You can achieve anything you want,
JUST EMBRACE THE JOURNEY!
By Sebastian John Philippe Faure
Life is never easy. At a young age, our parents always told us that you could achieve anything you desire if you put your mind to it. They weren’t wrong, but what do we desire? Your journey starts here. First, you have to find your passion. And the only way for you to find what you love most is to experience the work that life has to offer.
I worked as a waiter, as a tennis coach, as a salesman, as a gallery manager before finding out that acting is what I want to do for the rest of my life.
We all have goals and we all want to reach new heights. But it requires patience. Each one of us is in our own journey, it may take you five years or it may take you ten years before you get a break. Success doesn’t show up to your doorstep. It takes hard work, commitment and sacrifice; you restrict yourself from doing the things that everyone does. But in the long run, it will pay off. You have to enjoy the journey and most of all you have to overcome the obstacles that life throws at you.
Here I go again preaching about life and you’re probably wondering who I am? Just like you, I as well have desires and goals in life.
That’s where my journey begins; my name is Sebastian John Philippe Faure and I was born in Dubai on the 14th of July 1988. Both of my parents were expatriates and met in Abu Dhabi in some random party. And my dad was already married back then; guess my mum was the third wife. And that’s how I popped out. In the 80s, my father was French Pied-noir who was working in oil transportation, and my Polish mum was a computer specialist in a British bank. She doesn’t know how to turn on MAC, but yes she was a computer specialist!
Yes, I was born and raised in Dubai, in case you don’t know where that is, it’s in the United Arab Emirates, and no we don’t ride camels and we don’t live in tents. It’s a city like any other. Back to where we were, I had a rocky start growing up, a lot of fights in the household and on top of that I was bullied in school, which didn’t help. I didn’t enjoy school and I was always casted aside as the weirdo. Let’s just say I was different. Daddy was never around as he was working all the time. But I was fortunate enough to have a mother who showed me love and she introduced me to art. The first time I held a pencil and started drawing was when I was with her. The first time I had to recite a poetry sonnet in class, I was practicing at home with my mum. She was always there to support me. For that, I’m grateful to her. And that’s where I fell in love with storytelling. I would always be the first one to raise my hand so I can read out loud to my fellow classmates the stories we were going to learn. At eighteen years old, my parents were divorced and separated for over four years. I felt like the Ping-Pong ball that was being hit between my parents. We had the same issues as any divorced family would have, for example who is staying at dads or who’s staying with mum.
Despite all of that, I went on to earn a scientific baccalaureate from the Lycee Georges Pompidou. It’s a French school that’s all you need to know.
After graduating high school, I asked myself what I should do with my life? I didn’t know what I liked. I studied so many subjects. And the only reason I specialized in science was to please my father. I simply wanted his appreciation for me. He told me it would open more job opportunities in the future. Back then, I didn’t understand what he meant but I still listened. At that time, I was lost. I really didn’t know what I should do with my life. And what do you do in order to spend time when you’re lost? As any teenager would, you entertain yourself. So I just watched movies. And I watched all the classics. My dad had a huge collection of Laser Disks. You know the ones that stop running when you have to turn from side A to side B during the climax of a film. Great times! I would watch the Godfather, Terminator, Indiana jones, and Stars Wars, the old ones of course, anything, you name it!
I finally took initiative in my life and decided to pursue acting. But father was completely against it, after a few months of arguing, we found a compromise. Listen everyone, Life is a two way street, it always works like that. You scratch my back and I scratch yours. So I went to Sorbonne University in Paris, where I majored in Art History and Archeology. With my father’s consent, it was the closest to acting I could get. Little did he know that I started taking theater classes in the Sorbonne University. And that’s where I fell in love with acting once again. I studied Shakespeare, Moliere you name it. I graduated from Sorbonne with a Bachelor Degree in Art History and Archeology with A MINOR IN THEATER! Can you believe it?
I moved back to Dubai and started working in a gallery as an art consultant. I did that for three years, sixty hours a week, six days out of seven. It was fun at the beginning, the pay was good, and it was as my father said a consistent job that any person should feel proud to have. After those three years, I felt it was too repetitive and boring. It was literally the same cycle and you would meet the same egotistical clients every day, and they would just brag on and on about what they own. They really thought that it impressed me, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. However there is one thing that I enjoyed doing there, it was explaining to clients the value of art. That’s when I realized that my passion for acting was too strong, I had to do something about it or else I would regret it for the rest of life. I had to try my very best. I packed my suitcase and moved to the City of Angels, Los Angeles baby! I moved there in order to pursue my career in Acting. After two years of intense study, I earned a Masters in Fine Art Acting at the New York Film Academy in Burbank. I was so fortunate to have great acting coaches such as George McGrath, Isabela Hofmann, Joe Basile, George Russo, and Ken Lerner, just to name a few.
I went through all the acting techniques going from Stanislavski to Meisner, from Meisner to Lee Strasberg, from Strasberg to Chekhov, Chekhov to Grotowski. And I was able to take something from all of these techniques in order to make it my own. When I first started I was really bad and it took a lot of hard work for me to accept who I am. If I had to summarize what I have learnt from my studies, it is that you are enough and you don’t need people’s acceptance. In class, I remember when I finished a monologue, I asked one of my teachers if he liked my performance and he responded by asking “does it matter?” And yes it did to me, I came a long way. Again, it’s all about the journey.
After graduation, I started working as much as I can. Saying yes to any projects I could get my hands on, I had this mindset that each project is an opportunity for me to act and to fool around. Simply Fun! One thing I have noticed about Hollywood is that it’s a small town and everyone knows everyone. It’s all about reputation, how professional you are in this business and how great you are to work with. I started getting more work after each projects, a filmmaker liked working with me because of my enthusiasm for acting. He referred me to another director who offered me a job in his project and it went on like this for nine months. It felt like the domino effect. I was getting work by referrals because people liked working with me.
I was fortunate enough to make a dozen short films. I wrote two films, directed one and I even produced one. I do not like producing and I can’t tell you how much of a nightmare it is. Just ask any producer. Life is about moving forward, and it’s only through failure that you become stronger. How can you progress in life if you have never failed and you have always succeeded? It doesn’t work like that. My advice to upcoming actors like me, don’t wait for them to answer your phone calls. Hollywood is not going to open its doors to you with a flick of a wrist, don’t wait for them. Make your own door, be in control of your life and push forward.
Life is about finding your purpose and embracing your journey. In my Acting class, I remember one of my teachers asked me: “What drives you to your goal?” I simply told him “I want to be remembered and leave my stamp in this world. Even after I die, I can still affect people’s lives through my films.”
I remember my university days when we studied Art History and Archeology, and I was able to begin to understand more about our inheritance from previous civilizations through the studies of religion, historical monuments, and the findings of literature.
I realized that the more we learn about history, the more we understand our past mistakes, so we can continue to evolve as a human species, as one.
And those who are ignorant about history, what man created in the past, those are the ones who will make the same repetitive mistakes and never learn. It’s a vicious cycle: wisdom comes from knowledge, and knowledge comes from learning about the past, because once you are born on this earth, you inherit everything that was created before your life, like the pyramids of Egypt, the Eiffel Tower, Mount Rushmore, and so on.
Nowadays, we strive for the future, but forget about the past. We become cooperative vessels, like robots, that work daily in order to feed sleepless monsters (companies). We're money driven, we close off our emotions for the rationality of trying to understand everything. We feed companies, yet they want more and they're craving more because it's never enough.
Being professional is being emotionless, meaning losing your humanity.
The only thing I can think of as an artist in order for me to keep my humanity in check, is to act.
Because acting teaches me to have empathy, and emotions, and to understand the world for what it is. Mysteries of the world in all its colors. Acting helps me go through history, acting helps me understand others, acting helps me gain knowledge, acting is simply my therapy. Acting keeps me human. I do not want to become a robot that thinks only about money, because humans, values, and ethics, specifically HUMAN LIFE, is far more important than artificial paper: Money. We created our own utopia thinking it would work, but it doesn't. Let's try to preserve the remains of humanity we have left, before we lose ourselves completely.
JUST LIVE! EXPERIENCE! FEEL! AND EXPRESS!
Cast as the lead in the multiple award winning Sui Side Inn, I play Chef Dimitri. Sui Side Inn tells the story of an innkeeper named Sui who helps people with their struggle. When you want to end your life, you stay at this hotel. However, everything changes when a young girl shows up at Sui’s doorstep.
Sui Side Inn earned a 2017 Platinum International Independent award, 2017 LA Shorts award, 2017 Los Angeles Film Award for Best Editing, and a 2017 Best Drama Award from the LA International Film Festival.
Sui Side Inn screened privately at Warner Brothers.
In Retail Blues, I played the manager of a store named Josh. The film is a dark comedy that involves the story of an employee named Justine. During her tedious time working in the store, Justine is offered two incredible opportunities, one for singing, and one for the store manager position. Justine's first instinct is to push the singing to the side, but through persuasion and a little magic from the jazz musician who haunts her apartment, Justine can foretell her future if she does not follow her dreams of singing. Josh, is Justine’s manager who will try any means necessary to have her stay in the store so he can get promoted.
Every time I pick a role, I always start by understanding the psychology behind that person and the way he perceives life, because acting is all about thought. Then studying the way he interacts with strangers, family members and co-workers.
In The Reverie, a psycho-thriller, I played a photographer named Michael Miller. After a long day’s work in his studio, Michael is closing up as fast as he can in order to celebrate his anniversary with his wife. When suddenly, an unexpected model shows up and insistently asks Michael if he can have his pictures taken. Michael is passionate about photography and decides to accept the stranger’s offer. During the photo-shoot, a conversation starts between both them and Michael soon realizes that Edward is here for a reason. Nothing is, as it seems.
The Reverie screened at Warner Brothers
In Daughter of the Lake, I was cast as the lead: Roland.
Daughter of the Lake is a horror film in which four college students decide to go on a road trip. Tension start to rise when they find themselves stuck in the middle of nowhere. What was supposed to be a fun college trip turns for the worse when they seek shelter in an abandoned ranch next to a lake.
Daughter of the Lake earned the March 2017 LA Shorts Award, Best Original Story by the Los Angeles Film Awards, April 2017 and Best Horror by the Festigious International Film Festival.
Marlon Brandon, Al Pacino, Robert Deniro, Paul Newman, Orson Welles, and Alec Baldwin are some of the actors who inspired me for decades. They are character actors who can mold themselves and fill in the shoes of any fictional character and bring fiction to reality with their dimensional craft and their emotional depth. I strive to become like them and hopefully work with them in the near future.
These actors show the foundation of what an actor must strive to become, and the films we admire and respect today would never have reached their peaks without the involvement of these great actors.
I have worked hard in order to pursue my passion for acting. I’m consistently learning more about life and myself so I can continue to improve my artistic craft.
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