Today we’d like to introduce you to Cal Barnes.
Cal, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born in Salem, Oregon in 1988. I grew up just outside the city and had a bit of what you could call a ‘Tom Sawyer’ childhood. All of my best childhood memories are from playing outside, building treehouses, exploring the creek with my dog, jumping on trampolines, and riding dirt-bikes.
I was a three-sport athlete all through high-school so I didn’t have time for much else. It wasn’t cool to be in drama class, so that was out. I was always one of those indie, outcast kids in the social scene, but I always had a small, tight group of friends. In my spare time, I’d skateboard, listen to indie music, and watch independent films — always searching for something deeper to connect to.
After high school, I took a year off and traveled for a bit. I lived in Maui for half a year, then spent three months in Thailand and Nepal. It was wild visiting those countries… it definitely had a profound effect on how I saw the world and gave me a real added appreciation for America.
I didn’t discover acting until I enrolled in college at Portland State University in 08’-09’ for creative writing and journalism. I had always been a gifted writer. I was the top of my class in every writing class I had ever been in from jr. high through college, but I didn’t fully understand the breadth of the creative gene at the time and its ability to efficiently cross into different artistic mediums. I also didn’t understand just how realistic it really is to pursue a career in the arts and how rewarding it can be, simply because I never grew up in that environment. I knew I didn’t want the picket fence, and to be honest, I didn’t really want a degree either. I was at college to explore mainly, and to see what was out there, looking for my next adventure.
I had all these elective classes to fill, so I decided to take full advantage of that. In my second term at PSU I took an introduction to theatre class and watched all these amazing plays around Portland, OR. I was completely blown away by all of it — the theatre, the creative energy, the stories — it was truly magical. Every week for three months, I would see a new play and have to write up and essay on it, and I couldn’t wait to do it again the next week. After that amazing term, I had this very unconventional thought that maybe I should give acting a try. Just the thought of acting scared sh*t out of me — I knew I had to do it.
That acting class at Portland State University was really the beginning of it all. I’ll never forget the first two plays I worked on — This is Our Youth, by Kenneth Lonergan, and The Zoo Story, by Edward Albee — to this day still two of my favorite plays. I had an incredible teacher, and he was really the first person in my entire life that called the artist out of me. Words will never be able to describe the significance of that moment for me. It was really everything. It was as if the door had been opened. It was what I had been looking for my whole life since as long as I could remember, and I had found it — I didn’t know what it was yet — but I had my hand on it.
That encouragement was all I needed to stake my life on it and move to Hollywood. I was bored with college — I stopped going to all my classes except acting — I was obsessed. All week between class I would just hang out at Powell’s Books in downtown Portland and read books on the history of acting and Hollywood as I finished out my term and mentally prepared to make the move. As soon as the term was over, I packed up my VW GTI, said goodbye to my family, and moved to tinseltown with $300 to my name… I had no idea what I was doing.
When I first got to LA, I crashed with my aunt at her apartment in Santa Monica while I looked for an apartment and a job. She had been an international model since she was sixteen and was huge publicist in the 90’s. She lived a life I could only dream of and I saw it with my own eyes. Looking back, it was a very strange and unconventional way to move to LA. I’d be out driving around LA during the day, trying to learn the city while I looked for minimum wage survival jobs, then I’d be partying with A-listers in Malibu on the weekends. I didn’t even know who anyone was because I didn’t have access to mainstream media growing up or in college. One of my first gigs was bartending Adriane Grenier’s birthday party during the height of Entourage in 2009. It’s only in hindsight that I look back and see how wild that was.
As my first summer in LA came to a close, I knew the three months long “welcome-to-LA” party was as well. It was like a had a glimpse of the high-life, only to have to go out and start from the bottom. I remember my aunt told me when I moved out, she was like, “now you’ve had a glimpse of what is possible, now go work your ass off and make it happen.” I knew I had years if not decades left in front of me to get back into those circles. It was hard but good. I was hungry and I had a lot to learn. I never wanted anything handed to me. I was willing to do whatever it took, and I was in Los Angeles… for a while that was plenty good enough.
I moved out and got my first experience of living in my car for a few days while I waited for my first apartment in Hollywood to be cleared out. I got my first job as a valet at the Fairmont Hotel in Santa Monica, and I used that money to pay for my first acting class and my apartment. Those first few years were brutal. I was making more money than I had ever made in my life and had not a penny to show for it at the end of the month. It was great to be in class though. I got a recommendation into one of the top scene study classes in LA at the time and was enjoying diving deeper and all the new discovery. The competition was fierce, but I was doing it — I was an actor in LA.
The first few years were pretty lonely. All I did is work, go to class, and try to keep myself afloat. I was booking, but mostly just short films and non-union commercials. Anything I had access to. I didn’t really care about the money to start. I was twenty-one and had limited film experience, and I was going up against people my same age who had been in the industry their whole lives. I knew that getting on set, getting experience, and playing lead roles on any level was key to the long game. I’d audition in the afternoons and drive to Santa Monica five days a week to work my evening job. It was very exhausting, and after a year I knew I wouldn’t be able to sustain it for much longer.
I distinctively remember that conversation with myself, reasoning that I moved to LA to act and not work this job 40+ hours a week. I refused to get bogged down or let a routine steal my dream. I’d survived once, I’d survived again, so without a backup plan, I quit that job and once again ventured into the unknown. There were some pretty lean times. I went through a lot of jobs — valet, catering, ticket taking — No matter how hard I worked, it seems like I was always a few hundred bucks short at the end of the month. My overhead was so high I even had to stand on street corners a few times at the end of the month. When I couldn’t do that anymore, thankfully my dad came to my aid a few times — I know that was a luxury not everybody has. I’m not sure how I would have survived otherwise.
Everyone always told me that if you can make it your first two years in LA, you can make it all the way. I always thought that was cliche before, but honestly my experience proves this to be completely true. By the time my lease was up, I had a better grasp on the city, and I had a lot more friends. As a result, I was able to downsize my monthly overhead by over fifty percent. I moved into a Franklin Village Neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills with a friend I met in acting class who now had a room open. I can’t describe how crucial this was for my sanity and career. Now I could work half as much and have twice as much time to focus on acting, or I could work the same amount and have twice as much money as I did before — it was a complete come up from both angles.
I felt a lot better, and I started to book more. I got a recommendation from a friend and got my first acting agent. I went on hundreds of auditions that year. I was still doing lots of short films that didn’t pay very well. Money was still scarce, but I had less pressure from bills than I did previously. I wasn’t too concerned, I was getting great on-set experience in narratives that I ultimately saw as more valuable to the long-game, but I would have welcomed that security. I was the final call-back runner up for about five SAG commercials but never booked one. That was really frustrating, as I really saw them as the golden ticket to be financially set to focus solely on acting for a few years. I had friends that booked them, and overnight they’d have more than enough money to pay rent, pay for all their classes, go on auditions, and party without having to get up the next day and go to work. Who wouldn’t want that at twenty-two years old? It just wasn’t my ticket.
After a year or so of that routine, I started to see a flaw in the system. I had booked and shot over a dozen short film in that last year alone — about one per month — and my mind started to move towards features. I realized that the kinds of scripts that served as the blueprints for my favorite independent films coming out — well, I never saw material like that anywhere. It dawned on me that no matter how strong of an actor I now was, I just didn’t have access to that level of material. I was a good writer, and I now knew what a good script looked like, so why not just start writing stories I care about and giving myself and my friend’s roles? I wrote my first short film, Plunge, about a real-life experience of the death of a close friend I had in my teen years… little did I know the springboard that this little short film would become.
I wrote, produced, and starred in Plunge in the winter of 2011 under my production company, Nineteen Films. I raised a few thousand dollars on Kickstarter and I hired a really talented MFA director I knew from acting in short films for Chapman University, who also brought a whole crew with him. I then hired this SAG actor I knew through the grapevine, and by hiring him as a principle talent and acting as a principle talent across from him, I was able to Taft-Hartley myself into SAG. We shot for one night at coffee shop in Santa Anna and had a blast. I then screened the film over Christmas Break at the independent theatre in my hometown of Salem, OR for friends and family. Flaws and all, that little short film that I created myself was the best experience I ever had working on a film to date. I learned a ton… and most importantly, I saw that writing held the key to what I wanted as an actor.
Once Plunge was done and I realized that writing held the keys to the kingdom. I became obsessed with screenwriting. All that lack of control and artistic insecurity I felt as an actor, well, with writing I felt fully empowered. I’ll never forget the day I fired my acting agent. It was about 2pm in the afternoon and I was in the middle of writing my latest spec script. My agent at the time called me and told me I had an audition for a web series in Santa Monica a 4.30pm that day. Basically, she was telling me I had to drive across town in mid-day traffic to audition for something I had no interest in. I immediately felt sick to my stomach. I just couldn’t do it, not again. I told her I was in the middle of writing a feature that I was thoroughly enjoying and from now on, I was only interested in auditioning for feature films — we left it amicably, but that was the end of the relationship.
From the moment I made that choice, I really just went off. From 2012 to 2013, I wrote about ten feature screenplays — all-star vehicles for myself — and I was learning a ton and having a blast doing it. I also wrote the first draft of my first novel, True Grandeur (officially published in 2017) loosely based on some experiences I had in my early twenties in Hollywood. In the Summer of 2012, I wrote a play, Rise, for some actors I knew that were forming a production company to put on a play for the 2012 Hollywood Fringe. I wrote hard and fast, and we workshopped that play every weekend… it ended up winning ‘Best World Premierel’.
That play was really another turning point in my life. After it won the festival, it got picked up for a full fall run at the late Elephant Theatre Company in Hollywood. It also got me my first major writing development deal and opened the door to a whole new circle of people. It was really a magical time, those years. From 2012 to 2015, everything just seemed to be working — artistically, socially — I was really living a semi-version of the life I dreamed of living when I first moved to LA. I had friends, I had connections. I’d write all day, and I’d be out in Hollywood all night. I started producing some of my feature scripts with some of my friends. I directed a music video. Another one of my roommates at the time was making a film as well and asked me to play a part in it… that film ended up being Unfriended. Again, being young and working and playing in Hollywood at that age, in those years… I don’t think I’ll ever have words to describe the epic totality of that experience. It was the most fun I’d ever had in my life.
“Land of the Lost,” I’ve heard LA referred to over the years. I think it’s because many people that move to this city are looking for something, and for me, often when I had found something and I thought was ‘the thing’ — the thing that was going to do it for me and make me happy forever — it would work for a while, then it’s time would pass and I wouldn’t want to let go. Fear enters the picture as I’d start to wonder why it was no longer working. Then if I’d try too hard to hold on, that thing I loved so much could even turn on me and become my enemy. Well, I guess you could say eventually that thing for me was my lifestyle.
In about a one-year span from 2015-2016, I made a lot of choices and experienced a lot of things that could be considered career enders for an actor. I was losing friends and getting kicked out of social events left and right. I pissed off the wrong people and was attacked and robbed in my own apartment. I got jumped by two guys and bashed in the head with a tire iron while another one ransacked my house. They took my guitar and all the cash I had in my desk before the neighbors came. I lost that apartment, then I lost my girlfriend and I almost lost my car.
My behavior was reckless and I was barely surviving near-death situations on a weekly basis. Every morning I woke up was a morning I was lucky to still be alive, although I didn’t see it that way. Perhaps the heaviest loss of them all was I lost the biggest role of my career in a project I cared deeply about. It was a big role with a considerable budget and cast. A role young actors dream of and work their entire careers to get — it was my shot, and I blew it. The amount of heavy mental, financial, and emotional loss I suffered during that year… I may never be able to put it into words…
At the end of 2016, I hit bottom, and I’ve been re-building my life and career ever since. There’s a few years in there between 2016 and 2018 where every day was a living nightmare. I was in recovery and every day was a battle just to exist, even though I wanted it all to end. I had no social life, no relationships, and no career. I couldn’t write, I couldn’t audition, I couldn’t do anything. It was an 18 month battle with me, myself, my Spirit, and nobody else. How did it come to this? How did my LA life go from so awesome too so dismal — and so quickly? I couldn’t blame other people or the industry anymore for my short-comings, and after about 18 months, I was able to finally take responsibility for where my life was. I was able to see that I had reaped what I had sowed, and my choices had created the life I was now in — both the good and the bad.
About two years ago, In October in 2018, I woke up one morning and it was back — this tangible energy and overwhelming desire to create — all that self-work, darkness, and doubt I crawled through for the past 18 months that felt like it would never end, it appeared I had begun to reach the other side. Not only did I have the creative spark to write, I also felt an appetite for acting again, something I had not felt for years that I dearly missed. It was all really natural and great, it had appeared that the light of life had returned to me at last.
Now I needed a project — something to dump all this newborn creative energy into — I wanted to realize my dream of producing and starring in a fully independent feature film under my company, Nineteen Films — a venture that I had been attempting to accomplish since I produced my first short film in 2011. I needed a project and role that I could sink my teeth into, but also something scaled enough that it could be done on a shoe-string budget using what I had access to, that would also still be fun to make. I went through my back-log of literary properties and found a little outline script I had written in 2012 about a boy who meets a girl and they spend an adventurous and wild night in Hollywood together — the working title for that script at the time was called The Overnight Hollywood Romance Project (soon to be known as The Astrid Experience), and it was perfect.
Next, I hit up my friend John That, a musician and a good friend. He also owned a production company — Noblehooks productions — our talents really complemented each other, and we always knew we wanted to do something bigger ever since we collaborated on Hippy Girl, one of his music videos I directed in 2014 that turned out really great. I told him I had a feature script we could produce under our companies by combining all our resources and using absolutely everything we had available to us from living and working in Los Angeles for nearly a decade. He’d do all the music for it and showcase his talent, and I’d star. He said let’s go.
From there, I spent a few more weeks re-writing and infusing six more years of life experience into the script as John began the process of incorporating the business for the film. Once that was done, we immediately began casting as we locked locations. I cast about half of the principle parts using the talented friends I had met over the years, and the rest we cast via the breakdowns and by using a casting studio, I had a connection to from past projects. For the lead female role, we needed someone very talented to help me carry the film, and we ended up casting Lucia Xypteras in the part of Astrid, a very gifted actress from South Africa who had just come off her first feature and did great work for us. To fill out the supporting cast, I cast my friend and comedian Rob Conroy — who plays a celebrity comedian and my best friend in the film — and Mena Santos and Lotus Bech we cast as Astrid’s friends. John That also plays himself and has a live performance in the film. Two weeks before filming, our cinematographer, Christopher Pilarski also signed on. His attributed knowledge and skillset was a major leveling up for our production and we couldn’t have hit the production levels we ended up hitting without him… it was all coming together.
We shot the film over two weeks between February and March 2019, and I’ve never had more fun in my life. I’d never worked harder on anything than in those two weeks, but I’d never been more creatively fulfilled. Overall, John and I were able to take our project from script through principle photography in just five months. We both had a lot of experience in those production phases so it went fast and smooth. Since then, we’ve been in the long and arduous task that is post-production, but we’ve been navigating it successfully and learning a lot. With the help of our talented editor, Kelly Soll, our cut is nearly locked, and despite the wildness and uncertainty of the last year, we’ve still managed to raise the finishing funds required to properly finish the film. I’m grateful for how we’ve come, and we’re all optimistic about its potential, but no matter the commercial outcome of the film next year, the pleasure of working on this project for the last few years has been an award unto itself. It’s been the most creatively fulfilling venture I’ve ever been a part of.
I’ve been in Hollywood for just over a decade now, and it couldn’t be more clear to me that I made the right choice by following my dreams. Despite the challenges, it’s been a wild and fun ride, and at the end of the day, I really just love acting, and writing, and making films. By living in LA, I’ve been having the experiences I dreamed of having as a kid, and I couldn’t be more grateful for that.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have been highs and lows throughout my journey so far. Some years have been much better than others, but on a whole I’d have to say the road has been anything but smooth, and I think a lot of that comes to the choices I’ve made. The entertainment industry is an industry where people can and will use you and take advantage of you if you’re in a place mentally that allows them to do it. There’s so many people in LA on such a wide spectrum, you really attract whatever you’re putting out at any point of time. Almost all my challenges have been self-created through the choices I’ve made — plain and simple.
The people that I’ve seen achieve success the fastest are the people that focus the most and work the hardest. I didn’t just want to work in my earlier years, I wanted to play a lot too, and I made a lot of choices in those years that are considered to be “high-risk,” and although I had a blast, I paid for it in a lot of different ways — mentally, financially — it’s all right. I’ve taken full responsibility for it, and to be honest, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I really lived life and had so much fun and have so many wild experiences to draw creativity from for the rest of my life… I really think those hold so much more value than anything else.
If anything, I wished I worked and played even harder, haha, but it’s all right… it’s just my path.
Please tell us about Nineteen Films.
Nineteen Films is a cinematic, independent production company with a focus on creating story-driven, premium content. So far, we’ve produced one short film — Plunge (2011) — one music video — John That, Hippy Girl (2014) — which was also our first collaboration with Noblehooks Productions. One experimental film — Hollywood by Night (2018) — and we’re getting to release our first feature film, The Astrid Experience, in 2021, which will mark our second collaboration with Noblehooks Productions and our first theatrical release as a company.
Nineteen Films currently has access and owns over 15 literary properties, with project budgets ranging from $200,000 — $200 million. We have feature scripts in nearly every genre, as well as IP rights for a novel, and a TV series that is ready to go that is similar thematically to The Astrid Experience in case people want to see more of this story, world, and characters once the film comes out.
What Nineteen Films is most proud of as a company is The Astrid Experience. I think the production levels we were able to achieve with what we had access to at the time is impressive for any young production company, and I’m very confident that people will see that reflected on the screen once the film is released.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
First, I feel full dedication and commitment to this life and career has been essential to any success I’ve achieved. I’ve always had the type of personality that always goes all in. If I had a plan B or entertained the idea of not having the life I want, it would have taken energy away from me pursuing and living my plan A life, and I never saw any reason for that. I’ve never really needed self-doubt because it would never help me get what I want. This was just very clear to me from a young age, and I’m grateful for it. It doesn’t mean I haven’t struggled with self-doubt, I’ve just never seen a need for it to exist or be in my life, and those are two very different modes of thought.
Second, just straight-up hard work. Talent is great to have, but everybody in LA is talented, so it’s all about how hard you are working compared to your peers. I’ve been working about 10-14 hours a day, seven days a week, for the last two years, and I know there’s still people out there working harder than me, and that fires me up. A little healthy competition is great. I’ve really learned to embrace competition because competition breeds greatness. Competition doesn’t mean comparing — those are two very different things as well — I don’t run around comparing myself to everyone because the great part about our industry is everyone is different and everybody brings something completely unique to the industry, but when I hear one of my friend’s books another feature or pumps out another script, that just gets me excited to work even harder because my friends and people around me are booking work and living their dreams. It’s very productive.
Lastly, just a pure love for movies and the craft. I just really love films. I loved them when I was a kid, I loved them before I knew people make them, I loved them when I was learning how to make them, I loved them before I was getting paid to make them and be in them, and I still love them now. Cinema is one of the greatest achievements in the history of mankind. It’s been one of the key elements to the documentation, progress, and evolution of the human spirit, and it’s an honor to work in this field and contribute to this wonderful craft.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://calbarnes.com/productions/
- Email: NineteenFilm@Gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/calbarnes/
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJRqryaR8wE
Image Credit:
Photographers: Nickolas Oatley, Christopher Pilarski. Subjects: Cal Barnes, John That, Lucia Xypteras, Christopher Pilarski, Paige Hailey
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