Meet Zuzu Weingart

We recently connected with Zuzu Weingart and have shared our conversation below.

Zuzu, 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?

As an actress, confidence and self-esteem have been a challenge for me! In this industry we face lot of rejection. It took a long time for me to be okay with the rejection that comes with the auditioning process. I’ve gotten to the point now, however, that after each audition that comes my way, I say a quick thank you and release it from my mind. Sometimes I even imagine boxing it up, putting it in a hot air balloon and sending it away. I truly expect to never think about it again. If I’m lucky enough to get the role, it’s always a welcome surprise. This has helped me build my self-esteem tremendously, because I was no longer stuck thinking about all of the things I could have done better. I love watching films that I read for and didn’t get the part, it is always self-affirming in the sense that I see how different the take on the character is. I realize, it’s not that I did a bad job in my read, I just had a different take on the character and the production was looking for something else. It’s taken me a long time to realize that what I bring to a character is uniquely my own, no one else can do that. Each of us has something special that we bring to the table that is only ours. One of my goals in life is to show my kids how important it is to be the best you that you can be and to never try to be something that you’re not.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

Hey there, I’m Zuzu Weingart, a SAG/AFTRA Actress and Producer based in Montana. I’m also mom to three awesome kiddos. My husband, Kyle, and I started our production company 99 Productions in early 2020 and have been producing feature films, promo videos, and social media content since then! Our most recent feature film is a post-apocalyptic indie comedy called Cuisine de la ‘Pocalypse. It’s about a chef at the end of the world who is just trying to get his cooking show “out there” for the world to see while everything seems to be falling apart around him. It’s so silly, but such a fun adventure of a film. The film stars Kevin Jack, Emilio Rivera, Natasha Leggero and Kevin Sorbo and will be screening in theaters in early 2025!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Collaboration over competition has always been my motto. Especially in the film industry, you must collaborate to make a complete project. One single image takes many minds to compose in a way that balances a natural and artistic look. We love to collaborate with like-minded filmmakers. We create content that is unique, fun, and family-friendly. In this industry I’ve seen competition over collaboration time and time again, but let me tell you, it always feels better to root for each other, lift each other up, and work together on something, rather than compete!

Being able to pivot when life throws a curveball is a great skill to have. On a film set, things go wrong, you’re behind schedule, your stunt zombies choreographed the wrong zombie dance fight – pivoting is key! I think Covid gave us all a quick lesson of how fast things can change and how necessary it is to be able to adapt. I love when a plan goes exactly how I pictured it, but that’s rarely the case. Being able to adapt in a high-stress situation is a great skill to have.

Persistence has been huge for us. Conceptualizing a film is not an easy task, but actually developing, filming and completing a project is a major victory. In the independent film world, you don’t have a big studio pushing you along, so persistence is key. From concept to completion, our film Cuisine de la ‘Pocalypse took about 5 years. Oof. That’s a Kindergartener’s whole life! I say that because our son is in Kindergarten now and it was when I was pregnant with him that we started conceptualizing the film. The actual filming of the movie only took 4 weeks of that 5 years. It was the story development, funding, finding the right cast and crew, and post-production that really ate up that time. Seeing the finished product of something you’ve put so much into is a feeling unlike any other. We came out with a super fun, goofy, adventure of a film that we can’t wait to share with the world.

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

My husband, Kyle, has always been my rock. We co-own our production company 99 Productions, and we work together almost every day. We often get the question, “Isn’t it hard to work with your spouse?” And we always answer “YES, but totally worth it!” I know I couldn’t do any of it without him. He has been my biggest cheerleader in life. He always has my back and I have seen him stick up for me when I don’t have the courage to stick up for myself. We have been married for 13 years and have worked together for 5 of those and I really do think working together has brought us closer. We both feel the same burdens from work and support each other through them.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

99 Productions LLC

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