Meet Joseph Rendon: Actor & Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Joseph Rendon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joseph, can you share a quote or affirmation with us?
Yes, I recently came across this one, “Be less impressed and more involved.” A quote I read in a book called “Greenlights,” an unconventional memoir written by Matthew McConaughey. It resonates with me because it makes me think of all the opportunities I have trashed for being too conscious about the fact that something good was actually happening to me and wondering if I really deserved such a thing. This made it difficult to enjoy these experiences. I now understand that we are in fact the ones who are creating our own life second by second, every little decision takes us to the place we are standing each second of our life, knowing this allows me to receive with gratitude all the things that come my way. If for example, a negative experience comes my way, I accept it as a lesson that I needed to experience to grow, and if it is positive such as this interview, accept it as something I deserve for all the good decisions I have made that led to this moment.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My life has been a quest for self-discovery and artistic expression. Ever since I remembered, I have been seeking ways to express myself as an artist. I have always been fascinated by real-life events; people, traffic, technology, paintings, and characters. My favorite thing to do as a 3-year-old kid was to draw, play with little toy cars, build huge traffic jams, and play with my friends. The first thing I drew in 3D was my dad’s Fiat at the age of 5. It actually was a really good drawing, better than what many people can accomplish in their adult life, an event that made everyone in my family aware that I had an artistic brain. Since then, they have supported me in every way. Acting since preschool and dressing as many characters, I directed my cousins and friends into little plays we created. My grandmother allowed me to draw on her walls, play with fire, and build and destroy my cousins and brothers’ toys as I tryied to build new inventions. But even with this background, it wasn’t easy to become an artist. I still had to fight against a system that asked me to stop playing and start to behave like a grownup. So, at the age of 20, I quit business school and went to acting school in Caracas Venezuela then I moved to Orlando Florida to go to Fulsail University Film School for a Bachelors in film production. This move was another event that reassured me who I was in the eyes of my family and more importantly in my own eyes, here is when I started to believe that it was my mission in this life to be an artist. After Film School, I got caught up again and forgot about my passion for acting and became a professional video editor to ensure a good job with benefits and a 401k. But at the age of 32, I found myself very depressed for the drag of waking up at 5am and expending over 10 hours behind the editing room. I even lost my marriage and really hit rock bottom. The good job as a Video Editor on NBC and the Miami lifestyle wasn’t doing anything to make me feel good about my life. That was when I started seeking help and through a friend I found meditation as the tool that opened back the doors to my true self. I learned after some time of practicing meditation that it was ok to follow my passions and more than ok to quit the job that made me so sad. I didn’t quit right away, but I went back to acting school on the weekends and I bought some filmmaking gear and started to create independently, seeking ways to express myself out of my ordinary TV Video editor job, this brought joy and new friends to my life. After a year of acting school, and playing around with my film gear I found my first client, an Actor and Musician known as “King Batey” who needed a music video. We got along really well and this client introduced me to his commercial agent, and in a matter of weeks, I got my first audition and landed my first commercial. At the age of 36 I finally felt ready to jump outside my comfort zone. I quit my NBC job and adventured as a full-time Actor and Director. I moved to LA in January 2018, and today three years later with all and the COVID pandemic, I don’t regret the decision I made.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I am the type of man who likes to discover new places, and that is the reason why I love Los Angeles. There is always something new to do. I will almost never visit the same place twice. But, there is a place I can’t get enough of in Los Angeles this place is called “Venice”. I like to think that Venice is a time capsule. I feel as if time slows down for me here, meanwhile the rest of the world just keep on spinning around. I found a home here and truly love it. I know the west side has a bad reputation for the increasing homeless community and a track record of crime that took place during the late ’80s and most of the ’90s, however, today Venice has cleaned up and is known as a great place to live in where real estate value does not stop increasing. Venice has been upgraded as we speak from all the home flipping boom. Many Americans dreamed about having a hip home in the most hipster town in America. So, if I have to take someone around for a day of fun, I go around there.: Abbot Kinney, Venice Canals, Rose Avenue, the Marina, Venice Skatepark, Venice Beach strip, Santa Monica shops and harbor, a drive to Malibu Beach on the PCH, and hiking. The days here go by easy, making it beautiful living for the artist-minded, the skaters, the surfers, the musicians, and the free souls.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to dedicate my shoutout to my family for their support, especially to my older brother Simon. Also to actors that inspired me like, Dustin Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Jack Nicholson, Matthew McConaughey, Marlon Brando, Edward Harrison Norton, Mel Gibson, Jim Carry and many more. And to the directors Quentin Tarantino,  Christopher Nolan,  Tony Scott, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and Guy Ritchie for shapping my directing style.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamjosephrendon/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rendonjose
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCek7tXw2Phuda0hhnUSJCJQ/videos
Other: https://vimeo.com/josephrendon

Image Credits
The photographer of these pictures is Cele Mancinelli from the small town of General Ramirez, in Argentina. Follow her on Instagram @celemanchi