what others might think of us. But as an actor, it’s kind of like getting a hall pass to excuse you from that responsibility because it’s not about you, it’s about the characters and their story.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

All the cliché one-liners urging you to do what you love are true. I’ve have an entrepreneurial spirit since I was 24. Since then, I’ve started probably 7 or 8 business. Unfortunately most of them did not succeed but one of the primary reasons is because I created many of them primarily driven by a desire to make money. A couple of the ones that failed actually succeed financially but I still had to pull the plug eventually because I lost faith in the industries I was in at the time. Others ran out of steam when things got tough and eventually went under. My acting career is the longest career I’ve had so far in my life at 6 years and still remains one of the most exciting parts of my life. I’ve had extremely challenging days and even stretches of months, but because I love it so much, I find that I’m often able to find the extra courage I need to move forward when faced with uncertainty.