We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Taurean Cavins-Flores. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Taurean below.
Taurean, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
My work ethic comes from both of my parents. My dad is a warehouse foreman for Subaru. At the warehouse he leads by example, telling his employees, “I only ask that you work as hard as I do.” A lot of employees can’t match the ethic my dad has, so they leave, but through that method he has cultivated the strongest warehouse in the country. Corporate now sends him all over the United States to shape up any facilities in disrepair. Now, my parents divorced when I was five years old and watching how hard my mom had to work to raise me-working two jobs, researching the best schools that our situation could afford, etc.-had a huge impact on me. Understanding that her work ethic came from her unyielding love for me has always been an inspiration and in turn, I use the love I hold for acting to drive me in the same way.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’ve been acting since I was eight years old and have never looked back. What makes acting special for me is that it has never been a burden. Of course I’ve been through tough times trying to survive and act at the same time, but it was never a burden. I never once found myself thinking of giving it up or doing something else. The picture of what I’m meant to do has always been immaculately clear, so even during the hard times when I was sleeping on a futon mattress in a living room and taking whatever extra food I could from my restaurant job at the time, there was always that certainty. The certainty of acting. What’s exciting is that I’ve recently started teaching at Drama Inc. My colleagues there are incredible and I have the privilege of working with some truly wonderful students. Something about meeting a new person who wants to do something and then guiding them to it is truly fulfilling. I show people how to listen, open up, and be unabashedly vulnerable and that puts me over the moon.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. In what I do, it is paramount that you always be willing to play. And I don’t mean that in a derivative, pompous kind of way, I mean actually play! For example, I have siblings that are ten and eleven years younger than I, so when I was in my twenties they were still in grade school and always wanted to play tag, or army or little games that we just made up ourselves. I embraced it. You have to keep that younger version of yourself constantly accessible. 2. Something that I wish I would have known earlier that has had a huge impact on me is money management. As an actor, especially starting out, it is almost always a struggle so you have to be thoughtful of what your money goes to and create a budget.
3. One of the biggest pieces of advice that has always stuck with me comes from a teacher I had. When I was at The National Theatre Conservatory, I was taking an audition class. The teacher comes in and starts talking about how we all probably get nervous in auditions and start to second guess ourselves. He told us that if we’ve done the work, there’s nothing to worry about. Simple, yet sound advice, right? But he took it one step further and said, “Whenever you walk into an audition, on to set or on stage, just do this beforehand” and he started to flick his fingers around himself like he was shooing something away. We looked at him confused and he asks, “You know what those are?” Of course we had no idea and he says, “Those are f*ck it seeds. Whenever you’re nervous, just plant your f*ck it seeds, because you’ve done the work and nothing else matters.”
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
Film, TV and stage are among the most collaborative mediums that exist so I’m always open and looking to meet new and like minded people. Whether it be fellow actors, writers, directors, costume designers, musicians or any of the thousands of other jobs that this art requires, I’m always down for a chat. Feel free to D.M. me on Instagram or TikTok.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @taureantheactor
- Other: TikTok: @taureancf
