Conversations with Samantha Drews

Today we’d like to introduce you to Samantha Drews

Hi Samantha, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I remember sitting on the floor of my living room as a child, with a wall-sized box TV mounted on top of a fitted wood shelving unit. The kind of shelving, or mantle even, that could withhold a large, boxed, TV. Wedged perfectly in the middle. The bottom drawers ever so neatly held all of my family’s VHS tapes, most tossed into their boxes without rewinding the videos after watching them. We had over six hundred movies (yes… we counted them). And I, as a five-year old child, would sit right in front of it. Dwarfed by the magnitude of our precious home theater.

You see, my parents raised me on film and television. I grew up absolutely surrounded by it. Engulfed by the moving images. Maybe for better or for worse, but the television became my best friend when I didn’t have friends or siblings to interact with.

I was an only child, from a broken family, and by the time I was twelve, my parents were filing for divorce. Throughout my high school years, I bounced between my parents homes every week and wrote against the side of my bed as a pastime activity.

I grew accustomed to this routine, and in those early years began to throw myself into filmmaking and storytelling in every avenue I could find. Which included filming short films, learning editing software, writing in prose, screenwriting, dancing, and acting. I was fifteen when I had my first summer internship, teaching film at a summer camp for children. I did this for the following three summers of high school, becoming a teacher and then eventually a manager. In-between summers, during my semesters at school, I was acting in plays, making music videos with my friends, writing a plethora of unpublished books, and inevitably preparing myself for college.

I’d applied for UCLA. That, at the time, it was my dream school, and I remember feeling frustrated and upset when I didn’t get in. I’d spent years working in school to meet this dead-end moment. But, regardless, I’m grateful for the path my life took. And when I’d gotten an invitation to my second-choice school, super delayed (it was the last school to respond to my application) I had been on a trip to Moscow, Russia for a theatrical performance. I accepted the invitation and celebrated that night with my mates.

At eighteen, back in 2017, I had moved to Orange County for school. The first time I was away from home, and a month later I briefly returned to hold my grandfather’s hand and stroke his head as he passed away. This left a strong hold on me many years later, but particularly that first year of college. I had even seen apparitions, and I wondered if I had had a mental break. Wondering if I had dipped into a psychosis. So, my first year of college was purely focused on making money as a cashier on campus and getting through my classes. Even now, I’m not sure what I had seen. But it showed me a path toward my faith in Christianity.

The following year, however, I got my second internship with a robotics company. I was their ‘Editing and Marketing Intern’ and I worked there for a year before COVID struck during my Spring semester of my Junior Year of college. This is when I returned home, going through a heartbreaking breakup with my boyfriend of two years, and I remember staring at the ceiling of a small trailer (which was a whole two inches above my face; one of my parents had become homeless during my time at school) in agonizing but contemplative thought. I realized, then, that I had absolutely nothing left to lose. I’d hit rock bottom. And despite hitting rock bottom, I found that I was happy there. I could be content in what I did have left. At the very least, a roof over my head – although a meager one – it could be worse, canned food (food nonetheless), and I was in school still – despite a rampant virus destroying everything it touched. And I was thrilled, out of the few good things that happened during those months of hunkering down in a remote trailer, at the silence that followed.

The silence left room to wonder to myself – what AM I working toward? What is it that I really want out of my career? And then, I noted – the joy I had getting away from my problems in High School. Can we take a wild guess what I did? Yup. I started acting. In the middle of a pandemic. And producing films. In the middle of a pandemic. And going to college and finishing my bachelor’s degree – you with me? – in a pandemic! So, by the time that I had graduated that senior year, I had been tossing myself into every single opportunity that presented itself to me and met as many people as possible. The thrill of being able to take my midterms while I was acting in a feature film… in the snow… on the mountains (!) was exactly what had been calling to me. I was happy. I loved waking up every day and getting out of bed. That was the first time I had ever experienced that in my entire life. That last semester of college was so perfect, too perfect, that when I graduated – I was depressed. Again. Crashing back into an old way of living.

I had lost my grandmother and my cousin (from different sides of the family) within the span of a week of each other, and I wasn’t able to find steady enough work despite getting interview after interview. When I did land a job, after moving back into the trailer, I had been hired for a food chain restaurant as a waitress. I showed up for my first day early and on time, no one was there. I waited for fifteen minutes past the start time before deciding enough was enough and I wouldn’t take working for a company that would be late to an employee’s first day. No matter how desperate I was. My self-respect would remain higher. And, as I was walking back to my car, frustrated and put-off, I had taken maybe three paces before I heard the door open behind me (to let me inside). But it was too late, and I’d already decided I wouldn’t turn back. Thank God I didn’t.

After returning from my cousin’s funeral, I remember opening my laptop and searching for an internship – any internship. For fun, I checked out Disney’s website and they had ONE internship up that was looking for all the skills and experience I had – and it was posted no more than four hours prior to my discovering it. I applied immediately. I put a cover letter together and sent my resume as it was… then completely forgot about it. A month later, I had an interview with them for their Post and Production Internship position with ABC Signature. All at once, I was in the middle of getting an internship with Disney (which took three rounds of interviewing and had over 3,000 applicants) and found out one of the projects I had briefly acted in the year prior was making its way to the Academy Awards Nominees list. One year. One single year of hard work in college and I was starting to see my work pay off. Twelve to sixteen hours of long hard grueling days, every single day (for months!), and I realized that it was only the beginning of what was to come.

I did get that internship with ABC Signature or, I could also say Disney’s General Entertainment Branch. I interned there for about 6 months and immediately decided to act full-time thereafter. I had a reel and resume ready by then. So, in the Summer of 2022, I was acting and only acting. Eventually I stumbled upon Reelshort, which is a vertical content streaming app, and I have been acting with them for the last two years. They are what kept me afloat during the SAG strikes, and I am grateful to them every day. They are a wonderful company to work for, and I have had nothing but nice things to say – even after these two years working together.

My most recent feature film I acted in has a Deadline article released about it; it’s a wonderful story and I look forward to its premiere. Which brings us up to speed to today. Where now I am acting and creating stories revolving around mental health. My next short film I am producing is about Selective Mutism, and what it is like to live with it – as I am someone who struggles with being non-verbal and wants to share my personal experience being mute.

My goal for the future is to shed light on this disability and not only help others to better understand what it’s like, but also how to react when you meet someone who is non-verbal (If you would like to be a part of supporting that story, please reach out to me on my social media).

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No challenges. No obstacles. I defeated all my problems with a gigantic grin and never looked back.

That’s a terrible statement when it’s about your career, but great when you’re on a date. (If that’s you, fantastic, you’re my friend now – we’re having soft tacos later.)

But seriously, challenges are an understatement, and I think the majority of people can agree they have had had challenges in their lives as well. Especially the older you get – more opportunities to paint a set piece with both water and oil based-paints and wonder why it wasn’t drying… (this totally didn’t happen to me… nope… not at all… okay, you can stop looking at me now…. I did it… it happened to me…). I know that, now that I’m 25, I think this is the time most people start feeling their first real challenges; deaths in the family, becoming financially independent, likely working their first full-time career job, getting pregnant or married/divorced.

It’s hard to talk about struggles. Mostly because, I try not to look back on the things that kept me from pushing forward. Although many of those things I am grateful for. Some, less so. But struggles are something that is inevitable and at the end of the day – whether it’s struggle in a relationship, a struggle in career, or struggle in school or with a friend – my biggest and best advice is that if something doesn’t feel right: you’re correct. Always. Every single time. Leave. Change it. Better to struggle for something you enjoy that struggle for something that is going to hurt you.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My work is very centered around the film industry; I’m an actress and a screenwriter – and blessed for it. I’m lucky to be able to live out two of the most difficult career paths you can take in the industry. I’m lucky, only because I befriended and put myself out there to good people. Which is pretty much the industry in sum.

I’m known for two different types of content at the moment, vertical content from Reelshort and horizontal content from Dhar Mann. I started working as an actress with Reelshort when they first became a thing; I was the leading actress in one of their very first productions and have got to see the company grow into the industry that it alone has created. With around 700 million something or other views, a million followers on social media platforms, and growing exponentially. I, now, both write and act for them and am happy to do so. It’s flavorful content, very c-drama coded, and an overall great work environment.

We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
It’s a funny thing, when you bask in fear – you can call her name and look her in the eyes and tell her, I know you – I’m scared of you, but you have sat with me for so long that you don’t mean anything to me anymore.

Here’s the thing about having a crisis. It sucks. No two ways about it. Whatever it is, the adrenaline the pain the hurt the anger… all of that is just a part of what it means to be alive. Which, I know sounds dumb and cliche, but really – I have found some of the most beautiful things stem from a place that was once considered scary.

Because if you can say that you climbed a mountain, and during that climb it was awful – you were afraid you were going to lose a leg from an infection but still carried on because the nearest town that could help you was just a little bit further up the hill – you wouldn’t have had a story to tell or a moment to overcome.

Fear is there to warn you, not harm you. Don’t let it overtake and consume you.

I say this, knowing full-well knowing that I’m still learning this myself but, it’s sage advice anyway. Feel free to take it or leave it.

Thank you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm11843540/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samanthadrews_/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCVUPKVmHBnC3ZNjghAVeQw