Film Courage: Why do you gravitate towards storytelling?
Sheila Houlahan, Actor, Singer, Producer and Writer: I think storytelling is what separates
us from beasts and animals. I think storytelling is what uniquely defines what it is to be human.
It is the oldest thing that we have done apart from eating and sleeping and dying. If we're
going back to the sort of fantastical view of the cro-magnon man and prehistoric times
because I know we all kind of put like a fairy tale glaze over that. Having not lived during
that era myself, I really can't comment on the accuracy of what I'm about to say, but
even before agriculture there was a telling of a story. Even before words really existed
before there was language it might have been 'Ha!" but that could mean Hey, there's something over
there that I just saw that in and of itself is a story. The most human thing is to tell stories
when people ask what I do because I have a lot of like you've written things you've done this
I just say I'm a storyteller I say that I tell stories I am interested in the art of storytelling
because it is the oldest way to connect from one human to another it is the way that we pass on our
experience if you think about how people taught each other 2,000 years ago it was I will teach
you right teach a man to fish it goes back to sort of that kind of stuff five thousand years ago it's
very much a I know how to do this one skill this agrarian skill and now I will pass it on to you so
we all do storytelling that's that's just what I know that's what I get excited about I think
when people get really like I'm going to go home I'm done with work and I'm going to go watch my
favorite show it triggers this little spark in us that's been there for tens of thousands of
years that ultimately is why we are human beings my dog doesn't necessarily tell a story I love
her to bits but she's not going to be like well here's my day Mom she's just she's lives in the
moment a lot of animals obsessively live in the present as far as I know having never entered
the mind of an animal before we really are the ones that kind of ruminate on the past and think
towards the future and I think we have a concept of time because of our ability to tell story
singing is telling a story opera yes it is that it is it definitely it's it's telling a story
especially opera in a really long drawn out way singing is just talking on pressurized air it's
all it is if you can speak you can sing there for everyone out there who thinks they can't sing yes
you can if you can talk we can talk about that but side note opera is so interesting because when
or even musical theater because it's just really elongated speech right if it's like hello I am he
to tell you a story like terrible singing just now but the point is is that it's it's the same
level of intent that I have in in talking to you right now and trying to get an idea across it's
just like extremely stretched out right so the different mediums whether it be a painting which
is here is a story that's being told in a finite space forever over and over again or music where
it's like here's a really weird way to tell the story where there might be a standalone song
like a folk song that says a beginning middle and end or maybe more contemporary pop where
it's like we're just hearing somebody's inner monologue but that is also a story
or film these are all just different mediums to to do that singing certainly is a way of telling
story how do you get people invested in a story it's a fine line between making it something that
is generally relatable but with a certain level of specificity that people are going to be like
oh my God that's my life I'm going to say something and I hope it is not inflammatory but
I find that this is like how astrology works right people that really buy into astrology I think it
is fundamentally vague and specific enough that people can find like oh wow that really applies
to me in my week whether or not that is what is happening and that's not my place to comment
but I think it's the same thing with storytelling it's how do we make this universally relatable but
also deeply specific enough so that I can try to get people to be like whoa that was my life story
like thank you so much for capturing that thank you for saying that because I've never seen my
struggle on the big screen before so thank you for that I think it's it's walking that line
that's a great I love how you you brought up astrology because if you look at the weekly
horoscope right if you covered up and believe me I enjoy astrology here it's fun yeah it's very
it's very airy fairy and that's why I asked the question not that I haven't called that no never
but if you if you covered up the signs it could apply to to all of our weeks yeah a random
stranger will deliver news to you and you're like oh wow I wonder who that is spicy right yeah it
could have been you were on hold and the random stranger said oh okay we see that your account
blah blah blah there's the news they're delivering right any of us right but it is interesting how we
tap into stories that very much call to us and and maybe that's why there is some certain traits are
inherent in certain signs but anyway not to go to no yeah I completely agree I think that it's for
me it's like the best thing right it's the best example that I have and in a lot of ways it's
seem like a marketing and branding nerd and that's because I am one that's how marketing works right
that's how like think of a commercial you want it to be like vague enough that like random person
number five can be like hmm yeah that's my life but specific enough that you're positioning the
product as the hero to save the day for your specific problem so that if someone happens to
actually watch a commercial for once they'll be like oh wow wow I didn't realize I needed that
okay now you've planted the seed and the next time that problem emerges they're probably going to go
buy that product it's the story yeah storytelling is vague and specific all at once it's a bizarre
line to walk do you have a favorite commercial from the past that's a really good question that's
a really good question I feel like through the ages they all have such a different vibe
I have different ones that I love for like there are ones that I love because they're memes and
they're hysterical at this point like things from the 70’s and 80’s where you're like wow
that was a really heavy-handed way to talk about this product or like the 90’s there's the 90’s I
feel like was the era of Jingles that never left your head which are I still could sing really
rare like Baby Bottle Pop I could like bust that one out right now in terms of recent commercials
this isn't a favorite one but it sticks out to me just because it was like let's smack you in
the face with sorrow Google has a product and I don't even know what it actually is called
that's what's so funny about this is the ad stuck with me because the story was like oh my God but
I don't even know the name of the product like Google memory or Google I'm going to incept your
brain Memories Forever but it basically is like you could put in all of like the shared stories
or photos of memories of a person and then like be able to look at that or like even chat with
that person in such a like with an AI construct of that person in a way so that when they pass I
don't know that I understand the product you can see that I'm like now telling you a Sci-Fi story
all I know is that the ad destroyed me because it was like someone who was reliving talking to their
grandfather who had passed or like their old late husband who passed or something like that it just
came up in the Super Bowl and I was like not emotionally prepared Super Bowl ads for me are
usually like this is silly and we spent millions of dollars on it but this one was like let's just
bunch you in your fields oh so it was emotional they really got so emotional but to a degree that
it was like a Pixar movie where I'm like wow I'm really not like you just are you're just having a
field day with my emotions yeah it was crazy yeah but that's great now I'm going to start looking at
commercials as like little bits it is I don't know why it's never clicked for me but it really is
little bits of stories well and as an actor like the script they always call the product the hero
that's how it's positioned so it's the same thing as a theatrical script it's
just that the hero of the story is like Cheez-Its instead of a person.