Meet Mary Rose Branick | Actor, Director, Singer-Songwriter

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

Hi Mary Rose, have you ever found yourself in a spot where you had to decide whether to give up or keep going? How did you make the choice?
Oof. As someone who’s sometimes an actor, sometimes a director, sometimes an editor, songwriter, spin instructor, general side-hustler—I often feel like I flip-flop between big joy about creative momentum and big grief over what I’m not accomplishing. The creative people I admire most are always moving towards what feels fun and aren’t overly precious about anything. I’m learning to trust the evolution of both the industry and my own gut instincts as I move between mediums.

There was a moment right in the middle of my MFA program where acting felt a little bit joyless. But I regained a little bit of inspiration while reviving an old solo show of mine about my Irish grandparents’ love story through Alzheimer’s disease. An MFA candidate a year behind me, Emily Stout, asked me to coffee afterward. She said something along the lines of, “I’ve been working on a show of my own for a while, but my dad just died of cancer and I’m not sure how to finish it. Maybe you could help me finish it?” I read her script and understood in real time that I was discovering my new favorite writer. Suddenly I felt so grateful I had given up—or really, freed up—just enough space to give something new my best shot.

Emily and I developed her show in the basement of our graduate building. We sat criss-cross on the ground and talked for hours. We ate sour candy, played around like little kids, and cried a lot. The show is called GROWNUP, and I’m so proud of it. It’s a very funny play about grief, and Emily is brilliant in it. It was cancelled twice because of Covid, reimagined, rescheduled, premiered in San Diego, and had its most recent production at MITU580 in Brooklyn, New York. It’s lived a lot of life in a lot of places, and I’m excited to see where it goes next.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I moved to LA in October of 2020 and developed such a skewed perception of this city. I lived in Silver Lake and got a job in Culver City because, for about 6 months, the drive was 25 minutes. The city felt sort of half alive and half dead. The entertainment industry was almost entirely shut down. It felt tempting to complain about the timing of it all.

But it became so clear very quickly that creatives in LA are some of the most hopeful ones I’ve ever encountered. It doesn’t feel like a jaded kind of grind. The busiest people are the most certain they’re about to make something happen.

David Flores is one of these people. David cast me in his short film, LIKENESS, in 2022, and thus changed my trajectory as an actor. I had just graduated with my MFA in acting from UCSD and felt much more comfortable on stage. Shooting LIKENESS alongside the indie queen, Virginia Newcomb (A24’s THE DEATH OF DICK LONG, IFC’s THE BETA TEST), made me fall in love with film. David wrote and directed, and he is the best kind of collaborator. He has good ideas, a clear vision, and a true generosity of spirit.

LIKENESS was accepted to 12 festivals including Oscar-qualifying LA Shorts and HollyShorts. Virginia won Best Performance in a Supporting Role at Nevermore Film Festival and I won Best Actress in a Short Film at Hysteria Fest. LIKENESS premiered on Omeleto on February 24, 2024.

My current obsession is music, and I’m working on finishing my first ever release. It’s an EP called “Too Sentimental” that began when I finally learned to play guitar in my tiny Silver Lake bedroom. It’s felt like a personal experiment for so long and has expanded to collect trusted collaborators on the way. It’s a group of songs about the distance between people and places.

I’m working closely alongside the kind and completely genius musician/producer Kyle Henderson who has collaborated with artists like HALSEY and Eddie Benjamin. It’s a sonic progression from a singer-songwriter folk song recorded on an iPhone to more sophisticated and carefully recorded pieces that layer harmony, synth, electric guitar, piano, and saxophone. I’m both inspired by indie artists like Adrianne Lenker, Bon Iver, and Anna Leone, and also bass-heavy, soulful dance music by artists like Fred again… and ODESZA.

Through LIKENESS I met Sydnee Hill (@syd.hill_), a cinematographer/photographer whose work I admired from afar until I reached out about a possible collaboration. She is the cinematographer and editor on the visual component of “Too Sentimental” which will come out after the EP.

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 feel like breaking the rules and only talking about my favorite places to eat and drink. These are unfortunately not hot takes — just places I go to all the time and love. I grew up in an Irish family where food didn’t feel culturally important. So LA has opened up my heart to food as an experience and love language.

My favorite burrito is from Gus’s Lunch Box, a food truck that’s either in front of the Citibank on Glendale Blvd or Zebulon on Fletcher. It’s the best carne asada burrito I’ve ever had, and Gus is the best. Tell him that you want the burrito with “the works”.

I also love brunch at Botanica, small plates at Bacari in Silver Lake, and Monday supper at Little Dom’s. My favorite restaurant in Los Angeles is Dunsmoor in Eagle Rock.

I’ve lived right next to the Red Lion Tavern in Silver Lake for years and am obsessed with it. It’s so perfect and so weird. I love a Sunday night beer at 33 Taps, a cocktail at L&E Oyster Bar, and a bottle of natural wine at Silver Lake wine.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to shout out Scott and Kristine DeTurk in San Rafael, California. I went to a summer camp of theirs that completely changed my life. They somehow taught a whole group of small kids to harmonize to Janis Joplin, analyze the lyrics of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi,” and express something honest during a 30-second monologue. I must have been less than 1o years old when I thought to myself, “It’s so fun to know two REAL life artists.”

I’m so lucky they stuck by me as I grew up, and I’m so grateful they were honest with me about the great love and heartache they felt in pursuit of their creative lives.

Website: https://www.maryrosebranick.com

Instagram: @maryrosebranick

Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCuf_xm6Rmw&t=2s

Image Credits
Jackson Davis
Sydnee Hill
Simone Arasimowicz