Rising actor Kristian Ventura chatted about starring in the new series “School Spirits” on Paramount+ and being a young performer in the digital age.
He also revealed that his dream collaboration choice in acting is the late but great cinema queen Katharine Hepburn.
‘School Spirits’
“The show is an actor’s grail,” he said about “School Spirits.” “It was extremely collaborative. ‘Collaboration’ is a word that is sometimes used too lightly. The labeling of names attached to a project doesn’t guarantee an exchange of ideas and thought.”
“The showrunner, creators, and directors in ‘School Spirits’ listened carefully and invited my choices. Very few scenes were a ‘let’s shoot it and run,’ but instead a conversation, a rehearsal. That’s the creative environment I’m interested in,” he added.
He opened up about playing his character Simon. “I admire his intuition,” he said. “Instincts are delicate—you can’t hold them. And people look down upon ‘a hunch’ because its roots aren’t rational. But while Simon’s whole town moves further from the truth, he will stand in rooms and point his finger and call things for what they are.”
“That’s a dangerous position to place oneself in, but it’s absolutely needed. Society, and more severely—the human spirit—would crumble and dissolve if people accepted everything that was told to them,” he said.
Ventura remarked about “School Sprits,” “I say this underlined and with italics and tears: do not let the angry world break your voice. We all believe things and feel all sorts of love for people and pain that surprises us—all of it is real.”
“Simon propels the story based on a ‘hunch.’ He has a tiny suspicion that there is an issue at hand and while everyone doubts him, he refuses to shake it off. And what does that courage look like in real life? Really awkward. Really embarrassing. Feelings are like glass and the world is a hurricane of sharp objects,” he said.
“They’ll doubt you, even try to confuse you. But imagine all the real-life situations parallel to Maddie’s that the world let go. People left behind. Romances left in fantasy. Bodies bleeding out. There’d be a lot of dismissed tragedies without voices like Simon. Life does not guarantee an episode two—we’re not always lucky to make it in time,” he added.
Future plans
On his plans for the future, Ventura said, “God will do his thing. But what I will work towards is finding others in this industry who are interested in the same thing as I am: the presentation of humanity in all its beauty and messiness. That’s the art that moves me and it’s the kind I’d like to try and create for the rest of my life.”
The digital age
On being an actor in the digital age, at a time when streaming and technology are so prevalent, he said, “I’ve noticed that the world generally loves our new age. I do not have an opinion on this. I put blinders on and try to focus on myself. But I’d say that with the access to a camera in our pockets, and everyone in the world making short videos at home, everyone feels like a performer.”
“Though it lit a fire in me early on to stick to pursuing the actual grain of acting, which has nothing to do with facial expressions or lip-synchronizing—acting is need, character, research, and soul,” he said.
For young aspiring actors, he said, “Young actors must be wary of advice. It serves the artist far more to live by the hour—listen to their insides. No one is credible to advise another person—not because there is a lack of wisdom, but because life’s speed and unpredictability surpasses our understanding. If we try to outperform it, or apply someone’s past to our future, we are doomed. But you can always drink more water.”
Dream acting partners
On his dream acting partners, Ventura responded, “I dream of jousting with Katharine Hepburn. Her delivery is always forward, that’s the best I can describe it. Never stuck down in one place. As for alive, Anthony Hopkins, Mark Rylance, and Evgenia Dodina all understand something about human beings that I’m trying to crack, but don’t believe I’ve achieved yet.”
Success
On his definition of success, he said, “Dancing to your own song. All the time. In every room. Before every person. That’s success to me. But ‘fulfillment’ is taking care of your mother and loving her the way she did when she raised you. There is no house big enough to buy for her. I’ll always live in regret I could not gift her a planet, which while unfeasible is what every mother deserves.
Ventura concluded about “School Spirits,” “It will be a show that will get you to ask crucial questions about yourself. The writers placed each character in scenarios that ooze denial and emotion. The best stories ask the greatest questions, and I think both the real world and the ghost world of this story will take you to a hard, but helpful place.”
