Inspirational Women In Hollywood: How Samantha Wan Is Helping To Shake Up The Entertainment Industry

An Interview With Elana Cohen

“No one has the answers, you just have to try and see what works for you” I used to think older people knew everything. Then I started to appreciate the teachers who admitted they were just trying things also and started collaborating with me. Taught me to have ownership over my process.

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

Samantha Wan is an award winning filmmaker. This year she has received her second nomination for a Canadian Screen Awards for Best Director, TV movie for Love At Sky Gardens. Her first CSA nomination was for her ground breaking television series Second Jen. The show ran for three seasons on OMNI/City TV’s and was nominated along side major shows such as Schitt’s Creek and Workin’ Moms in 2019. Samantha was co- creator, writer, star and directed half the final season. At 23 she became one of the youngest creators to have a prime time series in Canada.

As a filmmaker, Samantha was also commissioned to create OMNI TV’s first original digital series, Sudden Master. The Kung Fu series accumulated numerous awards around the world, including Best Action Series, Woman With A Vision Award, and a Rockie Nomination for Best Digital series. She also won Best Director at the Sydney Webfest for her work on Lady Ada’s Secret Society a digital series for Marble Kids Media.

For her many contributions to the industry and advocacy for BIPOC representation, the Reelworld Film Festival awarded Samantha their Trail Blazer Award. She continues to be invigorate by work that explores diverse voices and innovated stories.

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?

Sure! I’m Chinese Canadian, only child with divorced parents. I was born in Kitchener Waterloo Ontario, but I moved to China for elementary school where my dad worked. Then I did all of my middle school and high school years in Vancouver, which is the place I most identify with and tell people I’m “from”. Now I am working in Toronto and sometimes popping over to LA when I can.

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

I studied classical theatre at The National Theatre school of Canada in Montreal which is how I began my acting career. It’s funny when I came out of school I thought I was going to do Shakespeare! But not a lot of BIPOC actors were being hired at the time in period pieces for roles other than furniture movers( thank goodness that is changing). So that disappointment drove me to co-create my own comedy television series called Second Jen. That is what really set me on the path to being a creator, writer and director. I pursued directing pretty strongly after the series wrapped, shadowing on sets, directing webseries, and now I am nominated for Canadian Screen Award for best Director for TV movie which is pretty cool.

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

Wow so many. One that comes to mind right now is when I created my martial arts web series Sudden Master. I had to learn how we were going to film Kung fu scenes on camera. I’ve grown up as a martial artist and took classes doing stunt work. This series had six different fights with several different weapons. In order to prepare not only did I have to learn all the choreography ( I was lead actor, writer, producer) we had to do what is called a Pre-vis (which means a pre-visualization) of all the fights. That meant we filmed all the fights on our phone and edited together how it was going to look before we actually went to production. This is a process in every action movie so that you know you’re getting the angles that you need. Big budget action films can spend an entire month filming one fight scene. We had one day per fight, so we really had to be on our game for planning.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. 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?

A funny moment for me as a director… Ok this was embarrassing. I was directing my first short film, I had done SO much preparation but realized I literally didn’t know when to call action! I knew that the crew said a bunch of things but I didn’t know when my turn was. For those who also don’t know the AD announces — “roll camera! roll sound!” then camera and sound reply “sound speeding” and “rolling” then the camera operator says “frame” THEN the Director calls action. Except in my case we all just waited for 30 seconds in silence and everyone just stared at me! It was such a basic thing and I should’ve just pulled my producer aside earlier and asked. But I was trying to preserve my ego and that “ I knew everything”. I’m so open now about when I don’t know something. Because it just hinders the process. And if I can lead by example as a Director to create an environment where it’s safe to admit mistakes and what we are learning that creates a supportive environment.

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 been so lucky when it comes to mentors. When I was shooting Love at Sky Gardens (which is the film I’m nominated “Best Director” for) I had a number of mentors to call on. Due to timing and Covid restrictions I wasn’t going to be able to see some of the places we would be filming at before actual production. I called up Warren P. Sanoda (a friend and also President of the Directors Guild) in a complete panic of how I was going to plan my blocking ( where the camera and actors go) without actually seeing the space! He gave me fantastic advice. All you need to know is where the actors are going to be in relation to the camera and each other, if you’re able to draw that out you can plan your shots and fit it into any location and setting. It was so true and taught me how to be way more flexible in my blocking.

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 inevitable. Start seeing it as a learning opportunity versus a comment on you as a person. There’s a certain amount of failure we all have to go through — so fail hard and fail fast. That’s the quickest path to success.

Every industry iterates and seeks improvement. What changes would you like to see in the industry going forward?

I would like to see an improvement on supporting a more mentally healthy and sustainable artistic process. It’s become standard to work long hours and neglect personal lives and self-care. To the point where if you aren’t willing to do that it means you aren’t serious enough. Regular 8 hour work day (versus 12), which would mean a longer production and development schedule. Ultimately that’s a money issue ( more time = more money), but we’ve made it standard that Artists will make these the sacrifices in their health and personal lives for the love of the work and that’s not an OK expectation.

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 am currently working on my first independent feature film which is inspired by my journey with my father and dementia. It’s the most dramatic piece of work I’ve created yet and I’m really excited to share it with an audience.

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?

It’s important that the characters on screen represent the world we live in. If a child never sees a representation of themselves on screen succeeding, how can they dream of it for themselves? Also in smaller areas, where there isn’t a diverse demographic, television and film may be the only expose people get with communities of different racial ethnicities, LGBTQ+ or people with different abilities.

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

“Art is a process of trying things, not getting it right” I used to work really hard at getting things right, like there was some perfect end goal to my performance or film. Versus being curious to explore the possibilities of what I am creating.

“Filmmaking is collaborative” I used to think I had to show up to set with everything perfectly figured out. If I was given notes as an actor that was my failure to get it right versus recognizing that filmmaking is a collaborative process with a Director and a team. Similarly as a Director the best work is when I ask my team to share their ideas instead of needing to seem like the one “in control”.

“Fail as much as you can” I learned this in a clown class at theatre school when a teacher made us keep going up and try jokes. We all kept failing and that’s what it was about. Getting used to not being afraid of failure and relentlessly trying again until you figured something out, until that fails, and you keep going.

“No one has the answers, you just have to try and see what works for you” I used to think older people knew everything. Then I started to appreciate the teachers who admitted they were just trying things also and started collaborating with me. Taught me to have ownership over my process.

“There nothing wrong with admitting you don’t know something or made a mistake, most of the time people will appreciate you for it” I actually think it’s one of the strongest things you can do as a leader. I wish I had asked for more help when I first started writing instead of being afraid of being judged.

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.

If I’m working on a really emotional scene, I make sure I have a way to leave that heaviness on set or in the theatre. When I was working on a really heavy theatre play, I wore a costume piece during rehearsal ( a bracelet the character wore) and then when rehearsal was done I would take it off to signify to my body “OK we’re done with that now”. I would take a moment to take a breath, thank myself and theatre for the work. It’s really important to create a clear line between the emotions of the character and your personal life.

When I’m directing because it’s very long hours onset and preparation afterwards I do my best to give myself an hour before bed to unwind. It’s been very difficult for me especially when I have a heavy workload but I’ve tried to prioritize still taking breaks and telling myself I will figure it out somehow the next day. I used to not take breaks because I wanted things excel but I’ve learned that that self-care is really important or else it’s not sustainable. I was burning out too often. It also makes the work better to take a breath because it allows your unconscious to work on the problem.

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

Consider that there is a point on a project where that extra 25% of effort ( say an extra hour of work) only makes your project 2% better. Maybe that’s not an effective use of your energy.

I tend to overwork even just to get something .5% better. But as I said I’ve burnt out a lot and didn’t know how to find time for myself. I had a coach point out that maybe if I had to spend that extra hour instead on self-care, me being rested for the project was a more substantial contribution than the two lines I changed on the script that likely no one is going to notice. And maybe figuring out those two lines will be easier tomorrow if I just took a break.

You are a person of enormous 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?

Bring back entry level jobs for artist and meaningful mentorships that end in job placement. Writing rooms are getting smaller these days, the junior writing jobs are disappearing which means people aren’t taking chances on new people. I hear people say we can’t hire them because “they don’t have enough experience”. But there is no place to gain any. That ends up effecting BIPOC, Female, and other marginalized communities the most, because they are still growing in representation.

There are more and more director shadow opportunities, which is great. However, it’s become a way for producers to tick off a “Diversity” box rather than having any meaningful intention to hire them. I see this greatly effect women and BIPOC filmmakers who can’t seem to get to that next level. We need more meaningful opportunities that have a plan on hiring the people they train to create a REAL growth trajectory beyond looking a project patting themselves as “socially acceptable”.

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!

Lin Manuel Miranda. One I’m a musical theatre nerd. But also I would LOVE to discuss juggling acting, writing, and directing and how he keeps all facets alive. I sort of want to know what his self care schedule is when he has so many balls in the air. Also the immense pressure of representing a community, and how he navigates that you can’t appease everyone but also seems open to listen.

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

Yep I am @theSamanthaWan on all the socials, but probably the most active on Instagram.

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