Actor Tristan Spohn Gives Unique Acting Advice And Teases Upcoming Podcast

Who’s ready for Stranger Things X New Scene Week!

Tristan quickly became a hit after starring as #002 in Netflix’s “Stranger Things”. Followed closely by Bentley Williams and Julia Reilly, New Scene is posting several of our strangest interviews this week!

We had the amazing honor of talking with Tristan about how he got into acting, future goal, and more!

When did you first realize that you wanted to act? 

T: “It was a very gradual process. I started from a love of writing. In school, I’d finish assignments early and spend the rest of class writing out little sketches in my notebook. My mom got me a camera one Christmas or Birthday, so I started filming them to post on YouTube. I had a lot of fun with it and thought it would be cool to do theater. 

My entire childhood, I only wanted to be a Wide Receiver in the NFL. I’d spend all my free time throwing the football to myself in the front yard. I never really got a substantial opportunity to play until half of our football team failed one year and they put me at Safety. I was abysmal and was the reason almost every touchdown was scored. 

I was in high school when the Ebola cases started popping up in the US and then Texas, which made my mom a bit nervous. She asked me to sit out one football practice, and in that one practice, I realized my love for the game had been broken. I felt more like a failure than I did a lover, so I quit. That brought its own identity crisis as I tried to figure out what life would look like now that I had given up the only dream I had ever had. 

Somewhere along the way, because I had really enjoyed the theater classes and my mom was friends with the school’s head of public relations, I chose to audition for a performing arts high school in Dallas, Booker T. Washington, and it was there I got to really sink my teeth into acting and fell in love.”

Favorite go-to tv show?

T: “How I Met Your Mother, zero hesitation. I’ve always been a hopeless romantic and saw so much of myself in Ted Mosby. And after moving in with my girlfriend and watching it all again with her, it now has even more sentimental attachments and inside jokes. 

Smallville is close behind because of pure nostalgia. I was obsessed with it throughout Middle School and High School. I remember I gave a speech about the show in a Communications class. I’d binge it all night when I’d go to my dad’s in the summer. He had the full boxed DVD set.”

Biggest acting inspiration? 

T: “Matthew McConaughey. I have so much respect and admiration for his journey and because of his start in rom-coms, I think people underestimate how wise he is. He’s also a Texan like me and I’ve demolished his book Green Lights four or five times at this point.

I’ve lived a lot of my life from the sidelines due to my more introspective nature, which has given me a lot of maturity. Matthew is a master in the “art of livin’” which is something I aspire to. He’s big on following instinct and participating fully in life instead of just observing. And I think he’s a beautiful role model as a man that fearlessly embraces his own authenticity.”

Favorite things to do when not acting? 

T: “Growing up, it was a tradition to play a board game with my mom and sister while eating dinner. So board games have become very nostalgic and connecting for me. They are like this perfect ice breaker that end up casually inspiring more meaningful conversation. 

The only thing I care about outside of acting are learning and maintaining community. I found my lowest points were when I neglected my community and felt isolated, so it’s important to me to make time when I can.”

Type of character you wanna play next? 

T: “Everybody tells me I would be a wonderful Joker. I’m certainly too young for it right now, but that’s my ultimate career bucket list item. In the meantime, I’d love to play one of those sweet boy-next-door types of characters. It would be a great contrast to my roles in FBI and Stranger Things.”

Advice to young actors? 

T: “Watch more movies from an acting perspective. I did a River Phoenix marathon right before booking Stranger Things that taught me some of the lessons that led to the strongest tape I’d ever done at that point. The biggest was the lesson of contrast, and how that’s the biggest difference between what’s cinematic and real-life. 

The reason River was so fun to watch on camera was because he would go from being still as a statue to wild and interesting movement, then back to still as a statue. And it made both the stillness and the movement stand out. I realized the most interesting performances are the ones that explore contrast in many different areas: volume, eye contact, body language, vulnerability. Vulnerability has a bigger punch when you’ve seen someone avoid it at all costs. Eye contact has a deeper meaning when someone’s eyes have been glued to the floor.

Every actor’s path is so different. The only practical advice I can confidently give is craft-related, because it has to be rooted in the craft. It’s the only thing you, the actor, can control. As soon as you give that control of your life and happiness to other people, such as the casting directors and jobs that you may book or not book, it becomes impossible to be happy because every step you take is an attempt to honor other people more than yourself. 

The job is too inconsistent to be your driving force. I let that inconsistency become my identity for so long, which made every rejection feel more and more personal. And when you start becoming desperate as an actor, you stop honoring the character and focus more on impressing people through the performance, which weakens it. For the longest time I made decisions to be interesting and stand out, which fell flat because it wasn’t coming from a genuine place. 

So I would also encourage actors to not make strong choices, but rather have strong opinions. Choices are rigid and planned and specific and don’t allow as much malleability or spontaneity. The most interesting “choices” I’ve made were in-the-moment outcomes of a strong opinion that got to change my response to that opinion from take-to-take and give a ton of different options to go with. 

I’ve constantly found that the more I embrace myself the easier it is for people to resonate and connect with what I’m expressing, which heavily correlates into acting. So I also recommend some form of introspection work. The more you discover yourself, the easier it is to bring authentic parts of yourself to your scene work which gives the humanity that people can latch onto. My favorite way to do this is to journal.It’s crazy the stuff I’ve discovered about myself through just exploring the meaning behind moments and feelings I hadn’t previously thought twice about.”

A fact about yourself most fans wouldn’t know? 

T: “I wish I could say I own a pet Liger or was one of the inmates that escaped Alcatraz. But I don’t feel I’m all that interesting. 

It’s in my bio, so I’m sure fans know about this, but the one thing that tends to surprise most people is that I’m the General Manager of a wedding venue despite only being twenty-two. I think actually, that’s the fact most fans don’t know, that I’m in my twenties. And so, while I was in Atlanta filming Stranger Things, I would still be answering calls and emails and creating tour schedules from my trailer.”

You are Brazil’s favorite experiment. Anything you want to say to fans? 

T: “Haha, I am, and I would tell them I am so eternally grateful because I don’t think any fan base is as loyal and passionate as Brazil! It’s such a blessing that so many people are rooting for me

despite not speaking the same language as me, which is the coolest part of it all. It really does have an effect and makes it easier for other projects to say yes to me, so I feel so thankful!”

Can we expect to see you in more things in the future? 

T: “I certainly hope so! My plan is to be a full-time working actor. There is a project I’m attached to that’s not in the phase I can talk about it, but aside from that I’m just working at the wedding venue in Texas. I’ve had a few opportunities come up from the show, and we will see where they go. But, an actor can only focus on what they can control if they don’t want to get eaten alive. So I’m just showing up to the best of my ability and staying curious.”

Where can we follow your journey? 

T: “Instagram is where I have the biggest audience, so I usually post stuff there, @tristanspohn. You can go check out some creative stuff I’ve put out on YouTube as well which is just my name, Tristan Spohn. I’m working on building my podcast, People Spooning, which can be followed on Instagram @peoplespooningpodcast . You can also go visit the direct website at https://peoplespooningpod.squarespace.com

Photo Credits:

Madeline Faye Photography at www.madelinefayephotography.com

Je’Kayla Crawford– Founder and Director– Je’Kayla has been a journalist for years and decided to start a publication of her own, New Scene. When not helping her team and working on the monthly issues, you can find her watching a movie on Netflix or baking using a viral Tasty recipe.