William Wasberg is a New York Based actor and a recent graduate of The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre.
He was born in Uganda and raised in Sweden, where he started his acting career before moving to a bigger stage in New York.
His interest in performing started at a young age after seeing his father tour on stage as a musician.
Musa Ssemwanga had a zoom chat with him about life miles away from home, his career and take on the Ugandan film industry.
Musa Ssemwanga had a zoom chat with him about life miles away from home, his career and take on the Ugandan film industry.
Q: What are your greatest strengths and weakness?
A: My biggest strengths are that I easily get along with people and I put an effort into creating healthy work environment. My biggest weakness is that I have so many different projects that I want to do, and I can take on too much at the same time and work myself to the bones.
Q: Do you believe talent or training is more important to an actor?
A: Having talent is like having a head start in a race. But you won’t progress without training, and in the end lose the race.
Q: What do you enjoy most about acting?
A: Building and discovering a character, finding out who they are as a person, and discovering new things about yourself through that process.
Q: What are your long-term career goals?
A: My long-term goal is to be in movies and plays that make an impact on the world and discusses urgent world topics
Q: What is your favorite film or theater production?
A: There are so many great productions to pick from, but the one that had the biggest impact on me is the matrix.
Q: What type of projects have you acted before?
A: I have mostly acted on stage, but I am starting to transition more to the screen. Most of my on-stage projects have been very focused on issues the black community faces, and I would love to bring that to the screen as well
Q: What event made you consider becoming an actor?
A: I have always performed in one way or the other since I was a kid. When I got injured and my sports career ended, I decided to take acting seriously and make it into my new career
Q: What is your greatest inspiration?
A: The unknown, the fact that the future is unwritten makes me want to mold and shape it into whatever fits my path.
Q: What is the best/worst role you have ever played in a movie?
A: I do not see them as best/worst, all my roles are learning experiences, if I would go back to my older roles there is a lot of them I would approach differently. As an actor it is my job to bring life to a character and present a version of that character that fits the idea the writers and directors have. As long as they are happy with the end result, I have done my job
Q: What is your dream collaboration?
A: Acting in a Christopher Nolan movie has always been a dream of mine
Q: What are the best venues you have performed?
A: The best venue I have performed at was a small black box theatre in Manhattan. We were performing so close to the audience that the intimacy heightened the stakes and made us extra concentrated.
Q: Have you ever wished to meet any fictional character in real life? What character is that?
A: Way too many, but the little nerd inside of me has always wanted to to meet Goku from the anime Dragon Ball Z
Q: How many other languages do you speak?
A: I speak English and Swedish and I am trying to learn Luganda, Spanish and Portuguese
Q: If you could pass on one message for your fans, what message would that be?
A: Do not be afraid to fail, in failure growth and progress happens.
Q: What inspires you?
A: My family and friends inspire me, seeing them working towards and achieving their goals motivates me to do the same.
Q: What can a person do to attract your attention?
A: Treating someone in a lower standing position than yourself with respect and caring about environmental issues.
Q: What is the most memorable and exciting thing you have ever seen in your field/industry?
A: Was when Parasite a foreign film won best picture at the Oscars, paving the way for other non-English speaking artists to get more traction here in the west.
Q: Please discuss your last experience on stage or in a film.
A: The last project I filmed was a short film.
We had an actor flown in from Iceland over the weekend so we had 3 days to finish the entire project, and because everything that can go wrong will go wrong, we lost half a day to shoot due to location issues.
We had to film day and night just to get every shot before she had to fly back. It was exhausting, but also one of the most fun projects I have been a part of.
Q: What do you believe is the most challenging aspect of being an actor?
A: The stress from not knowing when your next job will be is to me the most challenging aspect.
Q: Do you have an acting degree?
A: I did a two year conservatory program at Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre.
Q: Achievements
A : My biggest achievement so far is getting accepted into the main ensemble of the Afrikan Women’s Repertory Theater, and getting to work with Vivian “Bonnie” Wright.
