Film Courage: How have you found your voice as an artist?
Sujata Day, Actor, Writer/Director: I’ve just written stories that I want to write. I’ve never tried to write something that I don’t want to write. I’ll explain that in a way that I’ve been pitched certain books or IP. At first it’ll be exciting but then I’m not…I don’t care about this, I don’t care about this subject, I don’t care about this world so then I don’t do it. I don’t do anything that I don’t want to do. Most of the time I’m excited about my original stories and I’ll get an idea whether I’m inspired by a moment in my life or I’m inspired by a song or I’m inspired by a hike that I went on, those are the things that excite me and keep me going from from the seat of the idea to writing the outline to writing the entire script. If I’m not excited about that seed of the idea then I can’t keep moving forward in order to finish that script which is what I always want to do. I always want to have a finished product. I have a ton of friends who start scripts and then never finish them or they start short films and never finish them but I think the most important thing to do especially with the first draft of writing a script is just finishing it. The first draft is what I always call a vomit draft and it’s never any good but guess what it’s 90 pages long. Great I’ve reached my goal of…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
BIO:
With her infectious personality and unique sense of humor, Pittsburgh native Sujata Day has established herself as a performer, creator, writer, and director. She regularly performs in Upright Citizen Brigade’s hit Asian AF show. Sujata is known for her starring role as CeCe in Issa Rae’s The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl. She’s recurred for three seasons on HBO’s Insecure. Sujata is a Sundance Lab fellow, Sundance Film Festival influencer, and Sundance Collab advisor. Her short film, Cowboy and Indian, sold to a major studio for series development. She served as HBO Visionaries Ambassador in 2019. She directs This Is My Story, a series in which beloved storyteller LeVar Burton narrates real life personal experiences of everyday racism. Sujata’s debut award-winning feature film, Definition Please, is currently touring the film festival circuit.
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