We’re told that creative talent is something you either have or you don’t. Ela Thier has spent nearly 40 years disproving this crippling myth. A New York–based writer, director, actor, and founding director of The Independent Film School, she’s helped more than 65,000 artists find and develop their voices. Her films include Tomorrow Ever After, Foreign Letters, and her latest, 109 Billion Followers, stars Oscar-winner J.K. Simmons.
In this conversation, we trace Ella’s journey from being her mother’s “wild weed” – a third child raised with very little supervision and a lot of imagination, through quitting filmmaking for almost a decade, to returning with a completely different relationship to her work.
