Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with The Rat’s Collin Kelly-Sordelet

Collin Kelly-Sordelet is a rising star leading the next generation of up-and-comers ready to make their mark on the industry. Having grown up in a theatre family, Collin developed his passion for storytelling at a young age. He was enamored by the idea of embodying characters whose perspectives and beliefs differ from his own.

For his latest project, The Rat, Collin is playing the antagonist of the story, Jim. He’s your traditional frat boy who lacks self-awareness and doesn’t realize the impact of his actions and the toil it’s taking on his relationship with his girlfriend, Renee.

Pop Culturalist caught up with Collin to chat about The Rat and the realities of being a working actor in Hollywood.

The Rat

PC: Tell us about The Rat and your character in the short.
Collin: It’s crazy to think about it now; we filmed the entire short in just a few days back in August of last year. It was a proof of concept for a feature film that Carlen May-Mann (director) and Beck Kitsis (producer) were trying to make. They developed The Rat to delve into the experiences of young women and micro/macro aggression that men pull in their attempts to be romantic, and oftentimes their lack of self-awareness within that.

I really loved the story, but more importantly, I really loved everyone that I was working with. My character is a traditional frat boy jock who’s overly confident. He doesn’t focus on his actions and how they affect the world and people around him—he just does he wants. On a personal level, he’s a character that I disagree with, but I think it’s incredibly important to try and do justice to these real-world situations that so many people actually live through. Unfortunately, a lot of these archetypes still exist in the world.

PC: What initially attracted you to this project and how did you get involved?
Collin: I believe Carlen and the production team were using a casting director who got in touch with my agency. I was able to read the script and they had a cool mission statement. I touched upon this a bit already, but they were trying to tell this unique story with a bit of a horror twist.

I was intrigued by their style, and I was curious to see how it was going to translate from paper to screen. After our first meeting and after speaking with Carlen, I was really enthusiastic about the project and excited to jump onboard.

PC: What was the collaboration like while working with Carlen, who wrote and directed this short?
Collin: It was great! She was really open to change and collaboration. She was really trying to seep these characters in reality, whether it was small line changes so that they were more comfortable for the actors to say or little subtle ideas and things of that nature.

It was a fun set to be on and a very unique experience. It’s different when you’re working on an independent short with a limited budget and time restraints. I remember there was a day when we actually filmed at a haunted house in Long Island; we did an overnight shoot from 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM.
We were in a house that was run by a former mob boss and there were murders that happened on the premise about ten to fifteen years ago. It was really spooky. There were times when you’d walk into a room and it would immediately get cold.

That definitely made it a unique experience. It was really one of the most welcoming and joyful sets in regard to the cast and the crew.

PC: Jim is the antagonist in the story, and viewers online have had a really strong reaction to him. How did you prepare to step into his shoes? How rewarding is it to know that your performance invoked this sort of response?
Collin: It’s a strange combination where it’s hard as an actor to not judge your character when you’re playing them, because you have to come at it with your own perspective. Even when you’re playing an antagonist, you can’t play them as if they’re the bad guy; you have to play them with their own set of intentions because they think they’re doing things right or sometimes misunderstanding what they’re doing wrong.

For me, it was about breaking down the script and the moments when Jim thinks he’s doing things correctly, and the times when he thinks he’s being playful and romantic, but not recognizing the torturous element of what he’s doing to his lovely girlfriend.

In terms of the response, that’s great to hear, but also terrifying. I re-watched the short recently and I was like, “I hate Jim so much.” Even having played him, seeing my face associated with him, I’m like, “That sucks.” But, I’m really proud of the short itself and for my part in it because I think it’s important. The situation that this young lady is in is real for so many people, which is why it works so well as a horror story.

PC: Besides The Rat, do you have any other upcoming projects that you can chat about at this time?
Collin: Yeah, I’m in two other shorts that have been circulating on the circuits, one of which is called Swing Shift by Ben Williams, though I’m not sure if there’s a specific link where people can find it, but I know it’s been out and about. The other is called F*ckboy Manifesto by Graciela García, which just made its debut at a New York film festival.

I’m incredibly proud of those two shorts. I just finished up working on a Broadway show called The Ferryman. We just closed this past summer, and I’m currently just back to auditioning and finding the next project.

Career

PC: How did you discover your passion for acting?
Collin: I grew up in a theatre family. My parents met at acting school about 30 years ago, so it’s always been in my blood; it’s always been in my household. My father’s a choreographer and works on stage and film. I grew up on set and watched the ways scenes were developed and how stories were structured. I was fascinated by it from a very early age. I was always performing, even when I was a little kid. I was always making new plays. As soon as I became old enough, I took part in every community theatre experience and school play that I could do.

Like I said, I got bitten by the bug at a young age. I’ve really been doing it for most of my life. I’ve always loved storytelling and all facets of it. I enjoy getting the opportunity to tell unique stories from lots of different perspectives and stepping into characters that are oftentimes so contrary to who I am or who I perceive myself as.

It’s a unique experience to get a chance to try and step into someone else’s shoes and try to vividly express who that person is. It’s a very interesting challenge.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Collin: I would definitely have to say that my parents have always been my greatest teachers in all facets of my life, especially in acting. They studied under Bill Esper at Rutger’s Mason Gross graduate program. They were always very steeped in the Meisner technique, which is odd, but is very based on behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances. That was very much instilled in me at a young age.

In the late &#rsquo;90s, when I was five or six-years-old, my father was working on the Tom Sawyer musical on Broadway. I remember watching this dream sequence where someone appeared and disappeared in an instant. I remember watching it—watching the way that they developed the illusion and getting to see the show later—and being completely shocked even though I knew how it happened.

I remember that being a very clear moment for me: watching the process of building an illusion and developing something that elicits a specific audience response. I was enthralled and obsessed with that. I wanted to curate those experiences in telling stories. I thought it was such a fascinating way of being able to provoke these kinds of emotional responses from an audience. I wanted to invest my time and energy into that. That’s what got me into theatre.

I also grew up incredibly dyslexic. I really struggled to focus and read when I was younger. I would struggle in class when I was reading any textbook. However, when I would go to play practice or rehearsal later that day and I was saying lines where there was an intention behind it and I was stepping into a character or someone outside of myself, I found that I was able to read almost effortlessly.

That really helped me later on in learning to read the textbook. It also made me feel like this was right; I found where I was supposed to be. It felt that everything gelled when I was on stage. I always felt like I was really in my element, and you couldn’t get me off stage.

PC: You’ve had a lot success already in your young career. When you look back, is there a particular moment that just stands out to you?
Collin: It’s hard to pinpoint one. I had a lot of success right out of high school—I was really fortunate. I got into the Juilliard School for Drama and felt great about that. Then, I got cast in my first Broadway musical, which was The Last Ship with Sting. That blew my mind.

The Last Ship was one of the most amazing things in the world. It had such a phenomenal creative team, including Joe Mantello, John Logan, Brian Yorkey, Sting, and the cast and crew. I was only nineteen when I officially started, and it was the most amazing experience.

But, what I will also say about that is, especially when we’re young, we’re so full of hubris in the sense that we think—specifically in the arts—now that this has come so easily, everything’s going to be that way. I assumed that I hit my big break and everything was just going to keep coming easily, but I had a really humbling experience after the show closed. I wasn’t getting work, or I was getting incredibly close, but would be the runner-up. It made me value and appreciate all the work that I got so much more and everything I put into it.

I was so fortunate to get The Last Ship, and I’m just as fortunate to have learned this lesson of how to really value the work that I get. Like when I got The Ferryman, it was a play that I had seen and loved. I loved the script and the story, and getting the chance to join the cast as the first American to be added to this production was phenomenal. I made some lifelong friends in that process. I can’t speak highly enough of that experience. It really solidified everything that we do and all those lessons leading up to that point made it all worth it.

To keep up Collin, follow him on Twitter and Instagram.