Rising Star Tom Archdeacon On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Entertainment Industry
An Interview With Eden Gold
Be true to yourself. It’s really easy to lose yourself while trying to please everyone in this industry. We all want that golden ring and the pursuit of it can really blind you. You can wake up one day and not recognize yourself.
As a part of our series about pop culture’s rising stars, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Tom Archdeacon.
Irish American filmmaker/actor Tom Archdeacon began his acting career at the suggestion of the police officer who arrested him in a bar fight. The officer said, “You look like an actor… Why not put your energy into that instead?” So, he did. Tom took to acting right away and trained formally in Europe before moving to New York City.
In NYC, Tom quickly got work in Off Broadway theatre and television soap operas. With that momentum, he made his way to Los Angeles where he began booking guest roles on TV. In addition to working regularly in episodic TV, Tom is currently writing, producing and directing independent feature films where he has earned multiple awards and nominations.
He is the co-founder of Frost Pictures and will release his new feature film The Path this September.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
Sure. I have a series of stories that lead to a career in film and TV. As a small child, I lived in fantasy land. I was good at sports, but I didn’t really enjoy playing them, and I never watched them. I watched cartoons and movies, and I would put on a cape and ran around my block pretending I was Batman. So, there was already a need to act and be in a world that is beyond the everyday. As a teenager I memorized entire movies word for word. Then I would recite them to anyone who would tolerate me. I played out every single character. I clearly wanted to be an actor, but I grew up in a place where that wasn’t spoken about. So, I don’t even know if I really knew it myself. I did plays in school as a child but stopped in my teen years because I didn’t think my friends, a tough crowd, would approve of me being part of the drama department. I was weak for not being honest with myself, and everyone else. I also started messing around with writing at that time. I would handwrite ideas for movies and shows, but I had no idea what to do with them. I still don’t (laughs). I buried my desires for years. But it was there… Then after high school I ended up in a bar one night with my friends, we got into a big brawl (not uncommon for us), and we were arrested. When I was in the police station, a kind officer talked to me about my life and what I wanted to do with it. He mentioned that I “looked like an actor” and I told him that’s all I ever really wanted to be. To which he replied, “so why not go and do it?” He really cared. There was a directness and simplicity to the way he said it that made it seem possible. So, I began my journey from there.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
One that I can tell? (laughs) I’m joking… but I’m not. I’ve had some really crazy adventures in Hollywood. Well, I don’t know if this is interesting to anyone but me, but here goes… When I was starting out in New York, I wrote my own spec episode of a very popular, network TV show. And, I was very proud of my script, so I asked one of my close friends to read it, and he loved it. So, not knowing how things work, I sent the episode to the production offices of that show. I later learned that if you want to write for a certain show, you write a spec episode of similar TV shows, not the show you want to write for. Anyway, I never heard anything, as you’d expect. Then a few months later my friend called me all excited and was like, “Hey man, I’, watching your episode!”. I was of course like, “What episode?” I thought he meant a soap opera that I was doing a day-player role on. He went on to say, “The one you wrote!” I was blown away, and so naive at the time, instead of being mad, I too was excited! Even though I had been ripped off, I felt that meant I had some real talent as a writer. What dummy I was.
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?
Well, all actors make mistakes at the start, but I would bet I have made WAY more than most… When I first landed in New York, I took a job as a stand in for one of the leads in a big studio film. What I didn’t know is that this famous director liked to jump in and read lines with the stand-ins as she was trying to set up her shots. So, I was sitting in the picture car and the director climbed into the passenger seat where the female lead was going to sit, and she just started rattling off dialogue. I had no sides, and no idea what she was doing. So, without thinking, and without hesitation, I blurted out, “What the f_ck are you talking about?” There were two other actors in the back seat, and they cracked up. The director just stared at me and was like, “okay”, then got out of the car and proceeded with getting the camera department in motion. She just needed to see me say something. Didn’t matter what.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
Oh, here’s where I have to get creative to make it seem like I have SOOOO MUCH going on (laughs). Well of course THE pATH. This film will be released in late September. It is a horror/thriller, so we’ll get an early jump on the Halloween season. And even though the film itself is complete, we are still doing work on THE pATH as a project all day, every day. This one is exciting to me because we kept the budget, the cast and the crew really small and intimate and that shows in a really good way. I originally wrote this script with a Warner Bros. production in mind. I wanted a budget in the tens of millions. When I made it the way we did, I thought, “Well, we are sacrificing this… and losing that” etc. etc. And we did. But I can honestly say looking at the finished film that I cannot imagine doing this any better with a big studio behind it. It would definitely have lost something. That is very exciting to me. Separate from that, my producing partner, Brian Arnott and I are trying to get the particulars down for our next project, which is a hockey-based story. In addition, I am at the early stages of development for a scripted feature, with producers Archie Gips (McMillions, Wahl Street) and Patrick McErlean (BOSCO, Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss ). We are currently sifting through scripts, trying to land on the perfect one. Perfect for us, that is.
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?
Well, I don’t know about “success”, take a look at my bank account… but I have had many little successes along the way. I have lots of words of advice, because I have had so many failures. One of them is, don’t let people waste your time. This business is full of people who will throw away days, weeks and months of your life without giving it a second thought. I have wasted a huge chunk of my life waiting on others to do a project together or to get back to me on something. You have to be able to sniff them out quickly and cut loose from them. The other piece of advice is to be honest with yourself about everything; how you look, how good or not good you are at something, etc. If you’re not honest with yourself, you can trick yourself into wasting your own time. Believe me, I know.
We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?
Let’s start with how boring film and TV would be without diversity. If variety is the spice of life, diversity is the spice of cinema. I couldn’t imagine a world without it. As for culture, movies take us places most of us can’t go, whether that is outer space, a distant war or the old West. For myself, most of the foreign countries and cultures I’ve experienced and loved have been through the magic of cinema. Would I have preferred to go in person? Yes! But since that is not realistic for the majority of us, thank God for the diversity of people and culture in film. If you look at a production as the canvas, and the filmmaker a painter, then his pallet of colors is the diversity of people playing the parts.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why?
First, be true to yourself. It’s really easy to lose yourself while trying to please everyone in this industry. We all want that golden ring and the pursuit of it can really blind you. You can wake up one day and not recognize yourself.
Second, You CAN’T please everyone. The sooner you realize that the easier it will be to let go of that desire to try and do so.
Don’t stay with the wrong reps too long. I have had many agents along the way that I knew weren’t right for me, but I stuck with them much longer than I should have. I did it out of kindness or loyalty, but to my own detriment. Again, wasting months or even years of my life.
As an artist, whether you are an actor, a writer, or director, know your strengths and weaknesses. This is important and it goes back to being honest with yourself. As an actor I wasted many an opportunity to make a great first impression on a casting director or producers of a show by auditioning for something I was not suited for, instead of waiting for the right part to come along.
Most importantly, be prepared and be great. Don’t put out any work, whether it is a script or an audition that isn’t one hundred percent your best. You don’t want it out there, because you can’t take it back.
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
The only real tip I have for not burning out and thriving is to absolutely love what you do. We all get into this field (theoretically) because we love it. The moment that love goes away, walk away. If you love it and have fun you will always be fulfilled. But if you can’t remember that feeling, you will burn out.
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.
Let’s skip the part about being a person of influence, Haha. I’m not sure what the true definition of a movement even is, but if I could start one, it would be to get people to start thinking for themselves. I feel like people stopped thinking independently and just started believing what they are told to believe. It has made the world very divided and very dangerous. Maybe it’s technology that did that. But people need to question everything and use their brains to draw conclusions. I would like to see a return to that.
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 are a lot of people who I am grateful towards from acting teachers to directors. The casting director, Wendy O’Brien has been really good to me, and I am especially grateful for her. But, as cliche as it sounds, I am most grateful to my parents for everything. They are just the best parents anyone could ask for. And they always indulged my silly creative nature. When I was a kid, I would hold these “rock concerts” in my room and invite them to attend along with my friends. We would turn out the lights and shine a flashlight at posters of one of my favorite bands while playing their music. We made popcorn and created a strobe effect with the flashlight. That was my first production and my parents acted like they were enjoying every second of it. They’re amazing.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Far better it is to dare mighty things than to take rank with those poor, timid creatures who know neither victory nor defeat.” I saw that on his statue in the original Red Dawn movie. It always stuck with me. And it is that basic philosophy of it’s better to try and fail than to have never tried. Any of us who take their shot and try to make it in this business need to live by that.
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.
There are a few people I could name here. Tom Cruise immediately comes to mind. Then again, imagine lunch with James Dean or Stanley Kubrick? There are so many, but I will go with one whom I actually know already, and that is Gavin O’Connor. He is one of my favorite directors and I have a ton of respect for him as a person. I have come close to working with him several times. I’ve had professional conversations with him. We’ve spoke on the phone and he’s given me writing advice. But I have never sat across from him and had a conversation that went beyond work. I’d really like to do that just once.
How can our readers follow you online?
I don’t do a lot of posting, but my Instagram is @TomArchdeacon and my Facebook is https://www.facebook.com/tom.archdeacon.73
The Path
https://www.facebook.com/ThePathHorrorFilm
https://www.instagram.com/thepath_horrorfilm/
This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
About The Interviewer: Eden Gold, is a youth speaker, keynote speaker, founder of the online program Life After High School, and host of the Real Life Adulting Podcast. Being America’s rising force for positive change, Eden is a catalyst for change in shaping the future of education. With a lifelong mission of impacting the lives of 1 billion young adults, Eden serves as a practical guide, aiding young adults in honing their self-confidence, challenging societal conventions, and crafting a strategic roadmap towards the fulfilling lives they envision.
Do you need a dynamic speaker, or want to learn more about Eden’s programs? Click here: https://bit.ly/EdenGold.
