We had the wonderful opportunity to chat with actor Tom Proctor about his latest projects. Check out the interview below.
Hi, Tom! Thank you for granting the interview. You have an amazing portfolio of work. What inspired you to become an actor?
The movie “Billy Jack”. I was a cowboy, rancher, and a martial artist. And I just felt like from the moment I saw it that I could do that. It was really cool because I was being trained in the same martial art that Billy Jack used in the movie, Hop Ki Do. Later I found out on the set of “Django Unchained” that it was also the same movie that made Quentin Tarantino want to make movies and be in the movies. It’s very amazing, the things that can have an influence on us at different stages of our life. Because as I look back now and watch the movie “Billy Jack” it did not impact or even impress me the way it did when I was younger.
Tell us about your career. What roles do you enjoy playing most?
I have a soft spot for cowboy roles, as that’s where my career started, riding onto the first set by accident, a western. We were hired on the spot and made more money in the next two weeks than we made all year pushing cattle.
Is there a role you would like to play to test your range?
It’s hard to explain. I would love a role where I was not the killer, not the tough guy, and possibly a good guy, a dad, and maybe even a victim. The tough guy, man-in-charge comes easy for me because that is who I am in life. But I am also a father, grandfather, brother, son, and very protective over my family. They bring out a softer side of me. Often tears of joy watching my children and grandchildren’s successes, and the people they are in their lives.
Have you faced any challenges in your career?
No (with a laugh), the great goose of Hollywood laid a big golden egg and dropped it on my silver platter. LOL. I tried to make it as an actor and a stuntman while raising a family. It’s difficult enough, the high cost of Los Angeles, for a young single actor, and I was not able to move my family and me here until my kids were raised and on their own. Then I rushed to play catch-up with younger talent. I came to L.A., got training, worked on films in other states prior to and during living in L.A. So much of my money was spent traveling to get the work and do the work as a local in many places. Now I have those who want me to mentor them around the challenges of being an actor, which vary from person-to-person but cannot be avoided.
What’s your favorite part about auditioning?
I love getting direction from the casting director. I have many times been cast without an audition, and have seen, in television especially, you often don’t get a clear grasp of the timing and the pacing of a particular show. The audition process is quite often where that information is gained. I’ve also found the role I get cast in may not be the one I auditioned for. The casting director, a producer, someone — will remember my audition and then out of the blue in the future, call me for a completely different role that they know I’m right for. That always comes as a surprise.
Which format do you prefer, theater, film, or television?
That’s like asking if I like ice cream, cake, or pie? Yes, please. I love the theater, but since I do love ice cream, cake and pie, I need money to pay for them. So I’ll take the paycheck. When I lived in small towns, the theater would double-cast so each role had a backup to trade days with like an understudy. I haven’t seen much of that in L.A. I definitely prefer big roles on TV series especially. I love the faster-paced shooting and schedule of television, and how many people see my face quickly. A film takes a couple of years between production and release, so it’s not as instant an exposure as TV.
What is going to surprise people about you?
My comedic timing would really surprise a lot of people. As well as my ability to move like a kung fu expert which has never been used in television or movies. I’m always playing the brawler, biker type, never the graceful martial artist. I can kick you in the head three times before you know the fight started.
What’s your favorite movie line and why?
When Jack Nicholson said, “At my age, I learned three things: don’t waste a hard-on and never trust a fart.”
When looking back on your career, what production resonated with you the most and why?
Heathens and Thieves. I got to play a believable good guy in a western. No spoiler about the ending. And – bonus – during the shooting in a remote countryside, I got to live in a cabin with no electricity, fish in the stream outside and chop my own wood. That was a real western experience.
You’re producing a Country album. Tell us more.
Tom Proctor and the A-Listers “Working Man” album was released earlier this summer. It was a childhood dream to make music, and my grandmother told me I would no longer be poor if I just played my music and sang my songs. I was very close to her as a young boy. But as a teenage drummer in my older brother’s band, I found I was deathly allergic to cigarette smoke filling the clubs and bars where we played. This seemed to just kill that dream. I would be drumming and have to throw up in a bucket between songs, then run for the back door to get fresh air during the breaks. Finally, I assumed that my grandmother for the first time was wrong in her predictions and I gave up the dream. Then while on my way to Louisiana for some film work about 7 years ago, I won a guitar in an arm wrestle and started just plucking and making up notes, and making up my own music. I found it was better than therapy, a cure for loneliness and despair when I worried how to make it between film roles. I played on the streets of the French Quarter for daily survival money. And inspiration. Then I landed a role on the television series “Nashville”. During lunch, I was playing one of my original songs when I thought everyone was gone. A nice person heard my music and asked me whose song it was. It turned out she was one of the music supervisors for “Nashville”. She asked how many originals I had and whether they were registered and copyrighted. When I told her they were not, she hooked me up with another person Michael Whitney – who taught me how to copyright and register my songs and create my own publishing company. One thing led to another and I recorded a wonderful album at Dark Horse Recording in Nashville, Tennessee, with Billy Mason coming on board and bringing his new Dancehall Doctors, previously with Tim McGraw, and the results are beyond my expectations. Upon release, we were in the top five finalists in five categories on KDub Country Music Awards, and won two of them: Best Single of the Year for “In Hollywood” and also Best Radio Single for “In Hollywood.”
You’re preparing to tour in Australia with top bands. Who are some of the bands?
As of right now, one of Australia’s most notable bands, “The Mason Boys”, will be opening up concerts for me, then join me for my set. I will be playing Tamworth Music Festival with The Mason Boys and the agent over there has set up a tour throughout the outback, which I will travel with The Mason Boys. Exact dates and places are to be announced soon.
This is the text of the last press release: Tom will be guest at a series of shows with Australian band THE MASON BOYS when they visit Australia’s largest country music festival for the 4th year running. Tamworth music festival is the premier country music festival in Australia. The MASON BOYS have a series of shows booked and Tom will get to showcase some tunes of his own while the MASON BOYS will be releasing a very special song written for Australian farmers doing it tough in one of the worst droughts in the country’s history. Following on from the last show to be held on Australia Day, Tom and the boys will venture out into regional parts of Australia to perform.
Do you have anything else you would like to share about your career?
I have been given permission to release the fact that I’m cast in DC’s new “Swamp Thing”. I’m also the subject of a reality show which follows my adventures as a biker. And there’s a project in the works in Europe that I’m in consideration for. Also, I will be shooting a film, as one of the leads, while in Australia on the tour. The writers and director have written a role specifically for me. Last week I had three roles that aired on TV: “NCIS-New Orleans”, “The Resident”, and Nickelodeon’s “Knight Squad”. It was a good week for my face.
In November, The Coen Brothers’ “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” premiered and also “Heart, Baby!” – both films I really enjoyed making.
Complete this sentence, if I had an opportunity to do anything I want, I would do ___________.
. . . . undivide our country. Reunite us with a common purpose, and connect people through music and laughter. I would like to write a song or a movie that shows the world we are all brothers and sisters in the same family and on the same ship, whether you’re black, white, purple or green, gay, hetero, no matter what your religion is, hate and division will do nothing but sink this ship. I’ve had men that had arguments, many times drunk, take a swing at me or try to start a fight, and I’ve answered the fight many times with a punch to the face. And I’ve answered the fight many times with simply hugging them until they quit fighting. Both times I walked out safe. One of those times I walked out with a friend.
Connect with Tom:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialtomproctor/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/TomProctor
ReverbNation: https://www.reverbnation.com/TomProctor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TomProctorFilms
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-396804570-921021435/sets/mastered/s-7axDk
About Author
