I’m a different sort of actor. I don’t see myself as an actor or even an entertainer, I see myself as a controversial artist, meaning, I bring my controversial past into every single one of my indie film performances, because I didn’t start acting until I was 32 years old. So, let’s begin the story. I was born in 1970 and I grew up in a military family, my father was a fighter pilot who served three tours in Vietnam, and I moved twelve times by the time I was 18 years old. And ever since I was 4 years old, all I ever wanted to be was G.I. Joe, so, I spent my childhood learning how to shoot, hunt, camp, wilderness survival, first aid / CPR, orienteering, and etc, and at the age of 18, I finally joined a combat infantry unit in the U.S. Army specializing in jungle warfare. And in the infantry, we have a motto: “work hard, play hard”, so, let’s just say that I played a little too hard and got mixed up in illegal drugs and before I knew it I became a middle man in a drug cartel, and then I was selling to an undercover agent and having too much fun playing a cat & mouse game with her and her partners, and when they were finally trying to bust me, well, I went on the run for a year and a half from the ATF, FBI, HPD, CID, and I also had a bounty on my head for $20,000.
What’s the first word that comes to mind when you see this movie shot of Eddie Redmayne & I in @HICKTHEMOVIE? pic.twitter.com/3QHa1bYNDd
— Dave Vescio (@DaveVescio) December 13, 2015
But, I finally got caught and sentenced to ten years at a hard labor maximum prison called Fort Leavenworth. I did two and a half years in prison and did another two and a half years on federal parole. And while I was on federal parole I started to study broadcast journalism at Virginia Tech University, and in my junior year CBS News pulled me out of school to work for them full-time as a TV photojournalist to specialize in spot news (which is natural disasters & man-made disasters). And that’s when I realized that I wanted to personally feel the emotions that my characters were feeling (for real) in these news stories that I was covering, so, I quit working for CBS News, read over three dozen acting books until I realized that I only liked two of them: TRUE AND FALSE by David Mamet & THE PRACTICAL HANDBOOK FOR THE ACTOR written by Mamet’s students. So, I finally got accepted into Mamet’s acting conservatory in NYC in 2002, and the rest is history. I’ve been creating controversial & provocative art ever since by bringing my past life into each & every one of my performances.
Did you study acting
As I said before, I trained at David Mamet’s acting conservatory, which is called The Atlantic Theater Company Acting School. And honestly, it’s the ONLY acting school that I know of, that actually teaches its student actors that you are more than just an actor. You are also a leader, a producer, a publicist, a marketer, an advertiser, to etc. It’s our job as artists to create our own art, versus to just play the audition game, and it’s our job to first bring the audience to our stories & then through the stories with our characters, and we live in a time period where it is so easy to create our own plays or even our own films, or at the minimum help our producers & directors sell tickets to our theatre or movie theater projects, as well as get the audience to rent & buy our films on VOD / DVD. So, that’s what I do, I created a fan page for my cult followers on Twitter, as of today, I have over 289,000 Twitter followers and I do my own press to get my indie films seen by the world’s audience.
What acting technique do you use
I actually use dozens on dozens of different acting techniques all at the same time. I think the whole point of being a professional artist is to study every single acting technique that there is and then use what works for you and discard the rest. And in the process, you start to create your own acting technique. But, the two acting techniques that appeal to me the most are David Mamet’s & The Method. But, at the same time, I use bits & pieces from all the different acting books that I have ever read, and let’s just say that I’ve read the mass majority of them that have been written in English in the past 100 years. But, I also use all the different acting techniques that I’ve learned from every single veteran actor & film director that I’ve ever worked with as well. I’ve also had the honor to be in nine indie films in the past five years that have had at least one Oscar / Golden Globe / or
Primetime Emmy winning/nominee actor attached. And all of those award winning/nominee actors that I’ve worked with have pretty much taught something useful to use as well. But, I also do things differently than most actors. I actually memorize & rehearse my lines on the street corners of Hollywood, so, the people walking around me (actually the audience if you think about it) are always teaching me how to be a better actor as well. And I also learned how to be a better actor by listening to my cult fans and to the movie critiques. So, if you think about it, everyone is teaching me how to be the best that I can be, and I definitely listen to them all! 🙂 I had a mentor once who taught me that constructive criticism is like sandpaper, it’s going to hurt like hell and it’s going to make you bleed, but, in the end, it’s meant to do one thing and one thing only, which is to polish you up. So, let it polish you up! 🙂
What wrong impressions do actors hold about acting
Ha, ha, ha, well, professional acting is definitely NOT sitting at home and waiting for the phone to ring to tell you that there’s an audition waiting for you. I mean you can do that, and the mass majority of you reading this will definitely do that. But, you’ll just end up having a career of being the professional background actor or the professional actor with the one liner in TV episodics. And there’s nothing wrong with that, if that’s all you ever aspire to be in this business. But, you can be so much more if you actually stop being so lazy and start learning new skill sets that will 1) separate you from the rest of the pack, and 2) make the higher ups in our industry want to actually hire you as an actor because you’re giving them other skill sets to make their acting project a hit with the audience. Think about it, do you think A-list actors just became A-list actors because of their agent or manager? No, they became A-list actors because ever since they started to act they all knew that they had to get the audience to their theatre play or to their film festival screening or even to their movie theater screening, and they all used a publicist or just wrote their own press releases to get the audience to see these acting projects of theirs. And nowadays, most of these A-list actors have their own social media pages promoting their acting projects to their fan bases as well. So, that’s how you actually climb through the ranks as a theatre actor or even as a film actor, you actually bring a paying audience to your acting projects first by doing press and using your social media pages to do that.
Muse (Feature Film)
Do you take courses to improve your craft
No, I don’t. David Mamet taught us that the paying audience is who we actually work for, no one else, but, them, because even the directors, the producers, & the casting directors who hire us, all work for the paying audience as well. So, if you can please the paying audience, you’ll easily make a living at professional acting for the rest of your life. Versus if you think your job is to just please the industry, well, that’s the reason all actors come and go in our business every single day. We’re not employees, we’re employers, and the sooner an amateur actor realizes that, the sooner he or she will do professional work consistently in this business of ours.
What acting books do you read
Like I said before, I’ve read the mass majority of them. And every time I hear about a new one, I read that one as well. But, the two that I read year after year for the past decade and a half is TRUE AND FALSE by David Mamet & THE PRACTICAL HANDBOOK FOR THE ACTOR by Mamet’s students.
How do you keep fit as an actor
I actually have a daily routine that I also do before every single audition & before I arrive on set, it consists of doing movement exercises like yoga, I also do a vocal warm up, I meditate & connect my chakras, and I also massage my face. And I also walk three miles most nights with my monologues, auditions scenes, or movie scripts in hand, that I’ll memorize & rehearse out loud for the street people to hear & see. And I try to run, dance, and do my U.S Army infantry workout as well, which consists of pull-ups, chin-ups, dips, push-ups, monkey bars, etc. I live next to an outdoor park that has adult size gymnastic parallel bars, monkey bars, & pull-up bars, so, it’s a great place to do my U.S Army infantry workout. And I’ll be honest, the reason I work every single year in bigger & better acting projects with Oscar / Golden Globe / and Primetime Emmy award winning/nominee actors is because of my daily routine of working on my voice, body, mind, and soul. Our body is our instrument, and just like how a professional guitarist has to tune his guitar every single day, well, we professional actors have to tune our instrument as well. It’s a musical instrument like no other on this planet, and the more you tune it, the better it sounds and looks and feels to the paying audience.
Actor @DaveVescio “I wouldn’t be who I am today without my past successes and failures” https://t.co/QMRYZUPEdd pic.twitter.com/aohBxFs8gg
— Carl Marsh (@Newsignedbooks) December 11, 2015
When you’re offered a role, what do you do next
First I read the script to see what my character is saying & doing, and to also see what everyone else is saying about my character. And then I print out those pages of the script and that’s it. Then I take the scenes that I speak in and I input the dialogue of the other characters that are speaking to my character into a tape recorder and for my lines I leave blank spaces in the tape recording, so that way I can always rehearse these scenes over and over and over again on my own with my tape recorder. So, I don’t need a scene partner or even an acting coach to rehearse the lines with me, because my tape recorder is my scene partner! Plus, I don’t have to memorize anyone else’s lines as well, I just have to listen to what the other characters are saying, and then I say
what my character is saying in those blank spaces on my tape recorder. And when I say the lines out loud on the street corners of Hollywood, I actually use the street people around me as the other characters, so, I’m always trying to get them to physically do something for me, so, I’m always fighting for whatever my character is fighting for from the other characters in the scene. But, I’m also Method, so, I’m either pulling up old memories of being this character in real life or I have to create new memories in my personal life to be able to be this character for real. So, I’m always trying to actually do what my characters are doing for real, without actually breaking the law or hurting anyone in the process, but, I definitely take Method acting to the outer edges though, that’s for sure!
How do you take a character in a script to a honest, believable and breathing person
Like I said above, the more I can believe that I am this character for real, the more you the audience will believe that my character is for real as well. Only the truth will ever come across as the truth. So, if it’s truthful to me, then it will be truthful to you. So, I actually have to do it, think it, question it, ponder it, and feel whatever my character is going through. So, if my character is angry, I’m angry for real, if my character is crying, I’m literally crying for real, and etc. with all the other emotions as well.
The Odd Way Home – Red Carpet
How do you stay fresh on set
By not talking to the other actors or crew members on set, unless my character would be talking to them. You only have so much energy, and the more you expel it on other things that don’t matter to your character, the less you’ll have it when you have to do take after take after take on a 12-hour work day, day after day, week after week. It’s the actor’s job to be the best actor that he or she can be, not to chit-chat with everyone you meet. You do that at the wrap party or after you get done shooting for the day. But, otherwise, you show up, know your lines, know the actions that your character has to do, and give it your all: with your heart / body / mind / soul, and blow us *the audience* out of the water with your magnificent acting performance that made us actually feel something: good, bad, and/or ugly. That’s the job that you’re getting paid to do, nothing but that, so, just do that!
What do you want most from a director
A director who actually directs. That’s why they are called direct-ors in the first place. But, I’ll be honest, every single director who directs are the ones I work with. Versus the directors who don’t know how to direct actors, well, I have never worked with any of them in my whole career. So, it’s win-win for both of us! Like attracts like, and I don’t ever attract directors who don’t know how to direct actors, and thank god that I haven’t, because it’s pure laziness. And I hate lazy people.
What actors do you long to work with
I love watching Daniel Day Lewis in movies he’s a phenomenal actor, so I definitely look forward to watching him work in person one day soon; either as an actor on set, or just to be invited to set to watch him work. Either way, I would love to have that experience!
Brian Krause
Why
Because he’s the most Method actor there is. He actually lives as his character for at least six months to a year before he even arrives on set, and then he lives as this character on set every single day as well. So, I would just love to see this process and see how it makes me feel as an actor as well. I honestly believe he is the most talented actor on the planet, I mean he does have three Oscars for Best Acting!
What advice would you give to actors
Follow your heart, follow your bliss, and be willing to do learn everyone’s job on set and off set as well. Meaning, learn how to produce, direct, write, & edit; learn how to be your own agent & manager, learn how to negotiate your own daily rates, & also know how to read contracts properly; learn how to get press & how to use your social media pages properly; and learn how things get distributed and bought up by the paying audience. Because the more you understand how this Hollywood business actually works, the more control you’ll have on making your own artistic dreams come true. Also read the trade magazines, because these entertainment journalists are telling us the future of our business. If you haven’t noticed it yet, the internet is actually killing corporations left & right, and it’s making it easier for us artists to get our own art seen by the world. This is an entrepreneurship revolution that we’re all living in! So, the more self-reliant you can become and the more you can master your art & the business of this art form, the more you’ll be able to last in this ever changing technological world that is rapidly changing our Hollywood business for good. There’s a reason the movie THE ARTIST got made years ago and won all those awards, because our business is changing once again, and the ones who can change & evolve into something new will have careers, and the one’s that can’t or refuse to change will end up like the silent film actors of the past à has been actors that will be forgotten about. So, it’s up to you now, do you change, evolve, and grow, or do you become obsolete? Only you can decide what happens next, no one else but you. So, choose wisely… Or suffer the consequences.
Briefly write about your career
I’m a controversial artist who specializes at playing movie villains, because I AM a real life villain! 🙂 And it’s my job to bring that reality to the big screen & to the small screen. So, I only do controversial indie films that will get underneath the skin of the audience, meaning, we’re going to talk about issues that you the audience rarely ever want to hear about, such as child rape/molestation, sex trafficking of pre-teens, domestic abuse / rape, abuse of autism kids, cloning of Jesus Christ, to etc. So, with that said, definitely check out my cult film HICK starring Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne, Chloe Grace Moretz, Blake Lively, Alec Baldwin, & Juliette Lewis. It’s a true life story about a 13 year old girl who runs away from home and the realities of being a runaway in a world with adult men all around her. Also check out my movie THE ODD WAY HOME starring “Dancing With The Stars” winner Rumer Willis & Chris Marquette. It’s a story about domestic abuse and the abuse that autism kids / young adults have to go through for looking & sounding different from us so-called normal people. It’s a very touching story that will definitely tug at your heart! I’ve also done some great indie films that are coming out in movie theaters & eventually on VOD / DVD in the coming year such as GOING TO AMERICA starring Eddie Griffin & Josh Meyers, WOLF MOTHER starring Tom Sizemore & Najarra Townsend, BEREAVE starring Malcolm McDowell & Jane Seymour. And right now on Hulu you can watch one of Hulu’s first home made feature films called THE MILLIONAIRE TOUR starring Dominic Monaghan and produced by Michael Eisner. So, enjoy!
