Hear 4: Eric Maus

In this episode, I sit down with Eric Maus—writer, actor, director, and author of Women and Whiskey : A Novel—to talk about the unpredictable journey of building a creative career.

Eric shares how he went from a small-town upbringing in Wisconsin to the fast-paced creative world of Brooklyn, and how years of rejection, odd jobs, and persistence ultimately led him to publish his novel and create independent film projects like Ruff and Tug.

We get into:

• The reality of “making it” as a creative in New York
• Why success is never a straight line
• Lessons learned from failed projects and creative partnerships
• The importance of choosing yourself when no one else will
• How personal experiences shape storytelling
• What it actually takes to finish a book, script, or film

This is an honest, funny, and insightful conversation about ambition, resilience, and the grind behind creative success.

If you're chasing something creative—or thinking about starting—this episode is for you.

If you would like to check out his work, feel free to visit his website

Pick up his book from Amazon 

Or watch any of his work on YouTube like Ruff and Tug

If you would like to be a guest on the podcast, please feel free to reach out at hear4youpod@gmail.com

Transcript

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0:03

Hey, I'm Eric and I'm here for you. What does it really take to build a creative life from scratch? From selling jewelry as a kid in a small town in Wisconsin to chasing artistic ambition in Brooklyn? Today's guest has taken a path that's anything but linear. Eric Moss is a writer, actor, director, and entrepreneur who's done everything from running a dog hair business to creating indie film projects and publishing his own novel Women in Whiskey. In this episode, we dive into the realities of creative work, the rejection, the pivots, the unexpected breakthroughs, and what it means to choose yourself when no one else is handing you an opportunity. If you've ever wondered how people actually make it in creative industries or what keeps them going, when things fall apart, this conversation is for you. I will preface this by saying the audio isn't the best on this one, and it, it's not my best work in editing. I'm still trying to get this down, and I'll be honest in saying that I'm. Kind of disappointed that I couldn't get this one right, because talking with Eric was amazing. There were some really cool vibes. We were bouncing off one another and a good amount of laughs that don't come across so well. So apologies to you all listening because you're really missing out on what was a hilarious conversation. And normally I wouldn't. Put this out, but I feel like he deserves it. And if he hears it and he doesn't like it, maybe I'll, uh, we'll just record another one. 'Cause he has so many more stories that he can tell.. So I hope you enjoy my talk with Eric Moss.

Eric 1:51

I'm curious, like, how did your life start up for you? most people will talk about how face trauma and they face difficulties. But I feel like you, as a person, you have your own struggles. to get you to where you are now.

Eric Maus 2:03

Yeah, so, little background then. I was born and raised in Wisconsin. and I currently live in Brooklyn, New York. and I've spent most, a majority of my life writing or trying to write or getting people to read my work. And, it led me from, I guess, very small town in Wisconsin, like a farm town, outside of Milwaukee to UW Madison, where I studied poetry, which is a really great major for the job market. And that led me to take a bunch of very odd, just odd jobs. Like I've been a realtor. My parents ran a jewelry store in the town next to mine, where I grew up. And then. I've done catering all these sorts of just odd jobs. And then I moved to New York City and for the last, eight years I've been living here, and running a dog care business, which was never really a thought of mine. And, I wrote a book. So it worked, you know, like it, it led Led to stuff.

Eric 3:08

that's incredible. So, so you first off Wisconsin, what a culture shift for that, right. Wisconsin to New York.

Eric Maus 3:14

Yes.

Eric 3:15

only imagine what was the dichotomy there? I'm saying that as a ridiculous statement because I'm sure you have, I mean, Wisconsin has major cities and a bunch of people, but

Eric Maus 3:23

Right.

Eric 3:23

a whole different beast.

Eric Maus 3:25

It's a different animal. altogether. Wisconsin people I'm sure you've met, are very kind and love to talk, and will stop you on the street and just, you can have random conversations with people and you don't know how you ended up talking to somebody for like a half an hour. also a lot of beer drinkers and, a lot of like bar culture, and sports. and now take that and then put it in New York City. Wisconsin, people generally have like very small expectations, like being a writer, they're like, oh, that's cute. my nephew writes, like, they'll say that in like the same sentence while they're talking to you and like, yeah, no, but I'm writing a book. I don't think your 12-year-old nephew is. Doing what I'm doing. but it's great that they're trying. And then you take it to New York City where it's like, oh yeah, I'm writing a book. And then you throw a stone and you could probably hit like three other artists trying to make it in the city as like a creative

Eric 4:23

Here's the thing is I think you're doing more than just making it as a creative, right? you have accolades underneath you. I mean, this is just me doing very light, light, light, light research into you, because I want to experience you as a new person, similar to everybody else listening, but I mean, rough and tug devil's threesome, right?

Eric Maus 4:44

Yeah.

Eric 4:45

I mean, very much So I would love to get into those in a

Eric Maus 4:51

Sure. Yeah.

Eric 4:53

I'm curious because you brought up so many in incredible things, right? You've been through so many different things and you're a business owner

Eric Maus 5:00

I'm lucky enough to, learn entrepreneurship from a very young age. Like I was, I remember being at the Wisconsin, they call it Seven Mile Fair. My parents would have a booth selling jewelry to like every Sunday they would have hundreds and hundreds of people come to us. essentially it was like a rummage sale or like something, a place for vendors. and I would be selling jewelry to old ladies as like a 9-year-old.

Eric 5:28

so the hustle from a young age is what

Eric Maus 5:30

Yeah. There was definitely an element of like, my dad using me for the cuteness factor, you know, like, you gotta smile this, you're supporting my son by buying this ring, you know?

Eric 5:39

It means it's, that's why it's so sad that you're, you're hidden behind a book now. You know? you need to be front and center.

Eric Maus 5:44

I put my image on the back cover.

Eric 5:46

enough. Not enough.

Eric Maus 5:48

I think you'll get to know me pretty well from reading the book.

Eric 5:51

Perfect. Look forward to that.

Eric Maus 5:52

It's called Women in Whiskey, by the way.

Eric 5:54

Yeah, of course. I was gonna do all that at the end, but you beat me to the plug, so

Eric Maus 5:57

I gotta plug it in early just in case somebody checks out for some reason.

Eric 6:01

we're gonna do it like seven times. Don't worry. We're gonna get at least, at least a hundred sales minimum guaranteed.

Eric Maus 6:07

And you're gonna get a million listens.

Eric 6:12

This is it. This is my

Eric Maus 6:13

This?

Eric 6:14

Thank you.

Eric Maus 6:14

Yeah, this both of our breakthrough.

Eric 6:16

Yeah, I can't wait. They're gonna be like, Hey, Eric, the guy from Rough and Tuck. Yeah, totally.

Eric Maus 6:20

That guy.

Eric 6:21

who was on that podcast? Gotta listen, gotta listen.

Eric Maus 6:24

Yeah. No, there's no video though. It's just two sound waves talking to each other.

Eric 6:28

of course. And that's all it's gonna be. In fact, I'm just gonna take these sound waves and put it behind like a Minecraft tutorial video. so we'll get the young kids to really be excited about your book. Women and Whiskey too.

Eric Maus 6:38

Well, with AI nowadays, we could just put an image of us.

Eric 6:42

exact.

Eric Maus 6:43

probably, it'll probably just be like, be really weird,

Eric 6:45

It's gonna be You as a dog. Face me as a cat. That's what I'm gonna do.

Eric Maus 6:48

nice. I like it.

Eric 6:49

that should be

Eric Maus 6:50

It just real simple. Still confusing 'cause both their names are Eric.

Eric 6:53

Eric M, too. That's the worst

Eric Maus 6:55

I know.

Eric 6:55

I feel like the important thing, and the main thing I really should be harping on here is you are an actor, a writer, a director. You are a creative in its very sense. And you took these hustle, learn mentalities from Wisconsin out to the big city of New York, making your way. Now, do you feel like you're getting there, like these dreams and aspirations that you're pushing for? you're getting there,

Eric Maus 7:23

Yeah. It's hard, but yes. every day it's like an inch. Wish it was a mile, but it's like an inch forward.

Eric 7:29

Which is, I mean, that's it, right? That's all you need. It's just one inch at a time.

Eric Maus 7:33

Yeah. It's definitely, success is not linear. That is my experience.

Eric 7:40

big question that I've always been curious about is why New York and not California?

Eric Maus 7:45

I visited LA one time and I visited New York City one time and I've also traveled to like 26 other countries and a bunch of cities and stuff like that. when I was really sick of Milwaukee, I was trying to find a new place to live and my buddy invited me out to New York and it was the only city I've ever been to where I was walking down the street. I'm like, I wanna live there so badly. Like when I came back to Wisconsin, I was just like, I wanna live there. And then, two months later, a room opened up with one of my artist friends that moved there. And I dropped everything. I dropped the real estate stuff and I moved in two weeks and I started living in Brooklyn.

Eric 8:26

No time at all. You just dropped everything and said, this is it.

Eric Maus 8:29

This is the place. Yeah. This is where I want to, I want to be. And it was because of the creative energy of the city. Like it helped that I visited in February during like a warm patch, like it was like 80 degrees randomly during that weekend that I, I was there. And so we experienced the entire city. Everybody was really happy. And I think New Yorkers are some of the nicest people there are you just every, everybody has a tough exper exterior until you get to, you know them, but they'll help you out if you're lost and stuff. And I just had a wonderful time. I had to live here.

Eric 8:59

I, I've always just been perplexed with the idea of people are like, I'm a writer, actor, director, and I'm like, Broadway's amazing. I love New York, Broadway. I've been many times, new York's an incredible city. I love it myself. But in comparison, to me going to California and, kind of seeing the glitz and glamor of, all of that. never understood why the difference between the two. But, I do understand the differences in the city, and it just kind of goes to who you are. And energy that comes in New York where everybody's got that same heart and hustle and that pull to be something incredible. I could see the attraction there.

Eric Maus 9:30

Yeah. Are, do you live in LA or California?

Eric 9:33

no, I'm Texas, so.

Eric Maus 9:35

Texas. Okay, so you, yeah. You're more, down to earth than

Eric 9:39

Yeah, no, I

Eric Maus 9:39

la LA people.

Eric 9:40

you know, I got two horses in the garage. That's about it.

Eric Maus 9:44

That's cool.

Eric 9:44

sitting upside down. But outside of that, nothing crazy. my spurs are over here, just like everybody else just sitting here on the side. So.

Eric Maus 9:52

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not.

Eric 9:54

Oh, of a hundred percent. I wish, I wish, I was, half the man that I believe I could be with Spurs. So that's, no, it's, it's lovely. I mean, you know, there's the stigma with Texas and, you know, you've got your, your cows every which way and how easy it is to just jump on bareback. But, bareback horses are difficult. I learned, I did that one time, called it a day, never again.

Eric Maus 10:18

It sounds like it would hurt.

Eric 10:19

it's not great. It's not great, I'll tell you that much. but I get you to the gas station. Obviously you're in incredible creative, right? You've done some pretty amazing stuff. you're, you're a writer of an incredible book. you know, I,

Eric Maus 10:31

You need a woman in whiskey.

Eric 10:33

You mean women in whiskey? Of course. Yeah. It's, we can't, we can't say

Eric Maus 10:36

Go ahead. Had to jump in.

Eric 10:38

kind of the, the pendulum that pushed you towards acting and writing?

Eric Maus 10:42

when I moved to New York, I had this book. I wrote the first draft of it, the year after I graduated college, which was like 12 years ago, that was the first draft and I had been rewriting it for like four years up until 2017. and then I got a bunch of rejection letters for it. So I put it away kind of, I moved to New York thinking I could publish it the way it was. but as soon as I landed in New York, I started writing screenplays for some reason.

Eric 11:09

I mean creative juices. Wow.

Eric Maus 11:11

it just went with the flow. And the thing with screenplays is screenwriting is not just like writing a book. It's not easy. It may look like it's glamorous, but like to make it to that level where you're making movies and stuff like that, it takes some lucky breaks, but it also takes a lot of hard work. And I think 2020 came around and we all know what happened Everything's shut down. it was frustrating because they're not making anything in Hollywood, but I have all this time on my hands. And so my friend and I also, she had a lot of time on her hands. We were like, why don't we just make something? Because we have phones, we know how to write, we can write about Brooklyn. And so we developed this idea, based off of my dog care business where it's called Rough and Tug,

Eric 12:00

Mm-hmm.

Eric Maus 12:00

it's two best friends run a dog care business in Brooklyn and meet like kooky and crazy characters. And it's just a comedy that would be similar to like Broad City and the humor is very similar to like always Sunny in Philadelphia. Like they're just bad. They're bad people.

Eric 12:15

you couldn't have picked two better models to go it off of though. I mean, the fantastic shows and I love it. I think that's the best thing you could have done.

Eric Maus 12:22

Exactly. Yeah, it's choosing yourself and like getting your hands dirty with understanding one, what works when you're writing and like how you can act with it. but then also learning how to act when I really didn't have any experience doing it. I took an acting class in college one time and I got like a C in it,

Eric 12:39

I mean, yeah, no, in every facet there's some people who got D'S in it sitting here thinking, this guy's a genius,

Eric Maus 12:45

Flash forward. We started with like these iPhone cameras, to shoot our first episode. And then we worked together a lot, made a lot of mistakes, shot a bunch of stuff, rode a lot, and then within two years we had a producer approach us with like a $30,000 cameras. Like we can make this look like a sitcom, like a real legit show. And so we did, we tried it.

Eric 13:05

yeah. Rough and tug. A few good episodes. seven, eight, correct.

Eric Maus 13:08

Seven episodes, I believe.

Eric 13:10

Yeah. I mean, that's amazing. most people only dream of that.

Eric Maus 13:13

Choose yourself. that's what you gotta do.

Eric 13:15

So with that being the case, did you find, was that the first project you worked on where you felt like, oh, this is, this is real now. Like this is, this is me putting myself out there and pushing myself?

Eric Maus 13:25

Yes, definitely. And it was a perfect time to do it because we had a lot of time to work on it because of the nature of the business and the world at the time. It was a great time to experiment.

Eric 13:36

do you feel something like that series should have been. highlighted. it seems little ridiculous to kind of say it to the creator, right. But a series like that, do you think that being kind of like your first push in should have been something like, Hey man, if I was given the right here, this could have been a hit.

Eric Maus 13:52

Yes. I learned a lot about partnership and creative partnership, through the process. we actually were able to pitch it to. or at least I met somebody through online networking that knew the guys at Avi. he pitched our show to them, or at least their assistant or something. And, so we had an opportunity to get on the radar of, Rob Alani and the whole team over there. which is a highlight. Like that's, I'm like, oh, we're, we're really making it. Let's keep pushing forward, keep pushing forward. obviously they passed, but what, whatever. I'm happy with,

Eric 14:26

we don't need them,

Eric Maus 14:27

but yeah, I'll keep making stuff like The thing you learn about creative is like, not everything is for everyone and there could be a hundred reason why they said no, and it might not be because of us. It could just because they don't have a budget for it. The creative partnership, then we made it to the seventh episode and we split up our ideology a little bit. So she wanted to do more of this, what we had been doing, which was very running gun like. We shot a 15 page script in one day, like sun up to sundown. And that is not how typical, episodes are made. and I wanted to get away from that style of like, let's just go as fast as we can. Let's make mistakes. Let's, instead I wanted to do more of the professional route, which, the producer that came on board knew more about, but unfortunately he was not, somebody that made my creative partner comfortable. like he was a bit more of an authoritarian onset. And she's also like very strong minded. we all are, all three of us are so like. It led to some, conversations that, we had not experienced before. and that unfortunately happened while we were on set. And then it kind of derailed some of the momentum that we had been building and we chose to move in opposite directions 'cause our taste had changed and at that point we'd been working together for two years, and we hadn't quite reached the level that she had wanted to reach. And she was ready to move on to a different project.

Eric 15:53

I mean, that as is the standard, right? It's, it's all about ebbs and flows and growth

Eric Maus 15:57

Yeah, exactly.

Eric 15:58

of industry, right?

Eric Maus 15:59

We had a lot of proof that it was not working. So from a marketing standpoint, is it worth our time to keep? Because we would meet with each other twice a week for two hours and that's grueling after a while. So you're just pounding out these scripts.

Eric 16:13

If you don't mind me asking then, when you look back at your career so far, because it sounds, that obviously that moment was like a pivotal point in shifting the way that you were doing stuff. when you look back at your career so far, what moments means the most to you as you're kind of looking forward? 'Cause you had that one moment in my eyes that would be like a pivotal pull for me to sit there and say, okay, this is a kind of like a crazy dichotomy for me to pivot and kind of really examine myself and my art form of the people I deal with. so I'm just curious, everything that you've done up to this point, when you look back at it, what moment means the most to you and kind of helps shape you for the future?

Eric Maus 16:53

That moment for sure. the rough and tug moment was definitely a career defining moment, just because it was, I was alone again, as like a creative, like we had been working together for two years, but then that safety net of relying on my partner to, pick up the parts that I'm bad at. Like, she's really good at like locations, like securing locations and reaching out to people. Like for,

Eric 17:18

Oh

Eric Maus 17:18

for stuff like that.

Eric 17:20

yeah.

Eric Maus 17:20

A lot of production stuff. But I was always a little bit more specialized in working with actors. I could, direct a little bit, more of the creative side and so I had with her without her there, then I had to reexamine how I was doing things and. Pick up my own Slack. Like I had to learn like, okay, well if I wanna make more short films or a film in the future, I have to pick up, either hire somebody out or do the work. And when it comes to short filmmaking, when you have very little money, you do the work. so I had to learn, I had to pull up my Britts and be like, oh, you gotta get these locations and I gotta put the team together and I have to do all this more, the stuff I wasn't good at. And that definitely helped expand my career because then I became more powerful as like being able to say, yes, I can make this happen. Like,

Eric 18:06

Hmm.

Eric Maus 18:07

if we want to transition to Devil's threesome, that was like, take all the experience I had from rough and Tug. I put that all together and then we shot that and that led to more success.

Eric 18:18

I gotta ask what motivates you to keep creating, even when you run into, difficult situations like this where you have to evolve, but also if the project is difficult in itself.

Eric Maus 18:29

Yeah, it's just a inborn need to tell stories I know nobody is going to. Necessarily help me get to the place I want to get to, without me putting in the work

Eric 18:42

How many more stories do you have?

Eric Maus 18:44

I have this corkboard above my computer and it's just filled with project ideas. I keep a, like a bucket of ideas and I can, if I remember stuck, I just like could pull 'em out and be like, oh, that was fun. Like, maybe I'll write that.

Eric 18:57

Maybe I'll get around to it

Eric Maus 18:59

It is kinda like that, like I have to like really examine an idea before I jump into it.

Eric 19:04

And is this something that you've been doing your whole life? Is this just, you've always had that kind of story mentality and this great riding ability in you from the get go?

Eric Maus 19:14

I distinctly remember writing stories when I knew how to write, like write words. I was like five years old and I was writing stories about, I had a pet mouse and I would write stories about how he's a basketball player.

Eric 19:27

Nice. Yes.

Eric Maus 19:29

His name was Michael Jordan.

Eric 19:31

of course. It had to be

Eric Maus 19:33

he was a mouse and he was the best one on the court. And then Stuart Little stole all my ideas.

Eric 19:39

Oh no. I love the idea that it's like, big fat liars, just some big executive just sees your story about Michael Jordan, the mouse, and was like, well, what if his name was Stewart and he was an orphan? Perfect. Yeah. That's fantastic. So you've been doing this, I mean, it's fair to say this wasn't just a, I'm good at writing. I'm gonna jump into this. This was always in you, you were always going to do this. This was just who you are, and you were gonna make it happen no matter what.

Eric Maus 20:11

yeah, but I mean, like growing up I always liked writing, but I didn't understand it, like my obsession with it

Eric 20:17

Mm-hmm.

Eric Maus 20:18

until I made it to college. Like when I didn't have the constant high school curriculum pushing me towards, I was very good at science. but I was always passionate about, like, anytime I took like a writing English class, I was like, I can't wait to write the essays. And then I got to college. I'm like, oh wait, I can actually just do that. That's, I can do the thing that I want. Sophomore year of college, I, I was meeting with this like guidance counselor like once a week during my first semester of sophomore year. And then she is just like, you know, you can just be a writer, right? Like, people do that for a living. I'm like, yeah. But I was always a like, in science or business and like, it's weird to think that you can be a writer and maybe that chip on my shoulder like really propelled me forward because it's like trying to prove it to myself. Like, no, I am a writer. I, I just have to prove it to myself

Eric 21:03

Yeah. Do you feel like you've done that?

Eric Maus 21:05

for the most part. I think having the novel published, it definitely helped. getting recognition for the short films

Eric 21:12

Mm-hmm.

Eric Maus 21:13

like Devil's Threesome helped, rough and Tug. Never really got any recognition. think that some of the funniest stuff I've written, I was very comedic, very, very comedic at the time. it is, it's great finally getting recognition and finally being able to tell people like, Hey, if you wanna read, I've been telling you I've been a writer for a really long time, and here, here's proof. Please read my book.

Eric 21:34

please read your book and your book is

Eric Maus 21:36

it's this great novel called Women in Whiskey.

Eric 21:38

Women in Whiskey. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Eric Maus 21:40

Yeah,

Eric 21:40

I think I've heard of it. so in this industry where it's just so difficult to really establish yourself you're basically getting judged, every time. Right? What is that like in your head? Do you just say, Hey, I don't care about any of that. I know what I am, what stories I have to tell, what I want to tell, what I want to do this is who I am and I'm just gonna put it out there. Do you have any kind of self-doubt? For a little bit, because me, devil's threw some rough and tug the, these, these shorts. You're doing the novel. It is so much for one person to do and continue to push on while also owning a business, having all of these other accolades, I mean, you're going above and beyond Like no one could, no one would ever fault you if you stopped right now and said, you know what? with this, I've done all that I could. I enjoy it. What pushes you to really say, I wanna get these stories out there?

Eric Maus 22:32

I wish I could say it was a sunk cost fallacy. You know, you put it on all this time and like you can't give up. But it's definitely not that because

Eric 22:40

Oh, shame.

Eric Maus 22:41

I know it's definitely just a part Of me, I mean, I read books and I'm like, I can do that. like, when I read a book, I look at the sentences and I see how the author has written, even old, like Earnest Hemingway or even new books. I just, I love the sentences. I love reading voices and being able to then express myself, do that, like on a most simple, basic level, I guess that's what drives me forward. 'cause I just, I'm just really obsessed with it I've gotten a lot of work done, you know,

Eric 23:09

yeah.

Eric Maus 23:12

pay off soon.

Eric 23:13

it's going to, it has to. Right. And once we get a million listens on this episode, it's done. It's over

Eric Maus 23:18

Everybody will buy women and whiskey. I'll be inundated with so many good reviews that I'll be, like, my head will be 10,000 times bigger than it is right now. And then I'll give up because I'll be too egotistical too narcissistic to be able to continue.

Eric 23:33

have won everything. It won't even matter. You can give up and still be winning, just off your book, women in Whiskey.

Eric Maus 23:40

Yeah, exactly that. It's a great little novel.

Eric 23:42

it's a fantastic, from what I've heard, and I can't wait to read it.

Eric Maus 23:45

Maybe that's what it is.

Eric 23:47

It

Eric Maus 23:47

Oh, nice. Yeah. yeah, maybe also like, because I've been rejected so many times, I just, I'm like, no, I'm gonna prove it to you. I can, I can do this.

Eric 23:58

Oh,

Eric Maus 23:58

I think that

Eric 23:59

is,

Eric Maus 23:59

also just drives me forward.

Eric 24:01

So I have to ask, outside of, the, the fallout that happened with ruff and tug and in between, did you have like a behind the scene moment or something from a project that it, it just went completely wrong during the

Eric Maus 24:14

Oh my God. Yeah.

Eric 24:14

it turned into something like amazing.

Eric Maus 24:16

It's Batted Dog is A romcom that I shot in 2023. It was the first project that I was shooting after Rough and Doug. it was about a year later, and I wanted to do a project where I wasn't a director and I was just a producer and I was the lead actor for it, so I wrote. a story about this guy that finds an abandoned dog. And this guy is like really depressed. his girlfriend has left him and so he finds this abandoned dog. He decides to adopt the dog or keep the dog. And, together they rehabilitate their ability to love. But the shoot did not go great,

Eric 24:51

Oh,

Eric Maus 24:52

so, the shoot went fine, the editing process afterward, I learned so much more about post-production and what it takes to be a producer from that, because I produced it and I was the actor. We shot it over a weekend. It was about 13 pages,

Eric 25:05

Mm-hmm.

Eric Maus 25:06

and it also had like six locations, which is too much, And the director was, she had a lot of experience. She loved dogs. That was very important. And it was a relatively simple story. I mean, it's rom-com so it's like, it's about love. So it's a lot of jokes and lighthearted. generally a good vibe on set. We had everybody in place, and it was one of those where I walked off the set. I'm like, oh, that went great. And then, post-production took a very long time, because I trusted this editor to, I gave her my, my hard drive, Was my only copy of the footage. and she did not mention that she was moving to India. It might have slipped her mind. Maybe she was very, concerned about the move itself, stressed out by, but yeah, so she moved to India, which is a challenge.

Eric 25:58

To say the least.

Eric Maus 26:00

and then during this whole process, I think she did a wonderful job with the final cut, but it took, a lot of time and that was like, one thing that you learn is if you don't have money, something is gonna take time. so it's like that's the sacrifice we make. And so like, as much as I could harp on her for like, Hey, you need to get this done, you need to get this done. She was working for free and she works on TV shows, so it's like professional editor working on this project for free.

Eric 26:25

Yeah. You

Eric Maus 26:25

a big,

Eric 26:26

press.

Eric Maus 26:27

it's a big ask. Yeah. So I learned a lot about the, once again, like that professional level of Hollywood movie making. So like the director that I had hired, she had worked on major sets before. So. I wanted to steal all that knowledge that they had.

Eric 26:42

Mm-hmm.

Eric Maus 26:42

I got it over the course of a year and a half, it took a year and a half to edit that project, and it was finished at the end of 2024, and we shot it in June of 2023.

Eric 26:51

Oh, well, hot

Eric Maus 26:52

That's, that's a, a long, long process for 13 minutes. You know, like they edit Hallmark movies in like three weeks or something like that. They shoot 'em in September and they're out in December. It's like, whoa. And that was kind of the vibe, you know, of a romcom. it's not heady stuff that we're dealing with,

Eric 27:11

did, when you brought in the director for, let's just say bat at dog, right? How does working with the a strong director kind of change your performance or change your writing style if, if that ever has happened?

Eric Maus 27:24

the writing process for that ended up having like 17 drafts of the same story. whereas like previous Rough and tugs, I don't think we really counted that much. Maybe seven, seven drafts. but it was a very arduous process of like trying to get all the beats right. For this, you know, it, and it was supposed to be a proof of concept for a movie that may or may not ever happen. It's up to me to write it. but it definitely, like working with her, it gave me a different, perspective on like how much rewriting it goes into it before you even start working with the shoot. But from an acting standpoint, I didn't get too many notes, which is good. I guess I also won best actor for that at, film festival. That was,

Eric 28:04

Good Perry, the lead

Eric Maus 28:07

yeah.

Eric 28:07

that should have been, what are we doing? We're talking about your book Women in Whiskey. This whole time, should be talking about how you're an award-winning actor.

Eric Maus 28:15

Yeah.

Eric 28:16

What

Eric Maus 28:16

I mean, if I tell you the story, it's hilarious.

Eric 28:18

Well, I have to know.

Eric Maus 28:20

So it was, we, it was a Latin Latina actor, the Latina director. So I'm the producer, right? I am, I'm in charge of distribution. So I have this finalized project after waiting a year and a half, and I'm a little disgusted at myself for my like, how long and it took, but still I was like, all right, I gotta take this forward. I gotta keep pushing it. Like the passion kind of died, but I gotta keep pushing it forward. And, so I'm applying to all these film festivals and she's a Latina director, so she's like, you should apply to the New York Latino International Film Festival. And I'm like, perfect, yeah, let's do it. And so I did. Then the initials are nif, N-Y-L-I-F-F, which just so happens to coincide with another film festival called the New York Long Island Film Festival.

Eric 29:08

Okay.

Eric Maus 29:08

And so it's a much smaller event. It takes place in a moose lodge in, long Island.

Eric 29:14

Yeah.

Eric Maus 29:15

we got selected,

Eric 29:17

do. Yeah.

Eric Maus 29:18

we got selected for the film festival in Long Island. so the prestige of the best actor, I'm not sure how prestigious that is, but, it happened, it was good, but

Eric 29:28

you, do you have the award?

Eric Maus 29:30

I don't even have a certificate, so it could, yeah, it's kind of like a ghost award. I don't know. A pat on the back, they sent me an email saying I won. And I was like, cool, let's,

Eric 29:42

ama you're, you're in the top 1% of 1%. All right. I'm never gonna win that award.

Eric Maus 29:48

we don't know yet. You could have this massive young shift in career. You'd get inspired by by me, and then you don't make as many mistakes as I did,

Eric 29:56

no, no. I'll make more than that. But the thing is, is like I'll never apply to that award, or the award ceremony. So I,

Eric Maus 30:02

There's a good chance you'll make it an iff, like if you applied a film vessel with your film.

Eric 30:07

well now I have to try. I've gotta try. I only wish I was creative enough. That'll get me somewhere one

Eric Maus 30:14

Yes. Surround yourself with creatives. They'll help you

Eric 30:16

I have to ask though, because you won an award, you're an award-winning actor, so what do you think separates a good performance from a, from a great one?

Eric Maus 30:27

the ability to forget who you are and embrace the role that you're playing or the story that you're playing. I guess the context would be the right way to put it. So if you are. Let's say, you're Leonardo DiCaprio in one battle after another. People like that performance so much because it feels like he's that character in that context of that story. And he disappeared in that role. You could say the same about like Hate Hudson in, song Sung Blue, which is also up for best actress. And she is unrecognizable and it's amazing because she has this Wisconsin accent and I felt very connected to her performance.

Eric 31:05

Yep. Yep. Homegrown there. so it's about just disappearing into the role, which I assume as a writer, that that's easy for you.

Eric Maus 31:14

I think it's a writer or an actor that can write, can see more of the depth of the characters, I would say, or the situation that's happening because when I write something, I have to explore. All the possibilities of what could happen next. So you have one cause and what's the effect. And so that effect, based on that cause could be any number of things. And I have to choose the best way to tell that story and also choose the best way not to tell that story, if that makes sense. Like,

Eric 31:45

hundred percent.

Eric Maus 31:45

like any story that is a narrative it could have been a hundred different things.

Eric 31:50

so to that, if I can pivot to the writing process, when you start a new script or a story, what usually comes first for you? Is it like the world a moment, the character, the actual story that's going off of it, like what you want to convey at the end of it.

Eric Maus 32:05

It's generally the plot that comes first, or it's, a character that will arise out of a story. So I wrote this, screenplay that I've been trying to get produced called Electric Peak. It's about a dog sledding team. And I wanted to challenge myself and write with a female characters as main characters. so I wanted to choose something that was, like I haven't seen before. Like we've seen a lot of male characters in survival situations, but we don't see a lot of female characters in survival situations. So I've put this teenage female character who is also missing a leg. And I'm like, that's crazy. I was experiencing leg pain at the time and I was like, that would be crazy if we put her in snow. 'cause I feel like that would hurt a lot. That would be a very challenging. And then I have. a dog hair business. So everything has dogs in it. And like, I haven't seen very many dog slutty movies that are serious. So I'm like, let me try that and let the story breathe from there.

Eric 32:54

When you do write, like specific roles or anything like that, do you write with like yourself in mind, or is it you're projecting onto just another person altogether?

Eric Maus 33:04

I would say, because there's always that maximum of write what you know in, storytelling like. And a lot of writers will take that to heart and write literally what they know about. But we also read books and stuff like that. And you can write about stuff that you're obsessed with. I love dogs, so I write about dogs. But then putting that into a situation with that character, you're like, okay, what is she experiencing? What is a teenage girl experiencing at that time? And I can even put only so much of my male experience as a teenage boy into it, but also I can observe what you walk around the city of New York, you hear teenage girls talking to each other and like, oh, okay, that's what they care about. Or maybe you just listen to what the character could be.

Eric 33:43

I see. Okay.

Eric Maus 33:44

Try to eliminate yourself completely. Like I try to not be the person at all.

Eric 33:48

I mean, when you're, writing this script and you're kind of pushing this project, I thought it would be much easier as, a writer actor to be like, okay, this is just me. And I can do that a lot easier. But, of course that's me. I assume you like to challenge yourself and you really just put yourself out there to really kind of evolve the character in your writing, to its peak form. So I can appreciate that. That's incredible.

Eric Maus 34:08

it's hard. I think it's easier to like write yourself into a role, but to make it more believable, you have to go deeper, and that generally means that you have to be dealing with things that you haven't experienced before, and I think that'll create more nuance in the storytelling.

Eric 34:24

Do you think that's the hardest part of writing a script that people don't realize? Or is there something else that's more difficult than that?

Eric Maus 34:29

I think the hardest part about writing the script is finishing it.

Eric 34:32

Is

Eric Maus 34:32

really easy to,

Eric 34:33

don't want the store to end, or is it just like, how do I end this?

Eric Maus 34:36

it goes back that like, there's a hundred different ways to tell the same story. Like, I, I can give you a script, you can give me notes on it, and then I'll be like, okay, what do I have to change to make this make more sense? Because like, every story needs feedback. It needs an audience in order to, you know, evolve it into a better story. And, yeah. So knowing when it's done is the hardest part.

Eric 34:58

it's gotta be bittersweet, right? Because when you come to the terms of like, okay, this is finished. It must feel amazing, then it's already, I mean, this is the story, right? it is finished. And so I'm sure that you've run into a lot of different stories where you've like, okay, this is it. I'm done with this. But then you think to yourself, oh, well I could've done this, or I could have added this, or it could have been this way. Is that right?

Eric Maus 35:16

Yeah. I think the story that I've experienced the best, like this is done was, the novel woman in whiskey. Because I had spent so long writing and rewriting it, now it feels like, I don't think I can change anything about it because I read it, and I'm just like, this is what I wanted to write.

Eric 35:32

Oh, that's gotta feel amazing.

Eric Maus 35:33

it's funny too, because that process in itself, like I rewrote the entire thing last year before getting it published, and, I thought that story was incredible. I'm like, oh, this is perfect. The reason why I got into it again like picked it up after 12 years was like, I finally figured out the ending. I'm gonna write that. And so I rewrote the whole thing, put on this ending, and then gave it to eight readers, like friends that are writers, and, asked for their feedback and all eight of them hated the ending.

Eric 36:01

No way.

Eric Maus 36:02

I was just like, oh man. Thank God they said that, and they were totally correct. I even mentioned in an email, I'm like, this would be the story, the novel as I would want it published. So tell me any feedback because whatever feedback you give me, the next rewrite is gonna be published. their feedback was the last step that I needed before getting it published. Especially they told me that the ending was terrible.

Eric 36:25

Well, good friends, right? Creative friends, that's what,

Eric Maus 36:27

they ripped it apart and now I feel done with it. It's like, all right, I put on a new ending. I appease. And then I did share the ending with a couple of them and they're like, oh yeah, that's way better. and that made me feel like it was complete. And that was like a good way to tell that story with like the short films. obviously a lot shorter projects, those were made a lot quicker. there is a lot of, I wish I could have done this or this. but sometimes you have the problem with production where you just, You don't get the shot. You don't get the line. You think of the line later, or just like when you're in the editing room, you're like, we just don't have it. It just didn't work.

Eric 36:58

do you have any projects like that you wish you could bring back that are already out there

Eric Maus 37:03

I mean, batted dog definitely has some moments where I wish we had had an extra day just to get more so we weren't so rushed.

Eric 37:09

Mm,

Eric Maus 37:09

the most climactic scene in that short, we shot in 20 minutes.

Eric 37:13

everything you said so far, you know, with these incredible stories, it'd be ridiculous for me to sit here and say like, do any of your personal experiences, get into writing, get into all your writing. 'cause essentially everything right? You know, you love dogs. Dogs are at the crux of a lot of stuff that you've been in and that you've been pushing through and, you know, women at Whiskey is just a, a, a

Eric Maus 37:34

Love women. I love whiskey.

Eric 37:35

How can you not, I can, exactly. It just makes sense. Is there any difficult experiences that made their way into your writing that maybe you paused for a second and thought I should just keep this for me? Or you thought. If this is okay to give to people, but it's, it's just a little bit more closeted.

Eric Maus 37:54

Yeah. I think, the most personal writing that I've done is, definitely women and whiskey. there's, it's about a womanizer that, searches for meaning. Late night hookups and empty whiskey bottles. it was based on a time in my life. I am not the character, it is not a memoir. This is an invented story based on, like how I was acting like post-college where I was drinking a lot, pretty much every night partying, trying to, you know, kiss as many women as I could. And, it led me to write this story about how empty I felt after that. like for me, then when I even started writing that book versus me now, there's so much more love in my life and it's because of all those personal experiences that, or some would say maybe traumas that I experienced during that time period. And then it took me a long time to be able to tell that story to people because it was so personal.

Eric 38:46

As we kind of fade away, what advice would you give someone trying to break into acting or writing right now? Or what's something you want them to know?

Eric Maus 38:56

I think one of the best advice that I got was, you have all the tools that you need to succeed. You just have to listen to what you want to do and do it and choose yourself. Like believe that you can make it yourself because you can. It, it'll be hard, but all the tools exist. All the advice exists out there for you to figure out what you need to do. I had no idea how to publish a book, and I learned not only how to write, I learned how to format. I learned what it takes to be a book cover design, how to market it, and you could take that exact formula of learning and being willing to learn and apply it to anything that you want to do.

39:37

Eric has shown that success isn't linear and it rarely looks the way you expected to. Whether it's writing a novel over a decade, building a series from an iPhone, or starting over after creative setbacks, Eric's story is a reminder of that progress is often measured in inches and not miles. Make sure to check out his book, women and Whiskey, and keep an eye on his upcoming projects, most of which I've linked in the show notes. So please go take a look. You'll definitely be hearing more from him. If you enjoyed this episode, uh, don't forget to follow, share it with somebody who needs to hear it and leave a review. It really helps the show grow and if you would like to be a guest or just want to talk, please feel free to reach out at Hear for You pod. That's HEAR, the number four Y-O-U-P-O d@gmail.com. Thanks for listening, and as always, I'll talk to you soon.