We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shaunya Boddie. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shaunya below.
Hi Shaunya, thanks for joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
Both of my parents have always been supportive of any of my endeavors, but I can always look to my Mom being faced with a challenge where I was concerned and finding the way to turn that into a launch pad moment in my life.
When I was younger I was extremely introverted and shy, to the point where I wanted no one looking at me, calling on me in a group setting or asking me to speak in front of a group. In other words, my shyness was debilitating.
My mother recognized this and knew if I never addressed this, my mindset would only get worse. She told me she literally had a conversation with God asking what she should do to help me. You have to understand, my Mom comes from a long line of creatives – I have relatives that run the gambit, from owning restaurants to writing in various mediums to being classically trained, performing opera singers. And in the end, she felt the answer to my extreme shyness would be found in the Arts community.
I’ll never forget her sitting my older sister and me down and telling us she had signed us up for private acting classes. What?! My sister, who is the consummate extrovert, cheered as if she had won the lottery, and I thought I was being punished. I remember asking my Mom to just tell me what I did and I promised to never do it again! She assured me this was not a punishment and said that I had to give a try. End of discussion.
So at seven years old I entered this acting troupe…as the youngest one in the group. Looking back, the Acting Coach was amazing not only teaching us the craft of acting but encouraging us to write the material that we performed. Equally, I remember enjoying the writing experience and dreading the moments on stage.
One day, in a single conversation, my life changed forever. The Acting Coach took me aside and said she could see how nervous I got on stage but had also noticed my talent with the development of and writing of the troupe’s performed pieces. She told me that, “because this is an acting troupe, I will require you to continue to go on stage BUT if you continue to help writing the scripts that we perform, I won’t make you have a major part and you can be in the background.” In that moment I felt a huge weight lift off of me! And in that moment, my perspective on my gift of writing totally shifted. That gift became something I wanted to pursue…for the rest of my life.
Later that year, at the age of seven, I won my first city-wide writing competition for my age group. The first of many accolades. I have always loved the fact that my Mom encouraged me to develop myself artistically, and have always valued the Acting Coach, who refused to let me settle into my comfort zone while focusing on and boosting my strengths. Because of that experience, I have held roles as a writer, which has often caused me to work with others; a director, which always puts me in the chief position of interacting and speaking with others; a producer, which requires leadership in a team setting; as well as an actor, which all those years ago I would have seen as impossible!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My sibling and I joke that we were raised on B&W films and popcorn. My Mom comes from an extremely Artsy family and is a complete fan of classic Hollywood. She made each movie, play, musical that we would see, an experience. I remember many magical moments when we were young where my Mom would gather us together to watch some film from Hollywood’s glory days and give us her commentary before the movie began. We watched the likes of Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Gregory Peck, Maureen O’Hara, Errol Flynn, Maura Tierney, to name a few. Gary Cooper was a big draw – my Mom’s maiden name is Cooper, so we grew up calling him Uncle Gary, even though we’re Black! And it seems pretty feasible that we were the only little Black girls with pictures of Errol Flynn and Cary Grant on our walls, instead some teen idol!
Fairly early on, I realized I love to write, and won my first competition at seven – a city wide competition that was broken into categories based on ages. I won 1st place for my age group and have never looked back. When I was in high school my older sister and I were called, “one stop shopping,” because of what we could accomplish. People would bring their idea, production, etc. and my sister would produce it acquiring the team to make it happen; and if needed, I would flesh out the project, write the copy and direct the final production.
By the time I finished high school, I was set on pursuing writing but ended up going to a university that didn’t have a writing major. Instead, I studied English Literature with a Writing minor, and when I began, I was convinced that I wanted to write the next great American novel. However, within that Writing minor program I was introduced to screenwriting and felt the world open up to me. I remember taking Beginning Screenwriting and having a final project that was supposed to be a 30-minute spec script for an existing sitcom. I begged the instructor to let me write a screenplay for a short film. He was not impressed – telling me that he would have no problem giving me an, “F,” if I couldn’t create a compelling story in that short time frame. One thing I definitely learned is that my introverted-self loves challenges, and I ended up with the top score in the class. And on my English Literature side, I could not fathom writing a 50-page Senior paper about a dead poet. Again, I petitioned the powers that be, asking if I could write a historical fiction and incorporate a literary figure from my studies. And again, I was told that if the piece didn’t work, I would be forced to settle for whatever grade I was given because there wouldn’t be enough time to attempt another assignment. I ended up writing a trilogy about my Mom, Grandmother and Great-Grandmother and had my Grandmother, who was a piano prodigy and known in the Black music scene, meet Nora Zeale Hurston on one of her book tours. After reading the finished piece, my Department Supervisor’s only critique was that the novel was not long enough because she wanted to read more!
With university behind us we took my sister’s degree in Communications with an emphasis on Producing and my degree that had further honed my writing skills and started an independent TV and film production company. That company put us in front of many celebrities and culminated in us getting a cable show, where we went on junkets and critiqued movies for the film studios. In the time our show ran, we had over 350 million viewers in the States and overseas and interviewed over 100 actors, producers and directors. Our strengths that we had utilized in high school once again rose to the surface as my sister would produce our segments and I wrote the copy for each segment’s scripted portion. It was during this time that I also wrote eight feature length screenplays, covering most of the genres, and my extroverted-sister pitched my work to every studio possible.
After the show ended, there was a period of time where my sister lived and worked in the United Kingdom. We dissolved our production company, and I started a new one – 5Penny Productions – with a friend who had graduated from film school with an emphasis on everything tech, particularly, editing. Together, we can take projects from concept to completion pretty effortlessly and have worked on short films, directed stage productions from ensemble pieces to one-woman shows, even doing the occasional music or exercise video. I remember feeling forced to step into that leadership role of taking meetings and dealing directly with clients. At first I dreaded it but soon realized I have been doing this all along, as I would sit in meetings that my sister led and listen to what was needed to complete another’s or one of our projects. And soon I began to love that aspect of the initial consult because that’s where any project starts: listening to the heart of the one bringing the challenge and figuring out how to best work together to bring it to fruition. And my business partner and I put that mentality on our own projects as well finishing three short films – one of which placed at a festival behind a film by Ron Howard and his daughter – and the 1st season of a web series.
Covid and the SAG strike brought a lot of our production endeavors to a halt, so I returned to writing. I am currently working with producers on one of my screenplays that has franchise buzz and is being prepared to shop at market. Needless to say, I’m keeping fingers crossed!
In the end, I’m simply a creative. Anything to do with the Arts and I’m in love. For me, the collaborative process is everything. I get such joy from seeing a blank screen and filling it with a script that is brought to life by actors who are nurtured by a crew determined to make the project a cohesive effort. And even though my personality leans happily toward the behind-the-scenes area, I am most alive when I am in the middle of turning an idea into a finished project – whether I get to write or act or produce or direct.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I remember when my sister and I had the movie critique show, I got scheduled to interview a director of a major motion picture, who didn’t seem particularly thrilled to do the interview. The time and location of the interview got changed multiple times and he definitely did not seem happy.
On the day of the interview he arrived at the studio, and I got the alert to come and collect him. I remember meeting him and his body language said it all – sunglasses on, shoulders slumped, hands in pockets, etc. I felt lucky that he even shook my hand! Honestly, as I walked him back to the studio, I was praying for inspiration! And then I felt a calm wash over me – his attitude had nothing to do with me. All I could do was be myself.
Now, my sister and I are consummate researchers and always studied the press kits we would get from the studios. Many of our fellow press would never even open them. And then we would add our own studies on top of that, in preparation for crafting our interviews.
The director and I sat down, I took a deep breath and we began. I watched as the questions I asked, which could not be answered with simply “yes” or “no” began to draw him out of his shell. The beginning of his answers started being, “Good question,” and “I’ve never thought about that.” Before I knew it, I realized the sunglasses came off and he and I began to relax.
The last thing I talked to him about was the fact that I had learned that his next project was supposed to be with Steven Spielberg. He was excited about that; I was excited for him and he could feel it. At the end, I asked if he would come back on the show after completing the project with Spielberg. He shook his head and said, ” No…You won’t want me by then. You’ll be too big for me.” Believe me, it took everything in me not to let my jaw drop. The director who definitely didn’t want to be there, now said I’d be too big for him!
As we said good-bye, and he got into his limo to leave I understood that I can never be swayed by a negative situation or person. If I’m prepared and put in the work, all I can do is bring myself to that situation or person. And what I’ve learned over and over is if I do that – if I put in the preparation and be myself, no people-pleasing – myself is always enough.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Easily one of the most rewarding aspects of being an artist or creative is watching how the Arts break down barriers and impact those exposed. A play or film or a piece of music can reach a divers audience, touching each person in a different way whether they speak the language being delivered or are familiar with the story being portrayed. The point is, each person is touched. You can’t experience a brilliant performance and not be changed, Researchers know that the brain expands when exposed to the Arts and never goes back to the original size. There are not many things that can do that. And all of that happens without the person experiencing it even realizing it. I feel like the Arts are like breath – we often take it for granted, don’t notice it but would die without it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://5pennyproductions.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shaunya.boddie
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaunya-boddie-8560a19b
