Once Rising Starlet And Mother Of Two, Shannyn Sossamon, Embarking On Her “Own Little Hollywood” Journey
Actress Shannyn Sossamon's rise to stardom in the early 2000s dissipated quickly when she became pregnant at just 22. Now at 42 years of age, the actress is embarking on a brand new journey to create what she calls her “own little Hollywood”
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During the early 2000s, actress Shannyn Sossamon had just started to become Hollywood’s newest sensation when she simply disappeared from the limelight. Apart from a few sporadic indie films, the lead actress of A Knights Tale was largely unseen and unheard of, and many wondered as to what happened to her.
Those who have been following her closely know she took time off from making movies to do a few different things; mostly to fulfill her duties as a mom.
Shannyn Sossamon Is A Single Mother With Two Kids.
Amidst her rising stardom during the early 2000s, Shannyn got pregnant unexpectedly. The father was Dallas Clayton, an author and children’s book illustrator, who she had been dating for about a year. She gave birth to her first son — who the couple bizarrely named Audio Science Clayton — in May 2003. Shortly after Audio’s birth in 2004, she separated from Clayton and raised her son on her own.
Raising a child must have been hard at such a young age and even more so without a husband. Resultantly, her parenting responsibilities curbed her speedy rise to star success. The actress even admitted to this in an interview with Uproxx and said she felt like she missed her chance at stardom, insisting that even in her early career she was never really "famous."
I know in the beginning, I was 21, and I had done four big films, one after the other. But when I had my boy I just kind of, I completely, everything stopped. Everything came completely to a total stop.
However, as a proud mother, the actress is more than grateful for her firstborn. "I like to look at the birth of my first son as a blessing of course...I can't imagine life without him...He completely grounded me and made me look at myself, and my life just became completely different. It was just a gift, and perfect timing, too.”- the actress had told Nylon.
In 2011, she had another child, this time with her then-boyfriend Richard Purser. The son was named Mortimer Purser. Her bond with Richard didn’t last long either, and the two separated soon after. The actress continued raising her two kids on her own.
It Wasn’t Just Motherhood That Held Her Back. Hollywood Just Didn’t Suit Her.
It seems motherhood was only a part of the reason why Shannyn didn’t achieve the level of stardom most thought she would. As per her interviews in various media outlets, the actress just wasn’t comfortable with who Hollywood wanted her to be. “I didn't feel like what they wanted me to be. I didn't feel like the person that was being projected onto me. That was very uncomfortable”, the actress told Refinery 29.
According to Refinery 29, the actress was referring to “The manic pixie dream girl with red dip-dyed hair, a carefree smile, and sprite-like grace that she embodied for much of her early career.”
Sossaman has stated on numerous occasions that most of the acting she did after the birth of her first child was simply to fulfill her financial needs. She was on what she calls “survival mode” for she had a family to provide for. As such she’s appeared in a couple of undistinguished horror movies, and had a few roles on TV shows like How to make it in America (2010), Sleepy Hollow series (2015), and Wayward Pines (2015).
"I feel like there’s a lot of creative spirits out there that want to make moving pictures...but the Hollywood system is not very friendly to that spirit...To succeed, you must sell a bit of your soul. You have to lose a bit of your innocence to win. I think that’s what I've always disliked about the system.”
Shannyn Sossamon Is Looking To Create Her Own 'Little Hollywood' With Her Upcoming Project — The Maude Room
Shannyn’s dissatisfaction with Hollywood seems to have increasingly grown over the years. As per the actress, her breaking point came in 2018, when she was offered a script that was offensively bad. This led her to turn her life in a different direction. The 42-year-old actress came to realize that the Hollywood system was incompatible with her spirit; and that she had to "create a new system." So she began working on The Maude Room.
The Maude Room is essentially a video channel that has a variety of short video acts. These shorts can be dramatic or comedic or can be musical performances, or simply conversations about tough subjects. She fondly calls it “a picture show theatre”. Alongside the film, the actress is also developing an app called the “Picture Show City” where the content for The Maude Room will be delivered. As of December 2020, a Kickstarter for the project has garnered $66,000 and is scheduled to begin delivering content in 2021.
There were great examples around me of people [over the years] who were making [things] happen. You know, actresses were writing their own stuff, starring in their own stuff, directing in their own stuff. It was inspiring, yes, but they were still doing it within the system. What I wanted was to leave. Like, I'm going to create my own little Hollywood over here.
