Story & Lesson Highlights with Corinne DeCost of Hollywood

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Corinne DeCost. Check out our conversation below.

Good morning Corinne, it’s such a great way to kick off the day – I think our readers will love hearing your stories, experiences and about how you think about life and work. Let’s jump right in? Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
I just wrapped up Delusion: A Harrowing of Hell with 13th Floor Productions. It was a crazy cool production, the vanguard of immersive horror theatre. This year was based around Dante’s Inferno. You meet my main character, Jordan, in the final sequences of the moving, interactive theatrical production. In that sequence, I make sure you have a coin that you should have received from the last scene. We travel a bit together, go over a rope swing, and end up at the Ferryman’s boat to cross the sea of filth to the Kingdom of Hell. I then instruct you to give the Ferryman the coin, I’m secretly hooked up to a stunt pull, and I’m yanked off the boat.

As with any immersive production, there’s a lot of improvisation and a LOT of audience interaction. I had a lot of funny ones, but one this year sticks out with me. I had led the group along most of the path, dropping some of my usual lines “we’ve made it this far, we wouldn’t want to lose anyone now….” alluding to my upcoming demise. When I prompted this one audience member to hand over his coin, he said to the ferryman “I have your coin…for nine of us!” There were nine of them, but I made the group ten. Without hesitating, I said “ten! There are ten of us including me. Make sure you say that to him…you don’t think it matters you said nine, right?” I set it up to be entirely his fault that I was about to be taken from the group. I made sure to really lay it on thick, “we don’t want to lose anyone after getting this far”. Then of course, I’m yanked off the boat. That was really funny to hear them react to.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hi! I’m Corinne DeCost. I’m a SAG-Eligible, AGVA actress based in Los Angeles. I work in film/television/commercials, theatre, immersive entertainment, and theme parks. I’ve also been working with 501c3 nonprofit Multiverse Concert Series for 5 years now!

I was recently awarded Best Supporting Actress at Scare-A-Con Film Festival. Last year, I was one of Suffolk University’s 10 Under 10. My film Party of Darkness just made its LA Premiere as a part of the Culver City Film Festival.

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
A moment stands out to me – it was around my senior year in high school. I went to a regional school in New Hampshire, graduated in a class of about 350 kids from four towns, it was a very small world. There was a girl I had known since maybe second grade talking to a friend. She said something along the lines of how, when we got out of there, she imagined that she would become an author and “obviously” I would become an actress. I remember stopping her and saying how unlikely that was. She turned out to be right.

That happened several times back then. I worked at a dinner theatre back then, bussing tables between acts, and the patrons would ask me about myself and when finding out I was going to college the next year they would encourage me to go into theatre. I told them I didn’t see any money in it for myself!

Once I was in college, one of my friends from back home told me about how their class had gone to see a Broadway show with my old theatre teacher. It was the same show we had done the year previous, myself as the lead. Everyone on the bus had been lamenting how incredible it was and how much better it had obviously been than our high school production. Reportedly, our teacher stopped them and said “but…we had Corinne.”

It took a long line of people believing in me before I ever believed in myself.

What fear has held you back the most in your life?
I always had it in me. The only thing that held me back WAS fear. Fear of rejection, fear of embarrassing myself, fear of looking ridiculous.

My partner was diagnosed with cancer during the pandemic, and that along with other loss really changed a lot for me. I realized how precious and short life is. After that, all my fears just felt silly.

How bad could getting rejected really be? It couldn’t hurt as much as the pain I felt then. And statistically, I hear one yes for every eight nos. I just need to get past those eight to hear another yes.

Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? Is the public version of you the real you?
I took a really fascinating class in college – The Mask Behind the Face – about how we present ourselves to the world and how the choices we make cause others to perceive us a certain way. We had exercises like dressing up as another classmate for the day, sitting in the seat they normally sit in. Then our professor grilled us on our choices – does wearing a scarf really turn you into her? What makes her intrinsically her?

The public version of me is “real”, in that it is a version of myself. It’s true and authentic, but it isn’t the only version of me. There’s a more private version of myself, seen only with friends. Then there’s an even more private version of myself that I keep for just me. It’s weird to think how some of my favorite parts of myself and moments of myself were things I shared with no one and they’ll never know those bits of me. Those bits are just for me, and they’ll never be remembered by anyone else, and they aren’t part of my public persona.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: When do you feel most at peace?
I feel most at peace a week or two into the run of the show. I’ve found my place, the kinks have been worked out, the technical difficulties smoothed, and I just get to perform. I’ve learned the lines, I know my blocking so well I don’t even have to think about it, it’s just me and the stage. I get to focus on the story, the character, bringing everything to life, and – my favorite part – connecting with the audience. This is where I get to get a little creative (within the established boundaries of the character) and make discoveries within the space. It’s familiar but playful, still fresh but established. I wish more film and television would still rehearse like that, it can really elevate the work when you’ve gotten to live in it a little.

In any scenario, I just love the opportunity to create, to storytell, to make magic for others, to help them feel seen. I am incredibly thankful for the life I lead.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corinnedecost

Image Credits
Alexa Cantarini
alxdmngz.photo
Amazon Prime
Bridget Marie Schwartz
Micah Brown
Steve Escarcega