Rising Star George Cantero On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Entertainment Industry

An Interview With Edward Sylvan

The easiest thing that you have to do to succeed is to show up on time and be there, do your work and hand it in on time.

As a part of our series about creating a successful career in TV and Film, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing George Cantero.

George Cantero is an actor and US Army veteran. He started acting as a child in Georgia and after completing his service in Vietnam was recruited by the Army’s Special Services where he performed in dozens of productions. George studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute. When he’s not acting, you can catch him on stage playing his harmonica with local bands.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

I was an Army brat born in the United States Military Academy in West Point, NY. I started acting as a child in Augusta, GA, where my father was stationed. My mother was a part of an acting group called The Augusta Players and they needed a child for a scene in the teahouse of the August Moon when I was 4 years old. The director decided to put me, my younger brother, and my sister on the show. President Eisenhower came by and saw these during a tour of Fort Gordon. The play got a lot of attention from the media.

Later on, my mother divorced my father and we moved to New York. There I was cast in a TV series as an autistic child. I was more in the background, but the autistic part was easy for me because I was slightly autistic. It was a moment in my life to imagine my own world and get to learn how to express my feelings. When I was 11/12 years old I was doing plays Off-Broadway and that stopped when I moved to Sacramento, CA, where I lived with my father. My childhood was filled with plays, studios, and scripts, but I decided to volunteer for military service which became dormant for years.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

I came back from Vietnam and I volunteered for a play at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. I just wanted to be more social because I knew there would be a good cast party. I ended up being cast and the local Theater community accepted me. For about a year after getting out of the military, I did not know I would be an actor. It was when I was living in New York that I saw an ad for training with the American Academy of Dramatic Arts that I decided to take a chance. I called them up, got interviewed, and auditioned and they accepted me. I stayed for a few months and I then moved back to California. Here I was cast on Apocalypse Now with Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, and Harrison Ford and became a contract player for Zoetrope Productions (Francis Ford Coppola’s company).

I worked off and on through the 80s then I became a dormant actor again. I started up again about three years ago when I joined an organization called Veterans in Media & Entertainment. I took a class at USC called the Warrior Bards, where veterans were studying ancient Greek drama and we wrote and performed an updated one of the Greek Plays. I was cast in the updated version of Lysistrata as a classroom assignment. That turned into a short film. The film become a series called Lizzie’s Plan. That’s what I’m currently on and then it’s been winning quite a bit of awards. I worked with a lot of great people and it was very entertaining!

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

The most interesting story was probably when I was shooting Apocalypse Now. I had no idea how films were made. I was a theater person and in theater, you get a queue, you got a line, and then you respond and do your thing. There are no interruptions, no changing for lighting, or the different things of a set. Well, I had some ideas about my character. He was trying to get out of Vietnam and I made him somebody that did the black market he had a suitcase with some money in it (Francis Coppola put the entire cast payroll of 250k into that suitcase) in order that he wanted to take. home with him. I never worked on a film before so when the Assistant Director came and wrapped the previous scene I thought that was my cue to go on, so I grabbed the luggage, ran over the barbed wire and I jumped into the river, trying to swim onto the PBR boat. And that’s how that scene started. Everybody was shocked, nobody knew that I was going to do that. They used it in there and then they put in some more extras. That sequence was meant to be chaotic, you know, bridges blowing up every night and now it’s an iconic scene in the movie.

Nobody told me I wasn’t supposed to do it that way. You have to see the movie to understand what I’m talking about. The river itself was quite deep. I had armor on, as well as a rifle and ammunition, and I sank like a rock. I went to the bottom of the river and tried to swim up; I couldn’t because I had too much weight. And then I used the tip of my boot to feel the incline of I felt the riverbank and then I started walking up. Somehow I got up, swallowing water, coughing it out, and the boats were circling around. It was a night shoot, lights were on the river. All I heard was a megaphone calling out “Where is George Cantero”. I popped up sputtering water. I could’ve drowned, but I didn’t. I have a macabre sense of humor; to me It was funny.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When I first started, the casting director called me up and said they wanted me in the movie if I could get out to the Philippines. I was a starving actor at the time. I was just going to acting school and I had only a quarter in my pocket. There was no way that I could get on an airplane to make it to the Philippines to be in the movie. So under my, I said, “oh shit”. The casting director immediately came back and gave me a favored nations contract, $900 a week per diem, and first-class airfare.

That experience taught me that when people want you for a part, they want YOU and they will pay for you. It’s up to you to negotiate better terms. Most actors are so busy trying to pursue fame that they forget that it’s a one-shot deal. You get a part in the movie, the movie is over, then you’re back in the talent pool again. So when somebody wants you or a part, do not accept the first offer; try to get better terms.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

Right now I’m I have a project called “Lizzie’s Plan 3 peas in a Podcast” which is a pilot for comic comedic TV series. I play the husband, a recurring key-key role. The other thing I’m working on now is a theater company called Warriors for Peace Theater, a Shakespearean company, and I’m working on a lead with a Shakespearean play. It’ll probably be done in three or four months from now. It’s pretty exciting!

You have been blessed with success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?

If you put one foot in front of the other, get trained, and keep trying, eventually, you will succeed. I learned that in a boxing match. I was actually fighting somebody for entertainment purposes when I was in the military in Vietnam and I lost the fight. It was unlimited rounds, we just kept swinging it away at each other and I got to the point where I couldn’t lift my arms up anymore. When I was in the 19th round the manager (the person who was working with me) asked me to throw in the towel because I couldn’t do it anymore. I quit. Later I found out that the other guy was going to quit, so he won because I quit. If I would have stayed on for a couple of seconds more, I would have won.

That being said, my advice is: It’s challenging. It’s difficult. Get yourself some other form of income so you can survive, but keep going at it. Never, never quit. Don’t ever give up! You can alter what you do, and you can take breaks but always move forward.

We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?

The entertainment industry is like a microcosm of humanity. In the past, it was very prejudicial to people of other cultures, like for instance Spanish. They would only play maids or drug dealers or landscapers, which is a wrong perspective of Latin Culture.

I believe that we’re supposed to be a melting pot of people from all walks of life, doing all different things. All ages, body shapes, and colors make up humanity and the Arts define humanity. Diversity is imperative in order to have meaningful and truthful art. I believe it’s our job to elevate humanity and to make the best of ourselves as humans, in our community.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.

1. I wish someone would have told me how the business worked. All they told me was how to act. I needed to figure out what’s needed to succeed; for instance, putting together your creative team. Having an agent, a manager, publicist, you need to create an entire business to walk this path with you.
2. I wish they would have told me how cutthroat this business was. I’ve had an experience where I’m signed with the manager added to the business, and they put me in the filing cabinet for the duration of my contract because I was competing against one of their moneymakers. I did not know that some people are capable of doing that. Now I do; that was a hard lesson, but it’s a lesson learned.
3. I was young and dumb when I was working in the 80s. I was making quite a bit of money that I thought it would last forever. That is not true. You get paid very well, but you never know when your next paycheck is coming. So I wish somebody would’ve given me a basic financial education. I never had that.
4. The easiest thing that you have to do to succeed is to show up on time and be there, do your work and hand it in on time.
5. Always have a positive mental attitude. Your personality and your feelings affect everybody else and we’re all part of the team. As an actor, you’re out front, but you can’t do anything without the grip and without the soundman, and without the writer. We’re all in it together! It’s one actual organism. Be inclusive of your team, and remember that actors are replaceable, no matter how big of a star you are.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

Oh, that’s easy. If you’re an actor, you’re an artist. You have an audience that looks up to you. When you have a role, be confident with your creation, don’t play what you think other people will like; play what you think is correct for the character so the audience will recognize the universal truth of it. That is when you will succeed. People will be fascinated by it! So, focus on your art, not on the celebrity. One step at a time.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

If you want to make the world a better place, start with yourself. For instance, I belong to an organization called The American Legion. I started going there because I wanted to have a fun place to go to. I wanted to build up camaraderie and membership so I threw barbecues for a few people, then I brought in some bands and now we got about 100 people that come in. I did it myself, without permission. I did not wait for anybody else to do it, I just did it. So, just do an action of something positive that you would like to see, don’t wait for other people; do it yourself and you will be richly rewarded

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

There is a person named Fred Roos.

Fred cast me in Apocalypse now and in some other pictures. He opened the doors for me and gave me the opportunity I needed to start. I’ll be always grateful for it. I don’t know whether he knows it or not, but he took a chance on me. I’m forever grateful!

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

By respecting other people, I got out of a lot of dangerous situations. If you respect others, no matter what your position or circumstance, they will receive dignity and then will show dignity to you. When people see that you respect them, they’re not going to be hostile to you, it will change their attitude. That way you create a circle of positive attitudes. Even when someone mistreats you, and you opt for being respectful, you are changing the rule of things.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Well, there’s a person named Ari Emmanuel, the CEO of Endeavor Group Holdings, that I would like to have breakfast or lunch. I’m very curious about how he started with a small company and became head of one of the largest and most influential agencies with 5000 people in their stable. He is a deal-maker and I like that entrepreneurial spirit, fast work, and exponential growth… Especially when there’s a big decimal.

How can our readers follow you online?

I’m not that much into social media, but you can check out my IMDb profile, or just ask to be a friend on Facebook. I would love to chat!

This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!