We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Thomas Hollow. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Thomas below.
Hi Thomas, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
I am inspired by the dedication and hard work of the people in my life. When I look around at all the talent around me, all of the brilliant artists and creatives, I am constantly humbled in my own abilities. I admire people who work hard for their talent and I want to be one of them.
To be an actor and storyteller, I feel like I always need to be digging deeper and exploring more to even scratch the surface of building a career. I want to build a career as an actor, and the passion I have for improvement and exploring my own creativity necessitate a consistent work ethic.
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 am fortunate enough to be able to support myself making and teaching art. I both teach and perform acting and music. I have a passion for making connections with others through art and helping people discover their own artistry.
As a storyteller, my passion is for creating art that reflects the human experience, mental health, and journeys of growth. Currently I am very excited to be producing a short film titled, ‘That’s the Gift.’ It is a story that navigates the universal experiences of loss and grief, while also celebrating the resilience of the human spirit. Learn more at Thatsthegiftfilm.com or on social @thatsthegiftfilm
I also love performing live on the stage. This year, I will be hitting the Hollywood Fringe festival in the one act play, written by Drew Petriello and Brandon Karsh, “Vote for Tom Ryan’ as the role of Tom Ryan.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The first thing that I really needed out of school was a way to stay consistent with my work, while not having someone tell me what to do. It is hard to overstate how important creating my own structure has been to me keeping my motivation and work ethic up high enough to match my ambition. To anyone who is a fresh graduate, I would recommend creating a structure for your career. Even if you don’t have a role you are cast as, or an upcoming audition, make time to be an artist. For an actor, it could be reading and dissecting scripts, taking classes, reading acting books, writing your own material, or whatever you need to do to keep up with your craft.
The second thing (and this is kind of the whole thing, in a way) is prioritizing mental health. Everything we do, every interaction we have with others, all of our decisions, our successes, our failures, our whole lives are affected by our mental health. I didn’t feel that I could be a full artist until I engaged in working on my brain’s well being. I have loved having journals and therapy as ways to hold myself accountable to making sure I am taking care of my mind.
Thirdly, it is so important to remember to keep loving the art that you make. It sounds so simple, but it’s crucial to the journey of an artist to love art. Working in an industry that asks so much of its work force, such as the world of film and television, I think it especially important to remind yourself why you are doing something. I am pushing and pulling myself to extreme highs and lows on a daily basis because I absolutely love telling stories and inspiring others. If you lose sight of that, I don’t know how you keep making art.
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?
I want to find a partner who can teach and also be willing to learn. One of the greatest collaborations in my life in the last few years has been in a lesson exchange with a close friend. He is a brilliant actor with a background in theater, film, and television acting. With my background in singing, we saw found a golden opportunity. Each week, we meet and he teaches acting, while I teach singing. This all started as a casual, “hey that sounds like fun…let’s give it a try,” kind of thing. But over time it has evolved to an incredibly important part of my journey. It has shaped my understanding of the teacher/student relationship and has helped me to become a stronger mentor for others, while also being made aware of how I can always be a better student.
When I am looking to collaborate with someone new, I want to find people who have their own ideas that jump off the page. I like a collaborator who can run with an idea that I have or who can give me a new idea that I can run with. Mostly, I am excited to work with big personalities and people who are free enough to make discoveries along the creative process, be flexible in their creativity, and be able to have a lot of fun along the way.
The collaborative process is one of the most exciting things about producing a film. I am coming at this creative endeavor from the perspective of an actor. The thrill of producing is that I get to meet, work with, and learn from people who make film from all kinds of other angles. Talking with directors, editors, writers, etc….It has all been so amazing for me.
If you want to collaborate with me, check out my website thomashollow.com or message me on instagram @thomashollow.
Contact Info:
- Website: thomashollow.com
- Instagram: @thomashollow
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@thomashollow65?si=BhlvaSLJkKYKPwJh
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/thomas-hollow-834753639?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
- Other: Learn about my short film at the website thatsthegiftfilm.com and on it’s instagram @thatsthegiftfilm
Image Credits
Brayden Hayde
