Meet Kyle Kouri

We recently connected with Kyle Kouri and have shared our conversation below.

Kyle, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

The only thing I know for certain is that my dreams definitely won’t come true if I stop chasing them. Plus, I’d rather die than live a normal life, which makes committing to an artistic career as an actor and a writer the only viable option.

What’s more, anything I’ve ever succeeded at has first been met with staggering setbacks and failures. It’s always been when I’ve just kept going past the point of any hope for a positive outcome, that the thing I’ve wanted has finally happened. But it never happens in the ways I thought it would, which is a good lesson too.

Now, whenever I’m scared things aren’t looking good for me, I dig into that feeling, actually I cherish it, because I’m secretly thinking, Ok, good, this means I’m probably closer to things working out.

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 went to school for writing, but for many many years my work wasn’t getting published, so I decided to become an actor instead (something I had fantasized about since I was a little kid). Since then, I’ve built a film company with my friends Travis Bacon and Dylan Garett Smith called Slashtag Cinema.

I’ve had the great pleasure to act in our films, produce and write them with my partners, and direct them from time-to-time. Our first two films, Keep Coming Back and The Advanced Class, have screened in over 20 festivals in America, Canada, Mexico, and Norway, receiving 10 award nominations, and have taken home 5 wins, including Best Short, Best Horror Short, Best SFX (2X), and Best Supporting Actress.

On top of that, I audition as much as humanly possible, and have been lucky to be featured in some very cool projects. Some which are already out. Many more are forthcoming.

Also, I never stopped writing despite receiving a steady stream of rejection letters. It’s good I kept going, because I finally got a book deal in addition to publishing several short works of fiction and poetry. You can find my short work online. My first book comes out next year from CLASH Books and is called “The Problem Drinker.”

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?

WORK HARDER:

I was at a bar chatting with an aspiring actress who told me, “I don’t want to audition. I just want to act in indie stuff, like your films!”

This is absolutely the worst attitude to have. I work my ass off to get my indie stuff off the ground. Everybody works their asses off at every level. So if your attitude is I don’t want to work hard, you can be assured that no one will want to work with you.

All the best sets I’ve been on—from the biggest productions to film students’ theses—were inhabited by serious people chugging coffee, solving problems, busting their asses together, not for glory or pay, but simply for the love of cinema. Which brings me to maybe the most important advice I can give anybody: treat every set like it’s a Spielberg movie. Treat everybody on set like they’re the next Spielberg. Because they might be!

NEVER STOP:

I’m still very early on in my journey, but I can assure you that whatever you’re doing is going to take longer than you think it will. Even if you have some phenomenal successes early on, that doesn’t mean anything. You are guaranteed to have many unforeseen monstrous wrenches thrown into your gameplan that will make you want to stop altogether, but just be patient and keep going.

DO WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY:

It was a big deal for me to decide one day, seemingly out of nowhere, to become an actor, but it’s the best decision I ever made. People close to me were confused. They thought I was having some kind of breakdown, or going through a phase. But I kept working at it, and at every turn, as I learned the craft, it made me happy. When setbacks inevitably came, it didn’t matter, because I knew that acting, at any level, at any age, would still make me happier than if I decided to do anything else.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

I’d recommend “The Tropic of Capricorn” by Henry Miller. Admittedly this book is a strange choice for self-improvement, but it embodies an idea I’m passionate about: no conventional wisdom. Miller’s romp breaks every rule, has no respect for anything or anyone, is operatic in scope, and both literary and punk rock in execution. It doesn’t care about you, while somehow is still full of heart and wisdom and compassion and essentially reveals a ruthlessly myopic narrator who somehow still loves everyone.

I’m not advocating for anybody to be an asshole, but this book makes me laugh a lot. It makes me feel ambitious, but not take life too seriously, and gets me excited to go have a drink and think romantically about art. It also shakes up my expectations, opening up new pathways in my neural system, which inspires me to do things in new ways. In short, it makes me think different—which, of course, leads towards innovation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/Kylekouri
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kylekouri/

Image Credits

Johnny Call

Dylan Garrett Smith

Ray Camacho