Today we’d like to introduce you to Abner Lozano.
Hi Abner, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Well, I come from the theater. Those are my roots, and that’s where it began for me professionally as an actor. However, the performative infrastructure really began in the church during my childhood. And it was happening without knowing it. The public speaking and the study of literature began in a spiritual venue. And watching my dad, a pastor, rehearse biblical verses with rigorous discipline for endless hours really made me pick all that up. I remember one summer, I think I was around 14, my dad made me work in the fields picking crops (I was misbehaving), and to cope with it, I would just find myself making up characters or emulating people’s personalities that I found fascinating. That made me immensely interested in Shakespeare, and I ended up studying Theater at UC Berkeley and at the Berkeley Repertory school of Theater simultaneously. Ohh! Now that I think back, it brings so many memories… countless hours in the theater. It was so much fun!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I think when you’re barely getting your foot into this business or even trying to get started, you get so overwhelmed by so many questions that you don’t know the answer to. All the conundrums of guiding yourself in a specific career path where you eventually want to end up is incredibly challenging. You can get lost in the process and hanging out with the wrong people doesn’t help. I’d rather be alone than to surround myself with people who have no ambition in life and distract themselves with pleasure. Because that’s what people with no purpose in life do. At first, when I made the move to Los Angeles, all of the fame and glam attracted me, but I soon realized that it didn’t. And I found myself wanting to be great at this acting thing. A lot of sacrifices come with that…even if it involves getting from one small tier to the next. You just gotta keep on pluggin’.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m an Actor, Writer, and Producer specializing in profound and compelling stories. Specifically, raw stories focusing on the “underdog” characters that tend to get ignored due to their financial instabilities and complex socio-economic backgrounds. That’s all me, and I’m just putting it on a screen. I’m about to film a short I wrote called “Within My Skin” about a young man who is trying to escape gun violence and poverty in Stockton, CA but even though he has these exterior obstacles, there are a turn of events waiting for him just around the corner and he has to dig deep within himself to make a final decision to either leave everything behind and pursue his dreams or settle with what he has. I think when I was writing it, I didn’t really realize that I was writing about my story when I was growing up. But also, in retrospect, it’s a story that represents all of the people I’ve met in my hometown. We were all so young, kids really, and we had all of these dreams of going places but as time passes by, we tend to get tangled in our personal troubles that drown us deeper and deeper as we age and before you know it, these dreams that fueled us, turn into pure dust. Most of them are still stuck in the same place they were a couple years ago and that’s the reality. I guess you could say I’m always aiming for realistic endings. I’m also in the middle of writing a feature film about the immigrant agricultural workers in the 1940s, also known as Braceros, and their struggles as individuals and as a collective whole.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
The more profoundly you know yourself, the more power and control you have over your mind and the less you care about the noise around you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9462437/
Image Credits
Cathryn Farnsworth.
