Meet Andrew Ferguson

 

We recently connected with Andrew Ferguson and have shared our conversation below.

Andrew, 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?

I’ve often believed, as have many inspirational posters, that success is just a product of failure. As an actor and filmmaker, success personally means that I can wake up everyday doing what I love and work with creative, talented people that also enjoy making films.

To find myself in that position, it really just began with the idea that this success would eventually happen. I have been making “movies” (cheesy sketches on a digital camcorder) since I was in 6th grade with my friends and have subconsciously ALWAYS envisioned that I would be doing this a as a career.

Now, it’s easier to imagine and day dream about making movies all day, but bringing them to reality is a different pursuit. Resilience is KEY to achieving what you want in life; along with persistance, determination, execution and some other big words. I moved to LA three months before COVID ravaged the entire world and the entertainment industry specifically. I had been struggling with an auto-immune disorder that changed the way I looked at life and re-wired my appreciation for the simple things. I have lost friends, gained new ones and seen what making poor decisions can do to good people. It has been my priority to surround myself with people that take their careers seriously and make those small, daily positive decisions that move that themselves forward in life.

As every normal person does, I encounter daily obstacles that hinder my path to success. Really when it comes down to it, you just have to look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself if you are doing everything you possibly can to achieve what you really want to. It’s as simple as that. Think through what you need to do in the next hour, day, month, 5-10 years and take that next step forward. Be communicative, honest and EXECUTE your ideas!

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am an actor and filmmaker originally from Kansas City. I now currently live in Los Angeles (Los Feliz to be specific) and am passionate about working with other filmmakers to create entertaining film projects.

I have been working as an actor full-time since 2022, I’ve starred in five indie feature films and received six Best Actor awards from various film festivals throughout LA and internationally. Acting is an absolute passion of mine; it’s also a means to and end as a filmmaker as well.

My main goal when moving to LA was to assemble a team of talented filmmakers and to build together. Simply put, I want to have a group of people I love working with (similar to how Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen have their whole squads) that I can grow with.

After working at a talent agency for nine months in 2020, I got my production experience working as an AD PA for Netflix, HBO and Disney+ for 1.5 years. During this time, I started to build a growing list of different talented individuals that also wanted to create their own projects.

My team, newly named ‘Side Quest Shorts’, has produced several comedy sketches, short films, a full-fledged single-camera comedy pilot called ‘It’s Not How it Sounds’ and more. This was pilot project a huge step forward for our team, it is now packaged and ready to be shopped around. I have typically 1st AD’d these projects and acted alongside my fellow actors. We are now in development for two different feature-length scripts and are are focused on creating comedy/thriller films and TV.

Currently, I am working as Executive Producer and co-starring in our team’s first feature ‘People & Things’, directed by my colleague Ishan Parikh. The film is a ‘dramedy’ about people in LA finding their way through life in their 20’s. As EP, I helped bring on the majority of the crew, some cast members and have helped facilitate general production of the project. We are passionate about making comedy projects and want to bring back the classic comedies of the 2010’s with more thriller elements.

Personally speaking, I draw inspiration from successful people like Bill Hader with ‘Barry’, Rob McElhenney with ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ or Ben Stiller with ‘Severance’. These talented actors leveraged their acting careers to allow themselves to create projects that they were passionate about. This has always been a dream of mine and getting to walk on set every morning while working alongside my friends would mean never working a day in my life.

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

Honesty, communication and having the ability to execute have all helped me tremendously in my career.

I’ve always said my greatest skill is being the dumbest person in the room. People admire when you admit you don’t know something and can tell when you’re being disingenuous. Don’t be afraid to admit what you don’t know; let people teach you new things! Real collaborators will appreciate working with a direct, honest person & when they trust you they will, to quote McConaughey, “See more in you than you see in yourself”.

People also greatly appreciate effective communication. Take filmmaking for example: if you’re upfront about the goals for your project, the pay, hours, what the vibe on set will be like, when’s lunch, why are we shooting where we are, etc., people will have a better understanding about who you are and why they should work with you. Be honest and direct with your communication. Be a good hang on set and be on time.

Finally, execute. Just shut up and go do it! Perfectionism is the enemy of execution; it’s better to make something subpar and learn from it than never make anything at all. ALSO, bonus tip: Be a “next two weeks” person, not a “sometime soon” person. If you talk about getting coffee with someone then find a time in the next two weeks to make it happen, don’t just do the LA-instagram-handshake and never meet that person again.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I am always looking to expand my team and work with other talented filmmakers! As an actor, I would love to continue to work with passionate directors and writers that have a unique vision as well.

I am actively wanting to meet more writers that are interested in comedy thriller genres as I believe that general audiences are really wanting to watch more of these projects, as am I. Some of my biggest film influences include the Coen brothers, Quentin Tarantino, Jordan Peele, Seth Rogen, Greta Gerwig and David O. Russell.

Let’s build a team and write feature films that we can actually go out and create!

Contact Info:

Image Credits

My main smiling image was taken by photographer shadowlighx on instagram! The rest are mostly BTS or don’t have a credit.

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