Today we’d like to introduce you to Deborah Puette.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Deborah. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Even though I grew up in Pennsylvania, it felt like my life really started once I moved to Chicago. I packed up and moved there sight-unseen (a repeating theme in my life) out of a restlessness to get out of my small hometown once and for all. I grew up in town called Millcreek, and in many ways, it’s as pretty as it sounds, but I never felt like I fit there. A confluence of events made Chicago a reasonable possibility, and so I booked a ticket and left. I remember I answered a random ad for a roommate in the Chicago Reader and ended up living in an apartment with three men I’d never met. My mom was terrified for me, but they ended up being perfectly nice if kind of messy.
I took a couple of acting classes, and then one day I answered an ad from PerformInk (which was then Chicago’s version of Backstage) for a new play that was being cast. I walked into the offices of Chicago Dramatists to read the script (in those days, that’s usually what you had to do!) A nice woman gave it to me and about an hour later she invited me into her office to chat about it. It turned out that that woman was actually the director of the play. I remember she kind of interviewed me. It was like an audition before the audition, but I was blissfully unaware. I ended up being cast in the lead of that show. It was the world premiere of Rebecca Gilman’s “The Glory of Living.” The entire theater world knows who Rebecca is now, but back then, at least as I’ve heard the story, no one would touch this fierce little baby of a play she’d written. It was based on a true story and incredibly dark. I played a version of the youngest woman ever sentenced to death in the U.S. — she was 16 when she committed her crimes, I think — and it was a sublime, profoundly touching play. It topped all the critics’ lists that year, won all the awards and launched my acting career. Most importantly, it introduced me to the father of my daughter. So yeah, shout out to Rebecca and Robin Stanton for seeing something in me and putting me in that role — it changed my life in so many ways.
I worked in Chicago a little more once my baby was born, but then three of us moved out to Los Angeles. I knew, like, five people here at the time. In the intervening 19 years, I’ve developed a tribe of incredible friends and collaborators. I’ve had the pleasure of doing tons of plays, classics and new, and since we’re in screenland now, television and film’s been in the mix as well. In the past three years, I’ve really dived into writing; a feature I wrote is going into production this winter. It’s incredibly exciting.
In order to fund my creative pursuits, I leaned on my degree in finance and have built businesses, one from scratch and the other I joined just five years ago. Having a really good, steady income is so important if you want to pursue a creative life without going nuts, I think.
So now I balance/juggle acting, writing, entrepreneurship, motherhood, and staying healthy and sane in this town called Hollywoodland, and I love it. Oh, and activism — that’s the final plate I spin. My daughter and I both identify as LGBTQ, and I’m very passionate about activism in that space, especially around getting out the vote. I had the huge honor of serving as a Vote Captain with theSkimm last year; thirty women from around the country were selected to head up their #noexcuses campaign, and it was such an honor to work with and learn from them all. My civic duty is really important to me. I love jury duty and next up, I think I’m going to train to be a poll worker for the 2020 elections.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Ha! I don’t know anyone who’s lived a truly creative life who could claim to have had a smooth road! I like the bumps and bungles. It keeps things interesting and keeps us sharp if we let it. I think that’s part of the reason artists choose their paths. The challenge. The unknown. It’s exciting.
That’s not to say the ups and downs aren’t hard. They can be. But I’ve done some intense personal work to get to a place where the work means more than the feedback if that makes sense. I used to care so much about “Did they like me?” and “Did I get the job?” but now I’m much better able to separate the outcome from my sense of self-worth. The big challenge for most creatives, of course, is money. I don’t subscribe to the trope of the starving artist anymore. I used to think it was romantic — waiting tables, you know, the struggle, the things we normally imagine actors doing to survive. That’s hard work, and I did my time there, believe me. But eventually I got wise, and I became hell-bent on creating businesses for myself that would keep me solvent, even abundant, during the times when acting wasn’t paying the bills. If I had one piece of advice for newbie actors, it would be that: create something you can do for a good chunk of change and that you can control. That way you don’t walk into the audition room exhausted, demoralized and needing the job so badly they can smell it. Take that power back.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
Well, as an actress, even though I do plenty of comedy, for a long time I’ve been known for playing vulnerable, victimized women, but recently that’s changed. I’m starting to get roles for characters who have real strength; Regina in “The Little Foxes” comes to mind. And on screen, too. I just recently played the director of an FBI field office in a feature; playing a woman with that kind of power over a team of mostly men is a new place for me. I like it.
As a business person, I juggle a couple of plates. In 2007, I utilized my under-used degree in finance and business and co-founded a boutique tutoring company called The Scholar Group, for which I continue to function as the managing director and CFO; I’m so proud of that business because we’ve helped hundreds of hard-working students do well in high school and get into colleges that are right for them. My co-founder and I have supported our families with that business since it opened, all while pursuing other interests. I’m very grateful for it.
Then five years ago, I saw an opportunity to diversify my income and joined a business in skin care that I love with a company called Rodan + Fields. I never imagined myself in skin care, but the products changed my skin like nothing else ever had, and the business model was just so incredibly smart. We fly a little under the radar still, but we were actually the #1 selling skin care brand in North America in 2018 for the second year in a row. It’s something that I work in part-time hours around my other pursuits, and it’s treated me very well. It’s a two-pronged pursuit: I help customers with their skin and my team members with their businesses. At this point, I’ve mentored hundreds of other people, mostly women, from lawyers to scientists to stay at home moms, in starting their own side hustle with this business, and I love that. Empowering other women is my jam. And my customer base is incredibly important to me. I love helping them get results they can see. Skin is such an emotional issue! Anyone who’s struggled with it knows that deeply. Helping people out of that struggle is very gratifying.
I think what sets both of my businesses apart is the focus on service, on truly individualizing solutions for each client, customer, or team member to address whatever challenges are unique to them. It’s really all about getting to know people and figuring out how to best help them get where they want to go.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Artistically, my focus is this fall is mostly on my upcoming feature film, “Cash for Gold.” It’s opened up a lot of doors for me. I’m co-producing it with my producing partners, and I’m starring in it, so there’s plenty there to keep me busy. It’s like building a plane while flying it! It’s exhilarating and terrifying and wonderful.
I continue to write other projects: I’ve written two pilots in the last year, a comedy and a drama, so I’m working on getting those out in the world and hatching ideas for the next thing. I think the next thing might be a play!
In my business life, I try to just stay consistent. No big changes needed there; as long as I take care of my clients and customers, my bills get paid, giving me the freedom to skip off to auditions, attend production meetings and write whenever I want.
There is one big change coming, though — my only child leaves for college this fall! It’s bringing on all the feelings. I”m so excited for her. We’re incredibly close, so it’ll be an adjustment — for me!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.deborahpuette.myrandf.com www.cashforgoldthefilm.com
- Email: [email protected]
Image Credit:
Geoffrey Wade, Penelope Worley
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