I Wouldn’t Have Undertaken This Project Without The Struggle I Went Through… By OLYMPIA’s McKenzie Chinn
MCKENZIE CHINN
ACTOR/WRITER/PRODUCER
LEONORE ANNENBERG FELLOW
“Five years ago I was finishing my second year of grad school, and had just ended a significant long-term relationship. Between the intensity of graduate school and the trauma of the relationship ending, it was one of the most difficult times of my life…. like the saying goes, [it] left me stronger and with a clearer sense of who I want to be and what I want to achieve. I wouldn’t have the courage I need to undertake this project without the struggle I went through back then.” McKenzie Chinn of the movie OLYMPIA.
FilmCourage: Which parent do you resemble most?
McKenzie: I resemble my mother most, in both physical features and in personality — we can both be pretty feisty and strong-willed. I joke that I basically am my mother, just on a 33-year delay. (Read more here)
McKenzie (left) at age 5
FilmCourage: Have you ever tried to put yourself in a linear, left brain world? If so, what happened?
McKenzie: Very briefly, I considered going to law school and to pursue a career in environmental law, but I as I began to research schools, I realized that there’s no time that I ever feel as alive or purposeful as when I’m performing or writing. So I knew that’s what I had to keep doing.
FilmCourage: As a right brain, intuitive type, what’s the most difficult left brain activity and how do you work around it?
McKenzie: I experience mild panic anytime I have to do anything pertaining to numbers :-) No, but seriously, mathematics has never come easily to me. I have a great respect for numbers, and recognize a beauty and elegance in them, but will never have an intuitive understanding of them they way I do with words or human behavior. Watching movie Proof (a story about a brilliant mathematician and his troubled daughter), or seeing the play it’s based on, is the closest I’ll ever come to left brain/right brain harmony!
BIO:
McKenzie Chinn — Executive Producer/Writer/Lead Actress
Originally from Washington, DC, McKenzie most recently appeared in the feature film Hogtown, which screened as part of Chicago’s Black Harvest Film Festival. She has performed on numerous Chicago stages, including The Goodman, Steppenwolf, and Victory Gardens, and with many small but mighty companies including Stage Left, Sideshow, Prologue, and Pavement Group. She has workshopped and performed an original story with Chicago’s 2nd Story, and hosted The 30x30 Project on her blog HydroCarbo, in which she wrote 30 original short essays for each of the 30 days before her thirtieth birthday, in collaboration with local illustrator Isabella Rotman. She is also the author of the solo performance piece Everything That Ever Was . She holds an MFA from The Theatre School at DePaul, and is a 2015/16 Leonore Annenberg Artist Fellow. She lives in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village with her husband Ramah, and step-daughter BellaSol.
Olympia is slated for production in Chicago in September and October of 2015. For more information on the film, visit Olympiamovie.com or follow on Facebook. (Read more here)
About Olympia:
Olympia is an independent feature film that explores what it means to become an adult in the modern world, through the story of character Olympia Welles. Penned by McKenzie Chinn, and to be directed by Gregory Dixon, the film will feature a diverse cast led primarily by people of color and will illustrate the ways young adults have evolved to accommodate life after an economic recession. Olympia is slated for production in Chicago this fall in association with 30 Pictures.
