Inspirational Women In Hollywood: How Monica Ord Is Helping To Shake Up The Entertainment Industry

Film is the most powerful medium there is to affect people. That’s my interest in it. I want to make things that emotionally move people and inspire them. I want to make films that, after watching them, people are changed. My passion is to inspire people to live up to who they really are.

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

Monica Ord is a changemaker focused on critical global social and health issues. She has been active in the biomedical industry for more than 24 years as an international corporate development executive and as an entrepreneur with her own healthcare promotion and marketing company. Chloe & Theo was her first venture into filmmaking.

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?

I was born in Los Angeles. My mother sadly had very severe drug and alcohol problems and I had a very challenging childhood. Luckily, I learned great lessons firsthand on how NOT to live. I left home as a teen, which was also extremely challenging but filled with great lessons that have served me so well in my life.

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

I made a pact with myself at a young age that if someone came to me for help of any kind it was heaven sent and I was meant to help them. I was a biomedical executive working with AIDS and cancer patients in South Africa at the time when Lloyd Philips (an award-winning producer) called me and told me about a climate change event he had gone to. He said there was an Inuk man who was trying to get help to bring awareness to the Arctic. He asked if I would speak to him, his name is Theo Ikummaq, and he asked me if I could get a famous person to go on a three-month dog sled journey that he had planned through five remote Inuit villages to witness what was going on. He told me that it was so bad that in one village they had not had female babies in 10 years because the toxins were poisoning the women somehow, and he felt it was the beginning of the end for all of us. I reached out to Richard Branson who had helped me many times in South Africa with the AIDS work and he said yes, he would go! 45 days later we had a small team of filmmakers in minus 45 degree weather in the Arctic. I had zero experience in filmmaking, and we shot the dog sled journey with a million problems a day! I loved every disaster-filled minute of it and we ended up pivoting and making a scripted feature film starring Dakota Johnson and Mira Sorvino called Chloe and Theo, instead of a documentary film.

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

When I first started it was trial by fire. I had zero knowledge or experience in filmmaking so I learned daily by making every mistake known to man. Working in the Arctic in a tiny village with the Inuit was amazing. Because it’s so incredibly cold and barren, there were daily problems. I had no idea that camera batteries can freeze and blow up, and in a village of only 500 residents, there is nothing. In the Arctic, ships come a few times a year with supplies of every kind but once it’s gone, that’s it. To get production vehicles we would stand on the roads, stop villagers, and offer to rent their cars! Every day we had to find ways to improvise. In the entire village, we had at least one person from every house working for us doing one thing or another. The Inuit are incredible, such resourceful people, and so used to hardship. We could have never shot Chloe and Theo without their help! I consider myself so fortunate to have been able to spend so much time there and with them. It really made me realize, to a huge degree, how spoiled and fortunate we are and how much I take for granted.

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?

Unfortunately, most of my mistakes weren’t funny… I was stressed each and every day just because of my lack of knowledge and wanting so bad to get Theo’s message out.

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’ve had such incredible help and mentors in my life and I’m so grateful to them all. I’ve worked with Richard Branson, Bill Clinton, James Cameron and so many other change-makers, but if I have to pick one I would have to say John Paul DeJoria has had the biggest impact on me. If I had never known him my life would be very different, and I know I’m a better person for knowing him. When I was first finishing Chloe and Theo I had made so many mistakes because I had no idea what I was doing but one of those was that I had raised enough money to shoot the film but zero for the final edits and marketing. I had no idea what color timing meant or anything else. It was a massive lesson but also a disaster. Larry Winokur, who I adore from BWR Public Relations, made an intro to John Paul, we met and spoke about the film but also how we had both been homeless and so many other things. That day he wrote me a check for every dime we needed to finish the film. I floated out of his office. After that we ended up partnering on a very successful business and he became not only a funder but a huge mentor and friend. I learned so much from him about not only business (he’s a genius) but also just how to be a great and kind human being that everyone would want to work with, like him. He’s by far the most positive, kind, and brilliant person I’ve ever been lucky enough to know. I thank God I know him.

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?

Failure is part of success. I’ve failed 1000 times and learned so much from each and every one. You cannot be scared of failure or rejection and reach high places. I don’t feel someone can even become a success without failure, because the best lessons come from trial and error. So my advice to anyone would be: ALWAYS GO FOR IT! Whether it’s a business, a movie, or a new career. Live life to the fullest with absolutely everything you’ve got! And when the failures happen, get back up and do it better with the lessons you learned. If you don’t take risks you will never reach the stars.

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?

Film is the most powerful medium there is to affect people. That’s my interest in it. I want to make things that emotionally move people and inspire them. I want to make films that, after watching them, people are changed. My passion is to inspire people to live up to who they really are.

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?

I can’t say a lot about the film I’m working on now but it’s a true story about an incredible man from horrifying circumstances who overcomes everything and ends up saving thousands of children. It shows what just ONE human can do with the right heart and drive. I cannot wait to get it on the screen.

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?

To me, diversity is the answer to everything. You cannot solve major problems in the world without it. To solve a problem means to see it from every perspective and make the answer work for EVERYONE. Or else it’s not solved. The only way to do that is to get perspective from all walks of life. Rich, poor, every race, every religion, every sex, etc. because everyone’s impacted differently depending on their circumstances. How can we solve ANYTHING if we haven’t walked in each other’s worlds and don’t understand how each person feels and what they are going through? And telling those stories so people can feel that is a huge start and I feel the most powerful thing we can do. Facts and figures do nothing. No one is moved by numbers. When I was an exec and raised huge funding for AIDS work if I presented to a group and showed stats, even if the stats were horrifying, people would drink their coffee and look at their watches. If I told a human story about a woman who had no choice but to sell herself to allow her children to eat and that her child was dying of AIDS, however, I would see someone five years later and they would remember every detail. Answers come from perspective and perspective comes from living in someone’s shoes.

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

• I wish someone had told me to block out criticism and ignore 99% of opinions. Everything I’ve ever achieved at least 100 people told me I couldn’t do and would never happen! But it did! You have to remember if only 2% of people will become billionaires or reach greatness, the other 98% truly do believe they cannot succeed. So why would you listen to the 98%? There’s really nothing you can’t do with hard work, grit, belief, and of course God.
• I wish someone had told me to be 100% honest always. Not that I’m a liar, but I was an exec for years and because I left home young I did not even complete junior high school, and because I was a boss of people with PHDs and master’s degrees, I let myself believe that I had to lie about that part of my life to be respected. It was Richard Branson who I confided that to, who as a high school dropout himself, became an icon and a billionaire. He told me to never hide any part of who I am, and it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks. He was 1000% right. Whatever you’ve been through has made you who you are and no matter what, you should not hide any part of it. If people don’t accept you, it really doesn’t matter at all.
• I wish someone would have told me never to stress because things truly do always work out the way they are meant to, as long as you are honest and try your hardest. I’ve had many major upheavals in my life and also miraculous highs. When I was younger I would panic and stress badly when any new disaster happened, to the point where I would get physically sick. But each time, every disaster would either bring a massive lesson or a different direction that lead to something even better. So, I’ve learned that everything comes in seasons and no matter how bad something is it will turn around. Don’t hurt yourself stressing about anything. Things ALWAYS improve.
• I wish someone had told me lifting up and helping others is the best thing you can do for yourself. I believe we are here to find our purpose and until we do we can’t have peace of mind. Almost every great thing I’ve been lucky enough to do in my life started as an effort to help someone else and ended up snowballing into something incredible. Not only is it the right thing to do, and brings you joy, but there’s some kind of magic that happens…..Try it.

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

John Paul DeJoria has a great saying, “Success unshared is failure.”

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?

I want to inspire people to understand that we are ALL here for a purpose and you must work to find that in yourself, or you will never give the world what you were meant to. And you will also never be completely happy. Money, power, and fame are all great tools but if you don’t have integrity, heart, and love, those things are dangerous. We are all capable of ANYTHING, there are too many examples to count! I want to inspire people to go for it and live their lives with everything they’ve got and give till it hurts. Wouldn’t this be an even more beautiful place?

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!

If I could have lunch with anyone it would be Jesus so I don’t think you can tag him, LOL! Or Kim Kardashian. I know that sounds insane but she’s capable of getting innocent people out of jail! and so much more … With the money and power, she has we could make the most inspiring movies on the planet!! Hey Kim!!

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

https://twitter.com/monicaord5

https://twitter.com/chloetheomovie

https://www.instagram.com/chloetheomovie/

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