Meet Julia Coulter | Actor & Filmmaker

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

Hi Julia, we’d love to hear more about your end-goal, professionally.
By the end of my career I would like to be in a place where I could help someone reach their goals as an actor/filmmaker. Being a mentor and taking a “risk” on new filmmakers is so important to keeping this buisness alive and interesting. I always look forward to seeing films by new directors or writers and it would be amazing to be in a position to help launch a newcomers career. There have been lots of people throughout the years who I will never forget because they are the ones who said ‘yes’ to me, they saw a spark in me and took a chance on me.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Looking back now I think I’ve always been drawn to creating. When I was younger, I had dreams of living on a farm and being a textile artist. I considered going to art school as I had dedicated a large portion of my teenage years to learning about all thing’s textile from, knitting to sewing to weaving. There was something about acting though that always drew me in. The idea that you could escape into another character was appealing, especially to my teenage self who wasn’t all that comfortable yet in my own skin. While I’m still an avid knitter and textile artist, skills that I’m very afraid will be lost after my generation, (does that make me sound old?), the art of filmmaking has my heart.

After high school I spent three years in Cardiff, Wales at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, one of the UK’s top drama schools. Those three years were very challenging, but also the most inspiring, fun, and beautiful years of growth for me. The confidence and sense of self I left Royal Welsh with is something I will never take for granted and I dream of the day I can return to the UK and perform again on stage with my old classmates.
I never pictured myself staying in the UK after graduation. I felt my choices were between New York or Los Angeles, and after three years of seemingly endless rain in Wales, Los Angeles was looking cute and I made the decision to move to Los Angeles, where I have been for ten years (or really eight, because Covid does not count).
The first few years in LA, I was a “yes” man. I worked on everything from background acting to PA gigs, to plays, to voiceover jobs, basically, anything I could get my hands on. I attribute a lot of where I am now and how far my network of friends and co-workers reaches to that 21-year-old, slightly cocky version of myself, who just dove in head first. One thing early on, that kept my creative juices flowing when PA work was not quite cutting it creatively, was writing. As an actor, I had a natural sense for dialogue and have slowly chipped away at teaching myself through books and classes how screenplay writing structure works. For a long time, I always saw myself as “just an actor.” Then in 2019, I wrote and directed my first short film, and fell in love with the challenging process, from start to finish, of making a film. What I learned on that set changed the way I saw this business, changed the way I saw the role of an actor on set, and fulfilled me creatively in a way I did not expect. I believe the experience of immersing myself into the world of Independent Film-making also helped me book my first two network TV jobs, a role in the fifth and final season of Insecure and a pilot for Showtime called The Wood. After booking those two shows and producing my second short film I have made the leap into feature films.

I recently wrote a feature, loosely based on my experience of living with a heart defect (that is a whole other story). The script was developed with help of the Stowe Story Lab Feature Film Campus and went on to be selected to the second round for the 2023 Sundance Development Track and a second rounder at Austin Film Festival’s writing conference. I’ve since started an independent investment platform for the film and will be heading to New England this summer to film it. If anyone would like to learn more about the film, the link to our WeFunder platform is listed below.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Oh man, so much! I love food, films and museums and LA has so much to offer in all those categories. I’d split the days up into areas of LA, to keep driving to a minimum.

Day’s One and Two – Beverly Hills, Culver City and Miracle Mile: I live in the mid-city area so the first few days would be spent there. We could walk around Beverly Hills for people watching with a stop at Alfred’s or Philz for coffee and breakfast. We could visit the Peterson Museum, and the Academy Museums, both of which I find myself losing track of time in. In the evenings, I’d head to Culver City for a cocktail at The Culver Hotel or oysters and a rooftop cocktail at Citizen Public Market. Top three dinner choices in Culver would be Roberta’s, Etta and Piccalilli. Depending on how much goat cheese they like in their ice cream I might have to take them to Salt & Straw for an evening ice cream treat!

Day Three – Pasadena: We’d get up early and head to The Huntington Gardens in Pasadena. Have afternoon tea at their Rose Garden Tea room and if my guest wasn’t too tired after a day walking around the museums and gardens, I’d make one more stop at Woolhaus yarn store before dinner at Agnes.

Day Four – Malibu: While I don’t spend much time at the beach most visitors need a beach day when visiting LA and I don’t blame them. My favorite area is Point Dume (you could also get a small hike in as part of this beach day at the Point Dume Natural Preserve). Although there are many fancy restaurants in Malibu, I’m a fried seafood and oyster girl at heart so my choice would be to stop at Malibu Seafood after our day in the sand.

Day five – The Valley: I’ve lived in LA for ten years and a solid seven of those were spent in the valley. As we head up the 405 to get to the valley, I’d make a stop at The Getty Museum. While in the valley I’d want to show them Woodley Park’s Japanese Garden and a studio tour of Warner Brothers, my favorite studio. We could end the night at one of my favorite movie theaters, Leammle NoHo. The theater feels like your small local hometown theater. They have a great selection of indie films and mainstream movies, and would be the perfect place to go see a show before stumbling to Brews Brothers, Player One or any of the other awesome bars in NoHo. The food I love is scattered around the valley so I’d give my guest a list and let them choose. Roadside Tacos, Hanks Bagels, Rodini Park, M Street Coffee, Aroma Coffee & Tea (their beet and goat cheese salad is *chefs kiss*), Joe’s Falafel, SunCafe and last but not least if we were there on a Sunday, the Studio City’s Farmers Market which is one of the best in the LA.

Day Six – I’d probably have to concentrate on Echo Park/Eagle Rock area. We could visit the Chávez Ridge Disc Golf Course for a game of frisbee golf after grabbing coffee and Canyon Coffee in Echo Park, then a movie at Vidiots, and dinner at Night + Market Song.

The Final Day – Downtown LA: Up first, a stroll through The Broad Art Museum, a visit to Angels Flight and Grand Central Market. City views on the rooftop at Perch and dinner in the arts district probably at Bestia if we’re feeling fancy. This would be a wildly packed and pricey week, and there’s still more I would want to show them! Guess they’ll just have to come back.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
So many people! First and foremost, my parents for always believing in me and supporting me following my dreams. I would not be here if they hadn’t helped me and continue to help me through the ups and downs of this career.

Secondly, a director I worked with in high school, Hannah Hammond. She cast me in my first ever lead role in my junior year. Before that moment, I really saw acting as more of a hobby and wasn’t sure if I honestly had much talent at it. Because of that role I had the confidence to admit that acting was what I wanted to do as a career.

In college I had so many great teacher but one who stood out was Alison Sutcliffe, who was a guest director during our Shakespeare studies. I was very intimidated by her at first, but she was the teacher I really needed in that moment. She helped change the trajectory of the rest of my college experience. She motivated me by example, and helped me focus my already strong work ethic required in this industry, while also instilling a quiet confidence in me. She did not hold people to her first opinions of them, she allowed and encouraged everyone to grow, and she recognized those that rose to that challenge. There was something quiet and intense about her that made you work that little bit harder or find that small nuance to a character that would bring performances alive.

Robert D’Avanzo, my first acting coach in LA helped me so much not only as an actor but in giving me a community of like-minded actors who are always cheering for each other successes.

Lastly my husband for all his support: The early morning auditions he’s helped me with, for letting me nerd out about actors he’s never heard of, for not judging me (for the most part) for spending to much money on yarn, and for letting me spend most weeknights watching New Girl, Parks and Rec and The Office on constant rotation while knitting.

Website: https://www.julia-coulter.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliaqcoulter/

Other: WeFunder investment platform for my upcoming feature film – https://wefunder.com/roadtoletapedutour

Image Credits
Yitzhak Dalal