Sam Henderson

Transcript

Derek Smith:
Hello and welcome to Baylor Connections, a conversation series with the people shaping our future. Each week, we go in depth with Baylor leaders, professors, and more, discussing important topics in higher education, research, and student life. I'm Derek Smith, and today we are visiting with Sam Henderson. Sam Henderson serves as assistant professor of film and digital media and theater arts at Baylor. A professional actor and screenwriter, Henderson has performed regularly at the Dallas Theater Center and other venues across the nation.
Recognized in 2024 as a screenwriter to watch at the Austin Film Festival and in MovieMaker Magazine, he has directed and co-written five short films. In 2023, he was selected by Provost Nancy Brickhouse as one of 10 Baylor fellows who exemplify excellence in teaching and commitment to innovation in the classroom. In addition to his work as a teacher and actor, Henderson serves as the voice of Baylor University commencement exercises, recognizing Baylor graduates and their degrees as they cross the stage. Sam Henderson with us today. Sam, thanks so much for joining us. It's great to have you here.

Sam Henderson:
You're welcome. Thanks for having me.

Derek Smith:
Well, many people who have attended commencement over the years will recognize your voice, but you do far, far more than that here. I got to say, I believe you're the first guest we've had with an IMDB page, Internet Movie Database, with credits on there, so that is pretty cool. Where are some of the places that your acting has taken you?

Sam Henderson:
Not that impressive, Derek. It really isn't that impressive. The interesting thing about my IMDB credits is the early credits are all Waco and/or Baylor connected. Some of the first stuff that I did that was worthy of being on there was when I moved back here from New York. It must've been end of 2011, 2012 era. Some of the first work I did here with folks who were connected to Baylor, Damon Crump, people who were in the film department, Dan Beard, we just talked about Dan. Brian Elliott gave me the first shot at some things that he was working on.

Derek Smith:
It's an all-star crew.

Sam Henderson:
I mean, really, I went to grad school in San Diego. I lived in New York for three years. I did very little to no film work in those places. It wasn't until I moved back to Waco and started working for Baylor that the film thing started. A lot of those film credits are completely Waco associated, Baylor associated. From there, I've met amazing people from all over the world. Been able to work or direct with or write with or collaborate with a whole bunch of really, really interesting people as a result of that. It all started here, all started here in Waco, all started with my associations with the university.

Derek Smith:
That's very cool. You're a Baylor graduate, and you just said you've lived on both coasts in San Diego and New York, acted on stage and moving even more into filmmaking. What is it about that art form, acting, filmmaking, that really speaks to you?

Sam Henderson:
When I was growing up, I was, like most kids around the world, really enamored by film. The part of the filmmaking process that I was most enamored by, I believe, was the performances, the actors. I grew up admiring all of the greats, the Dustin Hoffmans and the Gene Hackmans, rest in peace. Those actors, those performances, those films really meant something to me, and so I thought my involvement with film was going to be through performance. The thing that those particular actors have in common, however, is they all came from the theater.
Their training, their experience, they were theater practitioners who got to audition for a particular film or a TV show, and that's how we know who they are because they got that opportunity in the '50s and '60s through the '70s to also be film actors. They were firmly grounded into the theater, and so when I started studying theater, the thought in the back of my mind was always, "Oh, this is the route. I'll be a theater practitioner. I'll learn the craft through the stage, on the stage, and that will translate to me having a film career as an actor."
It wasn't really until, and this is a much longer story that we don't have time for, but it wasn't really until I discovered writing and how empowering that was and directing that I shifted my focus from, "Well, maybe it's not the performance aspect of filmmaking that I'm most gung-ho about. Maybe it's the other side of it, the actual creation part of it on the writing and directing side."
It always started with the theater. It always started with acting, with the thought being that would lead me to being involved in film in that particular way. It's just the focus has shifted as I've gotten older because I've enjoyed the other parts of it more.

Derek Smith:
Visiting with Sam Henderson from Baylor Film and Digital Media and Sam, so you've acted. You write. You teach. If someone asks you that question, "So what do you do," what do you say? How do you describe it?

Sam Henderson:
The great tie that binds has to be the teaching. As many circles as I travel in, many paths as I cross, the thing that comes up that makes the most sense, that ends up being the most comprehensive is saying, "Hey, I'm a professor. I'm a professor at Baylor University. I teach theater and film." What I think is efficient about that is that is fairly all encompassing.
I mean, that is the initiator for everything that I do. The fact that I'm in the classroom, the fact that I work for Baylor, the fact that I teach specifically theater, acting in the theater, in film production, and film that explains everything that occupies my time. I'm an actor. I'm a filmmaker. That's what I teach. Teaching those things is what allows me to do those things outside of the classroom. It's a quick way to synthesize all the things that I do into one thing. I'm a professor of theater and film, and everything that comes along with that is fair game.

Derek Smith:
That's great, and that's kind of the anchor to it all.

Sam Henderson:
For sure. For sure.

Derek Smith:
You were a Baylor student, a theater performance major, and now you're teaching the very students who are in some ways like what you were doing here. I'm curious for you, how did that experience as a student shape you really for all of those roles that you just described?

Sam Henderson:
This is another possibly very long story, so I will attempt to be as succinct as possible. When I came to Baylor, I actually wasn't a theater major. My first semester I was a business pre-law major, and even through high school, I thought I was going to go to school to go to law school. I was going to be a lawyer. I thought maybe politics or government was going to be in my future for a long time. Even though in high school I was a band nerd, I did very little theater. I was exposed to the theater a lot because my mother is a middle school theater teacher, still is.
I was always around it, but I was occupied with other things in high school, and I thought I was going to be a lawyer. I came here. I was business pre-law my first semester. You know how much I love Baylor, but we'll just say that particular experience was not for me. The first semester.

Derek Smith:
You got to find the right one.

Sam Henderson:
My first semester at Baylor was rough. It was rough. I think I was doing everything except going to class. I mean, I was the kid in that Wes Anderson movie, Rushmore. I was the president of every club, but not actually going to class. It was that Christmas break of my freshman year. This is going to sound really crazy, but I went home. My mother and I got my grades, and we said, "Oh, okay. Something's going to have to change here, or we're not going to be at Baylor for very long."
It was really through prayer, Derek, that I discovered that the feeling that I had at that moment was if I was going to be here, if I was going to invest this time, if I was going to invest this money in the people who are around me, I wanted to do something that I enjoyed doing. That was really the crux of my experiences for the first semester. I wasn't enjoying it. I was looking for things to enjoy, and none of it led to the classroom. I thought, "How am I being led to shape my experience in the classroom as a student here?"
I just felt very clearly that I needed to audition for the theater department, and I auditioned for the BFA for some professors who I now work with, who are still here. I got into the program. I don't want to be hyperbolic, but it changed my life. I got into the theater department, and I didn't look back. That is the great initiation for everything that I do and everything that I am now, that decision, to make that decision. I had wonderful professors in the theater department, wonderful people who cultivated my desire to want to be an actor, to learn more about it, to pique my curiosity.
I really view my role now as attempting to be those individuals who inspired me, who sparked my curiosity, who inspired me to want to be better at what I do and learn more about it. I feel like that's my responsibility, fiduciary responsibility to inspire and to motivate and to encourage individuals to get better at what they do in their craft. That is completely something that I have stolen from my experience at Baylor. I feel like that's what I got, and now I feel like that's what I am supposed to give back as a result.

Derek Smith:
I also think it's fair to say you discovered, Sam, a calling you didn't know it was a calling, and it just has kind of snowballed in a lot of ways.

Sam Henderson:
Absolutely. Snowball is a great analogy. It's a great metaphor for it.

Derek Smith:
Lot of cool things as we visit with Sam Henderson, assistant professor of film and digital media here on Baylor Connections. Sam, want to pivot here for a moment because we are approaching commencement weekend, as you and I visit. You are the voice of commencement, and as anyone listening, listen, you got a great voice. They're probably like, "Yeah, that makes sense," or "Oh, I've heard him and didn't realize who that was.

Sam Henderson:
That's very kind.

Derek Smith:
Very, very cool. Tell me about how you got connected to that and what it looks like for you getting ready to announce, what, a few thousand names and degrees.

Sam Henderson:
To be honest this year, I'm only going to be able to do the Friday ceremonies this year, the two ceremonies on Friday, so I'll be out on Saturday this year, unfortunately. I look forward to it every year. The first year I did it, I mean, it was truly baptism by fire the first year I did it because I was the one who did the ceremonies at the football stadium, that were the extra ceremonies that Baylor wanted to do because of Covid. Do you remember those?

Derek Smith:
Mm-hmm.

Sam Henderson:
It was all outside, and it was an extra day of ceremonies for the graduates who didn't walk the Covid year. I think it was a Thursday, Friday, Saturday ceremonies to allow for that Thursday ceremony for graduates who wanted to have that experience but didn't get a chance to get it because we were out for Covid in 2020. I don't know what happened in my brain that allowed me to say yes to the insanity of doing something like that. I don't know. I think I was suckered in by the challenge of something like that.
That was really, really crazy for that to be the first time to do it ever, all of those ceremonies back to back outside. I mean, some days were super hot, and some days were incredibly windy, so much so we had to have alongside the president, an escape plan if the stage were to collapse.

Derek Smith:
Wow.

Sam Henderson:
The full stage. I mean, those were my initial conditions of commencement announcing.

Derek Smith:
That's a trial by fire for sure.

Sam Henderson:
Going back into the Ferrell was a piece of cake. It was like, "Oh, what? We're inside, and we don't have to escape a tornado. That's great. I think I can do this." That was the first time I did it, and they just kept asking me back. As you've done it, I think it's a difficult thing for people to say yes to. As you know, it can be pretty intimidating. I've, over the years, relaxed and lowered the stakes.
I laugh with the president every year because she's very congratulatory when I do it and is very warm and says the nicest, most encouraging things to me every year. I always tell her, "But nobody's here for me, and that's okay." That should be the point. What they're really excited about, Derek, is I say their name and it's that one and a half second between that and when they get their picture with the president. That's what they're there for.

Derek Smith:
That's true.

Sam Henderson:
Once you hear your name, people check out anyway. They're on their phones. They're looking up at the screen, looking at their watch because there's 840 more names to go. They're just waiting for their kid, their brother, their sister, to walk across the stage, and the show's not for me. As we've discussed, I have other instances where I am the show. I bear the "creative" burden for what has to be executed, but I don't view commencement as that. I am just a part of moving the ceremony along. Nobody is there for me.
I feel like my obligation in that instance is honoring the person's name as best as I can, and taking that one second to try to say it correctly and passing them on to the president and then moving on to the next one. That's it. That's it. The first few times, especially through the Covid ceremonies and all that, it was just I would stay up all night, and I was so nervous.
It's really been over the past couple of years where I've settled down. It's not about me. I'm not going to be perfect. I'm going to say a name wrong. It doesn't matter how many names I've memorized or learned or how many pronunciation packets I've gotten, I'm going to trip over something. It's really okay. They want that picture. They want to walk across the stage. The families want to cheer, and then we want to get to the next person.
What's helped me, what's buoyed me through the past few years is even though I'm not the show, I get so many comments after the ceremonies. People email me. People come up to me, and I think they're more impressed not that I got whatever percentage of names right or wrong. I think they're just impressed by the endurance of it. Because I mean, Friday we're going to have the College of Arts and Sciences, which is the biggest group.

Derek Smith:
There's a couple of names there.

Sam Henderson:
I mean, undergrads, the graduate degrees, and then the hoodings for the doctorates, that's a bit. It's a bit to stand up there and with no loss in enthusiasm, get through all those names, get through all the master's degrees, get through all the hoodings, and not be on the one hour and 10th minute of it and be like, "Oh, Joe Johnson." I really try to give deference to each name for the entire time, and I think that's what people connect with.
Like, "Yo, you know what? That guy deserves a little bit of applause because he stood up there and he sounded the same for an hour," which to your earlier point, that does connect, I think, to my performance acumen and my experience as an actor on stage where I've done hundreds and hundreds of performances of something. I've had to do it as if I've done it for the first time in front of a group of people who have paid, who have a particular expectation for that. That's my job as an actor.
I'm doing this for the first time. You haven't seen this. I've experienced this a million times, but I have to do this with no loss of enthusiasm or no less enthusiasm than the night before. It does kind of lock in and feel like that during commencement, especially when we get to the 90th minute. It's like, "Okay, we're home stretch. Let's get these hoods on so we can keep going."

Derek Smith:
Oh, man.

Sam Henderson:
It's something I look forward to every year. I was sick last August when you took my place. I'm disappointed when I don't get a chance to do it.

Derek Smith:
You were missed. Again. Not just by me, but by a lot of people.

Sam Henderson:
Derek's like, "By the way, I know what you're talking about."

Derek Smith:
Well, having filled in for you once in a summer commencement and not a spring commencement, I have all the more respect for what you do, and you describe it so well. I'll say this, of all the things I've got to do for Baylor, that is the one where I felt the most pressure.

Sam Henderson:
You do feel a little pressure, don't you?

Derek Smith:
Yeah, yeah. Like in sports, if you mess up the call, well, you can correct it, but you only get say their name once.

Sam Henderson:
That's right. You do get one shot. You get one shot, and you got to move on to the next one. You got to move on to the next one.

Derek Smith:
Well, but you describe it well, and you do a fantastic job with it.

Sam Henderson:
Oh, thank you.

Derek Smith:
I know people really appreciate that work that you do.

Sam Henderson:
I appreciate doing it, and I appreciate all the encouragement that I get as a result. It's truly fun. I'm a crazy person who enjoys it, and I miss it when I don't get a chance to do it.

Derek Smith:
Visiting with Sam Henderson here on Baylor Connections. Sam, as we head into the final couple minutes of the program here, I want to pivot back to the work you do combining kind of a new stream. You talk about moving from the stage to more the creation side, and I'm sure as you do that, being a teacher probably makes you a better writer and creator. Being a writer and creator probably makes you a better teacher. What are you kind of excited about as you work with students, as you develop an MFA in FDM for writers and directors, and taking those next steps in the evolution of the work you do with students?

Sam Henderson:
Here's the real privilege I have, Derek, especially for someone who works in the humanities, all the stuff that we've talked about that I do outside of the classroom, I don't view as separate. I view as necessary for what I do in the classroom. When I started teaching in 2012, I said, "I want to be the professor who stands up and talks to students and helps students and shepherds students through this experience because I'm talking about the experiences I've had."
Not to say, "Oh, because I've had these experiences, this is how your experiences are going to be," but I can at least say, "Hey, this is how I met this challenge. This is how this affected me. This is how I work through whatever. Here could be some guidance for when you meet this particular challenge. I'm not smarter than you are. I just might be a little bit farther down the road than you are, and I can look back and I say, 'Hey, there's a bridge here. There's a hazard here. You might want to step over it because I've been down the road a little bit and I've seen it.'"
I value that more than anything. All the writing that I do, all the directing that I do, all the acting that I do is fuel for the classroom for me to come back and say, "Hey, you're not going to believe this. This was a crazy experience, never had this experience before, and this is how we worked through it." I would actually view my role in the classroom as nearly void if I didn't have those experiences outside of the classroom. I don't want to talk about my colleagues. I definitely don't want to talk about other professors. I don't think all professors view it that way necessarily.
It's almost as if, I think this gets the short shrift in humanities in particular, because the expectation is if you are a tenured chemistry professor, you have a lab. You're working students into that lab, and they're helping you create research that now goes out into the world that students collaborated with you on. I think sometimes in the humanities it's, "Oh, I've written this thing or performed this thing or have sung this thing, and that's my thing that I do as a professional, and then here's the classroom thing." I cannot separate both of those.
I think what I'm able to share with students is a part of what I do outside of the classroom, and if I don't have that outside of the classroom part, I think for me, the inside of the classroom part is nearly moot if the outside stuff isn't happening. They feed both. Both things feed each other, so I really don't view them as separate. I don't view my professional work as separate from what happens in the classroom.
I had this conversation with my chair not too long ago, but he said, "Hey, Sam, most of the people who do what you do, actors who are film directors, are actors who are film directors. They're not teachers. What you do is kind of rare." As I'm going through the tenure process, part of my job has been to find people at other R1 universities who do what I do, who are one-to-ones, and those people don't really exist in the same kind of way.
Professional actors who make films that are at Oscar-qualifying festivals, those people, if you're doing that, you're usually doing that for a living. You're not a professor. You're not teaching it. You're out, and you're doing that. I feel like I'm so blessed that I get to do those things as a professional, and then I get to share doing those things with students who are coming here for a particular experience at Baylor.

Derek Smith:
Well, and you do all of those well. You look at all these things on your plate. You've been recognized as a screenwriter to watch. Your acting, you've been recognized for that. You are a Baylor fellow as selected by Provost Nancy Brickhouse. You're doing those things well altogether.
As we wind down here, I just want to ask you, obviously, we've talked so long, and I haven't asked you about a lot of individual projects. I'll just ask you on that. I mean, I mentioned that your IMDB page. People can look that up and find you some places, but are there any projects that you're excited to have out there or places where people can find your work?

Sam Henderson:
Yes. Right now, I have a film on the film festival circuit called Ado. I mentioned my mom earlier. It's a film dedicated to my mom. It's about a woman who is a middle school theater teacher who's rehearsing Much Ado About Nothing, and the rehearsal gets interrupted by a school shooter. The short film, which is about 15 minutes, it's a result of a conversation I had with my mom about school shootings and how, I mean, she's 70 years old now, and a couple of years ago I asked her, "What would you do in this situation?" This film is kind of a creative response to that conversation I had with my mom.
It's done better than anything I've ever had on the film festival circuit. It's already played five Oscar-qualifying film festivals. It's going to Miami next month. If people around the country, alums, whomever, listening to this, happens to be in one of the hot spots where the film is happening, I'd love to meet you. Ado_shortfilm on Instagram is how you could follow that film festival journey. I'm going to do commencement next week, and then my plan is we're still waiting to hear about a few more festivals. My plan is to travel this summer with film festivals.
I'll be here doing some teaching in the grad program. The first years have to make a film between their first and second year during the summer, and I'm in charge of managing those films over the summer. We have three or four short films that grad students will be making over the summer that I'll check in on them with scripts, and I'll go to their set and look at some rough cuts. It's not a class per se, but I'm essentially a supervisor for that over the summer. I will be in Waco, or I will be at a film festival for the next three months.

Derek Smith:
Well, that's incredible with a lot of exciting things going on. Ado_shortfilm is where they can find that on Instagram, a visit to your IMDB page and know more. Well, Sam, thanks so much for taking the time to share. I know it's a busy time, but really enjoyed the conversation, and I look forward to what's ahead for Ado and your other work.

Sam Henderson:
Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Derek Smith:
Thank you so much. Sam Henderson, assistant professor of film and digital media and theater arts at Baylor, our guest today on Baylor Connections. I'm Derek Smith. A reminder you can hear this in other programs online at baylor.edu/connections, and you can subscribe on iTunes. Thanks for joining us here on Baylor Connections.