We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Suzanne Savoy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Suzanne, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I think because I started performing at a relatively late age, I skipped a lot of obstacles others faced in making a full-time career out of this. By the time I came to acting, I’d worked in business and legal settings to make extra money, and as a result, I had office skills and no trouble talking to suits. I could see that much of the world trades on commodities. So I just pasted all that info into my acting career. Except that now, I was the commodity. It was easy for me to separate my product (my performance) from me as a person, so I didn’t tend to take rejection personally. And I didn’t have the discomfort with marketing myself that some young artists have.

Because of that business background and my age, I was pretty fearless, although I’d had very little performance training. But I started working almost immediately, on camera, on stage, modeling, in commercials, in all the areas available to me. I guess the best thing I did was to diversify. I took courses in voice-over technique, Shakespeare. Vocal production, ear-prompter. Alexander technique. Runway modeling. Puppetry. I still study. And I’m not shy about getting a coach for my auditions and jobs. There’s just always so much more to learn. It all pays off.

My design work helped me a lot, too. I’d dress to give casting directors a sense of how I would look as the character. I mean, I wasn’t wearing costumes to my auditions, but I would suggest an age, or a historical silhouette, or whatever. And I made every effort not to take a side job, which meant I was always available at the drop of a hat if somebody didn’t show up to a job. I always wanted to be able to say yes to a gig (if it wasn’t sleazy…). It also meant I had to scrape by a lot of the time, but being frugal can be an art, too. And of course, this was Houston in the 1980’s, a boom-time in the biz. The timing was very, very lucky. All of us who were there at that time agree about that.

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.

I became a professional actor at the age of thirty after costuming professionally for a number of years. My design and teaching work informs my acting work, as I often create the look for each onscreen and onstage character I play. Major directors such as Steven Soderbergh have hired me because I don’t fit the Hollywood norm, sporting my natural gray hair and no botox or plastic surgery.

My solo show for stage, “Je Christine,” was taken from works of fifteenth-century French author Christine de Pizan. I translated her works from original Medieval French manuscripts and recreated her gown and headdress by studying illuminations in her books. Whatever the project, the visual always informs my performance work, unless we’re talking voicework, which has also been a big part of my output over the years. I’ve built puppets, played the ukulele, written scripts, and created videos to help chemo patients learn how to buy and style wigs after losing their hair. Mostly, I just want to tell stories. Working with a creative team and contributing my talents to realizing those stories is what keeps me going at this age as a performing and visual artist.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I spent most of my childhood doing impromptu performances anytime and anywhere, dancing in and out of the waves at the beach or creating puppet shows to entertain my family. But I “learned” that performing wasn’t a profession to be taken seriously. My mother had had a budding career as a performer, but her mother insisted that she go to secretarial school instead of acting school “so she’d have something to fall back on.” From the stories I read in the National Enquirers that floated around the house, I gathered that actors–and actresses in particular–were flighty, untrustworthy, usually broke, unfaithful to their partners, and they lived a life filled with rejection and instability. Heeding the advice my mother had been given, I chose to be a costume designer instead of following where my heart really wanted to take me. I gained entry into the prestigious design department of the National Theatre School of Canada. The creativity of using clothing to shape characters was exciting, but there was something missing.

When I was thirty years old, just having moved to Houston, someone encouraged me to take acting lessons at a small studio. One night, a tiny woman in a Chanel suit walked in from the parking lot and announced to me and my scene partner, “Hello, I’m Helen Hayes.” Well, I had seen Ms. Hayes in the film “Airport!” and I knew that she was “The First Lady of the American Theatre.” She had flown in to see her son in a play, but the theatre was locked and she had her cabbie bring her across the parking lot to the acting studio, where she thought she might gather some information as to his whereabouts. While the teacher got on the phone to locate him, I noticed how respectful Ms. Hayes was toward her unassuming cabbie, Daisy, and I thought, “This woman is gracious, talented, self-supporting, highly-regarded, a loyal wife and mother, sharp as a tack… If I could be one one-thousandth of who she is, I’d have a career I could be proud of.

I became an actor that day. And I’ve never looked back.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Oh, there are several things! First, let me say that there have been times when people have asked me questions and absolutely didn’t hear the answer. They had preconceived notions, and that was it. One question has been (repeatedly), “Are you sad you never became a big star?” Hey man, I AM a big star! I put my kid through college on my acting income. That’s huge! And I paid off her entire student debt. In my mind? and to my kid? I’m a damn supernova!! It’s all about what you think is important. But the people who asked the question usually wander off unconvinced.

I’ve had not one but two therapists ask me something like, “Well, I guess you’re an actress because you like the attention.” I was really taken aback both times, because I thought they knew me better than that. Sure, in the beginning, many of us get into the business for dumb reasons–we want to wear sparkly gowns at the Oscars! or we want to prove to our parents that we’re NOT losers! Or we want to get a guy (or whatever our preference is in that dept)… whatever flimsy reason we thought got us here, after doing the actual work for a few years, the work is what you get addicted to. The research, the teamwork with other actors/directors/designers, taking a great story and sharing it with others. Once you discover the importance–and yes, I mean real importance–of sharing stories, you get a sense of how sacred this work can be.

Example: during the pandemic, actors became a lifeline for many folks who were isolating at home. I remember seeing Diane Keaton (among others) creating content, goofy as it was, by simply taking all her shoes out of her closet and telling the viewer which ones she was going to keep and which she was going to give away. It was adorable! I created an adult story hour through a library, and we attracted a sizable international audience on Zoom. I still get emails from people saying “I don’t know what I would have done without my stories to look forward to twice a week during that awful time.

It turns out that what I once thought was a frivolous profession actually has impact and real value in the world, especially in stressful social times. After nearly forty years in the business, I’m still inspired and excited by the work that comes my way and the great artists I’ve worked with. Name-dropping is sort of boring so I won’t do it here, but if you happen to be curious, just check out the IMDb link—I’ve had some pretty great pretend-husbands and kids along the way!

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.JeChristine.com
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgBAWRYAF3k
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0767929/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Image Credits
Personal photo by Daniele Baker. Other photos: Steven Soderbergh, Bonnie Black, Devin Hassan, Ron MacArthur, Sarah Shatz