We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Stephanie Morgan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Stephanie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
Although I have been acting and entertaining for over ten years, I didn’t always go about the process the right way. I had been at odds with mental illness since puberty, and early on, acting was used as an escape tactic. I was simply “masking” and there wasn’t any substance behind the characters I portrayed. The most difficult lesson I had to learn was to find out who I was as a person, and to peel back all of the layers of self-loathing that I had placed upon myself for whatever reason. Once I embraced my “self,” or my vessel, as I like to call it, I was able to absorb emotions and experiences a lot more effectively than I ever did as a teenager. Learning self-acceptance and self-love also opened my eyes to the world around me. I was able to observe and admire everyday people, which was something I was completely closed off to while I was trapped in my own head. To be able to ask questions such as why and how things are outside of myself was crucial to my growth, and once I accepted myself, I was able to apply it. A recent saying I came up with an acting coach was, “Do the analysis, then do you,” and that’s how I’ve been living my dream effectively.
Stephanie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
When I was a child, my mother and sister were huge fans of AMC (before their original content boom) and TCM, so from a very young age I was exposed to the Golden Age of Hollywood. I admired the visuals and the stories to the point where we would have to watch films like Meet Me in St. Louis every single day. My sister can still quote that whole film 30 years later because of me.
As time went on, I took part in school plays from second grade all the way into my college years. The moment I knew I could be an actor was when I portrayed the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz in my senior year of high school. I was so scary that I kept a small girl from going back into the auditorium. Even though that felt cool to pull off, I didn’t want to scar this child for life. I ended up breaking character and going to talk to her in the lobby when I wasn’t on stage. I remember telling her to stick it out and to be brave inside, because she would see Dorothy make it home in the end. Of course, the show went on, I melted, and Dorothy made it home. During the meet-and-greet at the end of the show, she was the first person to walk up to me, and we shared a hug. It’s been nearly fifteen years since that happened, but it’s stuck with me and has been a constant reminder of the power I can possess as an actor.
Not only did I perform in plays at a young age, I also played a lot of organized sports such as softball, soccer, and basketball. I’m a huge Philadelphia Phillies fan, so my one of my first aspirations was to become the first female play-by-play announcer for the organization, and to work alongside the late, great Harry Kalas. Instead of going to college for acting and theater, I went for journalism and public relations, as I had felt that broadcasting was going to be my strongest chance at a career post-graduation. Even though I had a lot of self-loathing in this era of my life, I knew I had a good speaking voice and I was confident with it. Unfortunately, the recession happened during my college years, and jobs were extremely scarce, so it was back to square one unless I wanted to go door-to-door selling solar panels for commissions. Not just that, but Harry Kalas passed away during my freshman year of college, so the dream of working with him died awfully quick.
While I was swirling in the abyss of early adulthood and not having a career locked in, I spent the next few years observing the highs and lows of the human condition working in various retail jobs like GameStop. From being able to talk to shy children about their favorite Pokemon or WWE Superstar, to being berated by an older female customer because I wasn’t a “male manager,” I was certainly learning a lot about body language, emotions, and judgment. Most of it was great, but some of it really really hurt, especially because I couldn’t have been the only person experiencing these things every day. It taught me empathy and to identify with those who weren’t always open about their struggles or insecurities, since those strong emotions would come off in highly negative ways.
To burn off the stressors of my survival jobs, I continued doing community theater for several years in and around the Philadelphia area, and I also had the chance to perform in plays at the New Jersey Fringe Festival in Hammonton, NJ. I also cut my teeth in a number of student films for Temple University and Drexel University, and I had worked as a background actor for films like Creed, Glass, and Hustle. Post-COVID, I began working on more projects in New York City, and I was lucky enough to take part in scenes from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Uncoupled, and Fleishman is in Trouble. While the traveling can be rough some days, the satisfaction I get from being on a set undoes any sort of negativity in my mind, and if I’m getting that positive feeling from the environment of a set, I know I’m doing the right thing and I’m on the right track.
On a smaller scale, when I’m not on set, I’ve also been working as a simulated/standardized patient in Philadelphia, where I portray medical cases for nursing students to train for real-world situations. It’s rewarding for me not only as an actor, but as a human being, because I’m helping these students to be the best they can be. Some of the students are terrified during these encounters, but once they get through it, they always appreciate the feedback given post-simulation and it’s also a great time to give encouragement, since the field they’re going into is not at all easy. Plus, we’ve all experienced a time where we had a less-than-great encounter at a doctor’s office or in a hospital, and I’m sure we can all agree that we don’t need any of that frustration, so in some ways, both the “patient” and the student have the same endpoint in mind.
I never did lose my love of broadcasting. I’ve translated that into a hosting job for a national murder mystery company that I’ve been a part of for nearly nine years. Not only do I act in this show, but I also provide the entertainment and energy as a host for patrons to come out of their shells and enjoy the immersive experience. This particular job is one that I’m most proud of, considering that I’m setting the tone for the show itself, and patrons are ready to experience the chaos and hilarity of a murder mystery. The best way I can compare what I do to another job is the hype person that fires up the live audience prior to a daytime talk show or a live game show. Sure, there’s a lot of other tasks that come with the job such as customer service and event management, but the energy I create with the guests helps me along with the behind-the-scenes stuff too, and there are definitely shows where it is heavily needed.
The entire realm of acting and performing is vital in my life. Even when I wasn’t acting in the healthiest of ways, I still enjoyed the creation of a world for people to step into and believe for a while. Just like I did when I was the Wicked Witch, I feel the energy of the room and shape it into the mold of the world I want to create. The mind is a beautiful, yet fragile piece of the human vessel. It can create, destroy, observe, analyze, process, and influence the ones around it. It’s a powerful tool and weapon that I will always utilize when I get the chance as an actor.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Respectfully, society sees the bigger picture of Hollywood and judges us on that too much. Not every working actor is in a union, makes hundreds of thousands of dollars every year, and has a mansion. Some of the best actors I’ve worked with are full-time teachers or working in the restaurant business. Many of us are not only trying to make ends meet, but working to fulfill ourselves creatively, whether that’s through writing a play or performing on the community stage a few nights a week. If we’re performing for next-to-nothing pay, it’s because we love to do it, and we love to entertain people. It’s more than just a hobby, and even if working in films isn’t the endgame, I hope that society understands that we’re allowed to have passions outside of the 9-to-5’s and our families and friends. There’s so much more to the acting world than the big stage/screen itself, and the rewards of being creative go beyond physical rewards.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
For as long as I can remember, I would get easily bored and later irritated with routines. It reared an ugly head a lot when I was in high school, since the constant flow of work and responsibilities would cause anxiety to the point where I couldn’t get myself to leave the house. In fact, I almost went to summer school one year for missing so much time. For a long time, I had felt guilty for this, and I was very hard on myself for not being able to suck it up and do what everyone else was able to do. Even when I had acquired a temp job in my 20’s, I was very anxious and irritated by the 9-to-5 lifestyle, and the lack of change of duties from day-to-day completely killed my creative mind and energy, especially when there were days when I had to fulfill the job responsibilities of three other people. For a long time, I thought I had a problem, but then I came to realize that the lifestyle just wasn’t for me and I couldn’t keep forcing myself into that life. A 40-hour work week is not a “one-size-fits-all” lifestyle, nor is mine, which is a lifestyle with rotating schedules and changes in scenery and differences in work material. Even though there is a lot less security on my end, I love the constant transitions and challenges that being a creative has to offer. I get a lot more satisfaction out of what I do, and at the end of the day, I feel even more inspired and creative instead of being emotionally exhausted from a job that could possibly be a dead end.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: /steph_morgan_0
- Twitter: /steph_morgan_0
Image Credits
For headshot: Nicole Souza For side-pony photo: Ryan O’Crowley-Hughes