John Mayo
@johnmayo95 after we finally found some shade.
-Film/Tv-
John was the first person to sign up for the interviews who I had never heard of before. Yes! I was casting a wide net! People were hearing my call to document.
He is a stand in for one of the kids on Stranger Things. I’ll let you guess which one.
Interviewed 5.12.20
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Casey: So I just have a couple of questions. What do you do in the theater world? Are you a performer? Have I seen you in anything?
John: I've done theater before. I went to college at UNC Greensboro in North Carolina. Graduated three years ago and moved here two years ago. I've mostly been working in the TV and film industry here in Atlanta. Haven't done as much theater as I would like to. Most of my work is stand-in and photo doubling for a lot of different actors. I was Full-Time on Stranger Things season three…For one of the kids.
And then I am Jesse Eisenberg's double and stand in when he comes to town. So we shot Zombieland two last year. And a few other projects here and there.
You're not acting unfortunately. But you get to interact with the directors, the actors, everyone on set. And once you are actually auditioning, people will know your face and you be like, “Oh, yeah. He's been on set before. He does the work.”
And some people, you know, have had more work than others and vice versa. Right now with my family, we're having a hard time because my sister is having to move back with her two kids with my parents. And both my parents are retired. I see that in my own family and we were doing fairly well before all of this and we still are. But I know if my family is being affected that way, how many other families and how many other people are being affected almost even worse?
So the acting community, just artist in general, we are a family because we're all in it together. We are trying to make art, especially during this time. There's so much need for escapism. And so many people are watching TV and painting and watching movies and all these other things. All these platforms, they're leaning on artists at this time, even though we're not credited a lot of times or they don't give us everything that we need to be able to do the work that we need, especially like in schools. There's so many schools that don't put funding into the arts. And now here we are during this crisis looking to people in the arts.
So I think it's awesome what you guys are doing to help the community in general and bring everyone together.
Casey: I'm glad we're reaching out to people because you never really know. So are you quarantining alone?
John: I have one roommate. It's OK. He's been working from home. He works in the living room a lot. So I've mostly been in my own room, which is fine.
It's interesting as an actor, just someone in the arts. There's a lot of times whereas a part of your job, you have to be an extrovert to meet other people and connect. But then to do your art, you have to have self-reflection. And that part comes in with your introvertedness.
So, I've been dealing with it a little bit better than I thought I would have. But there's always moments where you're wanting to interact and be with friends and everything go back to normal.
Casey: So you're home, you're quarantining with your friend, do you go out a lot?
John: So during the beginning of this all there was quite a boom within media about how bad it was gonna be. And, you know, forwarned us. And I took it to heart and I still am definitely. I tried to stay home as much as I can. I don't go out or see friends, really. I've been zooming a lot with friends. I actually played Dungeons and Dragons online with friends.
Casey: You're not the first person today to tell me that.
John: It's been really nice because as an artist, you're role-playing with other people. Acting in a way. So even though I don't get to do it on set or on a project, I can do it with friends and interact that way. I was cooking a lot at home to begin with. I still am here and there. I'm getting a lot to eat out now. Everything's open again.
I feel like it's almost more "dangerous" to go to the grocery store with so many more people there and being in close quarters and touching things people have touched. And being in there, if you're getting food for two weeks, you need to be in there 30, 40 minutes at least. And that's longer exposure time. So it's rough because I've gotten anxiety, honestly trying to go to the grocery store because I know I'm exposing myself even more than I would if I'm just eating out somewhere. Which is unfortunate because I'm bad with eating out. I eat out a lot. And it's expensive as well during this time. But with mental health being a big thing during this moment, I will definitely say I've had anxiety about going out and seeing friends. And there are some friends who have gone out and hung out with them and gone to the Piedmont Park or wherever. I've decided to stay home personally. I know everyone gets to make their own decisions about it, but that's how I've decided to handle it myself.
Casey: Is there anything that you miss about the old days?
John: So once a month, me and a group of friends on Saturday night would always go out to a place in East Atlanta Village called the Basement. And we would have 80s night once a month. And we'd just dance and drink and have fun, you know, hang out with a big group of friends, 10 to 12 people. And it was just really nice reconnecting and seeing everyone every month, making it a thing. Can't do that anymore, really. They are holding parties online where you can dance from your home. But it's not the same, of course.
I went hiking once about two, three weeks ago with some friends. We wore masks and went somewhere a little bit more isolated. I miss that a little bit more. Going out to rollerblade on the Beltline. I would do that every weekend. I haven't been able to do that. So there are things here and there.
Casey: Is there any person you miss in particular?
John: I miss my family a lot. They're North Carolina, about eight hours away. I've actually decided this upcoming week to go visit them and probably go stay with them for about three, four weeks because I don't have any work here at the moment.
The reason I decided to do it now is because I found out that my sister and her two kids have had to move home. So I thought it would be a good time to be able to see them and also help them move back home. As well as I've given myself enough time for sure to know that I don't think I've been symptomatic or have contracted anything. My parents are much older. They're 60s/70s. So I wanted to make sure, first of all, that if and when I came home that I was not going to give anything to them. So that's kind of why right now I decided to kind of make that leap back home for now.
Casey: So obviously you're like, out of work like a lot of us are. Do you have any sort of new rituals or sacred places in your house that you are taking advantage? Any new habits?
John: I've always loved my shower.
I love hot water and that's my thinking space. It always has been. So just using that hot water up and just thinking about anything and everything. I sit at my desk a lot in my room, bring open my laptop. I play D&D online from there. I've been reading some play scripts. I've been writing some from my desk. I eat at my desk a lot of times. So, unfortunately, that's been a lot of my home. I do come out here sometimes. Where we are as a kind of nice veranda with some nice plants and trees and everything. Some benches. I've been able to enjoy that here and there and just hang out in the sun. You know, try to distance from people.
Casey: Are you inspired? Are you finding any motivation to keep up or are you taking this time to break?
John: So that's a hard one. The writing I've mostly done has been poetry in the past. I love poetry. I haven't written anything in a while, but I wanted to try my hand at some more playwriting. I took a class or two in college and I love reading plays. I have my B.A. in Theater. So theater is like my number one go-to home originally. So I've been mostly writing short films and other shorter films and I have a few ideas for feature-length style things, but nothing has come to full fruition yet just samples here and there. So I think everyone just needs to take this at their own time and their own pace. I think that's what I'm doing right now. I will say I have been lucky, though, too because a lot of people haven't had anything during this time. I haven't had much work. But I have had projects I filmed in the past come out, which has been nice. So something to look forward to.
As of right now, I don't have anything that I'm waiting for to come out, but in the past month I had a TV show come out called True Terror with Robert Englund on Travel Channel. That was really nice. And then there was a music video by Anson Sieber called Hindenburg Lover that came out about two weeks ago. So I'm starting to try to redo my real right now and do anything I can to help better myself in the small ways that I can.
Casey: What other things have you done to try to better yourself?
John: I'd be lying if I said I was working out every day. So I plank sometimes. In my bedroom. Yeah, I plank. You know, sometimes do sit-ups. And where we’re looking right now, we have a nice circular parking lot. And I've been rollerblading around the parking lot.
Casey: I love that you rollerblade.
John: Oh I love rollerblading. I really miss going on the Beltline.
Casey: Is there anything else that you feel like you're learning about yourself in this experience?
John: You learn a lot about yourself during this time. I've just been really introspective about where I am now in my life and where I want to be within the next year, two years, five years, 10 years. Which is hard to think about because as our generation, it's hard to look that far forward sometimes.
But ultimately trying to figure out what would make me the most happy in life without, of course, hurting or harming anyone else. But I think that's what anyone and everyone wants right now. What will make us happy? It's different for everyone. And I think at this moment, I just kind of want to reconnect with friends, which I've been doing. I've been making sure to text at least three or four friends a day, check in on them and vice versa. It's been really nice to reconnect with some older friends from high school and college and here in Atlanta.
Most of them are doing fairly well. There are some friends here and there who are... It's harder for them financially. But I think most people are trying to take it the best that they can day by day. I think just checking in has been really nice.
