dauntlessness (mini-📝 24/100)
spencerchang.substack.com
My essay for today is this tweet thread I wrote about my rabbit hole into Omar Sy, a French comedian/actor who is now breaking his way into American production. I came across him from his lead role on the Netflix show Lupin. Definitely recommend checking out if you haven’t! It’s a fun take on a classic, and you can see the personality that Omar puts onto Assane, the protagonist.
went down a rabbit hole on omar sy after finishing pt2 of lupin last night and his journey is 🤯
after winning the cesar, the french equivalent of the Oscar's, he moved to LA to try Hollywood. He went from being the most popular man in France to fighting for minor roles.
“I felt like I was paying a debt.... Somehow, the experience of being rejected, of trying out and never hearing back, gave me the legitimacy that I needed. It diminished my feeling of imposture."
He fought imposter syndrome by starting over in a new place.
Those around him describe it as his "dauntlessness", "intensity", and "constant wakefulness"
“Omar and I like to claw our way out of holes that we dig for ourselves. We say that it’s like one long series of attempted career suicides.”
And his philosophy lines up accordingly:
on being an artist:
"'To do great things, you take risks,' Sy said. 'I actually don’t even see it as risk—I think it’s just the job.... That is why we are artists and not craftsmen. A craftsman makes a chair, and tomorrow he makes the same chair. An artist makes something new.'"
feeling inspired to harbor that same sort of intensity and dauntlessness when facing the prospect of diving into the deep end into a new area where you have to claw you way up from the bottom.
if you're curious the full profile is from the @NewYorker
This is the 24th installment in my experiment of publishing raw, lightly edited mini-essays every day towards achieving 100 public pieces. Check out the rationale and the full list here or view my evergreen, longer pieces on my website.