Today we’d like to introduce you to Peter Macaluso
Hi Peter, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was born in New York City and grew up just over the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, NJ. It’s known as “The Birthplace of the Motion Picture Industry” because a lot of the studios were founded there during the silent movie era. My siblings and I also used to model and act growing up… so we had to travel into the city all the time for auditions and jobs.
I think when I was very young I thought it was a lot more common to be pulled out of school for things like that because my brother and sister would work a lot. It made the industry feel a lot more “real” to me because, frankly, it was more real at the time.
A lot of our peers were booking very big projects, but our parents decided to go against our agent’s advice by not uprooting us to move out to LA, which I’m honestly thankful for. It allowed us to have normal childhoods. So when I finally made the jump across the country in my late twenties, it was definitely my clear-headed choice.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Oh God, is it ever a smooth road? I think like everything else in life, it ebbs and flows. You really have to learn how to handle rejection well and not take things too personally. It’s a strange paradox since artists often put so much of themselves into their work, but really… it’s all subjective.
So once you learn to love the journey of it all, I think it gets much easier. I think anyone who has ever put their art in front of an audience understands that you give up some of the ownership in that moment. It no longer is just the art itself, but the synthesis of that art and the person engaging with it. Sometimes that will be a wonderful experience and sometimes that’ll be a toxic cocktail. It doesn’t validate or diminish the art either way in my opinion. It’s just the reality of the situation. If you never get too high or low based on the reactions, you’ll be able to fully participate with the whole experience.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’ve done a lot of jobs in entertainment, but my main focus is being a writer/director. Two things I’m quite proud of are actually quite recent. A script I co-wrote with my producing partner, Andrew Saunders (https://shoutoutla.com/meet-andrew-saunders-actor-producer/), was recently named a comedy feature finalist at Austin Film Festival. We got to go to the festival for the first time and it was a really wonderful experience. We didn’t win the award, but we got to meet a ton of super talented artists and had a great time.
The other is a horror audio drama called “Monsters & The Mortician.” It stars my friend, Mykie, and an illustrated version lives on her YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/lsG-1ZQN2dE?si=5RZs4q9lZPBzX6Wd). It’s also available in a strictly audio format on all the popular audio platforms. It was a lot of work to produce, but I’m very happy with how it turned out.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
I think there are two things that really help me a lot. The first I already touched on, which is just the ability to take things as they come. I think I’ve really taught myself to just focus on the process rather than the result. That was evident when we “lost” at Austin. If I was very results oriented, it would have been easy to consider not winning as some kind of failure. But really, I’m so proud to be one of the four finalists named out of 1,500 comedy scripts. If I had let the trophy dictate my happiness, I would have done myself a disservice, whether I won or lost. It doesn’t make writing the next screenplay any easier, you know?
The second thing that has helped me a lot is actually related to writing the next screenplay. I think the other thing that has led to success is just the simple fact that I write a lot. Like, when I have an idea I think is a good script, I’ll just write it. It takes a lot of time and energy and there are definitely ones that have been sitting on my computer half-written for years, but ultimately the only way to win the lottery is to have tickets. So, I push myself to write as much as I possibly can to put myself in a position to be successful. I don’t ever want to be the thing that holds me back, so I try to have all my ducks in a row in case an opportunity arises.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.macmakesmovies.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_macarony
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/_macarony
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/nepotismtv
- Other: https://www.monstersandthemortician.com
