Notable for producing high-profit films such as Stomp the Yard and the Think Like A Man and Ride Along franchises, Will Packer has carved his own path to success in Hollywood. In an exclusive interview with MADE, Will shares the formula to becoming a legendary leader.
MADE: You’ve accomplished an amazing career by being a dynamic storyteller and your personal story is something we want our readers to know more about in terms of the actual journey. How would you describe your entrepreneurial journey and where your entrepreneurial itch came from?
WP: The journey to being a film producer started in college. I would say the journey to being Will Packer, the successful person, entrepreneur, father, husband, anything else that I do well, really started at home. And that’s something I try to encourage other parents to do. Encourage your kids and tell them they can be anything they want to be and tell them they can do whatever they want to do. My parents definitely did that, so I had a drive that formed my hustle. My drive always allowed me to go after anything and it always forced me to give 110%. And that’s what landed me at Florida A&M University with a full ride scholarship and what allowed me to make my first movie while I was in college. I still didn’t know what I wanted to do after that first movie got made and was done, then I realized that what I had just accomplished was no small feat and is what they call in the movie industry “producing”. And I realized that I did it and did it well and made a profit. This was going to be my entrepreneurial
endeavor. So I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur, I just didn’t know what kind.
MADE: While pursuing your college degree and having a passion for producing, how did you use the skillset of electrical engineering to transition into film?
WP: It’s really different, but it prepared me in a strange way. I majored in engineering because I was really adept at math and science and I got a full ride scholarship to FAMU to study engineering. And that’s what I did, I took advantage of that opportunity to have my college career covered. But I knew that wasn’t my passion and I found my passion along the way when I made my first movie Chocolate City. The interesting thing about it is that even when I made that first independent movie all the way up to now, from the set of Being Mary Jane to everything that I’ve produced in between, I’ve used some of those analytical skills that I’ve learned from my engineering career.
Read the full story in the November / December Issue of MADE Magazine
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