We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Paul Sean Ward. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Paul Sean below.
Paul Sean, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
Oh, boy. That’s a long answer, but if you’ll indulge me… I do quite a lot to keep my creativity alive.
I moved to LA to act in film and TV, so I watch a wide variety of movies, TV, and live theatre shows. I make a point to watch everything I can from Oscar winning features to indies that have a few hundred views on YouTube or Vimeo. I definitely believe that a poorly received movie can sometimes be more educational than a critically acclaimed one. It can highlight which amateur mistakes to avoid and when breaking a rule or convention was to a film’s detriment rather than its benefit. On the other hand, new and little-known work can be so inspiring and such a breath of fresh air when the creative risks they take pay off!
I’m lucky to have friends who are often booked and busy, and I love supporting them with streams and ticket sales when they perform in shows that wouldn’t have otherwise been on my radar. I remain close with friends outside the film and TV industry as well, and I love catching up with them! Hearing them pursue creative journeys very different from my own–from raising children to writing novels to producing music–gives me so many unique perspectives on the world.
Reading and audiobook listening also helps fuel me creatively. I have a lot of different interests. Too many, really. Beyond acting and film topics, lately I’ve been reading about racial inequality, politics, investigative journalism, memoirs, comic books. All sorts of things.
When crafting a character, I’ll ask, “what music would he be listening to? What does he read? Where does he get his news? How worldly or insular are his beliefs?” Based on those questions, I’ll try to read books or news articles that I think the character would or listen to certain music or podcasts on the way to set to help get into a character’s headspace. Not always, but sometimes for certain characters, I’ve found this to be a useful exploration of tangible things to help ground a character beyond my own lived experience.
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 owe my acting career and the fact that I’m any good at all mainly to Cassie McGuire and Elena Ferrante-Martin, two incredible women who taught me theatre and directed me in plays and musicals throughout middle school and high school, respectively. Theatre gave younger me many invaluable things: a community of like minded artists and friends, vocal training to work through a sometimes debilitating stutter, and a space to be vulnerable when exploring complicated feelings of grief and loss.
At 17, I was lucky to perform with my high school thespians at International Thespian Festival and spent a week exploring the artistic village that the festival set up for us on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. I knew from then on that performing would be a major part of my life, and I continued acting in university plays while pursuing a Bachelor’s in Nursing at the University of Nevada, Reno.
After college, I got into film acting mainly because it offered a flexibility that theatre couldn’t. It’s harder to commit to nighttime rehearsals and performances when you’re already working most nights. I fell in with many talented indie filmmakers in Reno, NV and edited my first reel with performances from their short films.
I’ve been in LA since January of 2019, and the world has obviously been through many tumultuous ups and downs in the past five years and counting. Being an RN through lockdowns and before COVID vaccines was frankly a scary time, but I feel privileged that being an essential worker afforded me the ability to stay in LA. Many artists I know had to either relocate or wait months for their unemployment claims to process. When productions started to pick up again, I scored background gigs on various TV shows including Westworld, Insecure, and Winning Time. The latter gig helped me earn my SAG card last spring.
It’s bittersweet that the first thing I did as a SAG member was vote to authorize the longest actors strike in SAG-AFTRA history. The strike left me–like many actors for most of 2023–unable to find studio work or even promote the work I had done the previous year. Nonetheless, I was proud to participate in our historic labor strikes, and I’m overall proud of the deal our negotiating committee secured.
Ok, that’s enough looking backwards. Now, on to the present and future. Most recently, long-time friend and collaborator Nick Gapp released Webbing with Jerry the Funk Finkelstein, a TV comedy concept in the vein of [adult swim] which I produced and guest star in. It’s available to watch for free on Nick’s YouTube channel (@NickGapp). There’s also several projects from when I was a non-union actor that I’m eagerly awaiting the release of. They include “Searching for Danny”, a short dramedy from newcomer Max Rogoff and the finale of “Serial Confessions”, a darkly comedic web series from another long-time friend and collaborator Cody Hamilton.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1) Be curious. Ask the hard questions: the ones with complicated and sometimes contradictory answers. Familiarize yourself with people whose lives and perspectives are different from yours. Come to your own informed conclusions without setting them in stone. Be open to refining your opinions and reinventing yourself as you grow older. Want to learn a trade, skill, or subject? Do it! Start simple, then work your way up. Give yourself grace and permission to abandon it if it drains you or fails to stimulate you. This life is a fragile and ephemeral thing, and the world, conversely, is so infinitesimally varied and wondrous in its complexity. How can any good artist not be fascinated by that or not want to peel back the layers and see the rich stories that lie beneath the surface?
2) Be compassionate. During lockdowns, people turned to the visual arts for distraction and escape, sure, but also for emotional release, empathy, and feeling seen. To me, this demonstrates that people need the space to explore their emotions yet don’t often get the opportunity to outside of watching characters’ emotional journeys on film and TV. Unfortunately, many don’t share their emotions for fear of being judged. Don’t judge others. You don’t have all the facts of their life experiences. And even if you did, who asked you to put them on trial? It costs nothing to listen but your time and attention. More often than not, I find that’s a small price to pay to give people the chance to uncover hard truths or to unburden themselves of their emotional baggage. Holding space for people to vent, or cry, or “overshare” will help you hone your listening skills, get more comfortable being vulnerable, and be better at navigating your own emotions. All of this will make you a better artist, performer, and person.
3) Be fearless. Get to know yourself. Take note of what makes you uncomfortable, and interrogate why. How do you react when confronting that which upsets you? Are those reactions valid, or are they preventing you from being your truest and fullest self? What is stopping you from seeking adversity? What life awaits you beyond that bridge you’re too afraid to cross? Camera lenses and spotlights have a way of magnifying all aspects of us. An audience can always pick up on nervousness and uncommitted choices. By then, you’ve lost them and gotten in the way of the story you are trying to tell. Jerry Gardner is Professor Emeritus of the Actor Training Program at the University of Utah. When I was 17, I had the pleasure of attending his workshop, during which he looked me in the eyes, gently but firmly placed his hand over my heart, urged me to “Be fearless!”, and smiled. I’ve never forgotten how empowered I felt in that moment. Ever since, his words have been a mantra I use to elicit strength, especially when performing. But beyond acting, there is power in committing to a bold choice and seeing it through even and especially if you don’t know what will result! That’s what makes life exciting (to watch and to experience)!
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
Speaking of mantras, another one I think of often is “You can do anything.” It’s what my dad would say to me every day he dropped me off at school. Those are also the last words he ever spoke to me. This April marks 7 years since he passed away. Knowing that I had his–and that I continue to have my mom’s–support and confidence meant the world to me. There are so many things that people, especially young children, are told we can’t do. So many goals presented as being unattainable. To me, “You can do anything” meant that I had earned my folks’ trust and confidence. That I could accomplish whatever goal I set out to achieve. It meant that I could weather the harshest storms. It meant that I could be myself, and it didn’t fence in what dreams they wanted me to pursue. Anything. It’s liberating. I’m thankful for those four words every day.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @paulseanward
- Youtube: @paulseanward
Image Credits
All images photographed by Charlie Jake Sanchez.
