An Inspired Chat with Raven Clausen of DTLA

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Raven Clausen. Check out our conversation below.

Hi Raven, thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
Wake up, do my skincare, walk my dog, make coffee, turn on the news for about 30 minutes, then get to work on whatever task I am tackling that day, be it working on writing my TV series, or emailing casting directors, or sending in any self-tape requests.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Of course! My name is Raven Clausen and I am an Army veteran. I wanted to work in film ever since I was a child. I joined the Army straight out of high school with the goal of obtaining my G.I. bill and going to film school once finished. After my service in the military I moved straight to LA and hit the ground running, studying acting at The Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute’s acting conservatory, then UCLA’s TV/Film Development program. I have been fortunate to act in a number of things, including a national commercial for the VA and Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another.

I am a multi-hyphenate at this point, working just as much behind the screen as I do in front of it, because I believe the only way to make a career for yourself in this industry is to make your own projects, so I now have worked as a director, assistant director, writer, script analyst, stunt coordinator, associate producer, development & story department, PA, and several other positions.

What makes me unique is I study multiple languages each week, rotating through Levantine-Arabic (I would call this my second language and the one I am most fluent in), Spanish, French, and Latin (more for fun than practicality), so that I can hopefully not be limited to working on only American productions as international markets are booming – my passport is at the ready if you need someone to fill a foreign position. I am also a very stereotypical horse girl and have been riding for years. It is my favorite activity outside of work.

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
My acting teacher, MJ Karmi. I owe everything to her. I was nowhere near being an actress when she chipped away at my mold and pulled the true Raven out. No one has been as crucial to my acting journey as she has.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
It taught me just how capable I am, and how resilient, too. As much as I am sure we would all like to avoid suffering, I am grateful, in a sense, because I’ve suffered more in life than I ever thought possible and still found a way to pull myself through it and even make the most of a terrible hand dealt (repeatedly). It’s okay to take a moment and cry or vent out your pain. However, rather than over-indulging in self-pity and thinking the whole world is out to get you – I promise, it’s not and the world is rather ambivalent to your existence as it deals us all hardships, no one comes out unscathed – find things you can take away from each experience. Also know that you’re nowhere near as fragile as you think. You can overcome hardships, and you will. In the meantime, at least take what you can from it so you don’t get chewed up and spit out empty-handed.

Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What important truth do very few people agree with you on?
Nothing is black and white. Everything is a shade of grey. Humans are incredibly complex, nuanced creatures and almost all of what we do is reactionary to life, not something inherent in us. I say this because writers and filmmakers tend to fall on the good guy/bad guy trope but nobody in real life is all good or all bad. We are all a mixture of both, and capable of both evil and good. To make characters interesting, they need to have that mixture.

Thomas Shelby (Peaky Blinders) is a superb example of this. The writing in that show is exactly what I would defer writers to. Alfie (Tom Hardy) works as such an incredible foil to Tommy by holding a mirror up to him. Tommy is a horrible, despicable, evil man who murders in cold-blood and takes what he wants, yet we find ourselves rooting for him. Why? Because he was written so beautifully and so complex. We see he is a PTSD sufferer and WW1 veteran. We see the horrible effects of war on this man, and what it turned him into. We also see him in the seedy underbelly of Birmingham where his behavior is just the way of life there, and he is merely a product of his environment. We couldn’t root for him if we only saw Season 2 Tommy and after. But writing in this crucial moment in his life that changed him and stole his innocence makes the audience sympathize with him.

The root to almost all your problems will be in the mirror – internal tragic flaws produce the conflict or drama. Life is unfair to everyone, so that’s not proper motivation or a solid “why.” We are all just trying to work with the cards we were dealt and survive. Focus on THAT in your writing, because anything else is lazy, quite frankly (looking at you, Marvel).

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
Scrolling on my phone. I already deleted all social media – it never once helped my career but definitely harmed my creative process and time that could have been spent productively. Plus half of the comments you are seeing online now are bots. The dead internet theory is becoming a reality as less and less humans make up social media and it’s overrun by bot farms. All it does is spew misinformation to make people angry and divide us further, whereas stories and art are meant to unite us. We are FAR more alike than we ever could be different. I don’t want to keep feeding anger and hate through manufactured outrage. I’d rather live in reality.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://imdb.me/RavenClausen