Meet Corinne Decost

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Corinne Decost. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Corinne, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

My purpose found me.

Part of me always knew I was meant to become an actress. When I played with my Barbies as a kid, they were making movies – they all had different roles and my self-insert Barbie was the actress-director. I put on little plays for my family in my living room. I took 5 dance classes a week, performed in dozens of productions before graduating high school. I knew I loved telling a story, and being any piece of telling a story larger than something I could put together myself.

Another part of me felt it wasn’t a “real” job, and that I needed to find something more lucrative. Part of that just comes from growing up in a small town in New Hampshire – there it really is NOT lucrative, unless you’re one of a handful of people running one of the handful of theatres in the state. Many patrons of the theatre I grew up at asked me if I’d be majoring in theatre after I graduated, but I told them I wanted something to study something more practical and I’ll keep pursuing it on the side.

I did pursue it on the side for a long time. As I got my degree, I founded Suffolk University’s long-running sketch comedy troupe. As I graduated, I started an office job while directing a show at Improv Boston. In my early 20s, I kept at my office jobs while I made webseries appearances and wrote and recorded a rock album. I always made time for the creative but I was afraid to make it my focus. What if I failed, wouldn’t that be embarrassing? If I had gone on longer, I’d be more embarrassed that I never tried.

I kept denying my love for performance while simultaneously seeking it out. In the early days of the pandemic, I was running activities and was a life enrichment manager at a senior memory care facility. I spent my days performing – making up dance exercises they could do in their chairs and singing old familiar tunes. When my partner was diagnosed with cancer and I was forced to stay at home, I kept near show business by attending zoom audiences for a variety of shows that were still running production. Eventually producers picked me out and asked me to return as a guest. That led to my first 6 television appearances. Everything kind of snowballed from there. My first post-pandemic audition was for Netflix’s Stranger Things Experience, which kept me employed for 6 months in San Francisco and 6 months here in Los Angeles. I followed the production down here, and now I’ve been a working actress in Los Angeles for almost 2 years.

These two years I have felt I was always meant to make it down here. My journey wasn’t necessarily straightforward, but every person I met along the way, every experience I had, all of it inspired me and helped me to grow into the person that can make this career happen. Now, I feel like Dorothy on her adventure through Oz, or Alice on her adventure through Wonderland. I’m picking up friends, gathering a plethora of stories I’ll tell someday, and gaining experiences. Someday maybe this all will end, but I’ll be better off for having lived it all fully. I’m not holding back any longer for the fear of not being able to fly, even if it’s just for a short while.

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 an actress. I’m awaiting the release of several indie projects right now. Party of Darkness, the horror-comedy anthology I’m starring in, is just wrapping up post-production now. I also starred in Desert Duet Harmony, where I play a romantic violin player and did my own violin stunts – that will be premiering at the Silicon Beach Film Festival at the TCL Chinese Theatre in September. I also have performed in many immersive theatre productions in the last two years: Netflix’s Stranger Things Experience in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights, Insomniac Event’s Beyond Wonderland and Apocalypse Zombie Land, CAMP’s Bluey Experience. I’ve brought a lot of beloved characters to life and that’s so much fun to do. I’ve appeared in a variety of things you may have seen – Chili’s social media ads, Zach King videos, background in Hulu movies. I’ve got some things lined up in the near future, but I’m bound by NDAs and very happy to shut up about it in order to do such cool things.

I also do media & promotions for the 501c3 nonprofit organization Multiverse Concert Series. They incorporate music and science into multi-media immersive events. This summer, they premiered Mars Symphony across three months in the Charles Hayden Planetarium of the Museum of Science, Boston – projecting images from NASA Mars rovers as a live original symphony incorporating sounds from Mars in electrosymphonic song plays in the theatre, interspersed with lecture from NASA scientists. Their events are really cool and it’s a great way to help bring further understanding to these vast topics. I may not understand a straight lecture on the topic like a NASA scientist would, but an immersive soundscape with images helps me to understand much more. I’m thrilled to help this project in any way I can – I love helping people learn new things or understand old things better. It’s our only way towards discovery, after all.

Finally, I’m a teaching artist with Upstage Theatre Schools. Last school year I choreographed a production of Beauty & The Beast Jr., and this summer I taught at Taylor Swift Pop Star camp – getting kids comfortable and confident onstage singing and dancing. I hope that some of them come away with the same passion for this as I have, but even if it’s just for a short while I’m happy I get to share all this with them.

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’ve got to have drive and determination. A strong inner voice telling you that one setback isn’t the end of your story. There have been many days where I was crushed getting so close to a role I really wanted – and I needed to feel those feelings and let them out – but I also had to use that inner voice to scream to myself to keep going. I would not be anywhere if I hadn’t picked myself up all of those times and kept going. You’ve got to have nerve. And you’ve got to want it and be willing to do anything (safe and professional) you can to be there.

You’ve got to have curiosity. You have to be willing to learn more and to try things another way. Curiousity breeds interest, and interest breeds knowledge. The more I allow myself to be curious about what someone else is doing on set, the better informed I am about how I can stay out of their way or help them out. You’ve got to want to dig deeper into a role. When it’s the 400th show or the 15th take of the same scene with a different camera angle, you’ve got to be willing to explore that scene deeper and make it interesting for yourself or you’ll lose that passion. Nobody is interesting to watch when they have no passion for what they’re doing. Stay curious. Try new things. You’ll surprise yourself.

Finally, administrative skills are crucial. You need to be able to put together a good resume, respond promptly to casting and creative teams, speak professionally, and understand how to represent a brand. What we do on stage and on screen is important, but all of the other work is important to getting us there and building us there. The more in-the-know we are with every email production sends, the better we can be in the project. I’m thankful I had a background in communications before pivoting to acting so much. They’ve been very beneficial skills to have.

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?

I have found great joy in investing in my many different interests and I’m so glad I didn’t focus on just one.

As a child actress, I hit the mid-childhood crisis of ages 11 to 14 – when you’re a little too old to play the cute kid but not quite old enough to play a teenager. I had been cute onstage for a couple years already, and I had aged out of anything but a child chorus role and wouldn’t be able to play any meatier coming-of-age, teen love, or more adult roles for a few more years. Those developing years feel really long, too. But I did ANYTHING to be a part of the show at this now-defunct theatre I grew up at, the Amesbury Playhouse. I began doing backstage tech, ran a spotlight for a show, moved on to running a light board, then a soundboard. I ran spotlight from a cherry picker in a one-off at the Shriner’s auditorium when I was in eighth grade. I stage managed. I helped out with pyrotechnics and hid behind the coffin during the run of Dracula holding the fog machine pipe at a certain angle so the fog would billow out in the most satisfying way. At 13 I ran lights and sound for a production of They’re Playing Our Song, and played the role of “Phyllis” (Phil in the script) the engineer live from the tech booth.

Eventually, I hit my high school years and started getting roles again. The directors knew they could trust me with anything at that point. And I understood and appreciated what everybody else on set was doing. Often I preferred their ideas over my own. While I did a lot backstage, I craved being onstage again. I don’t know how to describe it but it’s always where I felt I belonged. I’m glad I had all that other experience and I think it made me more well-rounded as an actress too. I knew how to make someone backstage’s job easier and stay out of the way. I knew what the lighting designer was looking for and how to hit the center of the spot and find my light. I knew that as long as I got the last few words of a monologue out correctly, the sound guy would play the next cue. It helped me find where my place was and where it wasn’t, and how to elevate the story together by working as a team.

I also consider myself a bit of a Renaissance woman. I was named one of Suffolk University’s 10 Under 10 this year because of how many things I keep myself busy with. In their July 2024 news feature they shared “Rising actor in independent films and in live shows like Netflix’s “Stranger Things Experience.” Concert promoter for the Multiverse Concert Series combining music and science. Acting teacher and stunt woman. “I utilize all aspects of my Suffolk degree in a way that demonstrates just how cyclical life is, and how every opportunity bleeds into another,” [Corinne] said with emotion. “Thank you for helping me find and celebrate my most authentic self.””

I think they nailed how many things I do, and that I love to do. At the school I was simultaneously in three programs – theatre, English literature, and public relations/communications. I use all three aspects of my degree today, and I feel they’ve all informed each other. Even just as an actress, I use my literature knowledge to dive deeper into scripts and better inform my characters. And isn’t acting partially about marketing and communications too? I have to market myself to casting directors, stay on top of emails and communicate professionally and promptly. When I’m not being an actress, I still often have to act. Haven’t we all been bored or annoyed in a professional setting? You have to put on a straight face and pretend you’re not. That’s still acting to me, and it certainly has to be convincing if you want to keep your job. All of these skills are transferrable and inform one another.

I’m glad I learned all I learned while still making time for my greatest passions. I’m glad I made time for side quests too. I’m glad I still have so much to learn about the things I love and everything else too.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corinnedecost/

Image Credits

Kile Alonzo Sequeira
Micah Brown
Cam Rice