Meet Nicole Cannon of Moonset Creations

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole Cannon.

Nicole, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I feel like my career found me. I struggled in school with ADHD, and I was always in trouble for daydreaming and being the class clown. I loved performing. I was a competition cheerleader, won theater awards but growing up in an academic family, my father saw the arts as a hobby, not a career. After high school, being the horrible student I was and not having any direction, I enrolled in community college for psychology when luckily, I was scouted for modeling. It was the early 90s, and South Beach Miami, Florida, was in its heyday. I was excited to have an opportunity to get out of the small town in Florida where I grew up. Shortly after moving there, I started booking, mostly lifestyle work, commercials, swimsuit catalogs, and vacation resort brochures. I loved traveling but felt a lack of purpose posing in bikinis on sports cars. I started going out for some small roles in independent films and TV and realized I felt more grounded when I was acting, so I went to New York to study at The Neighborhood Playhouse for a summer.

I moved to Los Angeles in 1997 to pursue acting full time. I worked on several indie films and episodic television roles over the years, but I was frustrated that I was always going out for and booking victim roles. One day I was driving my youngest daughter to piano lessons rehearsing lines aloud for an upcoming audition when Remi, then eight, asked, “Are you playing a dead girl again?” Having two young daughters, I became wary of what I was modeling for them about women’s roles in society. Violence against women was not what I want to be putting out in the world as an artist. I wasn’t a victim. I refused to be, so I started writing. I love being a storyteller, getting to explore another person’s humanity through empathy, and using my imagination to create a world where these characters come to life. Writing is the host of my creativity; it feels like the natural place of convergence for the daydreamer and the performer in me.

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?
This is such a tricky question because I have, in the past and continue to, come up against obstacles on the business side of things with my career, from sexual harassment to misogyny to being typecast. Still, I feel like the most significant challenge I had to face down was my inner demons and self-doubt. There were times in my career that I was offered opportunities I passed up because I didn’t think I was good enough, and I was too scared to put myself out there in a big way. I had to do much inner work to find my voice and stop seeking external validation to pursue my dreams. I had to stop waiting for other people in the industry to permit me to create. One of the biggest frustrations for me as an actress was I felt like I was a cog in someone else’s wheel. I knew I had more inside of me to give that wasn’t represented in the offered roles. Sometimes my appearance got in the way of people in the industry seeing ME, the depth behind the physical, so I wasn’t getting the opportunity to tell those more profound stories. I’m a sensitive person with deep empathy for others and curiosity about the human condition; as a writer, I get to tap into and utilize all of those gifts. With Transference, I set the additional goal of writing something that I could shoot on a budget, so I didn’t have to wait for permission to make my art.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Moonset Creations – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
I formed the company Moonset Creations when I wrote and produced my third screenplay, Transference. The goal of my company is to tell socially relevant stories through the female lens. I like exploring themes of the human psyche, what molds our identity, integration through healing, and women’s empowerment. Transference is a psychological thriller based on my experience of healing from childhood sexual trauma. While writing the movie, I received some feedback in early drafts about giving the husband the “ah-ha moment” lines in the final scene that help Camille, our protagonist, heal and integrate. It was important to me not to have a man “rescue” her. The days of waiting for the Prince to slay the dragon is over. I wanted the audience to know that sometimes, most times, we save ourselves. It’s time for survivors to reclaim our power. It’s time for women to take back our stories and make sure they reflect the struggle and strength it takes in coming home to ourselves.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Courage, resilience, and collaboration.

Contact Info:

• Email: moonsetcreations@gmail.com
• Instagram: @transferencemov
• Facebook: @transferencemov
• Twitter: @_Transference
• Other: Youtube – @Moonset Creations // Transference on Amazon: tinyurl.com/TransferenceMovie

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