Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Potts.
Aaron, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I wanted to be an actor ever since I was a kid. When my family moved to Chicago from South Carolina, I had a difficult time adjusting. Film became my outlet (especially Jackie Chan movies).
However, I drifted away from acting and the arts when I entered high school instead of focusing on sports. When I entered Boston College, a life pursuing the arts was the furthest thing from my mind. At that time it was my intention to do international business.
However, the arts still called to me. It wasn’t until my junior year of college when I studied abroad in Japan that I decided to fully commit myself to the arts. While I was in Japan I started to meet many different types of artists: actors, dancers, musicians, etc. As I kept meeting all these artist types, I realized that I didn’t want to work for a giant company. I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything other than pursuing the arts.
When I returned to finish the senior year, I was committed to pursuing my acting career. After graduation, I returned to Chicago and have been pursuing acting, the arts, and storytelling.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The road has definitely not been smooth. I think the term “starving artist” comes to mind. I have been very fortunate. I am from the Chicago area so I have had a strong support network of family and friends. Most of the struggle I have faced so far have been regarding gaining more emotional vulnerability, depth, and maturity. In the arts and storytelling, we crave vulnerability and pure expression. I had to face the fact that I had placed many emotional barriers around myself.
These didn’t really serve me well in my everyday life, and would most definitely not serve me as an actor. Facing these emotional hangups, growing up and gaining clarity, and becoming more aware of the reality of pursuing my dreams has been my biggest struggle along the way. It has also been the most rewarding.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Actor, The Fool Truth, Red Band Entertainment – what should we know?
Along with my acting career, I have also started a podcast and film company.
The Fool Truth is a Chicago based podcast that tackles the cultural issues and questions we all, especially Millennials, are dealing with through jokes and debate! I started the show in fall of 2017 with my friends Adonis and Renee. What makes us different from other podcasts I think is our diversity of perspectives and our combination of argument and humor.
Both Adonis and I are both black men in our mid-twenties and have known each other since high school but in many ways, we have very different outlooks on life. Renee is a Filipina woman from Hawaii who is in her early-thirties and is married. We all have very different experiences that make for an interesting contrast of opinions on the show.
Red Band Entertainment is a film production company that I started in the summer of 2017 with some friends I made in the Chicago film community. Since then we have made several independent shorts and have started to take on clients for filming promotional videos. I am proud that we have a team that is committed to being professional and committed to producing high-quality creative content.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Oh God… this might actually be the hardest question for me. I’m a firm believer in the idea that no person is an island. Everybody needs a bit of help from somebody. I just have too many people who I need to thank. I have a wonderful network of family, friends, and mentors from both Chicago, all across the US, and overseas who have inspired, supported, and even cared for me when I needed help. My dad especially has been very supportive and has been my hero since I was a kid (especially since my mom/his wife passed away).
Contact Info:
- Website: www.aaronwpotts.com; www.redbandentertainment.com
- Email: aaronwpotts@gmail.com; aaronpotts.rbe@gmail.com; thefooltruthpodcast@gmail.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/aaronwpotts; www.instagram.com/thefooltruthpodcast
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/aaronwpotts; www.facebook.com/thefooltruth; www.facebook.com/RedBandEntertainment
Image Credit:
Yoshie Baranauskas, Tinashe Ziswa
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