Meet Ben Taylor

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ben Taylor. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ben below.

Ben , so glad you were able to set aside some time for us today. We’ve always admired not just your journey and success, but also the seemingly high levels of self-discipline that you seem to have mastered and so maybe we can start by chatting about how you developed it or where it comes from?

I grew up in a blue-collar household in southern Alabama and early on my parents, specifically my dad, instilled a strong work ethic. Whether it was helping him after school on a construction job, or doing yard work on our 10 acre plot of land, I became well acquainted with hard work at a young age. As I reached my teen years I became obsessive over the idea of joining the military. That work ethic I had gained as a child now translated to my preparation for the US Military. From junior year onwards I worked out twice a day five times a week. Additionally I still maintained a 3.8 GPA and continued to help dad with work and around the land.

Now, I’m twenty-five and those years still influence how I go about my life, and simply put, gave me the self discipline I have today.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

What I do? Shoot, I mean, I do a few things, haha. Predominantly, I’m an actor. I’ve been training as an actor for about 4 years now, and I focus primarily in film. Of course, I’ve done plenty of theater as well, but that’s not my main focus. I also write a little. A couple weeks ago I put up my first one man show, that I had written and performed in the 30 minutes or less festival on Melrose. It was a great experience and showed me areas I can improve.

Actually I’ll be bringing that piece to the Hollywood Fringe Festival this June, so keep your eye out for my name!

Anyway, yea, acting, and writing are my main focuses. I’m still “breaking in” as they say, and i’ve been playing a lot of douchebag roles, as that seems to be my typecast… oof.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Honestly, I think my journey has been most aided by three simple beliefs.

1. Do what you gotta do to get to where you want to be.
Earlier I mentioned how I spent hours a day working out, preparing for my time in the military. That didn’t simply stop when I got in. I continued to train, two, sometimes three times a day in order to make sure that my mind and my body were both strong and prepared for selection courses I later attended. It was this goal that allowed me to fortify my mind, body and spirit, because I knew, this was what I had to do, to get to where I wanted to be.

2. Be kind to everyone.
Coming from the South, respect has always been a big thing. Add the military to that, and i’m stuck with the knee jerk reaction to say “sir” or “ma’am.” A step further, past respect, is kindness; and that makes a difference in everyone’s day. Whether it’s the grip, or the line producer, or the director, I treat everyone with kindness, because everyone deserves it.

3. Never Quit.
While I was in the military I tried out for Air Force Pararescue. Twice, actually. Failed both times. But, there’s a lesson in that. The Air Force Special Operations community has a saying: Never Quit. Navy SEALs say it too. It’s a pretty simple solution to a lot of problems, but it’s a lot harder to carry out. But, if you’re able to make the world small and take out the objective right in front of you, eventually, you’ll be able to look back and see everything you’ve done. Just take each task one at a time, find solutions to problems, and keep going.

They say that’s how you eat an elephant…one bite at a time.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

I think it really depends. In this line of work, acting or writing, I think it’s important to really build up your strengths. THat being said it’s a two-sided argument. On one hand, you could become a multi-hyphenate entrepreneur type, who is a jack of all trades. This can open up multiple avenues of revenue, however, if you’re only ok at all of these different skills, then no one is going to hire you, because they find someone who is better, as that other person has either been doing it longer, or it’s their one thing- and that’s why I think it’s important to really become undeniable in one or two areas. There are plenty of fantastic, super talented actors out there, and if i’m focusing on directing, acting, writing and producing, then I am taking away all the focus I could have given to my acting or writing.

In conclusion, yea I would say focus on your strengths then learn how to monetize them.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: ben_.taylor

Image Credits

Chris Jon Photography
Midnight Runs by Margo Capri
Monophobia by Gregory Voigt
Say Less by Michael Kellman