Today we’d like to introduce you to Tristan Spohn.
Hi Tristan, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I was the kid violently thrashing about in his front yard, pretending to be tackled by invisible forces. My dream until my first identity crisis in 10th grade was to be in the NFL but reflecting on it now, I was always more obsessed with the creative manifestations of my love for it. Pretending to be different celebrities running tackling simulations by myself in this grandly orchestrated fake league on Google Docs.
I transferred to Booker T. Washington, a performing arts high school in Downtown Dallas, my junior year. A family friend was the head of PR for the school and recommended it after seeing my random YouTube videos.
My first love was always writing, finishing assignments in class early to write out little scenes in my ragged notebook. The only reason I became an actor was because I wanted to film some of them but was too afraid to ask other people, so I cast myself in all the roles. It wasn’t until I started taking on roles in other people’s work at Booker T that I fell in love with the process of discovering a character that didn’t already start crystal-clear in my head.
California seemed like the right move after graduating. But two years wasted away as I allowed myself to become isolated and reactive, waiting for things to happen instead of putting myself out there. When I was forced to return home after financial devastation, it felt like my death sentence to any career in the industry. I was an angsty, melodramatic nineteen-year-old.
Things were always pointing me back towards my roots…towards regaining that pure love of creation that made me execute any idea I’d have, instead of perfectionism creating a graveyard of unrealized projects that kept me stuck in the same place. As soon as I bought out my lease, a manager found my account, featuring clips I’d filmed in high school, and asked to represent me.
Back in Texas, I stayed in that isolated and reactive place for a while. Just like how I naively thought being in California would make things happen for me, I also thought having an agent would make things happen for me. After a watershed conversation with my mom, I realized I was more focused on the superficial and external aspects of the industry instead of pure genuine love, which became a reflection of the way I was living life. There was not any real, genuine connection.
So, I started creating videos again. I auditioned for local community theatre plays after realizing it had been years since I had done the thing I claimed to love. I took local acting classes and made friends, which I hadn’t done since High School. It felt like I had come back to life, and it started to trickle into my acting work.
Two years of auditioning didn’t bring any apparent traction: I didn’t even get a call back on over 100 auditions. But I kept getting called in by the same casting directors over and over again. The size of the roles got bigger and bigger: costar to day player, guest star to recurring, supporting to series regulars and leads. I got better and better until eventually, a week after being named General Manager at a local wedding venue in Richardson, Texas, I booked my first role as TWO in STRANGER THINGS. A five-episode run that meant I had to shave my head, which felt like a perfect chapter marker.
Filming Stranger Things was so special, albeit stressful, having to try and stay on top of all the calls and emails and appointment scheduling that came with still operating as the manager of a wedding venue while delivering a dark and intense performance.
Returning to Texas after filming in Atlanta for two months with all my hair gone became a whole other identity crisis. It became a struggle figuring out how to love and appreciate the small moments after coming down from this massive high. Going from finally experiencing the thing you’ve worked towards for almost five years to realizing it’s only the first step.
I found myself back in the void, allowing all my responsibilities to slip, desperate for another project to happen instead of staying connected to the people and things around me.
What I love about acting is how everything is usable, and the roles you book can often symbolize the different phases of your own life. Six months after Stranger Things, the void I’d been feeling made me perfect for the role of Ray Rudinsky, a cop-killer on a mission to avenge his father’s death, for FBI on CBS.
I felt reinvigorated in New York, easing my fear that I would never book anything after Stranger Things. The craziness our insecure brain can bring sometimes. It was then I realized I needed to figure out a way to attach more of my identity to things in my control because it wouldn’t be sustainable and healthy to go into those super dark places every time, I go without booking something for a bit. I needed to anchor myself in the smaller moments that ultimately matter instead of identifying myself as a success or failure purely by a resume I might have.
That’s when, instead of resenting I had to still work at the wedding venue to support myself as I’m still on the journey to working as a full-time actor, I chose to use it to my advantage. I used the space to create my own acting workshop with local actors, turning it into a mini film studio for all my tapes and film various short scenes and videos for fun. Not waiting for the opportunity to create but making my own opportunities.
I left the venue back in July, so it’s been an interesting adjustment period right now, trying to regain some of the creative momentum I lost. That’s why I started a podcast and am gearing up to launch a private coaching business to stay busy and creative during these points, I’m not filming various projects. I still have my hermit-like moments where I get in my head and forget to stay anchored in the smaller moments. But I’m on the path and trusting myself in the unknown, realizing the truth is that there is never an ending, only a chapter marker. Trying to the best of my ability to celebrate the successes I can’t control and focus on the successes I can control.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
This is how I know I was way too thorough in my answer to the last question, so maybe some of what I wrote can be supplemented here.
It’s been a smoother road than most have had it that was made way rockier than it needed to be by self-sabotage and people-pleasing.
Growing up middle class made it shell-shocking living on my own in Downtown LA, where I would often hear gunshots, have to park blocks away from my apartment most nights, deal with rats along with many many many roach infestations and lost a lot of weight trying to limit my food to make rent. All things many people deal with and in even worse circumstances and situations. But it was something a safe, privileged, and suburban upbringing did not at all prepare me for. I was lucky enough to have a home to return to when the going got too tough. But I remember feeling so weak and pathetic for not being able to support myself.
I waited almost a year before submitting to any agents because I had been referred to one agent that had a few higher-profile clients. They liked me enough to keep calling me back for more meetings, but eventually, I had to realize it wasn’t going to happen if I kept waiting for one person to say yes.
There were many unsure moments in the years I wasn’t booking anything that I wondered if I should go down a safer and more predictable path instead of waiting for something to finally click.
It’s strange, it almost feels like it kept taking me years of work and time to finally have something just land in my lap. My agent landed in my lap, but after years of feeling stuck and stagnant, and isolated. My first role happens to be on one of the biggest shows of all time, booked of just one tape when pre-pandemic would’ve required at least three separate reads and auditions. But after years of booking nothing. So, there’s the back and forth between knowing I’ve put in a lot of work to get to those moments but feeling undeserving of how easy it seems in the actual moment itself.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m an actor that specifically specializes in darker and more tortured characters that have moments of intense vulnerability. My mom is my hero and so a character’s inherent need to impress their parental figure is easily accessible, which is why I fit the character of Two in Stranger Things, who really just wanted Papa’s approval.
For whatever reason, I carry a lot of pain in my eyes, and I think my youthful appearance that allows me to play high school age makes it easier for me to stand out in younger antagonistic roles. Most younger actors tend to have a naturally brighter energy, so productions often cast older for young antagonists as the life experience generally allows an easier connection to their darker side.
My specific strength is in my natural introspective tendencies, which is why all of answers turn into mini novels. I know myself in a very deep and intimate way due to the constant fear of asking for help that made me very self-reliant and self-sufficient. This allows me to connect to my characters in a more intimate way.
I’m most proud of my electrocution scene from Stranger Things #4.07 – The Massacre at Hawkins Lab because they forgot to send me the scene until just a few days before filming it. So, I had to go purely off instinct and delivered my best personal performance in any project on that scene.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
My community because it’s the thing I had the hardest time building when I was younger. The darkest moments in my life were the ones I felt most alone. The brightest moments were the ones I had a strong support system behind me. That’s why Booker T was so invaluable to me when I was in High School and why I think it wasn’t until I finally came back to Texas and reconnected with people that I started getting back on the path towards professional work as an actor.
It’s also the easiest thing for me to neglect because I’ve spent so much of my life trying to do it all myself. So, it’s the thing I’m constantly reminding myself of when I get in my glitchy and dejected phases.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.peoplespooningpodcast.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tristanspohn/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiyPxBxD8fkxoG3tHD7496g
- Other: imdb.me/spoon
Image Credits
Madeline Faye Potter
Brent Weber
Tatyana Bessmertnaya
Allegiance
