We recently had the chance to connect with BRANDO JAMES and have shared our conversation below.
BRANDO, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: What is a normal day like for you right now?
I’m very regimented unless I’m getting whisked off to some set location. I love my routine. It involves savoring the simples parts of life. Coffee, sunlight, stretching and exercise. I wake up and put on an ambient tropical visualizer on the T.V. and try extremely hard not to go straight for my phone. I like to use that time in the morning to positively visualize where my life is headed. I learned about something called the Observation Loop. Where we continue to live the same life because we’re so comfortable locking on the information we’re familiar with. So this is a time to be creative and try to break the mold and focus on stuff I want to unlock that I haven’t observed yet. Right now the vision is a multi-wing mansion in Calabasas. Good place to have some coffee and stretch.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Brando James, BrandoSuperstar for you internet people. I’ve been an actor since I was a kid, joining SAG in 1996 after being principle cute kid in a Sear commercial thanks to my commerical producer father. I still haven’t forgiven him. But being bit by the acting bug is more blessing than cure, especially when you figure out how to make money doing it. My current approach is a combo of producing social media content for lifestyle brands ranging from suit companies made of yoga pant material, to cooking gear, to fitness and skincare and more traditional theatrical and commercial set work. I’m just multi-passionate, which is why I think I love acting. You get to binge on life, and constantly switch up characters and environments.
In hustling as a content creator, it’s freed me up to work with some great directors on indie’s, shorts and narrative shoots. One of my favorites is playing a wounded soldier across from Christian Bale in the movie Amsterdam. Even playing the smallest part on a film with legendary actors and directors is life changing as an artist. It makes you feel like you might actually belong there. Or that you’re at least obsessive and passionate enough to go toe-to-toe with industry heavyweights.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
Oh man this is an interesting story actually. It started at a fish fry in Northern Michigan. It was a large family table, and my dad’s director, a man I looked up to, almost as much as my dad, told me it would be great if his kid went to the business school at University of Illinois. I took that as sort of surrogate fathering advice; and became hell-bent on getting my GPA up, taking any AP class I could get into, getting into the university through the agricultural program, joining a business-focused frat, then eventually got into the business school.
The next half decade was a fast track to unpaid internships working under the Masters of the Universe, leading to a coveted career development role at Bank of America. Only problem is was the summer of 2008, and the entire financial system had just collapsed, with BOA being at the epicenter.
Something about walking on office carpet in hard-bottom Florsheim dress shoes really shook my soul, and within a couple years I had saved up a big nest egg to quit; move to the middle east, and go on an adventure of a lifetime.
My boss offered my job back when I returned. I smiled and nodded knowing that wasn’t happening…
What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
You know life has been pretty good for me. I think the main wound I have is inflicted by my own imagination and exacerbated by substances. My 20s were a bit of a blur as expected. Traveling is actually what straightened me out, but moving back to Chicago in the dead of winter to be an uber driver can turn anyone to the bottle. I’ve more recently made peace with my dark side, blaming my addictive personality on my Slavonic and Nordic ancestors, who struggled through actual trauma. But I figured out, an imaginative soul who’s constantly called to adventure tends to make mountains out of molehills. And sobriety has been the ultimate form of healing. Though never absolute. Every time I choose to feel the emotions bubble up instead of drowning them in distraction and sentimental bandages, I can almost feel my psyche healing in real time.
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. Is the public version of you the real you?
Interesting. I saw Dax Shepard ask Brad Pitt this question recently in an interview and I was very fascinated by his answer. I’ve studied and obsessed over famous people my whole life. Whether through the lens of interviews or the characters they play. I’ve always been convinced that the truth they bring to the role has to be their own truth. So going back to the dark side, I think there is an ugly part of ourselves that we desperately hide from the public. Cancel culture has shown us the dangers of airing ones dirty laundry. But I think the reality is everyone has ugly traits, but the real heroes choose not to express them freely. In order to be an example of good, but also to steer away from self destruction. I think that’s why we love superheroes or anti-heroes. They have something in them that is devastating, but choose to rise everyday and fight despite their shortcomings. I think the public version of myself is the real person I’m always been trying to become. And the real version of myself is possibly the one I choose on a daily basis not to embody.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
Oh man I want to give a cool response like f*ck legacy. But I’m not Mike Tyson. If I was looking back on a storied career maybe I could say that, but leaving a powerful legacy is currently my driving force to get up each day and continue to make a go at it.
So with that said my hope is that people will recognize me as someone who taught other people the power of being authentic, leading the life they want, and not listening to the crowd.
Ironic, as the question is based in a need for validation.
So again, when I’ve done the thing and completed my ultimate mission on Earth here as an actor. I’d like people to say he did it for himself, because he loved the process, loved the work and loved helping inspiring people to do the same.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://beacons.ai/brandosuperstar?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAack8NRNcD03F0aF1GI5pIBmf6BgnKQQwvCt4oNE2nt97ETshS3t2QPHhTH5Og_aem_nvhQ5iXaS_4bIwLe1R5jsg
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandosuperstar/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandosuperstar/
- Twitter: https://x.com/newlifetravel
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandosuperstar/
- Yelp: https://www.youtube.com/@brandosuperstar
Image Credits
Yana_Roykhman – @yana_roykhman
Chance McCoy – @ takeachancemccoy
Kalond Irlanda – @kalond_irlanda
Alex Campbell Stein – @alexsteincomedy
Patrick Tamisiea – @copybomb
Ara John Movsesian – arajohnmovsesian
Lipton Ice Tea
