Alaskan Native Actor BRÍAN PAGAQ WESCOTT (Athabaskan/Yup’ik): Collaborating on Falling Like Stars

Meet Alaskan Native Brían Pagaq Wescott (Athabaskan/Yup’ik), one of the four leads in the musical feature film Falling Like Stars and a very talented theater and film actor (SAG-AFTRA/AEA). Based in Los Angeles, Brían is a member of Native Voices at the Autry (NVA), the nation’s only indigenous Equity company, where participated in the 2021 Short Play Festival. Brían has been instrumental in developing his character Hank Star Bird, consulting with writer-director Judy Sandra from the beginning of the screenplay writing and introducing her to the rich culture of contemporary Native Alaska. Also a member of the WGA, he has contributed to the upcoming pamphlet “Do’s and Dont’s for Writing Native American Characters” for the Native American & Indigenous Writers Committee and has conducted acting workshops across the country for the SAG-AFTRA National Native Americans Committee. Here is Brian on this exciting Falling Like Stars collaboration:

“This is a tremendous time to be a Native Creative! Suddenly, this year, the business seems to have discovered our potential, but Judy Sandra was already ahead of that curve. When she decided to include a Native character in Falling Like Stars several years ago, she saw me in a production at NVA (“They Don’t Talk Back,” 2016) and began a journey to flesh out this character. She’d cultivated ties with the Native community for years and, in many conversations and working meetings over Indian food (the OTHER Indian food, from India) she demonstrated a genuine interest in the unexpected nature of modern Native life. I showed her transformation masks and other artwork and music from the Arctic that inspire me. It is the greatest compliment for an artist of her gifts to truly collaborate in this manner. Stereotypes and previous ways of presenting Native characters have fallen by the wayside in favor of the amazing richness, variety, and truth of our lives. Grew up in a cabin without running water? Interesting! Talked your way into Harvard and Yale–whoa! You visit the desert because it reminds you of the tundra, and because the stars shine at night like back home? Why not? No one’s ever made a movie like this before that includes a well-traveled Alaska Native living in the California desert? Let’s do it!”