Meet Mary Jane Wells | Actor, Writer and Voice Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mary Jane Wells and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi mary jane, other than deciding to work for yourself, what was the single most important decision you made that contributed to your success?
I’m not sure deciding to work for myself was a decision – its more of the normal enforced state of play as an actor. I’d love someone to come along and put me in their company or TV show and just give me a weekly wage. I miss being in a cast which is why I get very over excited when I do theatre, or acting in other media these days where you actually get to hang out in person. Wait, I’m getting side tracked.

This questions relies on a working definition of what success is which is different for everyone. Is it – recognition for excellence, creative freedom, getting dressed today and not drinking pancake batter from a plastic bucket, financial ease, the ability to ignore your trolls, or something like, “brand recognition”? I don’t like being jargony around creative work, but with that last one I mean, can you do what you want at the level you want to do it because the general public knows what you stand for and trust you with a is certain privileged level of platform or access? I reckon my feeling of success is achieveable at times because its defined by my being “still here’ and not quitting as an actor, and at other times its represented by choice of work, a certain momentum I don’t have to grind to create anymore, my part time hours which allow me to enjoy life too – and mainly the fact that I get to tell stories that are important.

One important decision that I keep alive is to keep going and do a solo show – an even harder thing, when the going is hard. You’re creating momentum towards an unknowable legacy later. Another is based on Wayne Dyer’s teaching… that your reputation is none of your business. Seems controversial in these insta-heavy times, right? You are only responsible for the work you put out being intentional and excellent in your view, if – hand on heart – you did it in full integrity. If someone doesn’t like is neither here nor there. It’s freeing.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I love transformative stories. I’ve been very attracted by the power of story for a long time – to heal, to entice, to kidnap.
I had a writing partner for a while, a dear pal called Helen Terry and she had a nose for the socially awkward. I find the line between the very poignant and serious and the ridiculous is a place I like to hang out. I think a moment can hold both without belittling either.
I consider the stories I have been invited to tell very humbling, and I have been really privileged to tell them. One is a documentary about cult survivor Will Allen, called HOLY HELL: I am proud of him and the work we made over 5 years. We went to Sundance together with it in 2016 and it was then bought up by CNN. I was his story coach for 4 years, when he first went public with what his life had really been like during those 25 years in a cult, with unprecedented footage of its internal workings. It was my job to sit with him and create his storyboard, and ensure that he was safely unearthing the deeply personal narrative he really wanted to tell and that he was really telling it in the choice of material and the nuances of the edit, and remain a commercially viable project.
I am proud of debuting my solo show Heroine at the Kennedy Center in 2020 after they came to see me perform it in Edinburgh Festival – as that also had to be an exemplar of trauma-informed, survivor-centered work. It is the true story of an MST survivor in the US Army, the only women in her entire company when she signed up. She is a real living person I know very well and has been anonymised heavily in order to allow her healing process to be first and foremost.
Survivors are the most courageous people, and I wanted her show to be a compassion grenade, which would reveal who she has really had to be to survive – and reflect the black humour we share. A play cannot create posthumous justice but it can acknowledge, and create a public ritual and that too can be healing. Then-Congresswoman Jackie Speier was on our panel in DC and one year later in the senate the law finally made every sexual assault in the military a felony, punishable in civilian court. I was very glad to have been a small part of the conversation. In a strange twist of fate I was then invited to the first inauguration of President Trump and I took it up as a protester, sponsored by The Guardian who flew me there as I was promised that I could speak about MST there for 90 seconds by someone who had curated a secret list. They pulled the plug on the night so I did not get to speak, but I won’t be silent. I am vocal for a living. I’ve learned that it is not the event that has the power to define your life, but the story you choose to tell about it.
The next show is loosely based on my own story and is hopefully an unpretentious comedy about care.
https://www.heroinetheplay.com/mission-statement.html
www.holyhellthedocumentary.com
www.maryjanewells.org

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.
We’d write a love song to Laurel Canyon – go for a morning walk to see the city from up there…. take in the Loquat trees, the deer that sometimes wander past, brace for the coyotes that yip at night. We’d go boogie boarding at Ocean Park, hit the farmers market for flowers and go for breakfast on Montana.
We’d stroke a cow at Gentle Barn, fall through a revolving bookcase and watch a show at the Magic Castle. Get on the FOX lot for a new movie premiere.
We’d go for dinner at Perch downtown, go gypsy dancing til late at The Edison, ask my friends Tom and Alana to do acupuncture on us for our hangovers. We’d wander gently around the museum of Natural History, maybe take in a touristy Tar pit, then do karaoke, get a brutal spa treatment and eat real Korean barbecue to recover. If they’re a Brit I would take them to Cafe Gratitude just for the affirmations. (Although I am disappointed they don’t go all out and wear the juggling trousers any more.)
We’d go for appetisers with my pal Jessica in Ojai and go for the best massage your happy, tired bones have ever had.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’ll shout out to other women who have helped me. Writer and Showrunner Jessica Sharzer read my first dismal TV script and gave me notes and a tour of her writer’s room (American Horror Story!) playwright Nicola McCartney gave me notes on my first draft of Heroine. Nicole Conn and Jane Clark always wrote me letters of support for my 0-1 Visa and put me in their movies.. and everyone in Scotland who gave me the push to go for it and move solo to the USA. My heart is full thinking about all of them.

Website: www.maryjanewells.org

Instagram: @maryjanewellsstories

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryjanewellsuk/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB5DF0572055C5635

Image Credits
Greg McVean
Carlo Corbellini
Hayley Samartin