Today we’d like to introduce you to Louie Chapman.
Hi Louie, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
It started with my ex-acting manager from Luber Roklin who would send me to help some of his other clients out with self-tapes. He believed I was a great reader, trusted me with helping them and I thought it was a lot of fun! From there, I then grew to helping other people, predominantly friends and then friends of friends. I then decided to invest all my money during lockdown into better recording gear. As an international actor, I can only make money with acting work and during the pandemic, that was not available or achievable but I needed to make ends meet. So I opened up 1805 helping both other working actors and myself at an affordable price. Since opening 1805, I have been so damn happy, I get to do what I love everyday.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Fear. I was so fearful of stepping into the shoes of officially calling myself a coach, I felt like friends and peers would ridicule me and clients wouldn’t listen to me all because I was changing my title from actor to acting coach. So at first when I opened the company, I made it very clear on my website that I was ‘just’ an actor with self-taping equipment that was great at cold reading and could go with the flow. Then eventually after a handful of compliments and successes I started to realize that I am a coach, I help people get to where they need to be, that is what I do. So self-esteem and confidence was by far my biggest obstacle yet. A current obstacle is trying to find a bigger and better space for the business but there is no immediate need for that.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
So my business is “a self-taping facility for the working actor”. The tagline is a double entendre as I am also a working actor, My mother thought it was amusing and we all like to please mother. As an artist, I strive for documentary real work, I want an actor to walk in and give me a real conversation that we can get lost in. My favorite moments are when an actor can break another actor out of the scene, i.e., “So your tired.” and the actor will reply with “yeah well the character is in his 30s and I think the character is…” and I’ll say ” So your tired was my first line bud” and then we laugh. I love when actors can catch me out or cut me and leave me with emotional residue of love or hatred or feeling like maybe I didn’t do a good job because they were really talking directly to and into me. So I guess thats what I’m known for is grounding performances and making actors see that they are stretching themselves into being a character rather than trying to create or reach for a character.
As an artist, I’m known for playing a wide variety of characters. Some of my credits include Mountjoy in Time Crafters, starring Malcolm McDowell, Denise Richards and Eric Balfour. Smokey in Dauntless starring Judd Nelson and C Thomas Howell, The Bryan in Seven Neighbours, starring Tim Griffen and Walter Belenky. And probably my most well-known credit as this movie was on emirates airlines inflight entertainment, Patrick in Royal Christmas Engagement starring John Scheider. I’m repped by my wonderful team at APA and More/Medavoy.
How do you define success?
I think success changes for everyone throughout life; we are always growing and trying to reach for the next best thing but its baseline is happiness and freedom to do what you love.
Pricing:
- $60 for 60 minute session
- $30 for 30 minute session
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.1805tapes.com
- Instagram: @1805tapes
Image Credits
Blu Hunt by Dan Doperalski
