How A Quentin Tarantino Protege Followed In His Footsteps And Earned A Golden Globe And Two Emmys

Danny Strong cannot remember a time when he didn’t want to be an actor. His mom was a telephone operator working the after school shift. So Strong was a latchkey kid who spent many hours alone after school. And he liked to dream big. “This would never happen today, but I would come home, be by myself and watch TV all day,” he says. “I remember at eight-years-old seeing all these shows and thinking I could do better – that I should be on television and be really good.”

Even when he was in elementary school his strong resolve and fearlessness inspired him to write agents. “I’d send letters with my picture to Wiliam Morris and the Harry Gold Agency,” says Strong. “Then every day after school I would come home and wait for a letter to come back. It never did.”

By the time he was 11, he cherished visits to his local Manhattan Beach video store where he could banter with a fellow film-obsessed clerk who worked there, a guy named Quentin Tarantino. “I spent so much time talking to him they nicknamed me “Little Quentin.” I’d come in and they’d say ‘Little Quentin’s here'” he shares. “I’d sit for an hour or more and talk to him about movies. I loved it.” Tarantino recommended films that typically an 141-year-old normally doesn’t watch, like Hitchcock films and Year of the Dragon. “But I watched and loved them,” says Strong. “He was influential in my movie-going taste.”

Cut to the 2013 Golden Globe Awards. Tarantino won Best Screenplay for Django Unchained. Strong, who wrote and produced the epic TV drama Game Change, won too. “We were at a Golden Globe party together both holding our Golden Globes,” recalls Strong. “Quentin told the story to everyone at the party. He said, ‘you people don’t get it! This is Little Quentin!’ He has been nothing but totally supportive.

Since those video store visits Strong’s multifaceted career has thrived in seismic ways. He is an actor (Billions, Mad Men, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gimore Girls), writer (Recount, Game Change, Lee Daniels’ The Butler, the final two Hunger Games films) and co-creator, executive producer and writer for the TV series Empire. And now he adds director to his resume.

This month Strong makes his directorial debut with the J.D. Salinger autobiographical film Rebel in the Rye from IFC Films. Based on Kenneth Slawenski’s book,J. D. Salinger: A Life, the movie burrows into the world of a young J.D. Salinger – his early struggles as a writer longing to be heard and the brutal trauma of being a soldier in combat during World War II, landing at Utah Beach on D-Day.

The film, which stars Nicholas Hoult as J.D. Salinger, also provides context as to why this great scribe, a man who helped shape modern literature, became such an enigmatic genius. The Rebel in the Rye cast also includes Kevin Spacey, Sarah Paulson, Victor Garber, Hope Davis, Brian d’Arcy James, Eric Bogosian and Zoey Deutch.

Strong, who stumbled upon Slawenski’s biography in a bookstore instantly had a deep connection to Salinger’s story. “He was a young ambitious writer in New York City who was pounding the pavement and desperately trying to sell stories. it reminded me not only of myself but of all my writer friends,” explains Strong. “World War II transformed him into a master storyteller and writer. It was so profound and beautiful that Catcher in the Rye had been written by a veteran who had seen the horrors of war. What hooked me was the idea that art could be birthed through trauma.”

Before Strong got regular work as an actor, it took years of struggle, but he remained unstoppable. he shared some of his best success tips.

Let yourself take risks that may be out of your comfort zone. In high school I started doing plays and was able to get an agent but didn’t book any work. Then I was a theater major at the University of Southern California, got a new agent and kept auditioning. Again, I didn’t book any work and was ready to quit many times. I thought, it’s been four years and maybe I need to get a real job now.

I was going to quit but had a profound moment. I went on an audition for a goofy sitcom. Whenever I went on an audition, I asked myself: what are they looking for? But I decided this would be my last audition. Who cares what they’re seeking! I’ll do whatever I want. What would make this funny is if this guy was really weird like Kramer on Seinfeld. I walked into the room and they started laughing as soon as I began talking. I got the job. I did the same thing the following day and I got that job. A few days later, I booked another. After four years of auditioning, I booked three jobs in one week.

Always do what you love. That is more important than any kind of success you can achieve. If you’re passionate about what you’re doing, then you’re successful. You’ve already won. For example, if you’re a writer you have to keep writing. No matter what happens, a real writer writes. That is what makes a professional writer. Whether you’re getting paid or not or they’re making your movies or not, keep writing. Also, write through rejection.

Original article at Forbes.