Every Storyteller Has A Bigger Story They Want To Tell by West Liang

Film Courage: From just being here [at your place] for the last hour or so, I get the sense that you’re very disciplined. Maybe that’s the wrong assumption but you seem very disciplined to me. Do you ever procrastinate (and if you do), what are some of the things you catch yourself doing where you’re like “Oh, you know what? I’m procrastinating. This isn’t real research. This isn’t working.” And how do you combat this?

West Liang:  Well, I think social media can be such a big part of our daily lives today. So for me, it’s managing that. Trying to be connected to it in the sense that you can communicate with people, but not let it steal all your hours away. For me that’s kind of a big thing.

Time management for me, like a lot of artists and storytellers out there working in Los Angeles, there are so many people out there who are talented and who have great ideas but they’ve got their survival job, they’ve got auditions, they’ve got families and they’ve got dogs to walk and kids to care for.

And so all those things are not excuses, they are real parts of people’s lives. And I think that’s the thing that I’ve tried to explain to my family and friends about the work that I do. The work that a lot of my friends do. The work that a lot of people that you know do.

People say “How do you deal with the rejections?” And I say “Well, I can deal rejections. That’s just part of it.” But it’s really the time management, trying to figure out which meetings are important to take and which jobs that you have to turn down because it’s not inspiring.

Social media is a big thing that gets in the way. Having to pay rent is a big thing that gets in the way [or] having to find money to do grocery shopping. All of the things that kind of get in the way for everybody.

But I think this business is especially kind of unique in the sense that you have to go out there and create your own path which is what Melissa [Center] has done and I’m so proud of her is that she is a talented actress…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).