Show notes
We're told that creative talent is something you either have or you don't. Ela Thier has spent nearly 40 years disproving this crippling myth. A New York–based writer, director, actor, and founding director of The Independent Film School, she’s helped more than 65,000 artists find and develop their voices. Her films include Tomorrow Ever After, Foreign Letters, and her latest, 109 Billion Followers, stars Oscar-winner J.K. Simmons.
In this conversation, we trace Ella’s journey from being her mother’s “wild weed” - a third child raised with very little supervision and a lot of imagination, through quitting filmmaking for almost a decade, to returning with a completely different relationship to her work.
We talk about the difference between writing as therapy and writing as a gift, why craft is learnable, and why Ella believes talent is simply the courage to be fully yourself. She shares how she keeps “the rent and the real work” in two separate hands, and the cast of inner voices who appear in her book How to Fail as an Artist: My Best Tips - from Mr. Stop, whose only job is to talk her out of it, to the 120-year-old version of herself she writes to when she loses her nerve.
If you’ve ever stood at the edge of giving up on your work - or you’re standing there right now - this one’s for you.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The story many of us carry is that our work is a private indulgence, a side‑note nobody’s waiting for. You may never see the life it touches, but you are not creating into a void. Make the film, the painting, the book as if it already matters to someone, somewhere - because it does.
Your audience is not a panel of judges to impress, but the people you are taking care of. The shift is from asking whether they will approve of you, to asking what they need and making the work from there.
Keep the rent and the real work in separate hands - asking your art to also pay the bills is a reliable way to do neither well.
BEST MOMENTS
“Ela … has made peace with failure without ever making peace with quitting.”
“Craft is learnable, the writer or the filmmaker is already in there, and that talent is simply the courage to be fully yourself on the page·”
“The book gave me, and gives people, permission to just mess around, which is where our best work comes from.”
EPISODE RESOURCES
https://theindependentfilmschool.com
https://www.instagram.com/elathier
HOST BIO
With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals.
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This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/