Meet Anthony Montes

We were lucky to catch up with Anthony Montes recently and have shared our conversation below.

Anthony, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I found my purpose, by accident. I didn’t set out to do what I do now. From the age of 5, I wanted to be an actor for all the wrong reasons. I wanted to be anyone but myself. I grew up with a physically abusive, emotionally abusive, alcoholic father, who convinced me I was worthless. On July 4th, 1983 I had enough of this life. I was leaving work in Queens, NY, and waiting for the train on the elevated, to take me home. I needed to silence my father’s voice in my head. So I jumped. As soon as I hit the tracks, I thought of my Mother and knew I couldn’t put her through this, so I jumped to my left and was able to squeeze between the train and the fence. As the train passed it hit and fractured my left arm. I was lucky. I was no longer able to see the subway without breaking down so living and pursuing a career in NY, became impossible so I moved to LA. I studied the Meisner acting technique for about 4 years.

I didn’t know anyone who loved acting more, worked harder, and got fewer opportunities to do what I loved. I reasoned that it was because of my suicide attempt. I believed that I was paying a karmic debt for what I did. Because of the lack of opportunities I started my own acting group and called it, The Artist Theatre Group. Artist, because that is what I aspired to be, Theatre, because I love theatre and Group, after the Group Theatre. I wanted to set it up like the Actors Studio. There would be no teacher, just a group of Actors, Writers, and Directors working at their crafts. It was chaotic. One of my fellow artists in the group suggested that I teach. That I was the one that put it together, everyone was a part of it because of me, they respected me and I had to be the one to teach or it would not work. I immediately worried that she was saying that I should teach because she didn’t think I was a good actor. Being a Woody Allen fan, thoughts of Annie Hall, ran through my head when Alvy Singer said, “Those who can’t do, teach. And those who can’t teach, teach gym.” In the end, I started teaching and found my purpose.

I have since developed my own acting technique that I call, The Montes Method. You can learn more about my teachings and philosophy on acting on my website at www.themontesmethod.com and my channel at YouTube.com/MontesMethod

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I have been teaching Internationally in Berlin, Paris, London, Liverpool, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Strasbourg, Seoul, Mexico City, Johannesburg, Dubai, Mumbai & Istanbul. At this time I teach in the Masters and Bachelors Programs at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco as well as teaching my private classes in Los Angeles. I had started teaching to keep my acting group, The Artist Theatre Group going. I wanted to keep it going because I wanted to act.

What I didn’t know would happen was how much I would get to act because of the plays I produced, giving me that opportunity to act that I so desired. Also, I had no idea that I would become a writer. I had always been a storyteller, but because my spelling and grammar were terrible, plus my father convinced me I was stupid and worthless, I didn’t feel it was something I could do. Again, in an effort to give myself opportunities to act and cut down the costs of our productions, I began to write and put up my own plays. To date, I have written over 40 plays and 11 screenplays. I have gotten 2 of my screenplays made into feature films with me in the lead, The Last Night Inn and The Last Train. I now include writing in my workshops and help my students create their own opportunities, in the same way that I have. My overseas teaching stopped during the pandemic. Thankfully, things are beginning to shape up to where I will begin teaching overseas again, next year.

But the project that I am most excited about is my One-Man Show, OUTTA THE DARKNESS INTO THE LIGHT, that I developed in my group. Woven throughout the subject matter of this semi-autobiographical piece is mental health, and more specifically, the difficult but ever-present topic of suicide. My piece was realized from my Suicide attempt when I was 27.
Every time I have put up my play it has been well received, but more importantly, its message has been deeply felt by those who experienced it. It is for this reason that I would like to speak to you about doing so with you. I live in Los Angeles and since doing my show I have had 6 people reach out to me when they were suicidal and in each case, I have been able to talk them out of it and get them to get themselves help. I know that the more people that I do my show in front of, the more people will find hope and get help for themselves.

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?
I am passionate, not afraid to fail and I love what I do.

My advice is to not limit yourself. For many years I felt I could label myself as one thing. I was an Actor. It wasn’t until I realized in order to do the thing I was passionate about, I would have to develop expertise in areas I didn’t imagine I could. Now I know that I am a Teacher, an Actor, a Writer, a Mentor, an Example, a Father, and more.

You can’t sit back and wait for opportunities to come to you. You have to create your own opportunities and learn from your stumbles. You have to believe in yourself when others don’t. As you go through your career you can listen to everyone telling you why it won’t work. There should be a handful of people whose opinions you take in, and in the end, you decide what works best for you.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I am looking for collaborators to help me set up more of my Acting Workshops around the country and around the world. In the past, it has been my former acting students who have set up these workshops with me.

I am also looking for financial help to help me continue to do my One-Man Play, OUTTA THE DARKNESS INTO THE LIGHT in theatres around the world. I want to do it Off-Broadway as well as take it to do at the Edinburg Theatre Festival.

I am looking for help booking my One-Man Show on College Campuses. I would involve the school’s theatrical department and more importantly, their mental health professionals as a part of the Q&A that I do after the play so that the students of these colleges know who exactly to contact when they are in trouble.

I am looking for an investor to help me film it professionally. I have seen on HULU, Derek Del Gaudio’s In & Of Itself. This is something that I am also looking to do with my show, to get it filmed and get it on one of the streaming services in an effort to reach more people in need.

Mental health issues are aggressively plaguing society as you well know and I want to do something about it. I have been, but I can’t do it on my own.

I believe Outta The Darkness Into The Light is a valuable tool to do just that.

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