Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kate Warren. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Kate, 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?
I would have to say that my resilience definitely has to come from my upbringing in Greece, or rather, my summers in Greece. I shifted to summers over growing up in Greece because it truly was the summertime that really built my strength and resilience. To begin with, I was raised in Kifissia, a suburb of Athens, the first 6.5 years of my life. My father was hired by the US government to work for the Marshall Plan and help build Greece’s economy up after WWII and then upon falling in love with Greece and not wanting to leave, he went on to work for Esso (Exxon). Before my parents decided to move to the US, they wanted to buy a house so we could go every summer and continue their/our love of Greece. They found an extremely beautiful piece of property on the island of Paros. It was a 15 or 16th century Venetian villa with terraced gardens for days and days, only this villa wasn’t really a villa the way we think of villas these days. Pigeons were living in the main house, holes in the floors and ceilings and on and on. In short, it was a “fixer-upper.” The building next to the main house was the kitchen where their servants cooked for the Venetian family and that building was completely fallen down aside from the 4 walls holding up. The third building was the “serfs quarters,” where the serfs lived and cooked and gardened for the sellers of this beautiful soon to be paradise. It had become a goat shed the neighbors were using. All in all the property was a mess. In the beginning of the renovation of the main house, we rented a tiny house my father called “the shoebox.” It suited us just fine. We went to the beautiful beaches with crystal clear turquoise water, I was taught how to swim and played with my sister and my brothers were typical naughty boys up to lots of tricks and jokes. As the house became habitable, we moved in! Only the WE in this was my mother and father. My father, instead, built a little bamboo hut for brushing our teeth and set up cots down in one of the terraces where we kids slept. Did I tell you we also had no running water nor electricity in the house? The reason this was is because our next door neighbors were angry that we bought the house and not them and the electricity lines ran on their property and they didn’t want us to live in modern times! Same with the water! So how did we live day to day? My father designated one terrace every year as our “bathroom” only it wasn’t a bathroom. We had a shovel to dig a hole, a roll of toilet paper hanging from a mandarin tree branch, a plastic bag for the used toilet paper, and various twigs we found on the ground to stick in the dirt post pooping so we children knew where to dig a hole the next time! The only time we were allowed to use the toilet inside the house was when we had a stomach bug. We had 2 cisterns with water that came from an ancient aquifer and was used to water the trees in the garden, however, my clever parents turned the cistern into a bathing and rinse the salt off our bodies after the beach and perhaps an outright pool without chemicals. We couldn’t get soaps or shampoo in the cistern because the water was really for the trees, so we used buckets outside the cistern to rinse off. And then jump back in and have fun in the water! With no chemicals in the cistern we also had to clean it every week so the mosquito larvae and bacteria wouldn’t grow. That was a whole other level of chore for a young child like myself, but it sure did build some character in me! All of these chores or ways of life, I believe, fostered a deep resilience that instilled in me that I can handle a lot of varied situations, stress, and I also value and am attracted to people who have a lot of character. My parents, especially my father, really gave me a strength to be able to live an adventurous life and love living an adventurous life!. On nights we went into the main town, Parikia, to go to the wonderful outdoor movie theater, we walked back home, 2.5 miles in the pitch black night. For me as a small child, I did detest that. I was tired and just wanted to sleep, it was a long walk for me, but when we took a break halfway between town and our house, there was this place we could sit down, or lay down and stretch out and look at the vast star filled sky. As I became an older teen and college student, I really enjoyed my walks back home with my friends who traveled with me. It was an adventure! Resilience and a sense of adventure is really what is deep inside me. The more last minute and spontaneous, the better!
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’m an actor by trade and identity, however, I put most of my energy and focus on my three beautiful kids and raising them. I told my agent to never send me out on theatrical shows that were outside of the NYC Metro area and for the most part, I’d just go out for some day-players for TV and film. Now my kids are a little older and need me less and less and I’m at this crossroads of what to do now with the rest of my life? I was so entwined with my gems that I am now finding myself lost and not sure which direction to go in. It’s a real period of adjustment. I’m a creative and a nurturer and found that gardening was a real source of happiness for me. Weeding was therapy. Planting was motherhood and watching the garden grow with all of its gifts giving back to me was sheer bliss. Having had an upbringing in Greece has really influenced me and my love for big, bright colors. I have always loved the beauty of the Greek sky, the bold Bouganvilleas and Oleander, the turquoise Aegean Sea, so when my garden is blooming, so am I. I also found another love: designing my back patio as an urban oasis and making that happen. What a joy it’s been designing and transforming a hideous white vinyl fence with a very bland patio into a gorgeous woodsy paradise. I may not be seeking out acting work on a daily or even weekly basis. I take what comes my way, but creating is always in my blood and I shrivel up if I cannot create.
I also seem to be the most creative during a crisis. When my ex-husband and I decided our marriage wasn’t working out too well, but we were too broke to live separately, so we made it work living together-separately. I immersed myself into this writing project and wrote in the style of a web series because I was too scared of writing a big film and also scared of writing a TV show, so I chose writing a web series. It was truly stupendous to see myself wear so many hats that I thought I could never do. From raising funds to shooting some material, to hiring my director, the fabulous Nicole Ansari-Cox, to hiring the crew, actors, starring in the series, and head caterer, cooking the meals for the actors and crew. It was dizzying! And it goes back to resilience. We humans have a huge capacity to do just about anything we want. If we want. The series, Messy, went on to win several film festival awards and was pitched to a major platform. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHr0Eym_UBk
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I worked with an actress way back when in a children’s theater production of ‘Sleeping Beauty.’ I played one of her sidekicks. As we were rehearsing and later in our small make-up and costumes room, I noticed something about her and I said to myself, SHE IS GOING TO MAKE IT. She had DRIVE. I think that’s the number one quality an actor needs in order to get to be a working actor, if not a star. And she is a TV star. One can have all the talent in the world, but drive is the underlying quality that’s a telltale sign of “making it.” I have worked with very few actors who have that drive. Nothing and no one gets in your way. That’s the attitude an actor needs- and many other creatives as well. Treating yourself as a business and knowing how to sell yourself in the business. I wish that my University and many other schools had taught us actors how to treat our craft as a business. Call it self-confidence or call it a business. Either way, one needs that business head. And resilience is the third quality. Creatives are constantly being rejected. You must have a thick skin and pick yourself back up and just forget about that audition you just had. Keep moving forward.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
I’m just now, at 57, learning to see my successes. It’s not about fame and fortune. It actually never has been about fame and fortune for me, but the successes I’ve had, I guess I never saw them as that. I’m only now looking back on my life and seeing that, wow, I’ve done pretty well for myself. I am now looking at things I’ve been doing and I’m impressed, whereas in the past I wasn’t terribly proud. It was what it was, you know? Take my little garden, for example. When I bought my house there was nothing. Little by little I’ve been growing it and it has taken off, is gorgeous, and gives me enormous happiness. That’s just it. Do what makes you happy. Of course you have to work and pay the bills, but have a job that makes you happy or satisfied or at least carve out time for yourself with something that makes you feel good. My back patio, same. I go back there and I’m truly proud of myself, satisfied, happy. The web series, same. It’s not about making a fortune doing what I love. It’s doing what I love that gives me a fortune in happiness. I need to give myself more rounds of applause. We all do.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @Messy the web series @kateleewarren123
- Facebook: @Messy the web series
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-warren-a2583524/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@messythewebseries9763
- Other: Somehow clicked over a question, which I chose and was about to write on: What is the biggest challenge and how am I trying to overcome it? I’m just now, at 57, learning to see my successes. It’s not about fame and fortune. It actually never has been about fame and fortune for me, but the successes I’ve had I guess I never saw them as that. I’m only now looking back on my life and seeing that, wow, I’ve done pretty well for myself. I am now looking at things I’ve been doing and I’m impressed, whereas in the past I wasn’t terribly proud. It was what it was, you know? Take my little garden, for example. When I bought my house there was nothing. Little by little I’ve been growing it and it has taken off, is gorgeous, and gives me enormous happiness. That’s just it. Do what makes you happy. Of course you have to work and pay the bills, but have a job that makes you happy or satisfied or at least carve out time for yourself with something that makes you feel good. My back patio, same. I go back there and I’m truly proud of myself, satisfied, happy. The web series, same. It’s not about making a fortune doing what I love. It’s doing what I love that gives me a fortune in happiness. I need to give myself more rounds of applause. We all do.
