Growing up in Savannah, Lawson Bruen loved two things: the movies and the outdoors. He dreamed of working in the film industry and of becoming an environmental scientist.
Now 34, Lawson has accomplished the first with flying colors. And he’s going back to college to start on the second.
He credits Georgia’s film & TV industry with making both dreams possible.
“I’m happy with what the film industry has provided me and others,” he says. “It’s treated me very well.”
Lawson has worked for about a decade in the industry, mostly in the props department. Props are items used by actors in a scene – anything from a singer’s microphone in, say, the Aretha Franklin biopic “Respect” to weapons in the Chris Pratt action movie “The Tomorrow War.”
Other titles on his resume include “Richard Jewell,” the TV series “Raising Dion” and the upcoming musical version of “The Color Purple.”
He started in his hometown of Savannah before he and his wife, a schoolteacher, moved to Atlanta in 2018.
Lawson says his industry experience made him a more well-rounded person, offering opportunities to learn from people he admired and to travel abroad and to other states.
Most importantly, it’s given him confidence to continue pursuing his other dreams – and he has only praise and gratitude for his experiences with the film & TV industry.
“The film industry was something I yearned to be a part of,” says Lawson. “I got my name on the big screen and TV multiple times.
“Now I want to work in the environmental science world, understand and study the planet, and work on climate change.
“The film industry definitely helped get me here… It’s all come full circle.”