We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Henry Thompson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Henry below.
Hi Henry, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
I spent a lot of time playing sports when I was younger, and a lot of that time being told that I was too short to play to the levels that I wanted to play at. In some sports, I ended up playing at those levels anyway, and it always proved to me that it was all about how you pushed and kept pushing, rather than listening to any limitations other people put on you. I guess that translated over to acting – now I’m in a space that is saturated, strikes have taken a lot of work away, and it’s a tough space for everyone. I’ve been making my own work, working on myself, and getting ready for when there is room for somebody who has kept pushing through the tough times.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I’m first and foremost an actor, with a love of theatre. I trained to work in theatre, and set my dreams on it, but found that COVID eroded so many live opportunities for me. I got cast as the lead in my first feature, and found that everything that I loved about the live nature of theatre was present in screen acting – it was exciting, and had opportunities for improvisation, and bringing something different to each take. Not wanting to fall behind while the industry wasn’t giving many castings my way, I started writing and producing my own work. I like my films to feel loose and exciting – I think it’s evident that they’ve been made by someone with a theatrical background. I love to bring my influences like Monty Python, Harold Pinter, Oscar Wilde, and Taika Waititi into the films – they often have a surreal, absurd vibe. I think that laughter is an incredible tool – it allows defences to be brought down, and it’s in those gaps that suddenly one starts to feel, and I like to explore that zone. My current film in festivals; “Tomorrow” does just that – and has won some Best Dark Comedy awards.
I’ve got a film currently rounding out post production which is an absurd comedy about two soldiers locked in a nuclear bunker and having an existential crisis, and I’m just going into production on another which is about two zombies at the end of the world, waiting to die. Silly, absurd, but bittersweet.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The most impactful thing I’ve learned is that no one can teach you as well as experience can. You will learn more from one day on a film set as an actor, than a year in a drama school.
Second, your taste is yours and it’s what makes you special – make what you like and what you want to see, and there is someone out there who will enjoy it. They might even want to join with you and make something. Maybe you like their stuff. Now you have some amazing art, and an amazing team. Don’t do what you think people want from you.
Thirdly, do your research/homework, whatever you want to call it. If you’re an actor, turn up to rehearsal having done the work – the rehearsal is where you play with those things. In every single walk of creative life, you’ll spot the people that turn up every time with ideas and cool creative thoughts and they’ll move a project froward – that isn’t always because they’re a genius prodigy, it’s because they’ve spent an extra 20 hours with the project that week.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
Currently, I’m struggling to work out how I’m going to make a viable living. I have done a lot of work by now, but rarely get paid anything other than the bare minimum, and I have three other jobs to support myself. I want to wake up every day and focus on my passion and nothing else. So I diversified into producing, to gain more experience in the business end of the film market, I made three short films, and I’ve built a team that is now making our first feature, with the aim of generating something that we can sell and move to the next project. Everyone I know that is successful in the industry has said that feature filmmaking is what will start generating revenue, so that is where my sights are now.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://henrythompson.actor
- Instagram: ht_actor
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ht_actor
Image Credits
The headshots are by YellowBelly in London.
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