Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashton Solecki.
Hi Ashton, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
“How would you feel if in 10 years from now you were doing the same thing?” “I’d rather die.” “Well, there’s your answer.”
That’s how the conversation with my grandmother went a handful of years ago – the conversation that spurred me moving across the country, becoming an artist, and spending my time, energy and attention on making people uncomfortable – er… Acting.
I grew up in a tiny town in eastern Montana – the railroading, coal-mining, farming population ~1,500-type-of-tiny.
My grandparents raised me, but I was supported by a whole host of aunts and uncles, my mother, my cousins, siblings, and teachers.
People would often apologize to me when they knew of my family situation, and as a kid, I never understood why because my childhood was happy. And then one day that changed. One of my close family members is schizoaffective, and I witnessed my first in what would be years of intermittent episodes of varying degrees of devastation. To me, it was like a nuclear bomb, rocking the foundations of what I knew of the world, what I knew of people (especially of how others react in and around these situations and treat each other), what I thought I knew of myself. It was the first domino to fall on my path, and unbeknownst to me at the time, a catalyst to the work I would do for the rest of my life.
Where and how I grew up, the opportunity to do what I dreamed of doing – yes, I always wanted to be an actor, writer, and beyond – was rare at best and otherwise fairly nonexistent. My family supported me and fought for me to have opportunities that they themselves hadn’t had. Whether because of the weight of that, my own social programming, or typical youth, I didn’t yet know much of myself and instead carried down the already well-trodden path of what I call “The Tyranny of the Shoulds”. You know what it is; “Well, I should do this, and I should do that…”
I earned a full-ride to a few universities and chose Montana State University in Bozeman as my home. I studied neuroscience to cope – it was my way of understanding peoples’ minds (and my own) sans emotion. I discovered other family mental health issues – but not just my own family, it was everywhere. Any family, anyone, at any given time. It was so incredibly prevalent, but why was it so taboo? I thought if I could understand what was happening in the mind from a scientific perspective, I could help shed light on mental health and illness and help break down the taboo of it. In hindsight, what I really thought was that I would hurt less. But there was a huge element missing: the emotion, the lived, human experience. The two sides of one coin: truth. But that wasn’t something I was ready to face at the time.
I kept following the tyranny of the “shoulds”. I got a life-changing job as a Product Manager for a Fortune 500 company a year before I graduated college. It was an opportunity I will always be thankful for and one I will never regret – a necessary step and learning in my life. It was based out of Seattle, it was tied to the medical field. I got to travel and live around the world. I was a star performer on a fast track to general management. I was good at it. I was in a career well ahead of my time; I was “successful”.
And then this voice popped up in my mind and said, “…Is that it?”
I did all the things society told me I “should” do. Yet every moment of free time I spent daydreaming about acting and writing. And I tried very hard to silence that urge and voice. But it kept growing and growing.
Three years into that job, my soul feeling depleted and screaming at me that I was on the wrong path, and paired with a new manager (a villain straight out of a DC comic book), and I found myself at an internal crossroad – mine just happened to look like gasping anxiety attacks on the bathroom floor.
I’d known my entire life what I wanted to do, how I wanted to spend it. And while it had been a great experience, it wasn’t “it” for me. But I hadn’t the courage yet to leave behind a life I knew; stability and structure. To overcome the sense of guilt, I felt in “disappointing” mentors who had helped me and given me those opportunities or the sense of fear I felt about the unknown.
So I called my grandma. And I’m lucky to have a good one. You know how that conversation went.
Taking the first single step toward my path was terrifying.
But taking the first step on my path was exhilarating. And then everything kept seemingly falling into place.
I landed in Los Angeles without knowing a thing about the industry and no experience. Talk about a leap of faith. And in that same week, I found the Sanford Meisner Center of the Arts, where I studied the Meisner method of acting (Ranjiv Perera is a wizard; iykyk), and I booked my first short and feature films.
Two life-altering years. Learning and unlearning myself and societal conditioning. I learned the flip side of that Truth coin – emotion and human experience. To honor, to connect. To experience. To feel deeply, to feel truthfully, to feel uninhibitedly, to feel (and live) authentically. To trust myself. Not just in my artistic work but in my non-artistic life as well.
I graduated from the Sanford Meisner Center of the Arts in April 2022. It was hands down one of the most important experiences of my life. I’ve been working on feature films and TV series, training, and auditioning ever since.
How would I feel if in 10 years from now, I were doing the same thing, now?
Proud, inspired, fulfilled. Excited. Honored. Grateful.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Breaking out of living a life society tells you is “right” is a terrifying, anxiety-ridden decision. Making that first decision was hard and took time, and courage, and an eventual press of the f*ck it button.
When I got to LA, I knew no one. I didn’t know a thing about acting – let alone how to find auditions, how to audition, where to even look for auditions – and headshots, what are those? But where there’s a will, there’s a way (and in no small part due to Google). Once I started, the momentum kept building and the cards just seemed to continue to fall into place.
Continuing to forge on through the highs is easy; through the lows is much harder — whether that’s from the work, from inner strife, or life. A constant struggle I face is that I thrive in structure (but hate it), and in this industry, there is very little structure (outside of set days). Experimenting, establishing and maintaining routines for my own well-being, and for the growth of my work has been a constant process of adaptation and balance.
Self-discipline, persistence and consistency are hard for humans. But self-discipline and grit are learned and practiced behaviors; done well, it’s one of the highest forms of self-love.
The “little me” would be so proud of where we are today and so excited for where we are headed; where we may be tomorrow. It’s a beautiful feeling to have; feeling so solidly like you are on the right path. It’s a different type of daunting and terrifying, but one I’d take in a heartbeat over the other.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am most drawn to “darker” stories and roles – and that includes dark comedy (those that know me well describe me as an Adult Swim Disney Princess – and I cackle every time at the surprisingly simple accuracy of that). I enjoy the challenge of playing with complex relationships, feelings, and experiences and creating a world to exist truthfully as “this” person, as “this” role. I enjoy the process of discovering what that feels like, how they think, how they move; their memories; embodying and becoming. I love the process of creating and living in that world and working off the person in front of me, and working with the director and team to bring that vision to life.
The roles and stories I enjoy playing with most right now are those that tend to make people… pretty uncomfortable. They showcase another side of human experience, human nature. They challenge status quo, beliefs, and stereotypes. I’m particularly honored to explore mental health and illness and other taboo topics and social commentaries. There is growth in being uncomfortable; to realize how similar we are to one another, but for a few deviations. To realize that we are all human, not only through our biological wiring but also through our emotions. To empathize with the heartache and pain of another person that seems so different from you – that’s a win. To have our minds and perspectives broadened or changed. That’s the power of art. And film is particularly adept at that. That’s my overarching reason for “why” I do what I do.
Most recent feature is set to be released in July/August 2023, called Roswell Delirium (Director Richard Bakewell, Lightforce Pictures), and one It’s one I am excited to share with the world. I star opposite Anthony Michael Hall and play the older version of the lead, Firefly. It’s an alternate history sci-fi – the aftermath of the Coldwar if the Soviet Union had nuclear bombed the U.S.– that’s the “world.” But at its core, it’s about a complex relationship between a mother and daughter (PTSD, radiation poisoning and beyond).
Another piece I am proud of is called “Lyssa” – a short film where I play Lyssa, a driven college student diagnosed as clinically high-risk for schizophrenia, who begins seeing a dark figure stalking her. Throughout the film, she strives to find a way to prove he’s real despite the pity and mistrust of the people closest to her or risk losing her grasp on reality for good.
These are the roles I seek – and you can see now how my life has come full circle.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
I have 5.
1 – To be open and to love are great acts of courage and rebelliousness. To care and to care deeply is what makes life meaningful – it is very, very cool.
2 – For one to be truly self-aware, they must be accepting. The good, the bad, and the very ugly – and remove the judgment from it. It is not “bad”, it is not “good”, it simply is. Acknowledge it. Accept it. Love it.
3 – Getting the ego involved will knock a person off pretty fast. Acknowledge wins. Learn quickly (and with grace) from failures. Stay humble. Do the work. Stay focused.
4 – If a person finds themself scared of taking a step forward, that’s exactly when to do it.
5 – And lastly, not everyone needs to understand, see, or believe in you. But you do; you must. And those closest to you will (and must) too. That’s who deserves to be, and stay in, your circle – people that fan your flame and you theirs. Love your people wholly, and love them deeply. When we die, it’s what we’ll be most proud of and thankful for.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashtonsolecki/
- Other: imdb.me/ashtonsolecki
