Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Stella Rea. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Stella, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of our favorite things to hear about is stories around the nicest thing someone has done for someone else – what’s the nicest thing someone has ever done for you?

I like this question because I’ve been thinking about kindness a lot. I can think of many kind acts I’ve received, but I guess the most recent ones are from the same period in my life where I put work above my health. I was in the process of ending a very complicated project and starting one I was very passionate about, but it was all happening in the same week. The same week I was moving. So I had to go from downtown to uptown, and back and forth the entire day in between breaks. Naturally, I didn’t have time to eat in the middle of all of that, or buy food for that matter. While I was leaving a meeting, this very dear collaborator took one look at me and said, “have you eaten at all today?”, to which I just had to say I didn’t have time. She then proceeded to give me a tote bag with snacks (and one of her sheet sets because I also didn’t have time to buy sheets in all of this mess). During this same week, I had someone working with me and experiencing first hand some of what I was going through. One day I broke down and they saw it. Even though they didn’t say anything at the time, later that day – after my marathon up and downtown – I was presented with a bouquet of flowers from them.
These were two instances where people saw me in moments where I didn’t even realize I needed to be seen, and I carry them very close to my heart.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m an actor, writer, director and producer. I think what sets me apart is maybe myself, I’ve been learning to bet on me more if no one else will do it. I’m proud of things that aren’t really tangible for other people, like learning to bet on myself is something I’m very proud of. I have been finding that I tend to be a biographical artist, or at least to be inspired by things that are connected to my life in a way. I don’t like standing still, so I have a tendency of looking for new things to work on, projects to create and ways to expand my horzions.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Not necessarily resources, but I wish I had been braver before. I think I’m at a stage in my “creative journey” where I’m just kind of going for it, without overthinking things. And that means I might not reach the level of perfection I was previously aspiring to, but also I wasn’t really actually completing anything before because it was never good enough. So I’m just going for it and fuck it, let’s see what happens. I mean, I’m sure someone told me this earlier, but I wish I had the guts to be like this before. This state of mind puts me in a place of creative freedom that seems to make my work more daring, more interesting… At least to me.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I also think about this a lot, and I don’t really know (which I know is not really a good answer). At this point in my life, my goal is to put myself out there and just show my face. I think maybe I’m becoming someone who looks less at the macro – like, the ultimate goal – and more at the micro. Small things that are easier to reach, and just take it day by day. That makes me feel at least a little more accomplished in the short term, which I find is slightly important to me.

Image Credits
Rafal Reis