We recently connected with John Campbell-Mac and have shared our conversation below.
John, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?
What a brilliant question. I never actually met my biological parents, I was brought up by an older couple from the age of 6 weeks old who were in their 50’s when they took me on. Even as a baby I can vividly remember playing with my old mum holding her hands and walking up her chest. The first thing I ever remember her saying to me was ‘You are beautiful (I know what a charmer ;)) and you can be what ever you want to be in this world’.
It sounds cliche but be careful what you say to your kids because they believe it. So my glass has always been half full with confidence overflowing, you know why?
Because my mum told me so.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I like the thought of when people speak my name it brings a smile to their face. I’m an actor originally from London, and my speciality is comedy.
Coming from a larger than life family of incredibly colorful characters it has always come very natural to me.
For sure there are many ways to work your craft but I think the funniest people out there are quite simply born funny or maybe that’s just funny looking ha ha.
Not the greatest scholar my school reports always said if I put as much energy into my school work as I did into trying to make my class mates laugh I might actually have some smarts 😉
I’ve been blessed to have had over 20 years in the industry playing many types of roles and characters both serious and comedic. My early roles were often playing tough guys, like boxers and bouncers etc but I think in truth I’ve always been most at home playing funny tough guys, or wanna be tough guys. Even when I was cast as a villain I never really embodied the bad guy, more the dumb guy caught in a bad situation or lead astray often ending in comedic affect whether the writers intended it that way or not.
Now that the actors strike has ended things are busy, I recently played a very positive ER doctor in a great little movie called ‘Simon Says’ as well a fun role as a Russian gangster who really dosen’t know when to keep his mouth shut in the sequel to Jungle Juice, funny enough called Jungle Juice 2. Props to creator/director Curley the 5th who let me take the character and add a few unexpected laughs to the script, If you liked the first film you are gonna love the second.
But the project I’m most excited about is currently in pre production, it has a working title of ‘The Funky Nova’s’ which is a collaboration with German film maker and actor Jam Arash Vaezi. Without giving too much away This is a high concept buddy bromance movie that unfolds over the whole of Los Angeles with all of the crazy characters it contains.
It’s a high octaine action comedy, I’ve probably said too much already but stay tuned because this one is definitely gonna make you chuckle.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Those three qualities would definitely be to be able laugh at the script, laugh at life and definitely laugh at yourself! To be more specific…
1. Put in the time, learn your craft, really learn how to break down a scene and character and try to understand what the writers are trying to convey so you can then bring plenty of light and understanding to the script – Do The Work.
2. Laugh at life, it can often be filled with disappointments as well as victories no matter how small, As an actor you face constant rejection, you were sure you were gonna get that role only to find out the producers went another way. Could it be you weren’t good enough? Absolutely but theres much more chance you simply didn’t fit the role as well as someone else or the producers simply envisioned a different character. So simply – Don’t take any disappointments too seriously, tomorrow is another day to enjoy the wins.
3. Quite simply don’t take yourself too seriously, no matter how many roles you’ve played, or how great you think you or your last audition was remember to find the fun in everything you do. Life is short and nobody gets out alive, don’t take yourself too seriously and remember to enjoy the journey, it’s not just about the destination.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I’m always looking for like minded people to collaborate with, especially those that have a love of life and who love to laugh. I think I have a good understanding of what I bring to the table and have also had some success as a writer and a producer in the last 20 years. I have a few friends I have done multiple projects with, people like the hilarious Jason Lee Hyde with whom I’ve acted with in multiple movies or director / editor Duncan Thomsen, we have done multiple projects together even winning a few awards along the way. I love the idea of all rising together, when I see people like the Wayans brothers or Adam Sandler working with their friends and family again and again all while having a lot of fun while getting the job done I feel very inspired. So any film makers out there looking for a middle aged almost funny Brit, let’s put our heads together and see if we can come up with a concept together that will work for everyone.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.johncampbellmac.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johncampbellmacofficial/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100050662651592
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/johncampbellmac
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/UKactorinHollywood
- Other: IMDB https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1636787/ Wikipedia https://en.everybodywiki.com/John_Campbell-Mac
