What It Means To Be Real In Your Storytelling

It’s the end of my first semester at the University of Hawaii and my roommate Shannon and I are cramming for finals. At around 9 at night, we decide to take a break so we go get a bite to eat at King’s Bakery. 

After our delicious late night snack of Sweet Hawaiian Bread French Toast, we hop back on our mopeds, wind in our hair, heading back towards our dorm.

That’s the last thing I remember. 

The next thing I do remember is waking up in a hospital bed five days later. The pain is so severe I can barely turn my head. I learn that a masonry cement truck had run a red light and hit us. 

I’m dizzy, nauseous and my head is pounding as the doctor comes into my room. I ask him if he can give me something for the pain.

“No Kymberlee, I’m sorry. We can’t give you anything because your brain is swelling right now.” 

What?! 

“You’re going to have trouble with dizziness and nausea for a really long time. You’ll probably have trouble with balance and headaches for the rest of your life.” 

Ready for the bad news? According to him, I’ve also lost my sense of taste and smell… forever.

Now, lying in this bed, I have a choice to make. I can let others decide what happens in my story next, or I can take the reins of my story instead. 

I chose the latter. And because of that pivotal decision, doors and opportunities opened up to me that would have never been options. Dreams have come true all because I took my life in my own hands.

My guest today, Kurt Kanazawa, also had a choice to make when he was faced with a diagnosis. He was on a very specific life path when everything changed. In this episode, you’ll hear about it and answers to questions such as:

What’s the benefit behind telling the story that you don’t necessarily want to tell? How can your history spawn creative storytelling for other creators? And what’s a powerful way to open a story?

• What is possible when you take control of your story
• Why the truth of your story can’t remain hidden for long
• What it means to be real in your storytelling (no matter the medium)

Kurt Kanazawa is an actor and writer born in Los Angeles and partly raised in Hawai'i. He graduated from The Juilliard School in Vocal Arts, and lived for several years in Italy, where he starred in the Italian drama series, Provaci Ancora Prof! He is fluent in Italian, and is of Japanese and Filipino descent. He is based in Los Angeles. 

Most recently, Kurt can be seen in the ensemble feature film No No Girl, a multi-generational Japanese American family drama, written/directed by Paul Daisuke Goodman. At Tribeca, Cannes, Hawai'i, and BFI London Film Festivals, he played Stanley Hayami in A Life in Pieces: the Diary and Letters of Stanley Hayami, a V/R film co-produced by the Japanese American National Museum, and has also appeared on Bosch: Legacy and Grey's Anatomy. Trained in martial arts, and an alumnus of Columbia University, UCLA TFT, and the Manhattan School of Music, he was formerly an award-winning opera singer. After a diagnosis of vocal dystonia ended his singing career, a casting director scouted him in Rome, where he landed his first acting gig.