We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brian Norris a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Brian, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
To be honest, it’s a mix of ego and responsibility.
The ego part is that acting was the only thing that gave me validation as a kid. I didn’t feel like I fit in, I wasn’t the “exceptional one” in my family, and I didn’t feel good at anything. Not until I found acting, where people stopped and listened to me. They paid attention. I could express myself without judgement. It didn’t hurt that they clapped at the end. I felt good at something.
I think validation is really important to the human spirit. To be seen and witnessed. It’s why I start every class at the studio with a check-in – so folks in class have a chance to share and be listened to.
But there’s another side to that coin and it’s responsibility. Every time I’ve taken on more responsibility I’ve found more purpose and success. Today I find that from my marriage, being a father, and running my own business.
It can be hard to find purpose if the only one who’s affected is you. I’ve noticed that folks who have less responsibility in their lives – often so they can give themselves fully to their art – are the ones who suffer more from the ups and downs of an unpredictable career and struggle to find purpose when it isn’t going well.
That’s not to say everyone needs heteronormative forms of responsibility like marriage and parenthood, but I think taking on more responsibility in any capacity helps. Adopting a dog, volunteering for a good cause, starting a side business that feels useful, learning a new skill, finding forms of leadership – they all can help with purpose.
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?
First and foremost I’m an actor. I love it, but I don’t think that part of my story is terribly unique or helpful. But I really enjoy sharing about starting The Norris Studio, the acting studio I opened in early 2022.
I had been teaching and coaching for 10 years at another studio. I learned a ton, had a wonderful community, and was wildly stuck. I think a lot of people can relate to that mix of good and bad.
Going out on my own was a huge risk. The combination of the pandemic and becoming a father made it clear that I wasn’t making enough money and needed to be doing more with my time and life.
At first I was just discouraged. My boss at the time had told me that teaching acting “had no money in it” so I had never seriously considered my own studio, despite having years under my belt both working on-camera and teaching.
Leaving was so scary. I didn’t know what would come next, and leaving the nest created a lot of tension and distance from my former community. My initial plan was to teach a small acting class until I figured out something else, something totally different, that could supplement my acting and help me provide for my family. I looked into all sorts of other careers like marketing and advertising. I remember looking into courses to help me with my LinkedIn profile. Mostly that time was filled with a lot of fear and doubt.
The thing I want to share more than anything else is that taking the risk to leave when I didn’t know what would come was the best decision I’ve ever made in my life. It forced me to be creative, curious, and brave. It made me believe in myself.
It turns out that the fear, doubt, and high stakes that come with a baby looking at you for answers make you bottom line yourself real quick. I took ownership of my talents and abilities in a way I never had before. I looked at the actors in my little class and realized, “These people have been with me for years. And you’ve helped each of them. You’ve worked for decades. You’re good at this. You can do this. In fact, you already are.”
I would never have taken ownership of my truth, talents, and story if I hadn’t risked it all. And from there, the studio grew faster than I ever expected.
It helped my acting, too. I worked more in the year I opened the studio leading up to the strike than I had in the years before. I would have guessed the opposite – that a full time job and parenthood might have killed my acting career. But somehow it all worked better than it ever had. Truthfully, there’s room for everything you want in life.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
This town is full of wildly talented people, but so many of them don’t succeed because talent isn’t enough. So here are the three things that I think really made the difference.
The first was embracing “type casting.” So many folks want to play everything, want to be seen as brilliant, and resent having to build a career. I definitely started that way. I wanted to “be great.” But wouldn’t you know it, there aren’t many casting breakdowns for “great actors.” They’re looking for types to cast in their stories. People that are truly “right” for each role. And being truly right for something inherently means you’re not right for everything. When I was starting out I looked wildly young and boyish and had intense access to emotions. So I was the young boy who cried. That wasn’t always easy. I wanted to play older. I wanted to be seen as attractive. But I was able to accept my lane and the work followed.
Another key one was never getting stuck in a survival job that wasn’t working. Lots of people can make all sorts of things work and there are exceptions to everything, but mostly I’ve seen that people who are in the bar/restaurant world and the nannying world get really screwed. The money isn’t barely enough to afford rent and other necessities, with nothing leftover for their career (headshots, workshops, classes) and fun. Plus there’s a ton of emotional abuse. I found that folks who got into work like tutoring, copywriting, notarizing, accounting, etc found more money, time, and fulfillment. I was lucky to get into teaching and tutoring early, and those allowed me to build my acting career and invest in other creative revenue streams like commercials and Voiceover.
The last one is learning to say “no.” It’s so hard to say no, especially when you feel desperate. I remember doing a lot of 99-seat theater when I got out of college. I thought it would be a great way to build my career and meet people. I’m sure some have had success with that, but I found that I was working with good people on cool material and making $16 per show. That’s not even minimum wage! It made me feel bad about myself, it made me poor, and it didn’t lead to work that could pay enough to live on. Saying no to that world got me a lot more comfortable with with say no in general. It gave me strength to say that to classes that didn’t work, relationships that weren’t going well, reps that weren’t serving me, and more.
Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
I’ve found I’m best for actors who have training and know they’re talented, but haven’t gotten where they want to go yet.
Many tell me they don’t know where they “fit” in the industry. Others say the technique they’ve learned has put them in their head more than it’s booked them work. I really enjoy taking the experiences I’ve picked up from my own work and a decade plus of working with actors and helping my clients turn their talent and hard work into a flourishing career.
In terms of personality, I love curious sweet people who’ve often felt like that haven’t fit in with the ‘cool kids’. You need to work hard and play hard, ask questions, get vulnerable, and be willing to succeed and fail in front of folks. When that combo walks through my doors, really exciting things happen which fills my heart.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.TheNorrisStudio.com
www.BrianNorrisActing.com - Instagram: @TheBrianNorris, @TheNorrisStudio
Image Credits
1. “Into The Dark: Blood Moon” – Hulu 2. Theo & Juliet 3. No Credit 4. Sara Fletcher 5. No Credit 6. No credit 7. “Halt & Catch Fire” – AMC 8. “SWAT” – CBS
