I. Hi! We’re happy to have you with us. First thing’s first, can you slate for us please?
“Danika King, thirty, she/her, assistant director... I was once told that I look like Kylie Bunbury.”
II. It’s great to meet you. So you have to know that everyone’s been curious about you, why don’t we start with where you’re from? Tell us where you grew up and what your childhood and family were like.
“I’m from Detroit, Michigan. It’s a place, I guess. I’m sorry, I’m just not really used to talking about myself… Or my childhood. It was…rough. I know it’s not an original story but I grew up with a single mother for mostly – all, of my life. My father abandoned us at a young age which I guess was for the best sing he owed a lot of people money and we didn’t need them coming around the house all the time. Not that I think he left to protect us, cause they still came around for a while after, but when they realized he really didn’t care about us and that threatening us wasn’t gonna make him show us, they stopped. It wasn’t pretty; they were bad people who did bad things, but when they stopped bothering us it didn’t exactly make things better. My mom was still struggling to raise us on a paycheck that was criminal and that was a lot of stress on her. We ate cereal for dinner a lot – store brand, not anything fancy. Sorry, I just… Anyway it meant that I didn’t have a lot of a childhood cause as the oldest and with her working all the time, I had to raise my siblings. So my childhood was a lot of …that.”
III. Well, they say our upbringing molds who we become. I’m sure that you got your reputation for being maternal, organized, responsible, short tempered, needy, over-emotional from that.
“People love labels, what are you gonna do? If I worried about every label someone put on me I’d be in a way worse position. At least they’re saying nice things about me too.”
IV. And what about that lead you to your current career? How did that impact you enough to want to do what you do now?
“Chance and opportunity, really? I mean I never really had the goal of being an assistant director, it just was where I landed after life took me different places. I was really just focused on graduating high school so I wouldn’t have to struggle like my mom did, but when I did I knew I wasn’t in the place to go off to college. I had no money and I quit basketball junior year cause the after school practices ran long and my mom wanted me to help out more and get a part time job so I wasn’t in line for any kind of scholarship – not with my grades. So what was a steady B+ student supposed to do? I got a full-time job to help out more and I was pretty set to have that be my life but luck had other plans. I was working at a restaurant where the local news anchor had loved to visit. She took a liking to me and figured I was too smart or whatever to be a waitress and put in a good word for me at the station. The pay wasn’t much higher than the restaurant and there were no tips but it was a lot better than being bossed around and shouted at because someone’s soup was taking too long or their steak was overcooked. It’s also where I started to learn a little about productions and how they worked, which I actually found fun.”
V. That’s awesome. I’m sure our readers will love to hear that. So you knew you had a calling, what came next? How did you get yourself to Hollywood? What was your first job?
“Hollywood was a dream I didn’t even have. Hell I never even thought I’d leave Detroit. I worked at that station for a few years before I even started to think about doing something else. I was an associate producer by then and while the job was fun, people went in and out of there and onto bigger things and I was the only one staying around. My mother said it was a good job and I shouldn’t have messed with it but I had my eye on things in other states and maybe a few classes. I knew there was a position available in Atlanta where my old boss relocated and I was honestly saving up for it for a while in secret. My siblings were old enough to take care of themselves mostly and I needed to take a risk so I went out there. I didn’t get the job I wanted and for another year was stuck as an A.P. just in another place. I took classes, dated a little, had a comical series of roommates and aged a lot mentally before a friend I had made in a class was making a short film and asked if I could help out because I was the most organized person they knew. I said sure and that was my first time as an assistant director. I played around with it a little more and did a lot of research and realized that I could be making a lot more money just by telling people what to do.It seemed like a dream,but also a risk. But if I could find a job doing what I’m doing now and find the time and money to take film classes then I saw it as a risk worth taking. So I moved to L.A.”
VI. Of course, but we all know there’s a sea of faces out here trying to get famous as well, right? It must have been hard, the first few rejections or being told something wasn’t good enough. What was the most difficult thing you faced on your journey?
“Well yeah, of course I got rejected a few times, but I was used to it. I had a decent resume from years of working in a news studio and after I’d completed a course or two I had the paper to prove that I knew what I was doing,so I shopped myself around. I got a few more indie films before I got a steady job on a tv show, that was only just last year and I was still young by industry standards so I was second AD really, but none of that was really hard or difficult. The difficult part was my family,who had fell on hard times –well, harder times , without me there giving them every penny. My siblings were pretty upset at me for leaving and that they now had to get part time jobs to help out and couldn’t just hang out with their friends and be kids, but I had the same thing and I was taking care of them my whole life, they weren’t even thinking about anyone but themselves. And my mother she… Well she was always bitter at me for leaving but one of my brothers was acting up, skipping school, and somehow it was my fault because I wasn’t there to set her kid back in line. It felt like my whole family hated me for trying to better myself and not carry them on my back, even though I still sent money home often.It took a toll on my work and in a moment of weakness I thought about giving it all up and going back, but what would that get me? It made me feel selfish but I had to put myself first, which was something I hadn’t be raised to do, so it was hard.”
VII. So then what was the moment that you realized you made it? Or are you still waiting for that moment?
“Oh no way have I made it. I’m still working a TV show and not the Game of Thrones, ten million dollars and episode kind, and eating Red Lobster or Outback seems like a luxury to me considering I like in a tiny one bedroom where I get home late, heat up a Swansons or make box mac & cheese because I’m too tired for anything else and then pass out on my couch. I think I’ll have made it when I can work five-six months on a film then spend a month on vacation not freaking out because I’m technically unemployed and I can go out to eat somewhere that doesn’t have a drive thru window and not worry that it’s my rent money I’m spending. (2 - The D List)
VIII. It’s amazing when you make it far enough in this town when so many people end up giving up and going home, isn’t it? So now that you’re here, what’s next for you?
"Well I just turned thirty and haven’t had to pack it up yet, so yeah, it’s great. In the future though I mean obviously I’d like to get first A.D. on a reall big production. A show with a huge budget or a superhero movie since those are huge right now – something where I can bring in a huge enough check to upgrade my apartment and bring my younger sibling out to live with me while they attend college. I want to be able to say that even though I took risks my siblings didn’t have to and so I’d really love a solid gig to help make that happen.”
IX. Now we know it’s personal but we have to ask, do you have any comment about the rumors going around about you?
“Oh… I mean, yeah so that thing… Not that I’m saying that anything happened but lots of actors and crew members have flings on set so it can’t be that. I guess you mean my mother’s gambling habit…which I wish was a rumor…”
X. Thank you so much for talking to us today. Lastly, is there anything you want our readers to know about you?
“Well it’s a little sad but I’ve never been to Disney, though I really want to go. I have a feeling it’s a place where I’d live if I could, but it just always seemed like magic there. I want to take all my siblings and go one day. It’s right up there on my bucket list with going to Korea. I’m kind of a sucker for Kpop, not even gonna lie.”
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