Make It Yours or Don’t Bother | Ryan Satterfeal on Acting, Audacity, and Why Specificity Wins

Ryan Satterfeal is a multi-award-winning actor, writer, and musician whose curiosity led him from garage bands to community theater—and eventually, to screen roles in Chicago Med, commercials, and indie films like Life Unexpected, Poser, and Clown Shoes. In this conversation, we talk about why he still reads scripts with both his actor and writer brain, how he handles risk and mischief in the audition room, and what it means to trust your impulses without letting your craft become automatic.

Ryan shares how he finds the “sentence of a scene,” navigates vague direction, and finds his footing in the ever-changing world of self-tapes, stage performance, and set collaboration. We also talk about what makes something big—not in budget, but in impact—and why you sometimes have to make the project you want to see.

We talk about:
 → Letting go of technical rigidity and trusting the “why” behind the line
 → Navigating vague or rushed direction on set
 → The role of mischief and discomfort in his audition process
 → Reading the script with a writer’s ear, even as an actor
 → What gets in the way of authentic point of view—and what helps it shine
 → How self-awareness and pacing choices set a tone for collaboration
 → Why he’s not a fan of the word “content”—and what he prefers to make instead

Connect with Ryan on Instagram and Bluesky: @ryansatterfeal

Listen to more episodes at mischiefpod.com and follow us on Instagram and TikTok at @mischiefpod. Produced by @ohhmaybemedia.