Meet Jessica Farr

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jessica Farr a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jessica, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

My mother was a journalist and a swimsuit model. I believe my confidence directly comes from her. She’s my heart, my compass, the way I see the world. Throughout her life people asked her what gave her her confidence, she told me she knew if she didn’t believe in herself, who else would? She taught me to be my own champion and to walk through life with kindness and grace.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I started my career as an actress. I branched out into playwriting after that. I found directing in NYC shortly after. I was a child actor and a trained opera singer. I went to school at New World School of the Arts and continued my training at Fordham University and Moscow Art Theatre. My career began in the theater, working with local companies that were developing new work and attempting to reach a younger, more diverse audience. I worked as a teaching artist as well and in Development, helping companies to meet their full potential and thrive. My benchmarks were always creating new work, engaging with the community, and finding a new way to reach people who weren’t coming to the theater. After that, I moved to LA and branched into film. I have been working in both sectors ever since.

My main focus is telling stories about my city, Miami. It’s the perfect place to mine stories from, we’ve got it all. Whatever fantasy or nightmare you’re looking for, you’ll find it. Just be careful what you wish for. If something sounds too good to be true, it most likely is. We are a breeding ground for scams. But we are also a city capable of amazing things. There’s nowhere like Miami. We could be the future this country is looking for, if only we’d stop trying to be other cities and just be ourselves. We also have a real problem with people coming here and hyper-gentrifying our city with wanton abandon. Let’s invest in our communities and our culture. Let these people ransack another city and take care of our own. This may seem more like a stump speech than an artistic statement, but these are all things I meditate on in my art currently and the art I support. It’s hard to not notice a rapidly changing city ignoring the tidal waves at their doorstep. Especially one I love so much. I want to hold onto it before it disappears.

I joke that I live in semi-retirement on hotel row on Miami Beach, but the city never ceases to inspire. I am currently in pre-production for a film, it’s an adaptation of a play I wrote called The Flock. I am also working on developing a pilot with my creative partner Caleb Scott for a new series, a dark comedy based on South Florida stories. The object is to film here and fully staff here. Lately, I’ve been focusing more on writing and directing than acting. I prefer to be the one making decisions rather than having decisions made for me. I like to see the thing through from start to finish. Needless to say, it’s hard for me to stay away from acting. I’m a storyteller.

I’ve written for comedy. I’d love to get back into that again. Nothing gives me more joy than making people see the absurdity in their every day. Have a laugh. Most likely, it’s just how I deal with my own grief. But I find it heals, and I like to make people feel good. My writing tends to center around women at a precipice, or women on the verge of a crisis, a rebirth. That doesn’t seem to be a coincidence. Repeated themes include narrow escapes, near misses, leaps into the void, the search for another world. I suppose my work can be dark but there is always humor in it. It’s hard not to make fun of it all.

I like to keep multiple fires going at once. It’s hard for me to step away from any one aspect of my craft. I feel like when I was younger, the focus was to specialize, that there was pressure to become an expert solely in one arena. Over time, that myth dissolved for me and I realized there were many pathways for me as an artist. I didn’t have to give up any one part of who I am and how I share my work with the world. I’m looking forward to doing just that. With boldness.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Curiosity, Courage, and Compassion. Be curious about your work and the work of others, be courageous enough to stand up behind yourself, your work, and your process, and have compassion for everyone you meet. Having some cocktail of all three, in earnest, is the magic and the method. My entire career has been centered around balancing these three things.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I’m looking to meet other artists who live outside of the confines of genre and specialty. I want to meet filmmakers who direct and edit, who wear multiple hats. I want to meet producers willing to take risks. I’m always looking to collaborate with artists of any discipline who feel they are ready to try something new. I have a group of artists in a cohort that have been discussing monthly salons and collaboration. I’m looking to open up that circle. They can reach me on social media or on my website. Looking forward to the possibilities ahead.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jessicafarr.com
• Instagram: @jotalejos

Image Credits

Stefan Rollins, Anabel Romero