Inspirational Women In Hollywood: How Johanna Watts Is Helping To Shake Up The Entertainment Industry

An Interview With Elana Cohen

Be hard on yourself. Not unkind, but tough. This business is fun, and there are lots of opportunities to play and socialize, but remember that it’s a business. Treat it as a professional. Don’t get lost in the social aspects of the business. Be on time. Work hard. Work like there are millions of dollars on the line — because there often are millions of dollars on the line. Be respectful. Take your craft seriously. And at the end of the day, don’t take anything personally. Everyone out there is looking out for their own business.

As a part of our series about Inspirational Women In Hollywood, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Johanna Watts.

Johanna Watts was raised by hippies in rural Florida, far from the bright lights of Hollywood. But from elementary school she insisted on acting, singing, and dancing lessons, and made her first theatrical appearance at the age of seven.

In her teens, Johanna was plucked from the stage in Gainesville, Florida, and cast in the PBS film Catherine’s Story. Soon she was modeling and acting in New York and Los Angeles.

Johanna’s first Hollywood break came from her second professional audition, when she was cast as the younger version of Oscar-nominated actress Samantha Eggar in Cold Case. She has gone on to appear in CSI:Miami, Star Trek Enterprise, and a series of independent films.

She continues to act on stage as well, where she is drawn to strong, heroic women who think outside the box. She has played an unusual number of women in disguise, as well as typically male roles in Shakespeare productions.

She stars in the new short Day9 by filmmaker Dastan Khalili, which recently had its world premiere at the LA Shorts International Film Festival, an Oscar®-qualifying festival.

Johanna’s passion for performance is equaled by her desire to make a difference in the world. Her battle with a rare form of cancer in her early teens left her with a lasting interest in helping children.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

It’s a pleasure talking with you! I grew up traveling around the Southeast United States with my single mother, often sharing a home with other families. My mom was a hippie, so I grew up practicing yoga, eating tofu, and meditating before that kind of stuff was widely talked about. We were pretty nomadic in my early childhood. It was always an adventure. We moved often but always created a new home wherever we went.

I was an only child and spent much of my days in imaginary worlds, playing in nature or inventing stories and songs around the house. I loved the world of imagination and quickly gravitated to the world of theater.

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

I’ve been interested in acting since I realized that the people on TV made a profession out of playing pretend. That’s around the time I started performing in local plays, around age seven or eight. I don’t know if that interest alone would have carried me through the trials of professional acting.

When I was fourteen years old, I was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo surgery and six months of chemotherapy.

At the time, I was a high school freshman in a k-12 school. There was some teasing about “the bald girl” early on, but my classmates quickly became protective of me while I was going through chemo. The one exception was the younger kids.

I distinctly remember a group of first graders spotting me in the hallway one afternoon. They ran away screaming when they discovered that I was the girl with cancer! They were terrified. I didn’t have time to explain that they couldn’t catch cancer from me. They were running for their lives and too afraid to listen.

Later that semester, some friends and I created the theater club at our school. We decided to write and perform plays for the kindergarten through second grade. Our first production was “Where the Wild Things Are,” and I played the lead character, Max. We ended the play with all the children joining Max and the Monsters in a “wild rumpus.”

In one afternoon, I went from being the terrifying “cancer girl” to the sought-after dance partner, Max! The same first-graders who’d run screaming from me began to chase me in the halls, hoping to say hello. We were able to talk about the reality of living with cancer and how they were perfectly safe being my friend.

That experience helped me understand the powerful connections and conversations that theater can create. That any story can create. Taking a moment to set aside what we know, to suspend our beliefs and our disbeliefs, can open us up to new ideas and understandings.

That’s always been my hope for the creative work I do: to open hearts and bridge differences.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Star Trek?

Well, I get asked about working on Start Trek a lot.

I wasn’t what anyone would call a Trekkie, but Next Generation had been important to me, and I loved and admired the franchise. The casting director, Libby Goldstein, had brought me in several times before, but I hadn’t booked a role yet. This time, when I went in for the audition, the office was packed with actresses who looked approximately like me. I finally went in for my read, and LeVar Burton was there behind the casting desk. He was going to read with me! He was going to direct that episode and was going to cast the role. I talked with some of the other actresses after the audition, and they said they were super nervous about reading with LeVar Burton.

I found it weirdly comforting. LeVar was my friend from Reading Rainbow, and Geordi from Next Generation. He was also kind enough to act with me, not just stare at the paper and read blankly, so we got to really play the scene. I think having that connection probably helped me get the role and should be a guidepost for every audition. Connect with your reader like they’re your dear friend, even if you must be terrible to that friend (in the role).

I came on at the very end of Star Trek Enterprise. They’d just announced that they were ending not just the show but the entire franchise. At the time, the fans were devastated. Letters were pouring in. I felt very lucky to have a chance to go to the set of the bridge and sit in the captain’s chair before it all disappeared.

I’m so glad the franchise is up and running again!

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

This is silly, but here goes. The first time I came to Los Angeles, I didn’t know anyone. My mom’s friend, Sandra, was my only lifeline. She was kind enough to take me out to a sushi dinner. I was a teenager. I grew up in rural Florida with no money. I’d had sushi once in my life, so this was thrilling and terrifying! Sushi in Los Angeles — how glamorous and sophisticated!

We sit down. Sandra orders these giant rolls. They’re about two inches across. So I pick one up, and bite into it like a cookie… But the nori (the seaweed wrapping) won’t break. I’m stuck with this thing half in and half out of my mouth. It would seem rude to spit it out and it’s way too big to eat in one bite…

In this very moment, Joni Mitchell walks into the restaurant.

I’m not kidding. It’s the real Joni Mitchell, who my mom listened to when I was a kid. And Sandra KNOWS her!

Joni comes over to the table! Sandra and Joni are talking. I still have a sushi roll stuck in my mouth, and I’m desperate to say hello or hide or die.

Sandra introduces me (with sushi still in my mouth) to the real Joni Mitchell and all I can do is shove the entire roll into my mouth and grunt desperately at Joni. My mouth is so full that I can’t even chew. Joni (very kindly) says hello as if nothing is wrong. She leaves. I finally managed to choke down the sushi, but Joni was long gone.

That doesn’t easily translate to a life lesson, but here’s what I learned: Be careful what you order when you’re out to lunch or dinner. Order something you can eat tidily and talk easily while eating. I love sushi, but now I order small rolls.

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?

There are so many people who supported me! I’m grateful to all of them!

My high school theater teacher, Ms. Pritchett, was an inspiration. She helped me create my first resume and headshot. She let me play some very fun roles and taught me to believe in myself early on.

My attorney, Mark Temple, had a huge impact on my career. I sat down next to him at a friend’s birthday dinner, and he introduced me to managers and agents until I had good representation, and I started booking right away. He’s an amazing guy.

You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?

Oh yeah!

You’re going to fail! At least some of the time. Get comfortable with it. Get into it. Redefine failure. We’re all fumbling toward the best moments of our lives. Those moments may have nothing to do with what we thought we were going for.

Aim for what you want and try to have fun in the process.

Keep this in mind: No one in this business hasn’t failed at least a little. Almost everyone fails a lot. Even at the very top of the game, lots of people still feel like they’re failing or about to fail sometimes.

The trick is to have things in your life that bring you joy, so you can enjoy where you are, and a strong sense of where you want to be, so you’ll keep going even when it’s uncomfortable.

Failure will happen sometimes. The question is: Will you try again? Or will you try something new?

Oh — and If you find something you love more, that’s not failure. That’s just a new direction.

What drives you to get up every day and work in TV and Film? What change do you want to see in the industry going forward?

To be honest, I don’t know if I could do anything else. I keep coming back to storytelling.

I love imagining new worlds, new outcomes, and new perspectives. We all need to step out of our real lives sometimes so that we can see our real lives more clearly. Storytelling does that.

Film, TV, books, theater — there are lots of ways to tell stories. I specifically love film and TV because it’s more widely accessible than some other forms of storytelling. I started out in theater, but theater doesn’t usually reach a broad enough audience to really have a global impact. Lots of film and TV shows don’t either, but they live on beyond their initial release and might have an impact long after the filmmakers are gone.

I’d like to see more kindness in the industry going forward. I think we’re on that path, but there has been a long history of power imbalance in the entertainment business, and it will probably take a while to correct.

You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?

It’s been a joy working on Day 9, (a film that’s just begun the film festival circuit) and I’m excited to see what comes of this story. I think there are so many places these characters could go and so many ways to expand on this narrative.

Of course, we’re in the middle of an actor’s and writer’s strike right now, so most of my work is on hold. I’m proud of my unions, and hope everyone can come to an agreement that benefits the creatives and the executives who pour their hearts into making quality entertainment.

That said, as an actor, I’m attached to a couple of exciting indie features and have an independent science fiction pilot that just launched on YouTube, called Infinity System. Production is on hold for now, but I’m excited about jumping back in when work can start again.

Behind the camera, I’m in post-production on a documentary film about an ongoing community that started in the early 70s, and I’m developing a few feature film scripts.

I love working collaboratively. I love discovering new ideas by stress-testing my ideas with a creative partner. I’m lucky to have recently found some inspiring collaborators.

There’s something thrilling about filmmaking. It’s one of the few arts where so many people get to contribute to a shared expression and truly make the whole much more than the sum of its parts.

As I move forward, I see myself continuing as a hyphenate creative — an actor-producer, writer-actor or even actor-director.

We are very interested in looking at diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture and our youth growing up today?

Diversity of all kinds is vitally important in storytelling! Diversity in film and television opens our hearts and minds to new ideas. Plus it’s fun! Imagine a world where every film and TV show is filled with the same characters. How boring would that be?

When we embrace diversity, we get a vibrant kaleidoscope of characters and perspectives to draw from. It’s like a buffet of storytelling, with a little bit of everything for everyone. Old, young, different cultures, different ethnicities, sexual orientations or socio-economic perspectives — all of these variables make for rich and dynamic stories.

With today’s algorithms filtering what people see online, it’s hard not to get trapped in a narrow perspective. Film and TV come to the rescue, cracking open a door to new worlds and new ideas. It’s also empowering for young people to see their stories told on screen, and if we’re doing it right, diversity and representation can create more empathy and understanding for people we might not otherwise get to know.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.

Be hard on yourself. Not unkind, but tough. This business is fun, and there are lots of opportunities to play and socialize, but remember that it’s a business. Treat it as a professional. Don’t get lost in the social aspects of the business. Be on time. Work hard. Work like there are millions of dollars on the line — because there often are millions of dollars on the line. Be respectful. Take your craft seriously. And at the end of the day, don’t take anything personally. Everyone out there is looking out for their own business.

I didn’t get a lot of guidance in this business, and I wish someone told me that before I got started. I always heard that it was all about “who you know.” While I respect that there’s an aspect of truth to that, it’s way more important to do your work.

I started in this business very young and I socialized too much. I wasted a lot of time and energy. Don’t do that. When I got my first agent, it was through a personal connection — my friend’s attorney Mark Temple. He was a champion for me early on, but Mark didn’t pick up the phone on my behalf until he saw my performance in a play. That’s the only reason he recommended me to anyone: because he saw my work. When I met my future agent, I still had to do a monologue, show my reel, and ace the interview. Personal connections matter, but they’re going to happen naturally when you’re doing the work in class, on stage, in student projects, etc. I’ve never booked a job that I didn’t audition for. Get good at your craft and plan to get the work by doing the work.

Don’t just be on time. Be early.

I once got to set right at my call time, rushing in, still looking for a parking place. The director later pulled me aside and said that was a problem. Everyone was worried I wouldn’t show up, and there were a lot of people counting on me. Don’t make people worry about you. Show up early. Settle in. Be professional.

Notice how many of my stories basically say, “don’t do what I did?” Haha!

Also:

Be kind to yourself. There’s a lot of randomness to this business. It’s a business, but it’s also full of wild variables that you (and I) know nothing about. Do your best creative work and then trust that that’s enough. At some point, you have to let it go. Find what centers you and keeps you grounded and hold fast to that practice. Whether you have great success right away or it takes you years to book a job, you will need to stay connected to what keeps you centered and grounded.

Can you share with our readers any self care routines, practices or treatments that you do to help your body, mind or heart to thrive? Please share a story for each one if you can.

One of the most important practices for me is being of service outside of my profession. When I first came to LA, I didn’t know anyone. But I loved working with kids — ever since I was a freshman in high school, performing with the theater club. So I started volunteering with a children’s theater program for under-served communities. I made some lifelong friends there, and it gave me perspective on the things that really matter.

That non-profit doesn’t exist anymore, but I still make time to volunteer and look for ways to help other people. It helps connect me to stay connected to my core values.

I’d say the next most important self-care for me is practicing gratitude! Sometimes it’s a gratitude list. Sometimes it’s just taking a moment to focus on the many reasons I have for being grateful.

I’ve recently been practicing gratitude in the mirror. Not in a vain way, but to counteract that impulse (I think) we all have to find flaws. Let’s say I see myself in the mirror and think my legs look bad in whatever I’m wearing. I’ll flip it and dance around and give thanks that I have legs. I can still walk without pain! That’s awesome. Not everyone has that, and it may not always be true for me. I might as well celebrate my working legs and arms while I can. So yeah… that might sound corny, but I try to practice gratitude for the most basic stuff. I mean — we have running water in America! Potable water flows right out of the tap! I am deeply grateful.

Oh! Sunscreen and hats! They’re essential in LA. I never leave home without them.

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

“Life is short, and it’s up to you to make it sweet.” — Sarah Louise Delany

This quote comes from an inspiring woman who lived to be one hundred and nine years young. We don’t get to know how long or short our lives will be, but we get to choose what we focus on and how we react to the world and the events around us. Kindness and gratitude matter.

This feels especially true now that I’m navigating motherhood. Choosing to find the playful moments, the reason to be grateful, the way to make someone else feel more at home never fails to make my day better.

The other night, I was harassing my son about brushing his teeth. It was torture for both of us. Then I was like, “Ok, dude. I bet you a quarter that I can brush my teeth longer than you can brush yours.” The game was on! We had fun. We laughed. We both brushed our teeth for more than two minutes and I lost a quarter. It was worth it. That’s not going to work every night, but it reminded me that a lot of mundane moments could be playful if I’m willing to try.

You are a person of huge influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

That’s a very kind thing to say and an inspiring question all by itself. Thank you! If I could start a movement, it would center on shifting our focus from consumption to connection. Technology has brought us many wonderful things, but it’s allowed us to live in increasing isolation.

Everywhere we look, there’s pressure to acquire something to make life “better” — some item, some treatment, some experience. What most people really need is connections to others or to themselves. I would love to glamorize owning less, consuming less, and connecting more. Use money to support community, connection, and simple joy. Use influence to inspire kindness — toward others and toward ourselves. Maybe that starts with gratitude.

Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!

Oh wow! There are so many!

How about Patty Jenkins? Her work is brilliant. I love her exploration of powerful women and how much compassion she weaves into action films. Monster and Wonder Woman were absolute triumphs. I’m excited to see what she’ll do with Star Wars.

I should have probably said Joni Mitchell, so I could redeem myself. Haha.

Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?

Yes! I don’t post often, so I’m not going to fill up anyone’s feed, but I can be found on Instagram @johannawatts.

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

Thank you very much for talking with me! I hope you have a wonderful day and wish you great success and deep connections!