Giancarlo Esposito, Alok Vaid-Menon, Susanna Fogel, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Audible’s Kate Navin Discuss Eliminating Barriers and the Role of Storytellers in Hollywood

variety.com:

Diego Ramos Bechara editor The role of a storyteller goes beyond simply bringing the words on a page to life. “We’ve been trained from a very young age and educated to think a certain way,” Giancarlo Esposito said. “Until you think for yourself and you look and talk to someone that you never thought you would ever understand and realize that they’re closer to you than you ever imagined, then you’ll understand their story, and that’s why we’re storytellers,” the executive producer and star of AMC’s “Parish” continued.

Esposito was joined by “Winner” filmmaker Susanna Fogel, “Rob Peace” filmmaker Chiwetel Ejiofor, author, poet, comedian and public speaker Alok Vaid-Menon and Audible’s head of creative development Kate Navin to discuss the importance of creative freedom in storytelling across different mediums in Variety + Audible’s Cocktails and Conversations at Sundance.

When Variety senior entertainment reporter Angelique Jackson asked what sparks their creativity, Vaid-Menon emphasized that to be an artist means to outgrow the story of “yourself continually” and that the best way to do so is “implode that awful sentence, ‘I am.'” “We live in a world where art is the antithesis because this world is a world that requires us to live in categories and pledge allegiance to them,” Vaid-Menon said. “What I’ve had to continue to do in my practice is to repeat to myself, ‘Your projection is not my reality, nor my responsibility.'” Ejiofor added to this sentiment, expressing that for a project to excite him, it must be able to transport him to an uncharted place that, especially as an actor, he hadn’t explored before.