Daily Inspiration: Meet Paul Major

Today we’d like to introduce you to Paul Major.

Hi Paul, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
So there I was, nineteen and freshly enrolled at the University of Central Florida, wasting no time diving into the world of acting, having quickly signed up as a background actor, and shortly from there found myself standing in a crowd of other extras, vigorously-yet-quietly cheering on Adam Sandler in “The Waterboy”, when the First AD came up to me during our pantomime. He asked me if I’d like to join the cast and play with them in a supporting role through the rest of filming. A few weeks into college, unsure of how it would affect my schooling, I asked for a minute to make a phone call so I could clarify my thinking (this was, gentle reader before cell phones were commonplace). The AD said ‘no’; they were setting up a shot and needed this newly formed part in front of the camera right away. I, then, said “no”, consumed by fear and uncertainty, and felt myself go wide-eyed at my own decision (almost as flabbergasted as the other background actors around me). What had I just done?! My pantomime, the rest of the day, became decidedly less vigorous.

Look, there are far worse things to happen to a person. But it’s been twenty-five years now and I still think about that moment, about how there are certain very clear forks in the road presented to us, and upon choosing a path, how easy it is to wonder about the road not taken. Booking that role would very likely have changed the trajectory of things for me in ways that could have precluded the relationships and experiences I had since that I wouldn’t trade. The regret I felt shortly after that day was part of what pushed me into an acting school where I met people I call family now, and really began to take acting seriously, for instance.

But that’s all the cart before the horse I suppose. The biographical data is this: Born at the tail end of the year of the Horse in Monroe, Louisiana, raised mostly in Oklahoma, lived all over the States, settled into LA in the year 2000.

Though raised in a loving household, I was a bit ostracized as a kid in school and found that my willingness to ham it up on stage, as early as the fourth grade, earned me positive attention. I flirted with other potential vocations as I grew, but the writing was on the wall. Later, at UCF, pursuing a BFA in theatre, I found myself seated around a group of other neophytes being asked why they wanted to be an actor. When it came to my turn I simply said: “I like attention”. Eyes went wide, a small gasp echoed through the rehearsal room, the earth stopped its axial spin. ‘So honest!’, was the sentiment expressed. I knew, at that moment, my time with these people was limited. A fork in the road, to which I said ‘no’ again.

The underlying judgment driving my sentiment was arrogant and misplaced, but I wasn’t wrong. Less than a year later I had left UCF and was ‘the only living boy in New York’, at the sunset of my teenage life and burning through cash as I lived in and explored Manhattan. I booked my first NY audition: A traveling kids-theatre gig, to play a scrawny version of Hercules! But before we could get around to the first rehearsal, the money was gone. On an NYC winter’s night, I left town to lick my wounds, cowed again, only to get the news that my bestie was moving to Los Angeles — and would I like to join? Yet another fork in the road. This time I said ‘yes’.

Today, 23 years from that decision, I remain an actor, writer, and filmmaker type of person. Like so many of us these days, the industry has made us multi-hyphenates. I have a day job, as of this interview, as a lead programmer for a creative agency, and enjoy tremendous latitude in my pursuits. If asked directly, ‘What do you do?’, I always hesitate. The real answer sounds so pretentious, and yet it’s the most accurate — I’m a storyteller. Sometimes a story I’m trying to tell demands I be behind the camera in some way, sometimes in front, sometimes on stage, and sometimes I help tell stories with the products I make. Asking me to pick is asking to pick a favorite child; I wouldn’t want to do it and wouldn’t know how.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
How do I quantify such a thing? What do I consider a struggle? I’ll say this: I would deeply mistrust someone who hasn’t faced some serious challenges by my age, in any industry.

The biggest struggle, the greatest challenge, is always myself: the interior management of the string of disappointments, ambitious ideas never materialized, and debt and stress accumulated. Being a multi-hyphenate is another way of saying I know a little about a lot. Some people — people I greatly admire — are able to focus their vocational pursuits to a razor’s edge. This has some downsides that I don’t experience but, again, ‘fork in the road’ — what would life be like if I was that focused? And, yet, the abject neuroses I often see in the folks that don’t vary their lives and aren’t getting their way, is…not enviable.

The exterior world is a smörgåsbord of struggle. I was on a writer’s team on an animated project about the 47 Ronin that got picked up by a prominent film studio — the studio folded shortly after. I was on a writer’s team that had a seriously budgeted web series go into production, only for funding to evaporate and for the project to fold in on itself due to internal drama. I’m a published author; the prologue to my novel-in-progress won its way into an anthology series of written works…that was in 2006, the novel’s still not done. My first feature film to co-direct and produce had a very limited run due to a very restricted licensing issue and is, thus, sitting in limbo as I re-develop it. After decades of non-union work as an actor, I took the leap and joined SAG; the audition notices predictably dwindled.

And then, of course, maybe more importantly than all of it, binding them both together, is the fire of time in which I burn. The mismatch of the interior and exterior life. The fact that I’m just a kid in his late twenties that happens to have a body in its mid-forties, a body that isn’t getting any easier to deal with. The treachery of the linear progression of moments racing me towards an end I cannot avoid, regardless of my desires and plans. You know, fun stuff like that.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We’re all, sometimes deservedly and sometimes not, judged by the company we keep, and I’m most proud of having close friends and family that are genuinely good people. My family and ‘framily’ are all my betters in different ways, but that actively lights a fire under me to be of value to them and to the world at large, and to stay active in my curiosity and learning.

Staying ‘grounded’ in a place like LA can be tough; most of my family’s in Oklahoma, so I rely on my friends and on other organizations and interests that I’ve become really proud of. I also don’t feel like the personal and professional are truly separable; in my experience, one nourishes the other. A couple of co-dependents:

– Gobble Gobble Give. This is the nation’s largest potluck to benefit our unhoused communities on Thanksgiving day. These are like potluck parties you’d expect — except we don’t eat what we bring together. Instead, we package our food (and clothing and hygiene items) into care packages that we take directly to the streets. I’ve been participating since about 2008 and am now the company secretary. We’re a 501(c)3 with events in many cities across the country and if you’re reading this and have a couple of hours to help out on Thanksgiving morning, you’re invited! www.gobblegobblegive.org

– Aikido Center of Los Angeles. Being able to leave LA behind, take my shoes off, and step onto some tatami in a traditional training environment made such a tremendous difference in how I’ve navigated this town and business. If you’re in the mood for a complete no-nonsense training methodology that helps you develop tools you’ll use in real life, in ways that may surprise you, I highly recommend the instruction at Aikido Center of Los Angeles. I’m proud to be on the non-profit board that assists ACLA, Furuya Foundation. www.aikidocenterla.com

Some recent professional bona fides include:

– “Satchmo at the Waldorf”. My first feature behind the camera, taken directly from the play of the same name, accomplished with very little time and budget, but with the blessing of the playwright and starring the originating actor, Dennis Neal, in the eponymous role. This was a labor of love all the way through, and a terribly interesting story about the relationship between Louis Armstrong Jr. and his irascible manager Joe Glaser.

– Semi-finalist placement in Screencraft’s stage play competition for my full-length play “A Remarkable Hut Near Coropuna”, about a couple of hapless Americans that are drawn in over their heads when participating in the cottage industry of Ayahuasca retreats.

– If you’re a space geek, as I am, then you may enjoy the podcast I created, host, and periodically update: Hello Universe. The latest news in space, exploration, and human advancement, in two minutes or less: hellouniverse.space

– “Play the Sun”. A filming of a monologue written by Ana Verde and performed by the gifted Dayana Rincon. Also, a labor of love, also accomplished in very little time with no budget to speak of. Having clever ideas about how to present a story is a bit of a trap filmmakers fall into, including myself. Sometimes you just have to get out of the way and let the story be told, though, and I think we’ve done that here. playthesun.com

As for being apart from others…. Do I want to be apart from others? Maybe not. I’m an ‘extroverted introvert’; enough of my time is already apart. I’m alone in a crowd.

That said, I think my multi-hyphenate nature provides some value to those I work with, and I am a shameless cheerleader for the arts and artists.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
The entertainment industry is not a meritocracy and the only folks in ‘the biz’ that think otherwise are child actors and folks that have been in the game since before their brain chemistry fully settled. That’s a perhaps pointed way of saying that luck is very, very important. There are a lot of extremely talented people, of great merit, that will never be known.

One can help luck along by being ready, however. Ready in a way I was not, all those years ago on the set of “The Waterboy”. Ready to say ‘yes’, and to have developed the skill and temerity to back up your course of action; to step through the door that luck opens, and with confidence.

Good luck to you!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://paulmajor.com
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0999436/ 

Image Credits
Paul Vroom, Matthew Martin, Brett Richards, Charles Marshall Manning, Cameron Bigelow