Cody Russell
@actorcody on his Broadway quilt amongst many plants and crystals.
-Theatre-
The first time I talked to Cody he said something along the lines of, “We should be friends” and because I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t hear him properly I took a nice long pause and said, “Yeah, so…”.
Luckily he stuck around and we forced friendship on each other. And now, we get to work together all the time and grow as young(ish) artists and grow as friends through all our common interests.
He has been very vigilant during quarantine. He explained the many stepped process of getting groceries in the house and how little he is seeing anyone. However, when I came over, he allowed me inside and we hugged. A real hug (with masks and no talking before we moved apart again). I should have known this dreamy mystical human would try and make me feel normal again.
Interviewed 5.22.20
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Casey: So first and foremost, how are you?
Cody: Today?
Casey: Sure.
Cody: I am doing OK. I woke up. Waking up is sometimes hard to do lately, but I got a lovely text from you, and I threw away my empty La Croix cans and I feel revitalized and refreshed.
Casey: Are you totally lying to me right now?
Cody: No. Honestly like, the difference of my energy and my mood from before your text to after was huge.
Casey: So are you just learning that you are energized by people or is that something you've always known?
Cody: Oh, no. I've always known. I do need a lot of recharge time too because I'm obnoxious and fickle. But I think quality time is a big love language of mine.
And there's a lot of time…and it has qualities to it. Maybe not what we usually associate that to mean.
Casey: Right. How would you say you're doing overall? Is there an emotion or a feeling that prevails nowadays?
Cody: I think overall I am surviving. And I don't mean that in a negative way. Like, "Oh I'm just surviving." I am making it through and I am finding things, both talking about my time and also financial things, not as readily available as work should be. It is certainly a constant concern and a little bit of a stressor. And by a little bit, I mean a lot a bit. But I am not drowning yet. I am still treading some water and some days are wonderful and some days are hard.
Your Switch, will betray you and tell you how many hours you've been playing Animal Crossing. I think it stops after like 450 hours or something. Because there are some days that that's all I can do, you know? I'll design this perfect little island and I can talk to my friends that I can't see in real life and then it'll be 10 p.m. and I realize I have to eat something. Cooking has been a big thing, too. Usually, I love cooking but I never have time for it. So I'm very much a crockpot “set it and forget it and then come back in the morning and meal prep it out”. And not that I have turned away from all crockpot recipes, but it's something to do that day. “That was frittata day.” “That was eggplant meatball day.” Something I created and made that day. So I know what day it is.
Casey: It sounds like you're listening to your impulses. If you feel like you can't do anything that day, you don't. If you feel like you can do stuff that day, you do. Is that new or is that something you've always done?
Cody: Oh, that's definitely new. I'm usually more of a “go ahead and do it, and if it doesn't feel good, keep doing it”. I do think that I held on to enough of that “not quite virtue” to be a virtue. Like for example, I was like, "I haven't done anything today." I was like, "I'm not going to stick this microwaveable chicken pot pie in the microwave because that's not actually doing something that day." So I made a frittata.
Is it hard to make frittata? No. Does it take only like 20 minutes, including baking time? Yes. But it was something I did. I know I made it. I made it that day. And the thing that helped get me on to that was, I was supposed to have an island visit with some friends of mine. And it was a set time like, "Oh, we're gonna do this at 10:15." I said, "Oh, it's 9:45 and I haven't eaten anything yet. Well I have exactly 30 minutes. Let me cook something and then I can eat it while I play." And then I did it.
Casey: Do you find a lot of correlation between what you're doing and how you are? Like, “I am good if I'm being productive.”?
Cody: Maybe not as wonderful as that sounds, yes. And I have always been that way. People would ask me how I'm doing. And usually my first response, you know, vice or virtue is “I'm working on this and this and this right now. And next week I look forward to this…” So, yes.
Casey: It's a hard habit to break.
Cody: Yeah. Yeah, I'm working on it. I'm working on it very hard.
Casey: What else are you working on in quarantine personally? I know you're doing Cody's Crafting Corner.
Cody: When I first started sheltering in place, I was working on a lot of personal painting projects that I had on the back burner for a little while. I have a work in progress that's out in the living room right now. It was gonna be my last thing that I started in shelter in place and I haven't gotten around to it because I found other things that needed my time and that part of my energy.
I explored some new painting mediums and I revisited some favorite recipes from my grandmother. I've been doing a lot of zoom calls. I know I've talked about Animal Crossing already but, I thought I was gonna hate this game. I got it because I had like 10 people in a row be like, "You need to get this game." Got it. Hated it the first two days. I was like, “I don't understand. Who's the boss? Like, who am I fighting in this game?” And then I've just succumb. It's a beautiful little game that's in my head. So I design lovely little cobblestone paths on a digital scale.
Casey: That's great though. If that's your therapy, then that's what it is.
Cody: Yeah, I love that. It's my therapy.
Casey: Are still creating? How are you finding the motivation to do that?
Cody: Deadlines.
Casey: So if you didn't have deadlines, you would not be creating?
Cody: No. I think other artists are creating right now, even if we don't see what they're working on. Some of the best works I've worked on were things I did when I first started sheltering in place that first week. And now I do Cody's Crafting Corner and I make ten-minute segments. And really fun works. But maybe not my opus of painting, you know. But having that collaboration to know that my editor is waiting for these files and that the marketing team is waiting for me to relay the editor's final project back to them, helps keep me in check of what day it is. Otherwise, I'd be creating in a vacuum, which I was fine with. But to say, "Oh, clearly you're still creating."… I think it's only clear because I have someone to collaborate with and otherwise I think it would be, "Oh, are you creating?" And I'd be like, "Yes, let me tell you about it."
Casey: Have you ever taken a break from creating?
Cody: Oh, I honestly don't think so. That is an interesting thing that I... Wow. No, I honestly don't think I ever have.
Casey: What are you feeling because of that?
Cody: This discovery?
Casey: Yeah, this face you're making is definitely a feeling. What are you feeling?
Cody: I don't know. I have only had one other path. That was like, "What if I went down this path instead?" And it was like, what if I had gone to study to be an animal behaviorist or veterinary medicine or something along that route. And even some of that I found design-y/art sort of things involved in it. Like my animal behaviorism route, I was like, "I want to learn how music affects animals and I want to be a consultant on when we build conservation habitats for them to know what enrichment things they need." It still is like helping build a little world.
But I kind of found solace in knowing that I made the right choice because I cannot imagine myself doing anything else. And I don't know how to do anything else. I know how to work in the arts and I don't know how to do taxes. I will say that I had a talk the other day with Ben Davis and he was like, "When can we get people in theaters? When will that be a normalized thing? But you know what business is booming right now is video games," as I'm playing my 14th hour of Animal Crossing that day. And he was like, "You should look into video game design." And it was the first time that I ever had a thought in a long time of like, "Oh man, what if there's something besides theater arts for me to look into?" I honestly opened up that conversation. I reached out to a friend of mine who does a little more video game/art design stuff. I don't even know what I would need to look into that field and I'm certainly not running towards it. But I think it's the first time that I wasn't just like, "Nope, don't know it, close the door." But yeah, I've never really realized that. I like to have a craft. I like to have something to keep me busy.
I can see the caveat of my nature where I think I sometimes put my value on “What productivity am I making today?” Which is also something that I work around even in my weird arts life, in that I sometimes lose the forest in all the trees. And so oftentimes when people ask me, "What do you love doing the most? Is it music or is it acting or is it design?" My answer is usually whatever it was, the most weeks since the last time I did it. Only because, as I lose sight of things, it's nice to have that little refresher to be like, "Oh, what did I get done today? I got three rough drafts done and a watercolor rendering for this set." Like, that's something concrete. I can touch it. These are three more pieces of paper that have ink on it than yesterday. That's what I did today.” I'm sure there's a positive way to spin that, too.
Casey: It sounds like creating is your anchor and this quarantine hasn't seemed to have affected that.
Cody: Yes. I am very grateful that I've had outlets to work on. Because even in the days that I don't get up from the couch or that I don't realize that 10 hours have passed, those get to be isolated days. They don't get to be the whole chapter or the whole story, you know. And I think that if I didn't have things to create right now, I think it would be... Like I think some of my biggest little pieces of respite throughout this are painting and also getting to leave the balcony door open. And that's been nice.
Casey: Speaking of chapters, this is definitely a big chapter in at least my life. I feel like I will always remember these, hopefully only 10 weeks, but probably more likely 20...
Cody: Oh my God.
Casey: This is a chapter in everyone's lives, whether we want to admit it or not. What do you think you'll take out of this? What do you think is your overarching synopsis of what this was for you. From this moment, obviously, it's not done... But what do you think you would want to take out of this?
Cody: I think I've learned that I am stronger alone than I thought. But also I get a little lonely, and I was never really a lonely person because I have a very large extended family and I have chosen family here in Atlanta and back in Jacksonville and in New York and North Carolina. And I have had such a wonderful community of friends and colleagues, and other members, and other artists in this community that I've never been alone. And when I was, I was like, "Ugh this is a gross feeling." But I've been pretty much alone for a long time now. And I've done OK. I do the laundry, I do the dishes, and I eventually clean up my crafting corner set up.
Casey: A) Is there anything else you want to share?
And B) Is there anything you would want to remember? Is there anything you want to lean forward in the future and shout at yourself from right now? What would it be?
Cody: I think it'd be great for me to be able to internalize, “this too, shall pass.” I've had a couple overwhelming moments where something would come up and I was like, "OK, well, I have to act or move on this now." And I've let some of those things go because I just couldn't find the energy for that that day, you know? But most of the things that I've done, ended up being fine. You know, I had all this worry and stress about it. What was it going to be and who I'd have to talk to, and all this other stuff, and what needs to get done. And then I just went ahead and did it, and it was fine. I like to think things through. And a little bit of this has been - "We'll have plenty of time for you to think but with no resources for you to actually do any research on it. So you just have to jump in it anyway."
As cheesy as it sounds, and I'm sure everyone feels this way, I just want everyone who is experiencing things right now to know that it is hard to clean your bathroom. And it is hard to scrub your sink. And it is hard to pick up your shirt from the floor.
Because things are hard right now, and just because they're hard doesn't mean we shouldn't do them, but don't beat yourself up for thinking it's hard. You are not a weak person for having a hard time doing these common or everyday things because we're not living in a common or everyday kind of time.
Casey: Oh that was good. That was like, poetic.
