We were lucky to catch up with John Pope recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi John, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
My resilience came from adjusting to real life after graduation. School was always kind to me. But it was also a “bird’s nest”, which I inevitably had to leave.
Graduating high school was encouraging for me – I was granted several multi-thousand-dollar scholarships that catapulted me out of my lower/middle-income bracket and into my Meisner training at NYU, which was equally as validating and fulfilling as my high school successes. However, leaving that educational safety net was difficult for me, and I had trouble finding my feet. I always felt that education and performing under instruction was great for me. I’m someone who performs well under direction, but without that guide or educational infrastructure, I struggle; grinding for pennies on the dollar (so-to-speak) for many years now has transformed into resilience over time, as I dedicated myself to struggling toward success, which always felt like somersaulting up a steep hill.
Growing up low/middle-income took form when I graduated college. I never stopped working and holding jobs while at NYU, but when my “side-job” became my regular schedule, I got lost in trying to make money, or getting by. Scavenging for performance opportunities were few and far in-between, and so my resilience evolved from balancing earning pennies & auditioning, if at all: an attempt to make enough to live in an expensive city while self-funding & constructing my dreams, brick-by-brick, in real time.
I still practice this sense of resilience. It never leaves. It just looks different as you grow, both in life and in age.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
First and foremost, I am an actor. I was trained at NYU: Tisch School of the Arts under the Meisner and Stonestreet Conservatories.
The beginning of my journey as an actor probably started when I won the prestigious $40,000 Mary Docter Performing Arts Scholarship in 2013, which allowed me to study at NYU with Full Scholarship. At the Meisner Studio, I studied alongside Margaret Qualley (<i>The Substance</i>), Dimitri Abold (<i>The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes</i>), and Elizabeth Cappuccino (<i>Super Dark Times</i>), just to name a few.
Having split my time between (Video) Game Studies, Acting, and Writing, I graduated as a multiplicitous Dean’s List Scholar. Upon graduation, I co-created a short-lived acting troupe called American Bullshit with my good friend Felix Murphet. Felix and I developed experimental acting techniques & exercises for our Troupe, which included members Danny Ramirez (<i>Captain America: Brave New World</i>), Alessandra Mesa (<i>Superior</i> – Sundance Official Selection), and Gerardo Escalante (<i>Susana</i> – Sundance Official Selection). Gerardo, who is actually a Writer/Director, ended up utilizing our technique as a starting point for certain processes in preparing his short film “Dinnertime” [<u><i>https://www.nobudge.com/videos/dinnertime</i>]</u>. Our techniques involved actors inventing fully-fleshed characters with unique points-of-view or impediments, then utilizing detailed in-person interviews to carve out character-specific behaviours. The actors would then pair-up and perform improvisational scenes under imaginary circumstances – bringing these characters to life, quite literally!
As an actor, I am often placed all over the map…mainly according to my most recent haircut. In the past, I played emotionally tormented young adults. More recently, Southern/Urban characters were a through-line for my career, resulting in roles like Joe Driscoll in “Dexter: Original Sin” and Goose in “The Green Veil”. My character in “God’s Time” bridged the gap between urban grit & comedy; I was recently in a Stephanie Koenig (“The English Teacher”)-adjacent world in Chris Riggi’s “Abduct”, as well as the CAA Moebius 2025 select film “Teen Mary”. Even now, in the upcoming feature film “Love, Nova”, my character often provides aloof-comedic relief.
Shortly after a double-premiere at Tribeca Festival 2022 (“God’s Time” & “The Green Veil”), and with a few films/television shows under my belt (<i>Dexter: Original Sin</i>; <i>Star Trek: Picard</i>) I moved to Los Angeles and dove back into my writing with a focus on three things: Family, Music, and Games. My stories lend themselves to my enthusiasm & nerd-dome for these tertiary passions; my screenplays often utilize poetry or formatting nuances to communicate deeper or layered feelings in my stories.
Now, for the first time, I’m waiting for the post-production to wrap on a feature film I am starring in called <i>Love, Nova,</i> directed by Stuart Evan Davis, and co-starring composer & actress Jasmine Karimova. That’s all the detail I can include at the moment. The film will be completed some time in 2025.
Meanwhile, I’m currently directing my experimental screenplay titled <i>Id,</i> which is an 8mm/iPhone “P.O.V. Film” following the memory a two-year-old girl spying on her parents, whose spitting arguments and dissections result in an unsettling conclusion about their peeping daughter.
Secondarily, I am about to launch my very own B-Side Film Festival (BSFF) here in Los Angeles, California. I can’t speak too much on this festival yet, since its details are slowly evolving. But BSFF will honor artists & filmmakers in my local community in Beachwood Canyon alongside the BSFF Official Selections as well. At BSFF, I aim to investigate how filmmakers tackle/engage with genre; as if Cannes Un Certain Regard meets Braindead Studios, Official Selections at BSFF will feature both mainstream and avant garde films in specific genre-based categories. I believe that films innovate and/or pay hommage to its own art form, and that both deserve to be celebrated equally. My programming will directly reflect that belief, and I’m very excited to bring my vision to fruition next year in 2026…or rather, let’s just say I want to remake Barbenheimer every year in different forms.
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?
Three important attributes or areas of knowledge impactful in my journey are 1. Consistency, 2. Experimentation, and 3. Community.
1. “Consistency is key.” We hear that phrase a lot. But to me, consistency is the dedication one has to their craft, or “path”. For those of us lucky enough to know our life’s calling, dedicating ourselves to that calling is important…moreover, <i>how</i> we engage with dedicating ourselves deserves its own essay. It’s important to know what we want, but more importantly to <i>expand</i> what we want. I can’t just act all the time. Sometimes, I have to wait for opportunity. So what do I do in the meantime? What do any of us do? For me, as I took writing more seriously later in life, I started writing a little bit each day. It’s an act of consistent work that keeps me dedicated to my craft, it keeps me growing, and keeps my mind curious & open to different ideas.
2. Experimentation (to me) means the type of actions I take to promote growth. These actions must feel blisteringly new, or else it becomes a predictable act. For example: when I create a character, I find the need to experiment with that creation. He needs to sound different. He needs to look different. And I, the actor, need to engage with this script with nuance, that which allows me to learn new information about my practice. I do think it’s valuable to have a routine, or a method, when it comes to art or work. But it’s a balancing act. Becoming complicit in action stops the flow of creativity. It kills it, in fact. It’s important to try new things, either within our jobs/craft, or outside of it. (Yes, starting a new hobby falls into this category for me). But of course, it’s imperative not to fall into a whirlpool of constant experimentation. You’ll never get anywhere doing that. There’s a sweet spot.
3. Community is so important. Our school system in the United States honor individual grades and individual successes as a means of growth & promise. Though individualism is the core of our democracy and culture, it does not directly translate to the reality of success. Success is often born through collaboration. And collaboration is born from community. You cannot get anywhere without collaborating with your community! People help us grow. Teachers, friends, family – they help us become who we are meant to be. And when it comes to work, or art, or anything in between, it always-always-ALWAYS takes a village. I wish I had known this when I was younger. I wish I had known that great leaders ask for help. Having a community has saved my life & career many times. So be a good person, join your community, meet new people, and find diamonds in the rough. It will always serve you down the line.
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
As an ADHD-Spectrum King, I often feel overwhelmed. Here’s my advice & strategy to fight that feeling.
A. Get rid of that phone. Do it. Put it in another room. It’s really, really bad for you.
B. Isolate yourself *healthily* by taking a bath, stretching, walking around the neighborhood, going to the gym, or just sit and close your eyes. Your subconscious needs it.
C. Set a timer to be bored WITHOUT technology in the picture. I usually do 10 minutes a day. Being bored is so important. It helps you detach from the digital world which causes so much hidden stress, and it helps reduce these feelings of being overwhelmed. And if being bored is too difficult, then you know what the problem is: your lack of mindfulness, and your inability to be alone with your thoughts.
D. Write. Journal. Exercise your thoughts so your subconscious can stretch and breath a bit. Don’t have a plan what you write. Just write. You don’t have to be good either. The act of writing is a part of life. There’s a reason for that. So do it 🙂 You’ll thank me later.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.itsjohnpope.com
- Instagram: @itsjohnpope
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-pope-88192b95/
