We were lucky to catch up with Kellie Christensen recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kellie , we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
I’ve come to realize that confidence and self esteem are fluid, not fixed. Sometimes the things that used to bring confidence can lose their weight. But I think there are some things that haven’t changed for me. Performing has always given me a strong sense of confidence. I first started performing in junior high. My mom put me in roller figure skating because it was something that she really enjoyed, and I fell in love with it. I loved learning choreography and competing. After skating, I took dance classes. Discovering I was good at dance gave me a new sense of confidence. But if wasn’t until I started acting that I really felt grounded in myself and my purpose. Being an actress is really interesting because doing it makes me feel amazing and always gives me a deep sense of self confidence, but pursuing it as a career can really mess with your head. Every day I wake up and face the fact that I’m still trying to get to a place in life where I’m just doing the thing that makes me feel so good for a living. Full disclosure, doing the work to get there can take a toll on how I feel about myself. I struggle with my own thoughts about why I haven’t “made it” yet and there’s an entire rabbit hole of nightmares I can go down if I let myself, and sometimes that feels inevitable. But as I’ve grown both as a person and an artist, I’ve come to learn that it’s my actions, not my results, that deserve my attention. I am constantly working on improving my craft and myself as a person and that is the thing that’s worth celebrating. The results I may or may not get are almost completely out of my control. Making it in the film industry comes down to mostly timing and luck, and craft is what keeps you working once you get the chance. So I’ve learned to congratulate myself of my readiness. For instance, I just submitted to a writer’s program at WB. A year ago I would not have been ready for that because they required two pilot scripts in the same genre and I didn’t have that a year ago. So because of the actions I’ve taken over the past year, which include working with lots of different creatives, learning more about my craft, and my commitment to my creative work, I was ready to submit to the program. That is what is giving me my confidence nowadays. The consistent actions I take are preparing me for bigger and bigger opportunities that come my way, and that is incredibly cool.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I’m a professional actress, screenwriter, and director. I own a business where I write and direct demo reels for actors. I’m also a dancer, and there’s a strong possibility that next year I’ll be exploring my dream of marine mammal training. While film will always be my first love, I have other dreams that I don’t intend on ignoring because life is too short to make that mistake. My long term goal is to be the Taylor Swift of movies. T-Swift is savvy, smart, talented, and has a strong connection with millions of people. She communicates effortlessly with her audience and she is impenetrable when it comes to push-back. She’s a force to be reckoned with, and like her or not, she’s a brilliant business woman who is generous with the people who follow her and work with her. That’s the kind of height I intend on climbing to, only with film instead of music.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The most important lesson I’ve learned is that you can’t succeed without solid, healthy relationships, therefore you need to become very skilled at creating and growing good connections with people. We live in a hyper-independent culture but that is not how humans are wired. We are designed to need each other and working together is how true success is created. It wasn’t until I started leaning into my relationships with others, and probably even more importantly, building a positive relationship with myself that I started to see big positive changes in my life. That leads me to my second important quality, self-love. I recently began a healing journey and hired a coach to help me, and it’s most likely the most valuable decision I’ve made in my life so far. Beginning to create a healthy relationship with myself has shown me how vital that skill is to your quality of life and well being. You have to start with you. If you don’t have a positive relationship with yourself it will bleed into your external relationships and create problems. Nobody is perfect and a happy life starts with letting that be ok and loving all the parts of you in their imperfect states. The last thing I have is never stop learning. Whatever it is that drives you that you love to do in life, never stop learning new things about it. Become a genius in your field by staying curious and hungry for more insight and knowledge about what (or who… a little relationship advice for the people) you love.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
The most impactful thing my parents have done for me is acknowledge the value they see in my dreams and tell me they believe in me. I’ve always been a rebel, so when my parents told me I had to go to college after high school, it wasn’t long before I decided it wasn’t for me. I ended up leaving after taking two semesters of theater, music, and dance, which kept me in it. But as soon as I had to take a math class, I literally got up and left the classroom the moment the first test was put in front of me. I saw the four semesters of math I had in front of me and it looked like Hell, so I never came back. I decided to go all in on my dream instead. It’s been a rocky ride but I never gave up, even when things got really tough. Making movies is the only thing in life that makes me so happy I could do it until I die, so I know it’s what I’m put on this planet for. My parents recently acknowledged that they made a mistake by not fostering the performer in me. My dad admitted that when I was younger he fell victim to the mentality he was raised under, which was that art was a hobby, not a career. He was never able to see it as a viable option for me. I don’t know if parents understand how insanely important it is to support the dreams of their children and help them achieve their unique vision for their lives, but if there are any parents reading this, I’m begging you to let your children know you believe in their dreams and will do whatever you can to help them. Why? Because even if you don’t, they’re going to do it anyway, and it’s already hard enough without the support of your closest family. Believe in them because it makes all the difference in the world. The only sure fire way to make it is to never quit. That is the one rule you can count on in the film industry. There have been so many times it’s gotten so hard that I wanted to quit, and it’s the support of my loved ones that got me through those times.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kelliedeechristensen.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kelliedoesfilm/
- Other: https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm4689503?ref_=hm_nv_usr_profile
Image Credits
Matt Stasi TJ Hastings
