Today we’d like to introduce you to Marcus Proctor.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I would say acting found me when I was seven. I got an insane amount of bullying at school and the mother of a girlfriend of mine ran a youth theatre in my hometown.
Her mum knew what I was going through so asked if I’d like to have a look. That first day there, I auditioned for The Emperor’s New Clothes as the Emperor. I overheard the casting lady whisper ‘what a good little actor’ as I was shouting in character (it was part of the script btw, lol). I was hooked.
I got the part and ended up staying there till I turned 15, acting in around 20 productions. It wasn’t only the compliment. I just loved it. I always loved TV even at 3-4, wishing I could be inside, but when I started theatre, I felt so comfortable. I also realized people got paid to act then that’s all I could ever focus on.
Which explains why I kept getting fired for daydreaming from all my other jobs after I aged out of youth theatre, lol. It’s hard though when it’s in your blood. It’s like my soul is dying in any other job.
I jumped back in when I was 22 and went hardcore for two years doing over 40 TV, theatre and film productions. It was taking over my life so I stepped back to live a little and ended up backpacking around the world for 6 years which I’ve written a book about called ‘Happy Traveller’ that’s out on Amazon and that has a Spotify soundtrack.
Some of those times include being a rent boy on Santa Monica Blvd and talking my way out of getting shot point blank in the face and almost getting my face sliced and branded by a pimp in Ireland. I’ve been homeless and lived in squats as well. I have an adventurous soul but the gun incident was a wake-up call that I needed to get a grip. But, as I found out later, it was great for my acting so I returned to what I love with a fair amount of life experience.
At least that way, I can have my adventures and get back home in one piece. I spent 4 years acting in around 60 TV, film and theatre productions in London and L.A. playing around with various genres and accents.
I’m now an actor/writer with about 15 shows I’ve created in various stages of development with three: a comedy ’Mikey’ in the US/Canada, a drama ‘Elliot’s Creek’ in Australia and a dark comedy ‘Heaven Can Wait’ in the UK being made with me playing the protagonist in all three.
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?
I hate the word journey, lol, but I have to use it. It’s been an interesting one. It has and hasn’t been smooth. I’ve been grassroots by being an extra and working my way up. Buying Backstage every week, going on Actors Access, LA Casting and Mandy every day, applying for the jobs I’m suited for but also sending out my headshot to all the other notices to be on file for their next masterpiece.
I’d send my headshots to the people advertising for behind-camera jobs as well. I’d go to all the other casting rooms in the building where I was auditioning and drop off my details. There’s been jobs found in all those ways.
There’s been thousands and thousands of submissions and hundreds of auditions. I worked in hostels for free accommodation and rode my bike everywhere, crashing it on the way once to an audition, trapping my leg between the bike and the car.
I went to my boyfriend’s house who used his camera and took my new headshot (which I ended up using, lol) and while looking at the new shots I decide not to go to the audition as my leg started throbbing. He said ‘you never know what will happen’ so I said ‘fine’ and went.
I hobbled for 30 mins to the Hollywood train station, got off at North Hollywood then did more hobbling for over an hour to the audition. My leg was really sore and starting to bruise but I did a half-arsed audition and left. I turned back around and asked if I could do it again. They said yes and it was that one that got me the part.
I’m a pretty chill guy but at a job once, we were filming a movie in an abandoned theatre on Santa Monica Blvd. I was walking around in the back during a break. It was really dark and I walked into a room where I felt the floor go soft.
I found a light, turned it on and the floor was covered in headshots. Thousands of them. It felt like I was walking on gravestones and jumped off. I looked at a couple and imagined all these dreams that probably never happened.
I don’t want to sound dramatic but it was pretty confronting. It’s called the boulevard of broken dreams for a reason and it made me so focused. I didn’t want to end up there. There’s a lot of dreaming happening and people put their heart and souls on the line to create something so the energy in Hollywood and the industry can be pretty crazy but also pretty amazing.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I primarily act, write and produce now. I can sing and am talking to a couple of music producers. I guess to reiterate from before, I have 15 shows I’ve created in various stages of development with three: a comedy ’Mikey’ in the US/Canada, a drama ‘Elliot’s Creek’ in Australia and a dark comedy ‘Heaven Can Wait’ in the UK being made with me playing the protagonist in all three.
I’m known for being pretty tenacious, lol. The ‘journey’ here has been pretty unique and I’m still here so that can make you stand out, I guess. The industry is pretty small so I think people take notice when you don’t even realize.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Oh wow. It feels weird being asked that. I still feel like a newbie. I guess there’s two things for me.
1: I think to trust yourself and go the extra mile. Everyone has spidey senses and have their own way of getting into character or work mode. Some people thrive in class, others prefer their own methods. It doesn’t matter. Whatever works, works. Dress up as chicken before an audition if you need to. There’s no right or wrong.
Plus, I’ve had to go on stage a few hours after someone passed away while I was on the phone to them and been pitching my show 5 minutes after getting out of hospital so that old adage ‘the show must go on’ has a truth to it.
2: There’s been creatives who get discovered a week after arriving in the big city and book a huge job. Others take 20, 30, 40 years to get that (if ever). Either way, when it happens, you’re in the same boat full of people just as, or more, ambitious then you. It’s full on and I think the one plus of not having that instant success is that you’re much more prepared for the hard slog it takes to break in/maintain it.
Oh yeah and get ready for a bumpy ride, lol.
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