Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Kato.
Hi Chris, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
In sixth grade, I outlined three possible career paths for myself – Major League Baseball player, actor, or military/law enforcement, in that order. In high school, I started to realize baseball wasn’t going to be a viable career option – acting is much more realistic! I had grown up loving movies. I’ve seen the “Star Wars Trilogy” and the Burton/Schumacher “Batman” movies more than a hundred times, as well as the “Batman: The Animated Series,” which is still, to this day, my favorite series of all time. In fact, my three ideal roles growing up were Batman, a Jedi Knight (with a lightsaber scene, of course), and James Bond. While I realize Bond will (and should) remain British, I was able to disconnect from that one, comforting myself with the fact that there are other Bond-like roles I would be able to play at some point in my career. But the Batman and Jedi dreams still burn white-hot. If I could play Batman, like I have been since I was four years old (ask my mom – she has the pictures), I could retire. I wouldn’t, but I could. My parents always knew I had a penchant for mimicry and funny voices, as well as a strong interest in movies and television. And one day, after seeing “National Treasure” in the theatre, there was a table for an acting school – a very scammy one, which we’ll get to, but my mom noticed the, “Have you ever dreamed of being in the movies?” sign and decided to sign me up.
Meanwhile, my high school held CEO Day, which stood for “Career Exploration Opportunity Day,” and based on a questionnaire I had filled out in my history class, I had matched up with Creative/Performing Arts as my top match. There was then a field trip to a convention center where the different students were separated into rooms based on their matches. And at the Acting for Film and Television table is where I met my future mentor, director, and former actor, Jeff Celentano. He noticed I was asking more questions and seemed more interested than most and gave me a card, which led me to this acting school in Orange County where he taught at called The Performers Academy, where I would train for more than a decade under his and a few others’ tutelages. But back to that scammy acting school. It seemed legit at the time. We set up a time to “interview” for this popular modeling and acting school, which I won’t name but would happily tell anyone in person that asks, and was given a short commercial script to look over and perform on tape so they could “decide” whether to accept me and charge me $2,000/month. They took my mom and me (I was a minor at the time) into an office, name-dropped a bunch of names that didn’t seem to add up, then took me to this audition room, where they gave me five minutes to look over the script before they would come back and shoot it. I was nervous as I tried like mad to memorize the script, thinking this would be my big break! But five minutes turned to ten, then turned to a half-hour, then turned to an hour, then turned to TWO HOURS. We realized something was wrong.
When we walked out of the audition room, we saw the whole place was dark. They had gone home for the night and forgot about us! As we walked out of the room to try to find somebody, the alarm went off, which was a blessing in disguise because someone had to come let us out. The guy we interviewed with came back, profusely apologizing, of course, “taking this into consideration” when deciding whether to accept us or not. I did the commercial for the camera, which probably sucked, and we were sent on our way. They called us later in the week to tell us I would be accepted into their program. But by that time, we had met with The Performers Academy, where the staff was wonderful and the price of classes was not astronomical. Beyond that, plus souring on the experience from the other place, we knew one of the instructors already, who had a legitimate body of work on IMDb, as did the rest of their staff, whereas the other place didn’t even let us know who the instructors were. So the choice was easy and it’s been the best decision I ever made because I still credit Jeff with teaching me to act from the ground up.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I would be skeptical of anyone who said that this path has been smooth. While some handle it better than others, I don’t know anyone who’s had an easy time in the industry. I think everyone gets into the business with a healthy amount of ignorance. We all think we have raw talent and once we get in classes and find an agent, we’ll be movie stars within a year! Of course, that’s not the case. In fact, the biggest lesson I think should be learned is patience. It is NOT going to happen on your schedule no matter how well you plan. There are just too many elements out of your control. And I can tell you, speaking for myself, that if I had known it would take this long to get anywhere (I won’t say make it because I haven’t), I probably wouldn’t have started. But when you’re going through it, you always think you’re almost there. And because there’s no set path, you could very well be almost there at any time. All it takes is one thing to break your way. I’ve had lots of small breaks, and I don’t want to discount them, but some get that one big one. And while I haven’t yet, my resume of “almosts” is pretty impressive. I will admit – and I think a lot of people are afraid to – due to ignorance, arrogance, and even laziness, I lost a lot of time thinking it would come to me. There are genuine hardships that came up, such as losing out on some big opportunities for reasons that have nothing to do with talent, funding falling through at the last minute, and meeting people offering false promises, some presenting as your friends – all of which are common.
But the main lesson has been to expect these things to come up, don’t expect things to break your way, and keep at it. A lot of people, the ones that figure out how long it’s going to take, end up dropping out. And by the way, there’s nothing wrong with that. Whether financially, personally, or shifting interests, there are many reasons to pursue something else. The business is definitely not for everyone and if you can do anything else, please, by all means, do that. If you can be happy following a more consistent career path, there’s no reason to toil away in a business full of false promises, egos, inconsistent income, and a .01% chance of success. But the ones that can stick to the grind are the ones that end up making it. I can’t tell you how many actors I know that I’ve outlasted that had real talent and that I thought I wanted it just as much as me (and perhaps they did at one time). Almost all of them. Many film schools do this cliched thing where they say turn to your left and right. They won’t make it in this business. As cliche as it is, it’s true. I went to more than a decade’s worth of acting school, as well as film school, and there are maybe five actually active in the business as of today. Some others do it part-time, “if something comes up,” and some are stuck in the dreaming stage. But the vast majority are off doing other things. God bless them for that. I honestly wish I could be happy doing something else because this business is a constant struggle.
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?
I think of myself as an actor/writer/director in that order. That’s not only the order I think I’m the best at, it’s the order I like the most. But as I grow and mature, and as this business evolves, one realizes that you can’t be just one thing anymore and being a hyphenate is not only a bonus but a necessity. It’s not to say it’s impossible to be just one thing, but it might as well be. You’re shooting yourself in the foot by not wearing more than one hat. When I started, I figured I would make the most of my money by acting in people’s projects and I would be so successful that I would have the opportunity to write and direct my own projects on the side. But recently, I’ve made most of my money by writing screenplays – writer for hire jobs, which is different than selling spec scripts. These are producers and/or directors that have projects of their own that they need either a first draft or a rewrite for. I wrote a horror movie called “Incision” that came out in 2020 that I’m proud to say received mixed reviews (most indie horror films receive universally poor reviews). And off of that and some other unproduced work, I’ve gotten some opportunities to write for several creatives. I’m currently in the middle of four projects I’m writing, one of which I’m attached to direct. I used to be afraid of being seen as a writer because if I wanted to cast myself in something, I would be seen as an egotistical writer who just wants to put himself in movies. But I weighed that against the much more daunting alternative – that I’m known for my day job rather than a writer.
And since I have over 40 acting credits on IMDb and literally less than five actually paid, I had to put my ego aside and accept that, for the moment, my most marketable skill is as a writer, even though I still think my strongest skill is as an actor. It doesn’t matter if the demand is in my writing and actors are a dime a dozen. This doesn’t mean I’m giving up acting, mind you. It just means I’d rather make my living inside the industry rather than outside of it because it’s really hard to juggle a full-time job and a full-time career. Do I have higher aspirations? Of course. Of all my credits, the ones I’m genuinely most proud of are the short films I wrote, directed, and starred in, “Forgetting Regret” and “The Christmas Gift,” and some short comedies I acted in directed by the talented filmmaker and VFX artist, Stephen Cunnane, “Wing Nuts” and “Oh the Accent,” the latter written by my dear Irish friend, Bertie Brosnan. And I would be remiss without mentioning “Ghostbusters: Station 6,” the ambitious fan series by one of my closest friends and collaborators, Christopher J. Tomlinson, who I’ve known over 15 years now. We continue to develop new projects together. But my prime sense of achievement is with my creative and romantic partner, Brialynn Massie, who has one of the strongest new voices in the industry and always pushes me to be better. I genuinely feel my own work is stronger because Bria’s approach to their own projects ups my own game. Bria helps me distinguish my work by marrying my commercial sensibilities with the personal and thematic elements that are so important to Bria’s work. I still believe my best work is yet to come.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I believe my ability to adapt to ever-changing circumstances, as well as my wide breadth of creative interests and knowledge, are the most important aspect of my success. I love all genres and am always open to new opportunities. I’m no longer closed off to things that come my way because it doesn’t fit my preconceived notion of how my career path would play out. Everything will happen in its own time and just because it happens in a different order doesn’t mean I can’t achieve everything that I set out to.
Contact Info:
- Website: chriskato.com
- Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/actorchriskato
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/actorchriskato/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/actorchriskato/?hl=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Kato5523
Image Credits
Maya Zibung Jones, Christopher J. Tomlinson, Gail Kato
