Meet Meen Monthon Intra-Promphao

We recently connected with Meen Monthon Intra-Promphao and have shared our conversation below.

Meen Monthon, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?

In this world full of reasons for you to just give up, being “alive” is enough, is such a…hopelessness that I have been telling myself. I always have these repeated voices in my head, “If you’re not someone, you’re no one,” which led me to ignore the fact that, because I am no one, I am someone. I have been spending years growing up in different scenes of reality. I have seen so many things in my life and perceive the worlds I have seen in such a…way. It opened my mind, but also got me to the point that I questioned myself a lot, “What was all this for?”

It took me back all the way when I was about five years old. My family took me to watch Jurassic Park III in the theater for the first time. I remember sitting there watching a person being mutilated by a killer dinosaur. So I went home, telling my family that I wanted to see myself on screen running from dinosaurs, even though it was only a 90-minute runtime, and I might die at the end, it was worth seeing the ending. Well, of course, they laughed at me and told me that I would never get to have myself on screen like that. In my family, I have grown up to be nothing but a disappointment to them. I wasn’t a son they would be proud of in an….ahem…asian parents’ standard. I used to skip classes to be in a library so I could read books about mythology, dinosaurs, and history, to the point that I swear that the librarian really hated me. I was one of the weirdest kids in my classroom. I did not want to pursue to be a doctor or a lawyer like what my parents wanted me to be, or go play soccer or dressed up with other kids, I just wanted to be in the library and read books. So I was raised around the idea that there was something wrong with me. Was it?

Fast forward, because of my rebellious nature, it got to the point that my family did not care or engage in what I am doing so I decided to take the road on my own and leave home back when I was 19 to the scene of the western world where all my comfort stuff I grew up around and pursue this path on my own. Still, it’s not an easy road. As the time flies, I am here now, a working actor living in the city where most of these magic happened. Still, even though I proved them wrong, I also proved them right, in a way. This road is still a long one, and I am trying my best to enjoy the journey without hoping for a specific destination.

Like all humans, I have had bad days and good days. Some day, when I feel like I am at my best, I have the power to go against the world, some day I become too “realistic” and realize that I am just another person in the crowd hoping to be someone. Here’s the thing, I got to the point that I discovered that there’s nothing wrong with it. Being a human is a part of to be a human. I spent years having those voices telling me, not knowing that it was just a trauma response to what my family used to tell me. Still, if I did the whole thing just to prove them wrong, then it raised me another question of who I am without all these voices?

What I have been working as an actor/performer, along with some behind-the-scenes stuff in the past years, really taught me one thing: every story matters, and being a part of creating magic to inspire someone has become the reason why I am doing this. I love telling stories through emotions and movements, to the point that it broke me as a human being, but we’ll keep it for another story, because that is something I still am figuring out. Still, my own life experience was not the most comfortable thing in the world to go through, but it was essential for me to grow and realize why I am doing this, why I want to commit myself to this craft and be a part of stories that needed to be told. Not just that, being in this industry also showed me that there’s nothing wrong with being a weird kid, like the way my family painted me as a son they didn’t want me to be. In fact, growing up finding my comforts in these stories, I have been experiencing as a human being is a reminder of why I need to do this: to be a part of creating a space for people so they can feel like they are not alone by telling these stories. And, man, I am having a good day today so I am telling myself how much I am proud of him, and I hope me having a bad day would open this article and tell myself too that I am exactly where I need to be.

From trying to prove my family wrong, to the fact that it made me realize that what matters is the stories people have to tell. That’s indeed a real character development in my book!

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?

So, let’s get to know who I am. My name is Meen Monthon Intra-Promphao or just “Meen Promphao.” Sometimes I also go by “Mean” as I always make a joke that my name accidentally makes me a “mean” person. I am an actor/performance artist, as you probably have been told a trillion times before getting to this point. But to dig deep down into where I am professionally? It is going to feel like a job interview a bit, but I guess that’s the question. If I hadn’t mentioned before, I was born and raised in Thailand for 19 years before leaving my country to pursue my dream as a performance artist. I started in Europe, as I lived in the UK for a while. Still, it wasn’t a scene that I needed. So, I ran even further away from home to California, where I am right now. I went to college in the Bay Area and earned a degree in Archaeology. That still didn’t stop me from pursuing acting, as I ended up taking a few acting classes and ended up in a Shakespeare play, and let me tell you, being on stage to do stupid stuff unlocked something in me. So, I transferred to Southern California to pursue myself fully in acting as I ended up getting a BA in acting from California State University, Long Beach. After that, I have dipped myself into different types of productions, from student films to be just a background in billion-dollar company TV shows. The smaller the production scales are, the bigger my role is. One of my favorite projects that I worked on was an original stage play, “South Hope Street,” written by Aaron Higareda and directed by Miguel Ángel López. My other absolutely favorite one was being a bartender day player on the show ‘Hacks.’ I can tell you that getting to be a part of that project alone was the most enjoyable experience (one of the scenes was so funny I broke my character and ruined the shot which ended up them got mad and yelled at me, so I actually am apologizing to the team here).

Still, just like everyone else, I still am aiming big. Because one day, someone will realize that this weird kid is actually really fun to watch him. Still, the scenery where I am professionally may not be an ideal spot for where I am right now. So, keeping the spirits up and trying to find the reason to keep going may be one of the most challenging things to do sometimes. Right now, apart from auditioning roles that I see fit for myself and having to handle 99.9% rejections of all time, I am dipping my feet into writing and start telling my stories in the eyes of this weird dreamy kid who always see the fantasy world in front of him rather than the real world he’s living in. Yet, I am looking forward to whatever the road ahead has in store for me.

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?

I believe that every single person has their very own unique journey in their lifetime. Each of us has their own value and perspective on how they perceive the world, and the following three points may be something the audience disagrees with. I am going to stick with the same theme, which is about self-journey. What made me learn about what I see in the world to the point that I accept myself some time relate to you actually having to look at the worst version of yourself and learn from it. Embracing your personal chaos and riding it to the top may not be the path for the faint of heart, but trust me, if you can actually salvage some lessons out of it, I think that it is worth it.

First point, I believe it is something important to grow is to let yourself completely fall apart. You heard it right. Sometimes a forest needs to burn itself down for a new cycle of life to begin. I see that life plays a very similar game. Sometimes, you need to embrace what makes you struggle the most, let the whole consequence play out. Plan to fail. Plan to handle the consequences and how you would pick yourself up from that would be the way to go from there. Your decision may be life-changing, or it may be just another daily crossroads of thoughts. I believe that, if we see where we fail and plan to thrive from that, it is one way to go. There are many events in my life that were complete disasters, some of them were related to life and death, some of them weren’t. To sum up, this is probably a more extreme way to say that one tip of living is to “learn from failure.” However, this doesn’t mean that I have greenlighted you to do something absolutely stupid just to prove my point. That may cause another whole generation of people with anxiety. I did not mean it in the way that you may think when I meant to plan to fail. Always have boundaries in your decisions. Each people have different boundaries in terms of making decisions in life.

That leads to the second point is to be self-forgiving. If you can’t forgive yourself, all these failures and traumas in life will absolutely do nothing but drive you insane and consume you until you are nothing but the void. To feel haunted by your guilt every day may not be the healthiest way to live. So, ask yourself, was that my fault? Even if it was, can I do something about it now? I can assure you. You who are blaming yourself for your mistakes are not the same person as when it happened. Still, forgiving oneself may be, I believe it already is, the most difficult one you can have to give to someone. Things can take some time, but as long as you keep going, one day you will realize the other side of the same coin, the same memory.

The most important one, I think it matters is to reach out to people. For some, it may be the easiest thing you can do, but for some, like me, it is not. Talking to people, sometimes it feels like being held in prison is except that the crime I committed was my own self-imagery. I can say it confidently, it is mostly not true. In my experience, humans are predictable. All of us only seek to be heard and accepted. We all secretly want to be valued and treated in the same way we would like to treat ourselves. And, sadly, it oftentimes may not be the kindest thing we do, but that is what makes us humans. Still, unsurprisingly, we are not alone. Even where you are in the world may be crumbling, there will always be people out there who would help you to get through the day, and sometimes that can be enough, to just let your voice be heard, even the most stupid thing you believe in yourself. So, if anyone out there feels like you are alone, you are not. If you have friends, family, or enemies, reach out to them, but always respect their boundaries by listening to them as well. If you feel like you really really have no one, there are resources out there you can use.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

I am just going to wrap it up here with another message for the readers. If you get to read it all up to here, I am glad you have seen this side of me. One day, you’ll be seeing me somewhere you expected me to be and probably realize that I am just another human being who has struggles, hopes, and dreams, just like you. And the road, which could be either a long way from now or it’s just another block off the street, it took someone to have to learn about themselves to see their true colors. I am just like you, a person who may have a different ideal life than the one you see. My path may be easier or more difficult in your eyes, but that’s not the point. The point is that hopelessness and overwhelming feelings are a part of human beings. It is okay to feel like you are the worst person in the world, and all the things that you have been fighting for may be for nothing. But I can assure you, it is a part of being a human. We are not perfect, and it should be okay. Sometimes, the most a human can do is to conquer the world, or step out of bed. I see no difference in that. The most important thing is to keep on going, do the “next” right thing. Listen to yourself because the end of the day, you are who you are. You are the main character in your story, and every story matters. Also, if you ever feel like you are alone, you are not. There are people out there willing to be there for you and give you a hand when you fall. Keep going. I believe in you!

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Image Credits

Mark Sho
Shusuke Alex Minami

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