Actor Michael Sullivan spoke with #Powerjournalist Markos Papadatos about being a part of the vertical drama world.
How does it feel to be a part of the vertical drama world?
It feels like being part of a huge family, and you’re constantly running into random cousins.
I’ll try to explain that feeling a little bit. The really interesting thing to me is that the vertical drama world is *massively* expansive, right? Dozens (maybe hundreds) of different apps producing over 30,000 vertical short-form drama series per year, with revenue topping $10 billion last year. The vertical short-form drama market is absolutely huge.
But despite that, it still feels like a really small world. Granted, I’m personally filming pretty much strictly in Los Angeles, which only takes up a percentage of those global numbers.
I’m basically at a point where it’s impossible to get cast on a vertical and not know SOMEONE there. There are a handful of actors – I call it the Century Club – who have appeared in more than 100 verticals. And I run across some of those folks (like Cailynn Knabenshue, David Moskowitz, Neil Wachs, and Rachel Ashley Johnson) all the time.
And of course you see a lot of the same freelance crew and the same locations pop up over and over again. So every time a call sheet comes out, it’s like, “Hey, I’ll see Mark and Laura there!”
And I think that comes through for the fans, too. Because even though most vertical series don’t have sequels in a traditional sense, a lot of popular couples keep teaming up, so it feels like there’s a shared history between unrelated characters. Like Seth Edeen and Nicole Mattox, for example, are sort of a modern-day Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
What do you love most about it?
There’s no secret that in a lot of vertical dramas, the actors go pretty “big.” We’re often doing ridiculous things – food fights, pushing people into pools, slapping our adversaries. And I’m typically a day player in these verticals, meaning my character will only be around for 2 or 3 episodes. This means that if I’m going to make an impression, I have to make very bold choices.
So that means a lot of my roles are a lot of fun. I’m not constrained by the need to come across as a wholly realistic character, and I can lean into an unusual accent or an ostentatious visual flourish.
How does it feel to be an actor in the digital age?
Obviously there’s a lot of fear about the use of AI to eliminate jobs that would go to real human creatives. But for a moment, I’d rather dwell on a more positive aspect of the digital age.
We live in a time in which all of things creative projects we’re making are accessible around the world. I’ve had people reach out to me from China, from Indonesia, from the Philippines, from Europe. I did a short scene with the wonderful Zelda Kimble and Sean McHugh, and I’d sort of forgotten about it. Zelda sent me a TikTok of the scene that has almost 100,000 likes, with hundreds of comments and shares. So even short moments like that one get disseminated all around the world.
And that’s just so flattering, right? The current generation has constant access to pretty much every music recording, film, TV show, and book that has been created in the past century. And yet with all that, they’re still tuning in to see whatever silly thing I’m doing.
What do your plans for the future include?
The big, audacious goal is to write a book about my experiences trying to break into acting after an unexpected layoff from the corporate world in my mid-40s. I also have nebulous plans related to starting a YouTube channel for my card collecting hobby, or maybe even streaming some niche video games between gigs, but I’m not sure there’s much actual demand for that sort of thing. And for three years now, I’ve been telling myself I need to build a voiceover booth. Maybe someday.
What are some of your proudest professional moments?
I don’t really spend a lot of time looking back on too many individual roles. It’s weird to see myself onscreen. So I’m more proud of the accumulation of work I’ve done over the past few years. I turned in 695 self-tapes last year, and that’s a year where I missed 6 weeks traveling for a family health emergency.
I’ve submitted to over 20,000 casting calls since joining the industry in 2023. That’s a lot of nights where I’ve come home exhausted from set, and still managed to knock out my submissions and self-tapes. It takes a certain level of consistency.
What is your advice for young and emerging actors?
Be prepared for rejection. I’ve submitted to over 20,000 casting calls, and I’ve worked on exactly 549 filmed projects. A few of those projects are from a call-in service, or from people I’d worked with before offering me a job, so I’m guessing my success rate on submissions hovers between 1.5% and 2.0%. I’m one of the small minority of actors who gets to do this as my full-time job, which is very cool. But don’t get discouraged if you hear “No” a lot, and try not to get too emotionally attached to any particular audition.
Sometimes you probably really were the best person for the job, but you still won’t get it because of something totally outside your control – you’re taller than the lead male actor, or your hair color is exactly the same as someone they’ve already cast, or something equally ridiculous.
If anything, you should probably be trying to get rejected more often.
Why would you recommend the vertical drama space to them?
My favorite thing about verticals is that you get to work out certain muscles that you’d never get to in a major feature film or television show. You can play with accents and really take chances with line deliveries and expressions. The fans are often incredibly supportive, and you’ll make friends with a lot of the other actors – once you’ve done a few, you’ll notice that Family Reunion vibe I mentioned before.
Vertical dramas aren’t for everyone, and I won’t pretend that every experience and every production company has been wonderful. But I have had some fantastic experiences on set that I would have missed out on if I believed some of the criticisms I’ve read about vertical dramas on Reddit and other forums.
What would you like to say to your fans?
Ha, I’m not sure I have any fans. But for anyone who’s ever commented on, shared, or liked a post featuring me or a project I’ve been involved in, I’d just like to say thank you for helping me continue doing the first job I’ve ever truly loved.
To learn more about Michael Sullivan, check out his IMDb page, website, and Instagram page.
