Erynn Mitchell

She played in Robert Bowen‘s E is for Expiation Dollar Baby film as Darlene.

SKSM: Tell us about yourself, who is Erynn Mitchell  and what do you do or have you done?

Erynn Mitchell: My name is Erynn! I am a director, actress, and scholar focused primarily on film. I just finished my MFA program at USC School of Cinematic Arts and now I’m navigating my art in the city. I moved to California from Colorado coming up on five years ago and I have fallen in love with Los Angeles. The artist migration to LA is such a significant post-modern pilgrimage and inspired so much in the 20th/21st Century so being able to develop my own relationship with the city has been so important to me. The most recent film that I directed was The Death of Socrates, about the philosopher Socrates and his student Crito of Alopece, I completed it in my MFA program. It stars one of my closest friends Agustine Welles and the incredible Paul Eiding, most known as Colonel Roy Campbell in the Metal Gear video games and Perceptor in the original Transformers film. We got the immense honor to screen in some festivals and seeing the film on screen at the TCL Chinese Theatre was such a life-changing moment. Now that we have completed E is for Expiation Rob and I are discussing an upcoming festival run and I am so excited to see where that takes us.

SKSM: How did you get interested in acting?

Erynn Mitchell: I think I’ve always been interested in acting. When I was a young kid I was obsessed with playing dress up and playing pretend, as if I was in all of these Old Hollywood movies I watched. The Wizard of Oz was my absolute favorite and every Christmas as a kid I got a new size of red shoes so I could galavant around my grandma’s house singing Over the Rainbow pretending I was Dorothy. Now that I’m much older, acting is a way for me to tap into those same childlike things just on a much deeper level. Funny enough, Rob, our director, gave me my first role ever, and I started acting in early undergrad with him and WHATSABUDGET.

SKSM: How did you become involved in E is for Expiation Dollar Baby film?

Erynn Mitchell: I had been out in Los Angeles for a couple of years already at the time and I was looking to find more opportunities to act and out of nowhere Rob contacted me about the opportunity. I was really lucky, there are a lot of pathways to act here in LA but what always interested me was being able to work consistently with the same directors on a really indie level as opposed to being in endless rounds of auditioning or hands-deep in the competitive part of Hollywood. I loved how John Waters would just take his squad and film their own projects for no money or how John Cassavetes would take his friends and film indie projects on the weekends just for the passion of it. Rob and I have been working together for so long and it’s so wonderful and fulfilling to grow with someone. Even though we don’t have tons of money or resources, I feel so proud and happy with our work and what we have been able to do. Being underground in this way feels really fun and punk-rock to me, and saying yes to being involved with E was a no-brainer when Rob asked.

SKSM: Did you have to audition for the part or was it written directly for you?

Erynn Mitchell: I didn’t have to audition but the part was also not written directly for me. I was one of a few people in mind, early on we weren’t sure if I was too young to play Darlene. It was a problem that Rob, my acting coach, and I had to strongly consider, and was a difficult choice. We discussed a lot of things I had seen growing up, in my own family. As a Latina, I grew up in a community where it was common for many women to become young mothers so that became the angle we worked from and after a few meetings, Rob decided to incorporate my younger age into her struggles and her character arc.

SKSM: How did you prepare for the role of Darlene?

Erynn Mitchell: Preparing for Darlene was so fun. I got to work with an acting coach for the first time on some of her longer monologues and scenes. The rest of the prep was a lot of internal work, memorizing, journaling, reading, silence, and world-building. It was a big feat for me because it’s the largest part I’ve ever had. My goal for myself was to experiment with my process, over the last two years of acting classes and acting in shorts in LA I had so many tools to work with that I wanted to get a look at my own style of prep to see what was superfluous versus what was helpful. One big part of my prep is always music, I love creating playlists for all of my characters. Darlene’s top five songs on Spotify would be; Rocky Mountain High by John Denver, That’s Love For You by Fawn Wood, Witchy Woman by the Eagles, I Don’t Wanna Play House by Tammy Wynette, and For Goodness Sake by Paul Williams.

SKSM: How much creative control did you have over your character?

Erynn Mitchell: I had a lot of creative control over her, which I love, Rob is an incredible screenwriter and his script and dialogue give you really strong foundations to work within

SKSM: Did anything unexpected come up during filming? If so, how did you motivate yourself to overcome it?

Erynn Mitchell: Every single set has so many unexpected curveballs at all stages, for me, everything was incredibly smooth so that was great! I know Rob would have much more to say about wild things that he had to deal with as the director haha.

SKSM: What do you think it is about the story that attracts people so much?

Erynn Mitchell: Darlene’s story is the story of so many of us in America right now. It’s a story about sacrifice for our families and our communities and the struggle it is to take care of ourselves when we have all of these plates spinning. It taps into that fear that if we don’t keep giving all of ourselves, we might limit our chances of survival, and our ability to provide. I love Darlene’s story for that, and although I find it ultimately tragic, maybe someone reading or watching can consider that you don’t have to exploit yourself to survive.

SKSM: What was your reaction/thought when you saw your character’s appearance for the first time?

Erynn Mitchell: The first scene I read was the opening scene when Darlene got a milestone cake at work and realized that she had been at her job far longer than she realized or anticipated, despite it being a comedic scene in tone, it made me feel so much sorrow. I live a privileged life that allows me to leave if I’m being disrespected or if I need a change of pace, I have those freedoms and I found it so depressing and tragic that Darlene doesn’t have them too. Her getting the cake brought me to tears, time doesn’t wait for anyone, and the amount of time we all lose to survive in a world so exploitive of our labor makes it feel like our lives are just us sinking in quicksand.

SKSM: Now that the film is done, would you have changed anything in your performance?

Erynn Mitchell: I wouldn’t change anything. I always consider myself in development as an actress, in a lot of ways I’m still getting comfortable and figuring out my process, but I always put my best effort in, so I wouldn’t change a thing about my choices. If I don’t like something, I can always change things about my prep on the next project I do, but I never want to go back and change what I’ve done.

SKSM: Was there any funny or special moment when they made the movie that you would like to tell me about?

Erynn Mitchell: One of the most special moments for me was getting to work with the wonderful actress Lilli, who played Darlene’s daughter in the film. That girl is a star, she is so professional and smart! On our final day, she wanted to stick around on set for my scenes when she was wrapped and it was so heartwarming. During the film, you can’t tell, but I had a little stowaway on my cleaning cart, we hid Lilli inside while I pushed it around for the b-roll. She is such a wonderful talent and is going to do more amazing things in the future, I am absolutely certain. 

SKSM: You worked with Robert Bowen on this film, how was that?

Erynn Mitchell: It was so great to work with Rob, he is such a delight. What I love most about Rob is that he is such a kind and caring person, you can just see the amount of care he puts into all of his work, and his respect for his crew and cast is unmatched. He is a powerhouse of an artist.

SKSM: What are you working on nowadays?

Erynn Mitchell: I am always working on my personal projects. I don’t want to say too much but Rob and I have also happened to be discussing some possible future collaborations. So keep a lookout for that!

SKSM: Are you a fan of Stephen King’s work?

Erynn Mitchell: I am a relaxed fan of Stephen King’s work, I have many milestones that are denoted by his work. The Shining was absolutely huge for me, especially growing up in Colorado, as a kid my grandparents would take us up to Estes Park to the Stanley Hotel for ghost hunting because it’s a huge cultural landmark and inspired the Overlook Hotel in the movie. Another milestone involving King was watching the original IT on the dual VHS tapes my family had. I vividly remember watching it because it was the first horror film I was allowed to watch, so my relationship with horror films began because of Stephen King’s work and I am forever grateful.

SKSM: What is one thing people would be surprised to know about you?

Erynn Mitchell: A lot of people are surprised I listen to metal? System of a Down in particular is my absolute favorite band and has been since I heard BYOB on Guitar Hero World Tour sometime in the early 2000’s. The first concert I ever went to was System and I’ve seen them so many times, I have so many band tees, all the albums, absolutely obsessed. Imagine my surprise at USC when I volunteered to play a song I liked during an icebreaker activity. Obviously, I chose BYOB by System of a Down and it was met with shock and terror, a sea of “you don’t seem the type to listen to this.” Whatever that means haha.

SKSM: Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. Is there anything you want to say to the fans that read this interview?

Erynn Mitchell: Thank you for reaching out to me and being so wonderful through this process. I was set to get this interview in before all of the fires in LA broke out and that threw me off of everything, it has been such a devastating and tragic natural disaster. For any fan reading, I just want to thank you so much for supporting independent artists and I want to emphasize how important your support is going to be going forward. Hollywood as we know it has changed so deeply in the last few years and these fires are going to continue that change. So many artists and beacons of entertainment have been greatly affected and these changes will be felt for years to come, helping the people affected, supporting new and upcoming artists, and pushing for new voices is more important now than it ever has been. I also want to note, that if you’re a fan who wants to be an artist, take this as a sign to just take the leap and start creating.

SKSM: Do you like to add anything else?

Erynn Mitchell: If you want to keep up with my filmmaking journey you can follow me on Instagram! @erynnerynnerynn