Interview with Actor, Andrei Prunila

For the past couple years, the media industry has been seeing the gradual rise of Chinese streaming company, DramaBox. Unlike other streaming services, the content on DramaBox is exclusively vertical and episodes come in cheesy, bite-size pieces. DramaBox is currently the highest-grossing platform that specializing in short-form dramas. One of the platform's biggest successes has been the series, My Secret Agent Husband, starring up-and-c0ming actor, Andrei Prunila, who we were lucky enough to speak to today about what's next for his career!

Rua: "Hi everyone, today I'm here with Andrei! Would you mind introducing yourself to our audience?"

Prunila: "Hi, my name is Andrei Prunila, I'm a 5'8 Actor working in LA! Thank you so much for having me!"

Rua: "Of course! Now when you were working on My Secret Agent Husband for Dramabox, did you ever predict it would be this successful?"

Prunila: "Absolutely not. When I was working on it, it was at the tail end of a very dense, vertical, infested period of my life. I was on my 12th vertical at the time that we were shooting season one, and they all kind of like blurred into the same project in my head. So I expected nothing from it, because I'd never gotten recognized or gotten anything out of a previous vertical. It wasn't until mid-July that I started getting some following online from it, and people recognizing me in public for the first time, that I realized that the show actually had an impact. Then it gradually became an entire Twitter phenomenon and a subculture, we have a fan base, and I never would have guessed that this would have happened. It's just cool, yeah."

Rua: "And you're very open about your story, being an actor who dropped out of drama school to pursue your craft full time. And since then you've been quite successful, booking projects left and right, and not just verticals. Would you say the risk of dropping out was worth it for you?"

Prunila: "Thank you! Absolutely, I would say the risk was worth it. I won't lie that there were periods of times after I dropped out of college that I was second guessing myself, especially because I was essentially I dropped out of college the week that the writers strike began. So it felt like the universe was giving me a huge middle finger and saying

'Oh, you wanted to do acting full time? You're not going to get to do anything ever. Go work your two day jobs, humble yourself a little bit.' And honestly, that's exactly what I did. It made me expect less from the industry, and I think it instilled a sense of patience with me, because I'm a very impatient person at heart, which is part of the reason I did drop out of college. I wanted to maximize my time in the industry and get as much real world experience as possible and as early as possible. But I never would have expected that things would have caught on so fast, like I would still be my junior year of college right now, and I'm being considered for projects that I didn't think I would be for another five years, and that's incredible!"

Rua: "Yeah, and it takes a lot of courage to make a leap of faith like that, I'm really glad it worked out for you! Would you say that patience is something that's important to have if you want to work as an actor?"

Prunila: "Patience is incredibly important because this industry does not proportionately reward hard work with payoff. You can be an extremely hard working actor and not find much success, and you can be an incredibly lazy and inconsistent actor and by luck, find lots of success. And that's why patience is important, because you can't really judge yourself, your craft, your quality as a performer, and your worth as an individual, by how much you're booking and how much money you're making. And that took me a really long time to come to terms with, because I'm very hard on myself, and I have always liked that about me, it's a reason for me to push forward and keep being motivated in such a competitive industry. But at a certain level, it becomes unproductive and actually holds you back. If you get too stuck in your own ways, you can end up holding yourself back."

Rua: "I actually find it hard to think of a field that doesn't reward patience as a virtue, it's something I definitely have had to practice as well. Now, you've found most of your success in vertical media like DramaBox, which is a Chinese company. A couple years ago, the United States tried to do something similar with Quibi, which was a gigantic failure, only lasting six months before shutting down. Why do you think Quibi failed but DramaBox is succeeding?"

Prunila: "I think Quibi was ahead of its time. I think DramaBox and similar vertical companies are finding success because they came into the market well into the world of TikTok, where the audience's attention span has been whittled down appropriately to digest two minute vertical content. Back when Quibi came out, I think people were less acclimated to the dopamine rush of reel scrolling, so they weren't prepared to sit down for these like 60 second episodes. But now it's much more of a cultural norm to doom scroll, and I think DramaBox other equivalent vertical companies are profiting off of that."

Rua: "Historically companies have had a hard time marketing queer stories in China, so were you surprised that a Chinese company wanted to make a gay love story like My Secret Agent Husband?"

Prunila: "Yes, I was surprised because My Secret Agent Husband was the first ever gay vertical to be released. And I do commend DramaBox, its executives and Dede Harlan, the writer and director of the show, for taking such a risk, because it clearly paid off. But the most impressive part of it, in my opinion, is that not only was it the first gay vertical, but it was also the first vertical to develop a fan following large enough to warrant a season two renewal! The fact that the first vertical ever to be to get a second season was also gay, I think, also speaks to how the community, like holds on to each other and we support our own media, especially now more than ever. I think My Secret Agent Husband came out at the perfect time where we were looking for a win as the queer community, and we got a little one, and I think that queer representation in the media is often so dramatized and depicted as problematic, like, I can't remember the last time I watched the show that depicted a healthy gay couple and this show made light of the queer storyline in a way that I think Western media rarely does. Usually I see gay people struggling with their identity and suicide and struggling to find like healthy relationships, and those are all very real stories that need to continually be told. But I also think once in a while it's nice to see that the gay lifestyle can be taken with a whimsical light, because it's not all that serious. Yeah,

Rua: "Of course it's an incredibly cheesy show, but do you think it's important that queer people also get to have those saccharine, Hallmark Channel-esque stories that straight people have?"

Prunila: "Absolutely, because I think we're just as deserving of the fantasy of that romanticized world as any straight person is. I think the gay community, as I said, is subjected to this idea that living as a queer person is objectively more difficult than living as a straight person. But I also don't think we constantly need that reminder in the media. Sometimes it's nice to have the reminder that things can be silly and light and that can actually be a really positive escape for a lot of people."

Rua: "Yeah, now that I think about it, most gay stories you see in theaters are almost like...trauma porn, so it's nice that there's a space being carved out for more lighthearted queer stories that aren't meant to be taken so seriously. Now, in addition to being a queer actor, you are also a first-generation American right?"

Prunila: "Yes I am!"

Rua: "Me too! Could you tell us a little more about that?"

Prunila: "When I was six years old, my mother and I moved from Satu Mare, Romania to the US, and honestly, it was a very unconventional and difficult upbringing. I think I attended 10 schools in the span of a decade, and I never had a situation in my childhood where I felt stable or consistent in my environment. I think that's what honestly manifested as the ability to take risk into my adulthood, because I know what it feels like to change and to live under the idea of things being tumultuous or tenuous. And I think that's very empowering, like I don't feel tied to the idea of stability, and that almost makes it easier for me to take big risks, like dropping out of college. It was difficult because I kind of grew up feeling like I was an outsider looking into American culture. So when I applied that to being an actor, I feel like I'm constantly trying to play catch-up in the game of understanding Western media. I feel like I'm still catching up on movies that most people I am friends with have seen."

Rua: "And do you think that constant state of having to adapt and take risks growing up in a way, prepared you for becoming an actor?"

Prunila: "I think it did. I think growing up was a constant trial and error of what version of myself is the most presentable and acceptable to my peers. I felt like every eight months I got to start out at a new school and kind of decide who I got to be again, not in a way where I was ever inauthentic to myself, but I felt like I was constantly trial running how I present myself. But eventually, I just realized that no matter where I live and where I'm studying, people are more or less the same anywhere. I think my upbringing of getting to see so many different cultures, like just from living in New Jersey and Virginia and Minnesota and New Zealand and California, I've been exposed to so many different like subcultures that I think I use in my daily tools as an actor. Like, I draw from those experiences and the people I've met along the way in my own character work, and I don't think I would have had that if I just grew up in the same town my whole life."

Rua: "That's a great way of looking at things. But as an actor, you haven't just been in verticals, you've been in commercials, shorts, and theater. Are there any projects on your resume that you're particularly proud of?"

Prunila: "Yes! Just last year I was in a short called Worms, directed and produced by Aden Bertisch. It was a film about a young boy who grew up homeschooled, and is starting high school for the first time, and he is a little different from the other kids because he eats worms. He always grew up eating worms, it was not something that was weird to him, and I think it resonated with me, because I have perpetually been that the new kid in school, so much so that I knew how to draw from that feeling of having to almost like fight my way into a pre-established social circle. But also it spoke to me because I feel like the experience is so universal, because at its core, the short film Worms is fundamentally about teen angst and like the discomfort of growing up, because everyone can fundamentally identify with feeling like they're an outcast in their own social circle. I'm sure everyone can think of something about themselves, either externally or internally, that they feel makes them separate from others. That's why I think the film is so special, because it uses the symbolism of eating worms as that thing we all have that we feel we have to hide from others. Thankfully, it was very well received, because it's performing in a few film festivals across the country this year, and I'm very proud of the work that I did on it."

Rua: "Do you have any films or actors in particular that have influenced you?"

Prunila: "I would say Milo Ventimiglia from Gilmore Girls, I think his acting style is a big reference point for me. I think he's very honest, and I like the way he approaches his work. Comedically, I would say I try to emulate the beats of Dylan O'Brien and Teen Wolf especially, and then more classically, fundamentally, I look up to comedic icons like Steve Martin, Jim Carey and further back like Charlie Chaplin from my physical comedy. And I think there's a space right now for bringing that exaggerated physicality back into mainstream media. I feel like comedy in Hollywood right now has really taken a more stripped back approach that's more focused on dialogue, which I appreciate, and I don't want that to go away. But I'd be interested to see what like a Charlie Chaplin-esque Jim Carey movie in a 2025 lens would look because I miss that. I miss those like early 2000s movies where you get to see like the average everyday man fully embrace his inner child."

Rua: "I adore Charlie Chaplin, I'm hoping to get a tattoo of him soon. And like Chaplin, you're also working on some music right?"

Prunila: "Yeah, I'm currently working on producing a debut EP. It's been a very slow process because I've had to juggle an acting career simultaneously, you know, to pay my rent and put food on the table. But I feel like I'm finally at a place where I can take a few months and really, like, cut the fat with my music, and get to the point. It's really exciting and scary because although acting is extremely vulnerable, producing music is a different type of exposure that feels foreign to me, and it makes me uncomfortable, which makes me excited! I'm just really interested to see what comes of it, because... I don't know, I'm truly not putting any expectations on it, and that has been really freeing and has only expedited the process."

Rua: "Well I can't wait to hear it. Now, the last question I ask all my guests is, what is your favorite swear word?"

Prunila: "Oh, it's cunt."

Rua: "Me too!"

Prunila: "Yeah, even just being in London right now, I'm hearing people say it more naturally. Because they'll fully just be like, 'oh yeah, he's a good cunt, yeah.' It's awesome."

Rua: "I'm glad we agree. Thank you so much for joining us today, Adrei, have a great time in London!"

Prunila: "Thanks again for having me!"

Thanks again to Andrei for appearing on our site! He has some big projects in the works so make sure to stay in touch with his IMDB and social media. Thanks for tuning into Cinemasters.net and remember to never stop watching!