A Conversation with Hunter Sansone

I spoke with actor Hunter Sansone about growing up in Missouri, his love of animals and his role in Safety — streaming NOW on Disney+.

Yanis: So you grew up on a farm in Missouri. How did you get into acting? You weren’t that keen on being an actor to begin with right?

Hunter: I wouldn’t necessarily categorize myself as a “farm boy.” I definitely spent a lot of my time out on the farm. How it worked out was my parents separated at a young age.

When that happened my dad got a farm and my mom stayed in the city. I was spending my weekends on the farm and during the week I was going to school in the city and spending my time with my mom.

So I had the best of both worlds. Out on the farm with the animals, going to school playing sports and all that in the city and being with my friends. But what really shaped me into who I am today are those days out on the farm spending time with the animals.

It gave me that huge impact of being a big animal advocate. So it was very influential on me for sure.

My mom is an entertainer. She’s been a singer-songwriter and vocal coach for as long as I can remember, so that’s kind of what really got me going in this direction.

She was saying to me “you’re a good actor.” But for me I just thought it was a mom being a mom. “Oh I believe you can do anything you want” you know, blah blah blah, and that was great and all. But I was a kid and I just wanted to play my sports and I wanted to be with my animals out on the farm.

But she had a gut feeling, and as the saying goes “mama knows best.” I got curious one day, and she was going to an acting class herself in the St. Louis area, so I decided to go along. I fell in love with it and the coach took a liking to me and took me under his arm.

They also in classes in Springfield Missouri about three and a half hours away from St. Louis, so I started giving up my weekends and driving three and a half hours to Springfield and giving up my nights.

I didn’t miss the normal things I was doing — hanging out with friends on the weekends and things like that — I was fully engulfed and dedicated to this acting thing and that really proved it to me. It was “wow this is what I’m meant to do because I love it and I don’t miss anything else.”

And I proved it to my parents as well. I got my grades up and eventually got out to Los Angeles in 2014 I believe, and started hustling and got into an acting class. I started working part time jobs and got pictures and a manager, and an agent. I started auditioning and then a handful of years later I got Stargirl and that kind of changed everything for me.

Y: I’ve seen Stargirl and it’s absolutely incredible. You’re right, mama does know best, this is just one more drop in that bucket. You showed athletic talent from a young age, did you consider pursuing a career as an athlete?

H: You’re dead on. I was in love with sports from a young age and when I was really little, before even acting was brought my way, I definitely dreamed of that — maybe being a professional soccer player.

That was kind of the sport where I shined at a very young age and was playing it year round. I’ve played every sport, but soccer and basketball were my main two.

Given the height situation for basketball, I didn’t really see that as too promising. But with soccer I saw it as more of a legitimate possibility. I grew tired of it. I looked at it and I was like “is this something I want to do for the rest of my life” and really what eventually led to me going down the acting direction is I realized I had interests across the board with everything.

One day I’d sit down and talk to my dad and be like “you know what’s kind of fascinating to me is the oil industry,” and then “wow, NASA that whole world is exciting being an astronaut!” and “Oh, Wall Street is fascinating.”

All these different things in life really peaked my interests, and if you’re gonna do one of those things, you’ve got to pick one. But I loved it all. I’m a person who really loves life and all the different things that come with it. And one day it just kind of clicked for me.

I was like “well if I’m an actor I can go do that for a handful of months.” I can go be a doctor and they’re gonna teach me all about it. And they’re gonna train me and then one day I can go play a professional soccer player in a movie.

And so that really peaked my interests in a huge way, but ultimately what I was deciding between was animals as a career and acting. And what I realized was if I pursue acting and really kind of get successful in that world, I can use my platform as an actor to ultimately benefit my love for animals.

But the other way around would be challenging. So I decided ultimately to pursue acting and use my voice as an actor to benefit animals.

Y: That’s excellent. We’re going to talk about your love of animals a little bit later. You portray an athlete in Safety on Disney+. How did you rely on your athletic past to portray Daniel?

H: I definitely think it helped me get into the whole energy of being an athlete because I was used to it. I knew what it was like. I knew how athletes walked and talked and acted. I was one.

All my friends were athletes. My family, my cousins. But you won’t see me playing too much football in the film. But it definitely contributed to the overall character because Daniel is more than just this roommate, this teammate.

He’s also an athlete, he’s a division one football player, no matter how low on the ranks he is. He is on the Clemson team and so having that background of sports and banter of how athletes talk and the way they move contributed. I hope it came across believable in the film and my performance in particular.

Y: Why should everybody check out Safety?

H: Safety is a film for everyone and that’s the best way to put it. It’s a family film and it’s landing at the perfect time during the holidays. It’s not just a football film.

Football is a part of it. If you’re a diehard sports fan it will totally get that urge of watching a sports film out, because that is definitely a large part of it, but it’s so much more than that.

It’s about family. It’s about a community coming together and supporting two young men. It’s really touching and it’s very timely. You know 2020’s been a tough year for everyone, there’s no getting around that.

This film has really been a positivity boost going into 2021. I think it’s what everyone needs, and you may get some ugly cries in there if you watch it, so I recommend a tissue box.

But it’s one of those feel good cries that I feel like everybody needs, so that’s really what’s at the core of this film. Family and heart and community, and so I hope everyone resonates with the film the same way I did.

Y: You’ve played a wide range of characters. Cameron from Stargirl and Daniel are quite different. How do you approach these different characters? Do you rely on your training?

H: I’ve always wanted the roles I play to be a very wide range. I don’t want to ever be type cast into a certain type of role or part, and so I definitely pick my projects with that in mind. I really enjoy stretching those acting muscles and playing all these different roles because I feel like I have all of these different people inside of me.

That is what all actors really aim for, at least the ones I’m friends with. They’re like “hey we have all of these different people inside of us, so let’s bring them out and bring them to the screen.”

My training really focused on that. I spend the majority of my time working at the Michael Woolson Studio in Los Angeles. Michael became a huge mentor of mine and the way he coaches and works.

He really stresses the importance of plays and playwrights and working on that type of material because it ultimately leads to a better performance for you in film and television, not only stage. And you know I’ve worked on all these different parts in class.

I’ve worked on a good guy, all the way to the bad guy and someone with mental health issues and someone who’s just a normal everyday person.

All these different areas really fascinate me and I enjoy bringing all these different types of people to life. So yes 100 per cent, it was my training that influenced me to go on one end of the spectrum to the complete other end.

Y: Season 2 of Stargirl is coming in 2021, what can fans expect?

H: I can’t give you too much there because I don’t want to spoil anything for you guys. But what I can tell you is season 1 was a blast. It was such a fun ride and I heard that a lot of people enjoyed it. I can promise you the same thing for season 2. I believe they are even turning it up another notch.

Geoff Johns continuously blows me away with his writing and his creativity. I think he stepped it up even another notch for season 2. Cameron has definitely evolved in season 2, and if you saw season 1 and you saw the cliffhanger we were left with, that left Cameron in quite a sticky situation.

You know the sky’s the limit for Cameron in season 2 given the way it left off in season 1, and I’m excited for everybody to see how that goes down.

Y: I can’t let you go without discussing your love of animals. Tell me about the Stand Up for Pits foundation.

H: Well like I’ve said many times, I spent a lot of my childhood out my farm and my mom was a huge animal lover and always used to preach the importance of respecting and loving and caring for animals. So that really had a heavy influence on me at a young age in addition to being on a farm with all these different types of animals.

When I moved out to Los Angeles I met Rebecca Corry, who is the founder of the Stand Up for Pits foundation. The Stand Up For Pits foundation is focused on ending the discrimination of Pitbull type dogs. She holds a yearly comedy event to benefit the organization and the breed. I’ve been attached to that for a few years now, but obviously during the time of COVID things have had to adjust.

Stray Rescue of St. Louis is a stray rescue organization that actively goes out and rescues abused, neglected and abandoned animals off the streets and out of bad situations. That’s really what I’m passionate about. Getting these animals off the streets and out of shelters that are going to euthanize them if they’re not adopted within a certain amount of time.

Because to me, that makes no sense. These animals are on a time limit in these shelters and if they’re not adopted, they get euthanized. It is not humane and it makes no sense to me, and I really want to focus on ending those types of shelters and getting no kill shelters to the front of everybody’s mind.

My ultimate goal is to open farm animal sanctuaries around the US and around the whole world. Taking in domestic and farm animals that aren’t wanted, the ones that don’t have homes and letting them live out their lives happily. Helping out with proper adoptions if they find the right people and converting my own farm into an animal sanctuary one day.

I’ve got a lot of big plans and things in the works, and I’d say the ultimate message I want to get across to people is animals don’t have a voice. They are the purest form of love and I want to be a voice for them because they don’t have their own. All they want is love even if you don’t give it to them in return, so respect them treat them like family. I think that’s the most important message here.

Y: You’re a hero on and off the screen. Happy belated birthday. It was two weeks ago right?

H: It was yeah. Thank you, I appreciate that.

Y: I always give love to people with December birthdays because the proximity to Christmas sometimes eclipses their birthday. How did you celebrate this year?

H: This year, unfortunately, given the circumstances literally the celebration was me, my mom, my dad and my dad’s wife. So it was just us four and it was hilarious and bizarre and fun with our own little unique family that we’ve got.

We had a lot of fun. They got me a cake and we stayed in and we watched Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey on Netflix and we loved it.

My December birthday, I’ve always loved it. December’s always been such a highlight for me because when I lived in LA I would come home to St. Louis for the entire month of December. I’d get my birthday in. I’d get Christmas in and I’d get New Years in all in one. The entire month of December used to just be a party.

I’m getting gifts at the beginning of the month and at the end, so it’s always been a great month for me. I love Christmas time, and I love snow and usually in the Midwest we get a good amount of that, so December’s a great time.

Y: No hard feelings about the December birthday? I like that. You see it positively!

H: I do. Absolutely all good things.

Y: I’m a Canadian so I love snow as well, except this year the snow angels have to be six feet apart. Put a mask on the snowman, and it’s all good.

You can follow Hunter Sansone on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.