We’re looking forward to introducing you to Andrew Dean Pearson. Check out our conversation below.
Good morning Andrew Dean, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
Los Angeles.
Population: Too many.
Infrastructure: Decaying.
Hope: Optional.
Each morning after waking promptly at 7:20am pacific standard time… I snatch the parking ticket off my windshield because I either forgot to move my car or just couldn’t figure out the sign. Then… I check my tires. Not out of paranoia, but necessity. The cattywampus streets of L.A. seem to be made of dreams chewed up and spit out as shrapnel. Glass. Metal. The occasional nail waiting like pointy landmines waiting to puncture my day. I do a full 360 degree visual sweep. Crouching low (this also doubles as my morning yoga routine).
My car, a 2010 Honda Fit. Blue, da ba dee, Da ba die, is a deceptively high performance machine. Compact and precise. Agile. Efficient. I keep it clean even though the paint’s fading. I know what I drive and I make no apologies for it. It gets 30 miles per gallon, I can park it damn near anywhere and I can fit damn near anything in it. Hence the name. Unironically fast if you know how to drive. Most don’t.
The 101 north is always backed up. On that freeway movement is a myth. A desert hallucination shared by the desperate. I take the streets. Ease onto the 405 by roughly 8:20. 8:10 on Fridays when traffic isn’t as thicc as my thighs. The goal is to maintain a flow state. I put on a podcast. The Last Podcast on the Left or Pod Meets World. Their voices help to drown out the hum of existential dread of bumper to bumper pettiness just outside my super sweet tinted windows.
Other drivers behave like every second behind the wheel is life or death. They weave recklessly like crack addicted rodents. Brake check you out of spite or rush to cut in front of you only to gain a net advantage of 2 seconds. A man in a Tesla flips me off for existing. I don’t respond. Silence is my retaliation.
By 8:50 I’m idling into the office. My pulse steady at 62 beats per minute (or whatever is normal). The world is chaos. But me? I’m composed.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hello dear readers! My name’s Andrew. I’m a writer and actor. I’m currently a writer at Rockstar Games and to be honest, that’s about all I can tell you because I’m under so many NDA’s I can’t even breathe properly anymore.
Outside of that I spend a lot of my time writing Horror and Sci-fi features. I’m a huge horror nerd. Before transferring to writing I actually worked in special effects. Now that I think about it, I’ve kind of done a lot of random things in the entertainment industry. I’ve even puppeteered. You never would have thought some nerdy little red haired, freckle-faced kid from San Diego who was scared to watch horror movies would end up doing all this. Life’s wild.
Right now, I’ve been writing and rewriting a psychological horror film and at this point I can’t wait ’til I’m done so I can paint a wall and watch it dry.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
My answer to this question would be teachers. There were a few teachers growing up who really encouraged my writing before I even knew I wanted to do it. I thought I was just doing the assignment. They actually took the time to point out I was good at it and I should pursue it. But I just laughed in their faces and said “Nahhh you don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m gonna be an actor.” Now, here I am all these years later making a living writing.
Teachers don’t get enough credit, man. They should be making as much money as doctors and lawyers but our system is ran by a bunch of backwards, knuckle dragging neanderthals.
Another person I need to give a shout out to is my girlfriend. She saw me way before I could see myself. It’s probably because she’s a therapist. And yes, I know. I’ve heard all the jokes. Even from her. She calls me “The perfect client”… I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about that.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Yes. There was. The first time I moved to LA. Man, I did not know what the hell I was doing. I didn’t understand shit about this city. I felt alone. I felt like it was just all work and no play. I was having family issues, couldn’t find a job I liked, I was couch surfing. And to top it all off I got back into a relationship with someone I never should have started talking to again to begin with and she treated me terribly and shattered any confidence I had left. So, I packed up with my tail between my legs and moved back to San Diego.
I thought I was done with acting. While I was back home, Gorilla gluing and duct taping myself back together, I had some friends in the theatre scene start to pull me back in. Initially I did it, just to kind of pass the time and help myself move on. Then I realized, “oh shit, I don’t think this is something I can stop doing”. I slowly started to–I don’t know… remember who I was? Got my confidence back and decided to learn how to write screenplays.
The first one I learned to write started placing finals in contests and even won a couple. Around the same time I also ended up winning an award for Best Lead Male in a Comedy Play in the San Diego theatre Awards for a play called “Butterflies Are Free”. I think the culmination of those things are what gave me the confidence to move back out here to LA. I figured, I have this talent… and I’m OKAY at the very least. Maybe I shouldn’t let it go to waste. Maybe let’s see what I can do.
I ended up finding a job at one of the best effects shops in LA. I kept writing screenplays, I kept acting. I started doing stand-up comedy and that all kind of led to my job at Rockstar Games. And none of this would have happened if I gave up. I’m going ’til the roof comes off. ‘Til the lights go out. ‘Til my legs give out.
I really owe it all to this girl in third grade named Cassandra. She bullied the hell out of me and really just gave me skin thicker than a rhino’s. Cassandra if you’re reading this… I grew into my ears… and freckles… bitch…
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Whom do you admire for their character, not their power?
Alright so, this is gonna be nerdy but whatever. I don’t care. My answer’s gonna be Spider-Man and Batman.
I didn’t have any really positive male role models growing up so I was kind of raised by Spider-Man The Animated series and Batman The animated series.
Spider-Man’s constantly juggling rent in an expensive ass city, trauma and loss of loved ones, he gets shit on by the media and he does it all in a skintight onesie that you KNOW smells like BO at the end of the day and he STILL always does the right thing. Even when no one sees it. That’s character.
Batman on the other hand, he’s fueled by grief, vengeance and probably creatine along with some undiagnosed trauma–I just asked my girlfriend and she said “Probably PTSD, OCPD and insomnia.” And I said “he’s Batman so those don’t affect him and he takes micronaps during the day.”
Anyway! He built himself into a symbol. He’s disciplined and refuses to give into the darkness even when it’s well earned.
Both of them show up even when the world punches first. I relate to that. I may not be webslinging or brooding on rooftops (give me a pair of webshooters and a cool enough cape and I might). But I know what it’s like to keep pushing forward quietly. Trying to do right even if the only reward is knowing I was able to do it… and a chocolate, peanut butter, banana protein shake that is literally the one thing I look forward to everyday.
I like these guys as my heroes because they’re not real and they can never disappoint me lol. But if I had to choose some real people to throw in here I guess I’d go with Robert Downey Jr. Such a comeback story. Jon Bernthal seems like a stand up dude. I really want him to “tell me somethin’.” Alan Ritchson also seems like he’s got his head on straight. Oh and Toni Collette EFFING amazing actress! Hereditary?! C’mon! She should have gotten an Oscar for that don’t even get me started!
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I’ll keep this one simple…
That I was able to come from nothing and make it in the industry. That people liked me for me, recognized my talent, and that I was able to do it all without being a nepo baby lol.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @andrewdeanpearson
