Meet Michael Vitovich | Acting by day Autopsies by night

We had the good fortune of connecting with Michael Vitovich and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michael, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I started my career in the death care industry where I worked for over 20 years. I performed autopsies, investigated crime scenes, and created community based education programs. Working with the dead can be depressing and at times an unrewarding career. This led me with the desire to pursue any avenue that would give me the opportunity to express myself in a healthy way. I decided to seek out a career in acting and writing. I’m excited for the opportunity to work on creative projects that give me the chance to create a character from a vision or create a story from an idea. So, to answer to the question why did I pursue an artistic or creative career, it was an opportunity that I needed to pursue what I was missing in my life. I was in a career that left me feeling empty, the work that I was doing was rewarding in terms of granting closure to people that experienced a tremendous sudden loss. However, in dealing with these losses, I always found myself seeking the comfort that I received from art, film and TV, art has always helped me to express my feelings. Pursuing an artistic or creative career has given me the opportunity to be a part of those stories, whether I’m the villain or the hero or just a supporting character, the goal has always been to make a connection with someone.
I am currently writing film scripts and a book about my life and times in the morgue and what I have learned from leading a life so close to death on a daily basis from my time as an autopsy technician.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Fearless but fearful. I’ve danced around the duality of working in a profession for over 20 years and starting a new profession in a completely different industry. I knew I had to be fearless in order to be successful, but I was fearful in being late to the game.
The things that I found set me apart from others is that I was a successful professional in an industry prior to switching gears. Working in forensic pathology, you realize that death is coming for everyone, and you just need to lose the fear of failure in order to believe in yourself enough to find success. Knowing that when I die, I don’t want to regret anything other than the amount of time that I had to accomplish my dreams.
This path has not been easy and it’s not always been rewarding, but sometimes the reward is knowing that we are here, existing in time to make an impact on the world. When I first started acting, there was not a lot of people that believed in what I was doing, I had to show them that I was serious in order to gain respect from friends….. earning the respect of peers became milestone for me, as well as earning the respect within the industry. Sometimes overcoming challenges just requires patience and tenacity to see a vision that no one else might see but you. I believe that sometimes people forget that life is a journey that starts with one step, you have to believe in what you’re doing.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Miami is one of the most beautiful places that you can live. One of the things that I would always encourage anybody to do is to take a moment and enjoy the best free show every day and every night and that’s the sunrise and the sunset by the water. I always try to start my morning with a cafecito and the sunrise and at the days conclusion, a nice Mojito and the sunset. Enjoy the simple pleasures.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I have to give a lot of credit to a single word. Sublimation…. I dedicate a lot of my success to this simple word. The definition of sublimation is “ to change the outlet, or means, of one’s expression of desires and feelings from something unacceptable to something more culturally or socially acceptable.” Creatives face a lot of rejection all in the pursuit of getting that one YES, it’s the thing that can bring you back to life when it feels like nothing is going your way. For me, I turned all of the emotions, all of the rejection, all of the feelings of being stuck in life, and I used sublimation, so that was the motivation that drove me. It has been the healthiest way to find peace within the world when you feel alone in your dreams.
Understanding that you can take anything that’s bad in your life and make it positive… for example, taking trauma from one’s past, and instead of letting that trauma consume you and ruin your life you transfer that into either motivation or action so then you can use it to help accomplish your goals. I have taken the emotions of life and used them towards acting or reacting in situations for the creative force. Taking a negative and changing it into a positive in any situation makes the difference, it also helps to make a difference in mindset when faced with an issue, a problem when it comes up, or when everything looks bad. Sometimes when we look so hard for the light at the end of the tunnel an experience has taught you that “that light” is a train coming, Well sometimes, we have to be the light.

Website: https://m.imdb.com/name/nm6649499/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

Instagram: @morguecandy

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-vitovich-8a554765?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app

Twitter: @morguecandy

Image Credits
Emerson vitovich
Chuck Arlund