Meet Jack Johnstone

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jack Johnstone. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jack below.

Jack, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

Resilience comes from living, from diving deep, and from strong role models.

My mum is a strong lady. She has an undying resilience that, growing up, did not even compute. It’s the kind of resilience that is so dependable and strong that you don’t even second-guess it. Once I began to grow into an adult, I realized how my mum’s resilience had kept her where she is, with the life that she wanted, despite all the challenges thrown at her. Now, in times of intense struggle, where persisting feels impossible, I think of her and what she managed to get through with a smile on her face and an open heart. Think of the people in your life who have pushed through—think hard, because sometimes they’re very good at hiding it.

Living in New York… need I say more?
Living in this city has undoubtedly instilled this do-or-die mentality, whereby failure is not an option. I mean, there are men on the subway, dirty from their construction jobs, studying for their college finals. It’s infectious. The issue with this city sometimes is that this mentality is hard to switch off. But after you’ve achieved what you’re aiming for, does it matter?

If you’re sitting, defeated and unable to carry on, count to three and do the thing you know is the next step toward what you want. If all your eggs are in one basket, you have no choice but to carry on—because what are you going to do with no eggs?

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?

I’m Jack Johnstone, an actor from Manchester, England, who has been living in New York City for three years.

I was classically trained at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC, with film and TV credits including HBO, BBC, and Apple TV, as well as experience in both American and international theatre. I had the privilege of being awarded the Episcopal Actors Guild of America for outstanding ability. You can catch me as a lead in the upcoming series The Salem Sisters, streaming on Amazon Prime in October 2025. Plus, I have two exciting upcoming short films titled SOYBOY and Living with Mr. Fishy. Be sure to check them out!

Right now, more than ever, I am finding that the most special thing about what I do is spreading empathy and FUN in a country and world that insists upon hate, demonisation, and a complete lack of critical thinking. It is OKAY for people to laugh, to be themselves, and to have layers. Through playing people for a living, I can showcase three-dimensional people with the hopes of it resonating with others, free from the shackles of the political teams we all support blindly.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

You have to live as a human to play a human.
When you’re not reading up on specific techniques or sitting in acting class—go outside. Go out with friends. Sit on a bench and watch people. Walk somewhere you haven’t been. Do something you haven’t done. Talk to strangers. All of this is still engaging with your craft. How can you play a full human being with no knowledge of how real human beings interact with the world?

In the beginning, it is a numbers game.
This was a greatly upsetting truth at first. You come out of school wanting to engage with the craft as purely as possible at a pace that works for you—which you can, just more frequently. This industry is getting more and more diluted. You cannot count on one audition per week to carry you through. If you’re struggling to find auditions without an agent, Backstage and Actor’s Access have no shortage of opportunities to dig into.

Make a great connection with everyone you meet—it pays off.
This explains itself. If people like you, they’ll want to work with you. Never let anyone think you’re anything but amazing.

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?

I was recently taken out of a project I was very excited about. I tried to be cool about it, but it hurt—a lot.

This kind of thing is extremely common in the industry, but that didn’t stop the pain of it all. It had me thinking I wasn’t going to book work ever again, that I was doomed to fail, and that maybe this wasn’t the career for me.
Then… I thought back to what gives me resilience. I see my mum persevering. I see my dad pushing through obstacle after obstacle, both with smiles on their faces. I see the things I have already achieved. I see the opportunities I have in the future. I see all my eggs in that one basket.

And I keep going.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @JackJohnstone__
• Other: Email: [email protected]

Image Credits

Yellowbelly