Filmmaker Dorie Barton of ‘Welcome to the Show’: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker

The only person I have to — and truly can — make happy is myself. This is as true on set as it is for life. As an artist, I really only have myself to offer, my experiences, my mind and my heart. Being kind to other people, being authentic to myself, and giving everything I have makes me happy.

As a part of our series called “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Dorie Barton.

DORIE BARTON made her debut as writer-director with the feature film “Girl Flu.” which premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival in 2016 and went on to become a festival hit, screening at over 30 festivals worldwide.

Barton’s second feature, “Welcome to the Show,” is being released by Gravitas Ventures (2021) after an award-winning festival run, and was written specifically for her students at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she earned her MFA in Theatre and teaches Acting for the Camera. As an actor, Barton has been seen in countless television shows from daytime drama to multi-cam sitcoms, major motion pictures and indie faves. Barton has performed onstage for much of her life as an award-winning actor, including originating the role of Edith in Charles Busch’s “Die, Mommie, Die!” and starring as Alice in The Blank Theater’s “Lobster Alice,” for which she won Best Actor from the L.A. Drama Critics Circle. Barton is also a long-time script consultant for filmmakers and a prolific voice-over artist. Barton graduated from California Institute of the Arts with a BFA in Theater and she remains a proud member of the Evidence Room Theater Company in Los Angeles.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a bit of the ‘backstory’ of how you grew up?

I grew up as an “Army brat” and was made in Taiwan. My mom started taking me to see these wonderful plays performed by a touring theatre company when I was very young, and I fell completely in love and told her then that’s what I wanted to do. Movies were my next great love, and as a kid, I consumed a steady diet of hard-core action movies and glamorous old Hollywood musicals. I wanted to be Dirty Harry and Gene Kelly. Die Hard is my favorite movie, and my first tattoo was of Nakatomi Plaza.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

I had a rather dramatic early appearance acting onstage as a sheep in a Christmas pageant when I suddenly got hit with a demonstrative case of stomach flu. I was determined to be the most amazing sheep ever even if I had to throw up backstage between scenes to do it. I have no idea where I first heard “The show must go on,” but that was apparently a ferocious part of my personal belief structure by the age of seven. Telling stories gives me something to believe in and I will push through just about anything to make that happen.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your filmmaking career?

I absolutely loved every moment of my festival tour for my first feature, Girl Flu. which is about a little girl getting her first period, and how that radically recalibrates her relationship with herself and with her mother. On the tour, so many mothers and daughters came to see the film together, and they would tell me the most amazing heart-breaking and hilarious stories from their own lives that the movie helped them reframe. It makes me very happy to even be a small part of destigmatizing something that is such an organic part of everyday life, but was treated as a hidden mystery for so long.

Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?

Working onstage as an actor with Charles Busch in the premiere production of his play Die, Mommie, Die! was a life-changing experience. Every now and then working with another artist, especially someone of Charles’ tremendous caliber, really makes you level up. He played my mother, and was genuinely so kind to me, and was also a masterful guide in helping me craft my performance. I remember him telling me that doing his plays was like doing an opera and that every moment demanded as much energy and focus as an aria. He and his play definitely made me a better artist, and I’ve never had such a hard time not accidentally laughing out loud on stage.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I’m so deeply grateful to everyone who has ever just said “yes” to me and my crazy ideas. My second feature, Welcome to the Show, started with me asking four of my acting students if they felt like shooting a film over the Thanksgiving holiday, less than two months away at the time. They just said “yes.” I immediately called up producer and old friend S.C.V. (Scott) Taylor and told him that I desperately needed help because I had just committed to making a film and all I had was four actors, a logline, and about five bucks. He just said “yes” and we went into pre-production that night. Thank you!

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I write a lot of notes to myself on index cards and tape them up around the house. The one that’s most useful to me is: “It’s all in your mind.” This reminds me that so much of life is not reality per se, but is actually whatever it becomes once it’s filtered through my perception. It also means that whatever I truly need, it’s already there inside me, just waiting to be actualized. This helps me not take myself too seriously, and keep writing.

I am very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?

Diversity is a strength. Period. It’s time we honor and amplify that. Everyone has a story worth telling and worth hearing. Every time we witness a voice in film and television that’s new to us, it expands our compassion towards others and towards ourselves. Representation really does matter. I know for myself that I would have come to directing sooner had I actually seen women directing. It wasn’t until my late 20s when I worked with the amazing Gail Mancuso on the set of Stark Raving Mad that I suddenly realized that it wasn’t just possible, but maybe possible for me.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

I’m currently in development on a project to be largely shot inside my own home. I’ve wanted to make a confined movie for some time to explore what that metaphor of confinement means, especially as it concerns the extremely closed loop of mad love. Bergman and Cassavetes have long been models for me in exploring the intricacies of affection. I’m not sure how well I’ll sleep on set, but it does make the commute nice and easy.

Which aspect of your work makes you most proud? Can you explain or give a story?

I’m most proud of pushing through the fear of my own ideas being too weird, or abstract, or too “me” to be compelling to other people. If I thought too much about what was acceptable or interesting to other people, I’d be paralyzed as an artist. I’ve done some really commercial work, and some really weird work, and I’ll take the weird any day.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

1. No idea is ever so good that a different one might not be better. I freely admit that I am stubborn. But in a good way. It’s how I get things done. By firmly believing in myself, in my ideas, and in the people I choose to collaborate with. Ideas come up. They’re written into the script, they’re put on the shot list, they show up on the call sheet. That’s fine. Plans need to be made or nothing ever happens. But so many things happen while making a film that are unexpected, that upend even your greatest plans and create an opportunity for you to shift your mind toward something possibly even better. Certainly better for the actual moment in front of you. Maybe your idea is the best one, but maybe it’s not. It’s not weakness to admit there’s a better idea than the one you already had; it’s strength. Filmmaking is a team sport.
2. Make mistakes. And don’t be embarrassed when you do. It’s how you learn. My first job as a professional actor was as a series regular on a soap opera, One Life to Live. It was at least a month into my gig when one of the actors who had been there for years kindly told me that I shouldn’t “turn out” when acting on camera. (Thank you!) I had been trained so long for acting on stage that I didn’t even know I was doing it. I was super embarrassed but I learned. A few months later, I went up on my lines while we were rolling. Again, I was super embarrassed since training for the stage taught me to never go up on my lines. But all of the sudden, the crew broke out into applause. I didn’t know what was happening. Then the stage manager told me that everyone on the crew had been waiting for me to go up on my lines someday, and were applauding me just for being human. I was so caught up in being “right” I wasn’t being real. To act is to be human. I made a lot of mistakes on national television but you gotta learn somewhere.
3. Don’t worry so much about where to put the camera. When prepping for directing my first film, I read about a thousand books on making films. I think on some level I was searching for one of them to tell me exactly where to put the camera. I was worried that I wouldn’t know where to on-the-day, and that I would somehow fail myself and the entire production by putting the camera in the wrong place. I shotlisted, storyboarded, and drew intricate overheads obsessively. It was almost a phobia. My second film was almost the complete opposite, partly because I just didn’t have the time to worry. The camera is just the window into the story. Trust your DP. Tell the story.
4. Somebody did actually tell me to wear really comfortable shoes while directing. Thank you!
5. The only person I have to — and truly can — make happy is myself. This is as true on set as it is for life. As an artist, I really only have myself to offer, my experiences, my mind and my heart. Being kind to other people, being authentic to myself, and giving everything I have makes me happy.

When you create a film, which stakeholders have the greatest impact on the artistic and cinematic choices you make? Is it the viewers, the critics, the financiers, or your own personal artistic vision? Can you share a story with us or give an example about what you mean?

Several very smart people told me when I was in pre-production for my first film that the only true arbiter of what’s “right” for the movie should be my own taste. This doesn’t mean that I don’t value others’ opinions — they’re crucial to collaboration, which is what I love most about filmmaking — but that ultimately only I can be the one to decide if something is right or not, or good or not, for the movie that I’m making. If I constantly second guess myself, there’s no one steering the ship, and being true to my own vision is the same as me taking responsibility for every decision that shows up onscreen. That’s the job.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I think it would be really amazing if at the same exact time, every single day, everyone on the planet just sat down for five minutes and held good thoughts for each other. A world compassion moment, where all we think about is love. Can we coordinate that? Oprah?

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this. :-)

I’d be kind of embarrassed if Bruce Willis knew how many times I’ve watched Die Hard, but I’d be incredibly happy to brunch with him. Hi, Bruce! Mimosas?

How can our readers further follow you online?

You can find me on Instagram @dorieb and my new film is @welcometotheshow.film

This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!

Thank you so much! This was an excellent experience and good for the soul.