We were lucky to catch up with Jason Zlatkus recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jason, thank you so much for making time for us. We’ve always admired your ability to take risks and so maybe we can kick things off with a discussion around how you developed your ability to take and bear risk?
I’ve always been fascinated by marketing and business. As a young a child I always figured I grow up to work in the toy business. I loved the concepts of toys and what made them fun. From the commercials to the packaging I loved it all. I started studying business and sales.
I learned how some companies had risked it all and it paid off! I started to hear over and over different sayings like high risk high reward or nothing ventured nothing gained. That resonated with me. I had heard many stories where someone had risked it all and ended up being successful. Some had mortgaged a house, some had lived in their car and all had invested countless hours into their dreams.
I decided that to be successful I’d need to take risks. That doesn’t mean be reckless, or uninformed of consequences. To me it means taking a chance even when I’m scared or don’t feel like it. What if it pays off? Often it does. In fact more often than not it does.
I’ve opened stores with all of my money and just hoped. I’ve bought businesses with no prior experience in that company and learned as I went.
I left my career in business and became a full time actor. I moved my family to Southern California to pursue acting. I assure you when moving here I never thought I’d actually like it, yet alone love it. I just knew it was a risk I had to take.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m an actor originally from the San Francisco Bay Area currently living in SoCal. Ive been extremely lucky to get to work on many great projects! Notably I’ve made many large brand commercials and been featured in many award winning short films. One of my biggest claims so far is that I play Erik Menendez in the Netflix Documentary The Menendez Brothers. I am current age Erik in the prison scenes. I also am a living super hero, I am Feeding San Diego’s official superhero Hunger Halter. A role I was cast to play and have brought to life over the last 4 years. Since then I have been used as the characters likeness for the comic book and promotional animations.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Definitely marketing. That’s been my best tool.
Humility and graciousness, I needed to learn this and LA has definitely taught me to be humble. Everyone here has done something very cool. I’m extremely grateful to be working and to be invited places.
Training. I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know I didn’t know until I started training. I’d even done some pretty big stuff but when I started training I started to really get it. When I’m asked “how do I become an actor?” I say start with acting classes.
What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?
This year has been a tough one but ultimately one of the best. The industry has gone through numerous changes in the past few years and it seems like work is getting more sparse. I have taken gigs I normally wouldn’t be too excited about and I’m glad I did. I’ve had more fun and met so many more great people. I’ve spent a great amount of time training and I’m really excited to get to show it off. I feel like I’ve made great strides.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://m.imdb.com/name/nm10535900/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasonztheactor?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jason.zlatkus?mibextid=wwXIfr&mibextid=wwXIfr
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