Pivot!

Love me some clarity of purpose

Nichols Canyon, David Hockney, 1980 courtesy of Phillips New York

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Hey pals. It’s been a wild few weeks. I have been flung back into the acting maelstrom pretty intensely which has been challenging in some ways and deeply rewarding in others. I am working on a project right now that makes me giddy. One of those ones that has reminded me why I love acting and being an actor, so much. Typically I can’t say more about it than that for now but be sure that as soon as I can I will be shouting about it from the rooftops and writing about it — at length!

I knew this was coming - the job, not the joy - so I decided to take time out from Substack to reflect on my first three months here. To observe what felt good and what felt like it needed to change direction and what I could sustain no matter how much was being called on me as an actor, even whilst working on something as all-consuming as my current job.

I haven’t stopped entirely of course. I have still been producing my Cultural Digest posts every other week — partly because they’d been planned for a while, partly because their timing felt right, partly because I couldn’t stop myself from writing them. These posts felt aligned with a part of me that I was really enjoying sharing - my overt enthusiasm for the arts - so it didn’t feel at odds to keep producing those pieces.

On that note, the clarity I have been seeking on how to take things forward has really begun to make itself known in earnest in the past few weeks.

My guess is some of you are here because I’m an actor, writing about my experiences and insights from inside the industry as well as my passionate opinions on a lot of its content! But some of you are here because you are into the more esoteric side of things I’ve been hinting at, the conscious living practices that originally inspired Still Space. Some of you are here for both. Some of you may even be here because (heaven forfends) you like my writing — can’t fully embrace this one yet but maybe some day I’ll get there! I am here… for all of the above. So how do I serve myself as well as you, in the midst of all that?

My friend Emma Gannon (yes she of The Success Myth) tackles this beautifully in another one of her book’s The Multi-Hyphen Method. Who are we if we don’t collapse ourselves into an outward singular brand? Who are we if we embrace the multi-faceted, complicated humans we really are? I have a theory that the dramatic shift in our appetite for shows like Succession and even Fleabag, are because they interrogate our humanity in a much more complex way. They can’t be neatly defined as comedies or dramas, they are challenging the boundaries of genre, of definition itself, and we in turn are challenging the boundaries of how we define ourselves as human beings so we need to watch things that are reflecting that back to us.

In Farrah Storr’s brilliant piece about ‘The End of Brand Me’, she writes:

I first remember the phrase ‘personal brand’ being used around 2015. I was an editor at that point and had started to do a few talks here and there … Suddenly, in order to be booked for more talks, people needed to know what I stood for. Was it ambition? Was it leadership? Was it being childless? The truth was I had no idea. I was all of these things, plus a whole lot more. I couldn’t narrow down my values and beliefs into a natty press release.

Never have I wanted to scream the words IT ME more (apart from when someone posted ‘Not ready to part ways with Kendall Roy’ maybe). It is precisely this imposition of our culture to define ourselves as just one thing when we are an ever-changing kaleidoscopic myriad of all the things, which is why social media doesn’t work for me. On my Instagram I ended up deleting all my posts to ‘streamline’ it, to make it work-based only, but still constantly feel compelled to post about the issues that mean the most to me on there, that have nothing to do with work, to use my platform for good. I feel a similar conflict here.

The truth is Still Space is about conscious living, as an actor yes, but really my intention with it was always to share conscious living practices and make them easily accessible to anyone who was interested. I still definitely want to do that but what’s also become patently clear is that I absolutely LOVE writing about culture and the arts too — and the process of writing itself.

I knew I wanted to offer more on Substack. More members-only offerings in particular. But one of the many things that being on here has taught me is the joy of the slow burn. So. I am going to switch things up on here but as slowly as I can dare.

Each week I am going to start trickling these new offerings into your inbox. Initially I will assume that you’ll want to take a sneak peek at all of them and leave it up. to you to curate what you’re opted in to specifically, depending on what inspires you the most. They will broadly fall into two categories: arts related and conscious living related — but inevitably the Venn diagram will cross over more often than not. I will be focusing on the more arts-centric ones to start with.

Last Sunday I sent out the first of these new offerings — a weekly poetry curation for the curious and open hearted. I am making my selections intuitively so it is my intention that they speak numinously to our collective and at the very least introduce you to some new (and awesome) writers. These will go out early every Sunday morning (UK Time). A little end of week inspiration for you to wake to. And the rest will follow… so keep an eye out!

I could have two Substacks. But perhaps I need to reframe the question, ‘how do I best present the madly eclectic collection of ideas I have in this one space?’ to a far bigger one: can I let me be me, an ever-changing kaleidoscopic myriad of all the things?

Where are you feeling creatively curious right now? Where are you feeling the urge to change direction? What’s inspiring you the most? Is there anything you would love me to consider as part of this new raft of offerings? I’d love to hear from you!