The climb of a Pakistani actor and influencer : New York’s Franklin Livingston: The concept of beauty, success, and attraction must be open to all human beings, regardless of their cultural looks or affiliations. Franklin along with his passionate and devoted network of professionals aim to accomplish this change through entertaining and intellectual art. Franklin Livingston is a New York based actor, director and producer. He enjoys acting on stage and film. He has had the pleasure of working in English, Urdu. Hindi and Punjabi languages. Read additional information on Franklin Livingston.
Franklin Livingston is an American actor who gets busy filming comic content for people of diverse backgrounds. He aims to enhance the free viewership of his humorous content on all social media outlets for free viewership worldwide. Franklin Livingston can be visualized in blue suits and silver cars, supposed to be enjoying winters in Dubai on a yacht or in the blue oceanic waters or the Bahamas and South Asia’s blue beaches. Instead, he’s been working day and night to create content that will make people laugh.
Franklin is a thoroughly trained actor and filmmaker who completed an apprenticeship right out of high school in videography. Since he grew up in an artistic household, Franklin already had significant exposure to acting and singing. Later, he learned about cameras, light, sound, preparations to shoot, footage delivery, editing, mixing, and coloring. Franklin ended up acquiring formal training at New York University. From working with a myriad of diverse cinematographers and technicians, he has learned about various lenses, lights, cameras, and audio equipment which has helped him develop a great eye on the subject of digital storytelling.
And to finish this section, please tell us what is the one major key to your success? I am very disciplined and do not believe in shortcuts. If you want to achieve your goals, you need to put in the work. It always disappoints me when I see an actor that has completed their training, and then they think that is the end. Really, with any career you should be continuing your training up until the day you retire. I do acting exercises constantly to stay sharp. I also love to talk with strangers, or at least I used to a lot more pre-covid, and get to know their stories. I will often take an afternoon drive along the countryside and stop to talk with someone I have just met. Going into Manhattan on the Subway just to people watch is something I find very enjoyable too. These things not only keep me connected to my fellow human beings, but it is also like building a real-life character catalog of all the different people I meet that I could draw inspiration from whenever needed.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that? Al Qually has been a tremendous help on my journey in New York. When I first arrived in the Big Apple, I was angry and depressed because I had so many negative experiences. I believe that it was my growing and learning phase, but I met Al in 2016 who collaborated with me on numerous projects. He always went out of his way to help me with scripts, filmmaking, and much more without any expectations or hidden agendas. We have shot several short films in and outside of his apartment in Queens (including “Down-Range”) where he would be making coffee and running around trying to make sure all actors and crew were taken care of. Since our initial encounter and through Al’s network, I have met many great professionals who have helped me become a better human being and a compelling storyteller.
Franklin has had an unmatched opportunity to represent a growing number of Pakistani people in the US who are under-represented in Hollywood. Currently, there is no person of Pakistani origin in Hollywood’s big-budget movies and TV networks that has the background training Franklin has. Currently, Riz Ahmed has been in the news a lot due to his dramatic acting. However, Riz is a British-Pakistani which makes him distinctly different from Franklin Livingston. Franklin’s unique accent, enchanting voice, alluring charisma, and captivating presence makes him stand out among all actors Hollywood has cast from Southeast Asian backgrounds.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that? I was in a meeting with my first TV commercial agents. They asked me if I was working on getting rid of my accent. They said that getting work without having a native sounding American vernacular is impossible. I laughed to myself and replied bluntly that I don’t believe I could ever eliminate my accent and that local people tend to search for a foreign accent when they need a medical specialist or a cosmetic surgeon in Beverly Hills. I think it’s only the Media, the formula, and the system that believes that actors shouldn’t have their native accents if they wanted to play leads in the local projects. Upon seeing their facial expressions, I realized my honesty was a mistake.
Taking possibilities to the next level: Recent updates on Franklin reveal that he started another company in the state of Connecticut, Oculus Films LLC. The company will also serve as an academy that empathizes with the aspiring actors’ busy schedules. Oculus is a unique acting technique that Franklin has developed. Unlike other training techniques that make American actors feel drained, exhausted, depressed, and in some cases become mentally ill, Oculus Acting Technique makes actors enjoy their presence with other actors and crew members. It also helps the actors create content in the moment in the light of the screenwriter’s content, develop a sincere connection with community members and leave the set happy, rejuvenated, and relaxed having a sense of being heard, respected, and encouraged.