Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with David Schaefer

We recently had the chance to connect with David Schaefer and have shared our conversation below.

David , really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
I wake up around 6am because that’s when my siberian cat Sascha wakes me up and wants her fresh cat food.
She’s 19 years old and surprisingly vey fit still and a very demanding older lady.
I love her so much.
She’s a real sweetheart and character.
We are both going into kitchen where she gets her food and I get my first black coffee that’s a must have for me in the morning.
I have another cup and then I start my workout which is a mix of body weight exercises like push ups squats lunges crunches and planks with jumping jacks in between. I keep it high intensity.
As an international model since 2009 or actor and singer now more I was used to train in the model apartments I stayed in China Malaysia New York or other places to train with my own body weight to have a quick but efficient workout whenever possible.
After this a shower and get ready for work or whatever I have to do that day.
I love working out in the morning or do stretching on off workout days.
If you win the morning I always say you can win maybe the day.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is David Schaefer
I’m a Swiss Croatian actor singer songwriter and former international men’s health cover model. I started my entertainment journey in 2008 in a Disney pop band in Germany called Culture Box signed to Sony music.
After I was traveling many years internationally as a male model and lived in many countries and model apartments like China, Greece Malaysia , New York many more places around the world.
In 2014 after a modeling trip to Mexico for 3 months my model agent at that time send me to London where I also started my acting career from scratch with smaller student films and unpaid work until I found myself later working on a ww1 movie or a uk gangster film which I then went to Cannes film festival with the director to promote the movie and enjoy Cannes with some of the lead actors cast and crew.
This was a memorable experience.
It took years of hard work to get to a stage in acting where I was getting some more auditions for great projects
I was getting so many auditions over the years.
I always say I’m an auditioning actor sadly not a working actor yet. Occasionally I was lucky to book some acting work.
It’s not a easy industry but it’s fun trying your best and enjoying the journey.
Since last October 2024 I also fulfilled my dream and started releasing solo songs with my wonderful music label Harvey Grey music in the Uk.
Caitlin Grey & Neil Harvey who are also my producer team. Such a wonderful team to work with. I feel very blessed and grateful.
We released 2 beautiful duets We’ve Got Tonight , & Help Me Make It through The Night with Caitlin Grey.
After I released my first solo single That Girl, followed up with Brave and I just released my third solo single called Dancing In The Sunmer Rain. A beautiful dance summer song which makes the people dance and enjoy the summer.
It’s crazy we started my music comeback just last October. I also got represented by a great acting manager called Thanasis Psilopoulus his agency is called Enorama talent agency.
I couldn’t believe my luck with me it’s always like that. I either got nothing for months or all is happening or all comes at the same time.
This is the entertainment industry.
You never know what’s around the corner.
I also got signed to a top modeling agency called Option Models which already sends me castings and auditions same as my acting agency. Grateful to have such great people in music, film, and fashion taking care of me.
I try to do my job as professional as possible to also manage music film and fashion work.
Still after 19 years I love my job.
My friend always jokes and says David your an expert in your fields. You should be invited for talks or events for others to learn from your experience and journey.
I always laugh and say. I’m more like a dinosaur some days I feel my age some days not.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
Before all this happen and I gratefully can look back to so many world travels as a model or successes or failures life experiences I gained and learned about as a human being or artists on my journey.
I was just a boy with goals and dreams but who unfortunately was sick as a child.
I spend many days weeks in hospitals for check ups due to my heart defect I had. I didn’t know if I was going to make it and from an early age I already had a big appreciation for life and know that every day waking up is not something I take for granted and a real privilege. I appreciate today every cup of coffee. People always tell me your always alone David how come? I learned to be ok alone on my world travels or modeling trips I stopped counting how many times I was alone or alone eating dinner. There is a difference between loneliness or enjoying your solitude. I love my solitude but I also love people and socializing.
I think it’s all a balance which is important.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
I somehow if I look back to my life being born with a heart defect spending times in hospitals being bullied in school until later I beat up the bullies to compensate my anger. I somehow learned later that all was needed to be the version I am today.
Today I always use my communication skills to solve a problem as a kid I didn’t know better sadly than just match anger with anger which was not the right way to deal with a situation. In martial arts later I learned walk away a fight that you can avoid is a fight you have both won. Cause in a fight there is not a real winner both end up with problems after.
I developed a very strong character over the years which we all do with our life experiences we gained.
I am somehow resistant against pain.
In martial arts I learned you can beat me down but I will always stand up.
I could tell you how much painful days I experienced over the years or since childhood times due to my later strong character life was not always easy and I was often called underdog or even alienated by even closed friends.
Many people also ignored me over the years so I had to find my own way to be happy with myself and life.
My problem was also I often trusted the wrong people by also making myself a lot of mistakes which I wouldn’t do today anymore.
We all live and learn and are works in progress. I live by the sentence amor fati from philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche which is basically accepting your life how it is you want nothing to be different. You learned to accept the successes the failures the suffering. All is needed to become the version you are today.
A friend always jokes and says you must have been a gladiator in your past life cause you have an unbreakable spirit or soul David.
I laugh said maybe who knows.
Of course you stop trusting everyone these days but you are still giving people the benefit of the doubt. Because I am also not perfect we all learn. I practice since 20 years mindfulness living and read many stoicism books over the years to shape my character and outlook to life.
It’s important to never look back in anger and cherish the experiences we all gained good or bad. It’s all valuable life experiences.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
I would say I always try to be authentic and myself to me and others.
Like I said before my strong character didn’t just made me friends over the years.
I wish but sadly not.
When you are yourself and authentic you will have many love you for that but also a lot of people feel maybe provoked.
You can’t please everyone I say.
Of course if I would be 100% authentic I most probably would have a lot of more problems and people would take distance from me.
What I mean by that is I privately talk about different topics with my friends and family I know a lot about spirituality or life in general knowledge and wisdom I gained over the years from my world travels or different mentors.
I think if I share this publicly I people might really call me alienated. LOL
Everyone acts from their own consciousness and that’s good and we all have a different way to live and think about the world.
Publicly I keep my focus more on music film and fashion and delivering great work is my purpose which people can enjoy.
If people enjoy my art I create makes me most happy. And if someone gets to know me more he she will see I open up also more about other topics and we can have a coffee and philosophical discussions about the world. I love having my coffee and good chats with people.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What do you think people will most misunderstand about your legacy?
I think building a legacy is not easy.
Today i am 40 years old and still after 19 years in entertainment doing art which makes me very happy and grateful. Was the path easy? Absolutely not. Was it worth it? Yes every second of it. I learned so much about myself and others and learned I’m a constant work in progress and never perfect.
Did I had many stones in my way? Yes of course. Did I put myself stones in my way? Yes of course. But every obstacle I overcome in life was character building.
We are always just learning and get better.
I think what people might misunderstood was some friends said to me oh you doing this just for the money or fame or for the image or the women.
What they didn’t understand was I always do things for a purpose and for me doing art was always a beautiful thing cause I knew I create something that stays even after I’m gone.
A friend once said David your an old soul your so deep. I don’t know about that but for me my career or things I do should have meaning. Also there is this never ending love for my passion and art which even if I want to stop never let me stop. I tried it it just didn’t work. I love my art and passion too much.
I am happy that today I can help other with the knowledge and wisdom I gained.
I have almost 20 years experience in entertainment and 40 years life experience I think others can benefit from that.
I also see everything as a challenge.
A model agent once asked me David when are you finally going to quit? I said never then I said maybe when I have a huge fragrance campaign I stop. I laughed because he knew I am not the character who stops.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Image credit:
Men’s Health Cover Malaysia

Image credit :
Blue Polo Shirt Scott Teitler

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