Actor Zachary “Zach” Rist chatted with #Powerjournalist Markos Papadatos about starring in vertical dramas.
Academy Award winner Gary Oldman once said: “Wanting to be a good actor is not good enough. You must want to be a great actor. You just have to have that.” A person who strives for this is Zachary Rist.
Vertical dramas
On his experience in the vertical drama world, he exclaimed, “I love it! It took me a whole to get involved in the vertical world. I’ve always been acting ever since I was a kid. I started when I was nine years old, making ‘Jackass’ movies with my younger brother.”
“Acting is always what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, especially if I could wake up 24/7 doing something,” he noted. “When it came to verticals, I was acting and doing all these auditions for years and I was submitting but I was never given a shot.”
“I had never booked any verticals. Then, my best friend, Jake Hobbs, who was originally a model got plucked to do a vertical and I was so proud of him. I remember helping him out with his first audition, and he nailed it. For me, it kind of hurt deep down because I started doubting my looks and my performance because I was never given a shot,” he elaborated.
“I was auditioning for about a year and a half before I actually got to do my first one,” he said. “I’m so thankful to be a part of the verticals just because they are really cool. It’s become all of our 9 to 5 jobs in a way where we show up to set every day, put on a goofy suit and do a crazy wacky drama.”
The digital age
On being a part of the digital age, he remarked, “It’s really cool to be a part of it. I started when I was nine years old. I made YouTube videos my whole life, and I never found an audience doing it, which I now understand as a grown adult.”
“I’ve been watching back my old content, which is still available out there. It’s just a bunch of kids playing with a camera and it’s uncomfortable to watch. So, it’s cool to be a part of the digital age now, whether it’s verticals or even the fact that Jake and I doing our sketches, which are finally getting an audience and that is really cool,” he elaborated.
“These days, Jake and I have people commenting, liking, and getting a great audience. It is really exciting to be a part of this digital space. I’m blessed,” he added.
Advice for young and emerging actors
For young and aspiring actors, he said, “This is a dream question that I would love to get to answer on a film set one day, where you are sitting next to your poster and someone is interviewing you. My advice to people is that ‘it’s going to suck’ and there is no guarantee in this industry. There are a lot of rejections.”
“No matter how much you believe in yourself or the work you put in, it’s a saturated market. Everybody wants to do it. Everyone you meet in Los Angeles is an actor. What makes it exciting is that this is a constant race. You are going to get rejections but yo should find happiness in some goofy little roles that you do,” he elaborated.
Plans for the future
Regarding his plans for the future, he shared, “I never want to stop… ever! No matter what, I would like to continue making people feel whether it’s laughter, or an evil version of myself inside these verticals, or even make them cry. I don’t want to make them cry but if they do, that’s cool because it means that I made them feel something.”
“So, the goal is to always keep doing acting no matter what. I’m really focusing on doing a lot of independent projects such as short films for SAG. I would love to someday be a part of a network TV show… so to be a part of something that has multiple seasons would be the goal,” he explained.
Stage of his life
On the title of the current chapter of his life, he revealed, “You’re Almost There.”
“I feel like there’s a lot of momentum right now, and a lot of excitement with verticals, especially with all that is going on with AI right now, which is a little freaky. If you were to talk to me back in January, I would have been really upset that I wasn’t working as often, but I am happy where I am now,” he elaborated.
“I believe in myself, and I know what brings me happiness, whether it’s a role that I do or what I am pursuing. So right now, even though it’s a little slow, I’m so excited. I’m doing more acting classes right now, and I am doing to Texas to shoot a short horizontal film next week,” he said.
“Things feel like they’re building up. I’m really excited to see what comes with these acting classes and I have a great new manager, Allen Osborne,” he added.
Success
On his definition of success, he said, “I’m happy and satisfied when I’m creating in any way involved with whatever project, but the baseline of my success is if I have the freedom and financial capability to see my family whenever I want, travel back to Ohio to see them, fly them out, get lunch with my mom one weekend, even though it’s a four-hour flight, I would love to see them because they’re so important to me.”
“So, if I can achieve that freedom to where I feel safe and capable of seeing them whenever I want, while also still creating with the people that I love the most, then that’s a success,” he added.
Message for his fans
For his fans and supporters, Rist expressed, “Thank you to every single commenter, because it means the world, especially in verticals. It’s like a mini-Hollywood and I feel so appreciated.”
“That’s all I’ve ever looked for in life… I care so much about what I do, who I meet, who I talk to, and to have people appreciate me or thank me for making them feel something is such a wonderful feeling,” he acknowledged.
To learn more about actor Zachary Rist, follow him on Instagram.
