Episode 8 / Sean Joseph Young
/by Roj Whitelock
London-based photographer and HSM Associate Member
Sean Joseph Young is a hugely experienced actor, writer producer and director who has worked with Netflix, Disney, BBC, Microsoft and EA as well as household names like Mark Gatiss and Josie Lawrence. In this Episode he talks about his route into the industry, the value of ongoing learning and development, how mentorship can improve your chances of success and where he feels he's really been able to make a difference. He also talks about the importance of reputation and developing your personal brand.
Note: View on YouTube for captions.
"All the people who talk about what they want, who talk the talk and walk the walk, are worth listening to. The only way that you're going to come across as negative or bad is if you treat people wrongly. If you're nice, kind, but still ambitious, still driven, and you're not stepping on anyone's face to get what you want, then you deserve to be there."
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DescriptHow Did You Get Into Acting and Directing?
Yeah. So, um I mean if we literally start from right from the beginning and you can edit out the the boring bits. Um uh my dad was a lighting straight in there. My my dad worked in the film business but as like a techie. Um and then he would work mainly with um like engines and stuff like that. Um but I wanted to be an actor. I really enjoyed it. It was the only thing that I was being praised for at school. Um along with that uh English. So I enjoyed those two aspects of creativity. Um, I then got an agent at 16 and started working quite consistently, which is fantastic and a rarity. Um, and then I admittedly started becoming quite annoyed with um the castings and the characters that I was being given. It was a lot of broody nerd. Um, I can see the nerd, but I can't see the broody. And I just felt as if the characters were really one-dimensional. Um, and I would have liked to do more comedy. Uh so I made my own web series, Two Housemates. Um and then uh made a second one and a third one. Really successful. Uh got to meet really fantastic and incredibly brilliant people. Um got Mark Gatiss in the third series, which was a huge privilege. He asked if he could be in the third series, which was a huge surprise because I wasn't planning on doing a third series and I was just showing him um this one scene in series 2. I was just asking if it works uh or is it too inappropriate which he obviously loved and um you know asked to be in it. From then on um I've gone on to make short films uh Moustache Man which was uh really successful film festival at film festivals. I made Moustache Man which was really successful at film festivals and I've recently just made another short film um which is in post-production. I've also got a film based on Two Housemates which is in post-production as well which is going to be going to film festivals. So yeah um I just love the whole process. I love um every aspect of it from behind to in front of the camera and just being able to see that you know your your dreams your um the images in your head come to light and see how much people enjoy them fills me with what can only be described as liquid gold.
Tell Me About Your Role As An Educator and Mentor For Actors and Writers
So I offer acting and writing lessons. Uh sometimes at the same time it's totally up to you what you prefer. Um and of course the acting lessons are focused on you know technique and uh you know script work and kind of just getting that character right along with you know behaviour uh behaviour on set. I think it's really important to be able to know how you should conduct yourself. Um, writing is, you know, more about the creativity, holding you accountable to your own work, which is always important, especially if you're working for yourself. If you don't have somebody giving you deadlines, along with that, it's really helpful to be able to talk about your own characters and what your goals and ambitions are. And talking about goals and ambitions, great segue. Well done, Sean. Is um I also offer mentorship lessons and uh a mentorship course. Um, and I keep that as cheap as I possibly can because in my 20s, um, I was, you know, going through this very chaotic stage in my life where I became a carer, um, while trying to maintain, you know, keeping that sort of essentially that rise up the mountain in my own career and I made choices uh, that, you know, understandably being a carer, I had to stop working on my acting. Once you leave there, you go straight down and then you have to go up again. Obviously, lots of people don't have that in their situation, but they're still having to live a life where they want to be creative, they want to be acting, they want to be writing, they want to be directing, they want to be involved in the arts industry, but they don't know how because they've left the course, they've left university, they've left college, they've left school, and they've just been told, "Go live your dream." And they nobody ever tells you this is how you might possibly live your dream with these jazz hands. Nobody ever gives you that information. And when I was in my 20s and early 30s even, I felt lost. I felt confused. I was living in a chaotic world and I had no idea how to organise things. With the mentorship lessons, it's all about taking that chaos and organising it. And I go through things like create a spreadsheet where you can, you know, look at productions you're interested in, films you're interested in, find out how, I hate this word, but it's right incestuous the um the production companies are where they work with each other. Try to meet this person, talk to this person, this is what your cover letter should look like. This is what your CV should look like. Let me look at your spotlight. And essentially advise you so you're not sitting there laying in bed at night going, "What should I be doing?" I can tell you these are the things you should be doing. And what's really important to me is that while I do these acting lessons and these writing lessons and mentorship, not once do I go, if you do all this, you'll be successful. I think a lot of, you know, certain courses and people that kind of and I understand why it's a really good selling point to go, if you do this with me, you'll become successful in that voice. Exactly. But with mine, it's very much realistic in terms of we are working together to give you the best chances. But I'm not saying that if you work with me, you'll instantly become successful. But luckily, I have had clients who have managed to make a success for themselves by applying what they learned in mentoring lessons, writing lessons, acting lessons. You know, they always apply their self technique that I taught them to give them the best chance of standing out. Because if you hit that minimum bar, that's fantastic because there's loads and loads of actors, writers, and directors not trying and essentially just waiting for their opportunity.
How Can You Improve Your Chances Of Success?
Exactly. It's it's so important to see yourself as your own brand. 10 or 15 years ago, you didn't have to do these things because an agency had your back. Now the world has expanded um with you know I understand why but with the increase of self tapes the globalisation of the industry the chances of you being chosen are lessen because the amount of people that are being looked at. So if you can hit that bar that you know um the lighting natural lighting for myself tapes I've got a neutral background uh my eye line is maybe about like five or six cm away from camera so I'm looking here but not directly into camera. I'm making sure that they can see my whole face instead of looking down at a script. All these things, you know, as soon as you start hitting that bar, then you're going to stand out to those who aren't doing it. So, obviously, loads of things are completely and utterly, especially in this industry, out of your control. But if you can put destiny into your own hands as much as possible, then not only will you be doing yourself a service, but you're also advertising yourself as a much more confident, ambitious, and stronger actor, writer, director.
Where Do You Feel You’ve Been Able To Make A Difference?
Yeah, I I it's it's seeing that motivation and that ambition actually come into fruition. Um a lot of actors talk about how much they want to do things but a lot of time they don't know how to and once they actually learn how to and start applying it by you know making their Instagram you know making an Instagram profile that's much more driven towards what they want to achieve. So like showcasing you know acting head shot scenes that they've done you know even um like head shot that they've taken themselves them looking you know good and strong and powerful and ambitious you know those things I really enjoy. Um I have, I don't know if I can mention her name. Evalina um if you're watching this I'm incredibly proud of you. So Evalina has gone on from you know doing uh you know a course with um X company which I I I shouldn't advertise. They're very good but that you know doing that course but also wanting to do these things wanting to do voice over wanting to do mo-cap. Um, and within a month after um, completing my mentor course, she's got herself an agent. She's gotten loads of voiceover stuff. She is more motivated, more ambitious, and most importantly, excited for the future. And I'm not saying that's directly because of me. Um, it's not. It's because she's applied herself. She's learned from the mentor course. These are the things that I should be doing. and not only doing that, but has gone out of her way to get in contact with people, follow the right people, use that spreadsheet that we've created together in terms of like you're seeing names attached to names attached to names. And she's gone out and applied herself and advertised herself as a successful person who's worth your time and attention. And that's exactly what she's done. And she is having her best year she's ever had. So well done, Evalina. I'm really proud of you. In the in the mentorship lessons, I've just finished one with um a very talented lady called Allora. And um you know, I hope she doesn't mind me saying this, otherwise you can bleep the the name. Um her cover letter was sheepish. All her stuff that she was putting out was like, "No, it's me." You know, with like a small whisper, "No, it's me." I was like, "No, no, no, you're talented. You look good on camera and you're ambitious. You need to showcase that without coming across as arrogant." The best way to come across as confident, not arrogant, is by going, I'm really good at my job. Here's evidence. And even if you don't have evidence, you go, I'm really good at my job and this is why. And I think a lot of actors feel as if they have to be really sheepish and tame and quiet about their career, um, about your wants and and your ambition, your drive. We're really sheepish and quiet about it because we don't want to rock the boat. We don't want people to think, "Oh, I I don't want them to think I'm I'm I'm an [ __ ] or anything like that." No, no, no. All the people who talk about what they want, who talk the talk and walk the walk, are worth listening to. The only way that you're going to come across as negative or bad is if you treat people wrongly. If you're nice, kind, but still ambitious, still driven, and you're not stepping on anyone's face to get what you want, then you deserve to be there.
How Important Is Reputation?
I was helping someone with their CV yesterday and um they're they want to be first assistant camera. They they're they're not going I want to be a DP. Like yes, they want to be a DP, but they've got those realistic expectations of what people want. So So I want to, you know, set myself up to get a first AC job. Well, first of all, think about what they want from you. Well, with first AC’ing, first assistant camera, um you're going to be doing quite a bit of work. you. It's just the nature of the beast and you're going to be listened to the DP a lot. So, you want to be kind-hearted, nice to be around. Those are the minimums. And then you want to be attentive. You want to be willing to learn. You want to be willing to do a lot of stuff. And generally, you want to be hardworking. So, in your CV, you want to be able to, you know, write that in your cover letter that I'm willing to do this, I'm willing to do that. Obviously, within the respects and boundaries of you yourself as a person, but you still want to be like, I want to be able to do this. I want to learn from these experiences really come across as someone who's willing and happy to do these things. I think that to somebody who's hiring sounds so much better than someone who goes I want to do first AC in um you know what am I getting from that? Nothing. So coming across as like okay that person is worth working with. And I think it's exactly what you said in terms of how this industry works. We're all so interconnected. Being kind to one person can easily lead you to go, Roger was really nice on that thing and you know, he was very talented and like nice to be around. We do need a photographer for this or I know somebody who needs a photographer for this. Let's get Raj over. You know, if I if I go, Roger was really talented, but he was such a pain in the ass to be around. it's highly unlikely that I'm gonna hire that person. But if I'm like, Roj knows a lot about Judge Dredd. I know he's nice to be around. You know, I'm gonna bring that person on. And that's the way that you should go about things, not just in business, not just in the arts industry, but also in life.ion text goes here
