Thanks For Having Me #1 - Noah Vesey

Awaiting a Modern Apocalypse

My friend Noah, a 23-year-old actor, was fresh off a flight from LA. He told me this unexpected trip home was for so much-needed decompression.

With Hollywood and our world at large on the constant brink of what feels like a substantial breakdown, I pitched an apocalypse theme for our shoot. My original shot list relied on big spectacles -- ones that feel more akin to how movies would tell that story.

I knew a change was needed when Noah showed up at my apartment in a crisp plain white tee and casual denim, an outfit that was his answer to my question, "what would you wear if you knew it was your last day?"

In reality, that end probably won't be quick and deliberate. It will be slow and readily available for us to witness, contemplate, and possibly even partake in.

A: How's LA?

N: It's good. It's busy. I'm just adjusting to it. 

A: What's the main adjustment? 

N: Me personally, I've never lived in a city before. I went to school down in Miami, but the campus was 10-15 minutes south of actual downtown Miami. You see a lot more people. Anything you're going out and doing, you're preparing to see hundreds of people. Even going out to the grocery store -- it's more of an event. Especially coming out of quarantine and lockdown. I'm not used to seeing anyone, then all of a sudden, I'm seeing hundreds of people every day.

A: Are things starting to open up in terms of LA and the industry?

N: Yeah, that's my perception of it. I moved there in May, and things were starting to open up. Then we had a month where it was like, "no masks, you're good to go, live your life!" Then that didn't last long because it is so densely populated. It's like, "oh no, COVID cases are rising again; put your masks back on."

A: How have you found the people to be?

N: It's a mixed bag like anywhere, I guess. The nice thing about meeting people there is there are a lot of artists. There are a lot of people who have this understanding of what it's like trying to make things, to be wanting to make things over these last two years where it's been impossible. I meet people there, and I talk to them about that feeling of god damn, I wish I was working on this. And now we're starting to, and it's picking up. But they actually do know what I'm talking about. 

A: When I met you, you were a writer. Then you went to school for acting. Since then, you've dipped your toes into photography and different mediums of art. What form are you most gravitated to?

N: I think I was always called to writing first. That was my introduction to making things in general. I read a lot when I was a kid, and I really got swept up in these worlds that someone could create by just writing shit down. I've kinda fallen off. I spent the last few years taking acting and singing lesson at University. You know, shooting short films. Having my photographer friends practice with me modeling for print. Just kinda dabbling here and there. The one thing I miss about writing as a medium is how instantly gratifying it is. If I was writing a poem, I'd work through it, and maybe I would come back to it and tweak it, but almost immediately when it was done, I was like, "great, it's done, I made something."  

A: It exists.

N: It exists now. As opposed to writing a play or working on a short film or any sort of script where there's a lot more dialogue involved, it's going to take a lot of re-edits. Even once you finish it, it's like, "okay, now I wanna go make it," which is ten million more steps. It's such a long journey to get there to wrap it up and feel like, "great, I made this thing where this wasn't that thing before." I think it's just, I'm not a very patient person, and so it's hard for me to see the light at the end of that tunnel through that process where it's not like boom done, I did it.

A: How do you think your foundation as a writer has helped you as an actor?

N: I think it has helped me a lot, especially when we're looking at great plays. We had whole classes that were just about figuring out what was going on without the inner monologue. That's the difference between the novel and play, right? When you read a novel, you have one character's point-of-view, and you're hearing what they're thinking, and their interpretation of what they're watching go on. You see it through their eyes as opposed to when you're reading a play and trying to figure out how you're going to act it out. All you get is the words they say, and maybe once in a while, whatever stage manager worked on the first project wrote down tiny little clues which you don't have to even be married to at all. So it's how do you interpret the scene and use the few words they are saying to figure out what they're not saying. Being familiar with and used to working with language allows you to really dive into the words. He said that when he could've said this. 

A: I think a lot of what you're pointing to is the idea of world-building, and I think we're in a very important transitionary period for Hollywood specifically. So what would your perfect Hollywood look like in 10-15 years? What needs to change, who needs to leave, what is the transformation that needs to take place? 

N: There's a million and one answers to that question. Obviously, there are big talks of inclusion, about allowing filmmakers of different backgrounds to gain the opportunity to get the funding that would primarily go to old white dudes forever and ever and ever. I think that's super important. Even the Oscars honoring foreign films like Bong Joon-Ho's Parasite. Do you think 10 years ago a film not in English could win the best picture? It's super cool. It opens the whole world to that sort of storytelling. I feel like increasingly, with the developments in technology, you no longer need to wait for a massive studio to make what you want to make. You can get a camera with your friends, write something, and shoot it and it will turn out great because you have that sort of access. If it keeps trending in that direction where it's not 3 massive studios but instead keeps sparsing out to the point where you have a million mid-size filmmakers. I think that's gonna create better stuff for people to watch, better opportunities for people to work in a meaningful way and outlets for people to tell more stories. 

A: Word. Like a de-segmentation of power that allows people that access.

N: Yeah, just in general, the whole theme of decentralizing the power, spreading it out, and a redistribution hahaha

A: Socialism of movies?

N: Socialism of movies.

A: I love that answer. And for you personally, is there anything that you feel is holding you back?

N: I think I alluded to it earlier. I love love love instant gratification. I grew up with a cell phone when I was 10, and it was like, "ahhh, whatever I want is right in from of my face, and I'm constantly stimulated, and I love it!" So when I have an artistic goal that's gonna take me more than a night to accomplish, more than a poem that I can write in a day. When I wanna write a script, when I wanna shoot something with my friends, it's gonna take days, weeks, months, years of planning, years of work on that to accomplish that goal. My own inability to put my nose to the grindstone and maintain focus on a singular project has me constantly starting something a little bit then going, ahhhh, what if I did this instead? Then I'm jumping from thing to thing to thing, and not enough things get finished. Once I figure how to hold onto one project and see it all the way through, I think that'll break the door open like I did it once, and I can do it again. Just committing to that project + whatever story I wanna tell. 

A: In the end, would you rather be good or known? 

N: Good. From my own personal experience, the things that I tend to like, whether it's like movies or TV shows or music, I don't love it because it's number one, I love it because it speaks to me and makes me feel seen in ways other people's art doesn't. If I can make something that one person really connects with, I would rather have that than saying nothing and having it be famous. 

A: Do you think the focus on tracking analytics, like how many times were things viewed, how many times were they opened, has affected the creative bounds of projects?

N: 100%. The Met Gala was what, last week? You see all the new wave celebrities; they're all Tik Tok stars. Netflix is signing multi-picture deals with Addison Rae. What do they say all the time: how do you successfully work the Tik Tok algorithm to be a prominent creator? You gotta post and post and post and post and post. You gotta post 3 times a day. Here are the peak hours. It becomes analytical. I've seen other people say this, and I agree with them: the shift between being an artist and being a content creator is one of the most abhorrent things to me. You are now a cog in the machine cranking out content so that the number on the chart go like this (gestures to the sky). The climate doesn't give people the space to be thoughtful about what they wanna make and what they wanna say. It's just "I need to make something today." 

A: It for sure offers the opportunity to make bad content, or what we would call bad content, at a higher clip and still be rewarded for it vs. making really, really good content irregularly. On the flip side, who inspires you that could be considered a sparse content creator? 

N: I think I look towards musicians more in that sense. I don't think I have a specific artist I can name, but the nature of what you're making requires it to take longer. I guess that's true of TV, I guess that's true of film as well, but I find that those things that take a longer time to make end up having a greater impact on me. I'm not sitting here saying, "God, I love that one ten-second video." Tik Tok is more of a dopamine cycle for me, like, "oh, that's funny, that's funny, that's funny." But none of it sticks with me the way that my favorite tv show does, where I'll bring it up to everyone I talk to.  

A: Manifest your dream role. What is it? 

N: If I could do anything, I would love to be in a great ensemble comedy sitcom situation. Those are the thing that really resonates with me. It's Always Sunny, Community, Brooklyn 99. Big casts. Everyone has their little trope, their little schtick, then you mix them up in different variations and see what they do with it. I find it super entertaining, and often they have room to be satirical about the things we actually wanna say something about. You're being entertained, but there's a point. That's what I'd love to do. 

A: If you knew it was your last day on Earth, what would you do? 

N: Eat baklava and swim in the Mississippi River.