We were lucky to catch up with Tim Carr recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tim, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
My work ethic comes from where I came from. Growing up, for a while, about every 2 years I was starting at a new school, so I needed to catch up QUICK. I had to be social, I had to get involved quickly, or I felt like I’d just get left out. Funny they have a name for that now, FOMO, the “fear of missing out”. So, I learned early, I had to put the work in.
A real eye opener was when I’d moved to Avondale, Pennsylvania. It was this wonderfully diverse town a little outside of Philadelphia, and the first thing I’d noticed, everyone in this town were hard workers.
I’d started working at about 14 years old, and being in the center of Avondale, I’d met and spoke to everyone. I’d talked to mushroom farm workers putting in 18 hour days. There is an Avondale Firehouse with so many volunteers, that blew my mind, these brave people, willing to run into a fire to save lives….and were volunteering to do that. There were military that would put in 25 years and still stay in the military reserves. Hard working honorable people, looking for ways to help out. Small business owners, did not have a lot of money, just a dream. All of these people were incredibly hard working people, all put in these long days, these long hours, and never complained, they just did it. They did it to achieve their own goals, they did it to feed their families.
That inspired me to do the same thing, to keep that same spirit, knowing that nothing was ever “promised”, we just had to jump in and keep going. To this day, I feel like I still have that spirit in everything that I do.
I just had a conversation with a friend who’d joked that my Instagram page looks like a “buffet line”, because it looks like I’m doing something new every day. But, I think, that having ambition, there is so much I want to do, and only 24 hours a day to do it, I am really working hard to achieve it all, it keeps things interesting, it keeps me sharp.
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?
“Hey aren’t you that guy? You know, from that thing? Wait, where have I seen you?”
That’s me, I’m THAT guy. I’ve been in movies people have seen, and I have been in movies that I swore were going to be gigantic hits that NO ONE had seen. I have sold scripts that were “sure things”, and those did NOT turn out to be “sure things”. I have written TV shows that went so wonderfully… and some that turned out so badly I’m not even going to talk about them, even if you ask nicely. My face has been used all over the place, selling soda, sandwiches, clothing lines, even body wash.
So how does that all happen?
Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t have the slightest idea.
I think I’m just grateful, this is an insanely complicated business to get into. I used to think, when I first started, if you worked hard enough, and paid your dues, at some point, some agent, or producer, or manager would bring you into this magic room where there are incredible scripts like “Fargo” or “Nobody’s Fool” or “Do the Right Thing” just… are all waiting for you. But, if that magical room exists, I haven’t been invited in yet, so I just work, as hard as I can. No matter what the job is, I just try and do my best, and then hope for the best.
And because of the uncertainty in showbiz, where you can wrap a film and then have no idea what will happen with it, I also try and be of service to the community. I know I can be part of a quick solution sometimes, like, right now, as soon as we finish talking, I’m going to check in on a charitable organization that had fallen on some bad weather and had a warehouse destroyed. This was a place where many folks who could use a helping hand, or clean clothes or a meal, could get that. It’s really important that, not only does it get back up and going, but that it gets everything that it needs, whether it be clothing, or furniture or food. I’m incredibly fortunate to be plugged into a social network where I can say “hey if anyone has anything extra to donate, here’s how it could help”, and because, there are really great people in this world, we can normally make things happen. This isn’t only a great way to be part of the community, it’s a great way to do some good quickly. For me, it’s a “certainty” when I don’t have much certainty in my life. You’ll eventually find, you’ll sort of want to help everyone and everywhere, and that’s not a bad habit to have.
So, I mix some of the never-ending uncertainty of showbiz with some more immediate services to communities that could maybe use a helping hand. That’s a bit of my story…I’m not necessarily sure my gameplan is the one that works, but, so far it’s worked for me.
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?
Goodness, I don’t think anything has prepared me for this journey in life. I think 3 constants I’ve had in my life is:
I really don’t take myself very seriously, there are moments in life, where I think we all start to feel self-important at times, but life has this great way of keeping you humble. You can go out there, and maybe you find yourself bragging a little more than usual about some accomplishment, then immediately catch your reflection in a mirror or window… and it turns out that you had some broccoli in your teeth the entire time. The universe has a unique way of keeping us all humbled and balanced.
Talking to anyone and everyone. Everyone is fascinating. Everyone deserves a movie about themselves. Yes, even your most boring neighbor, I bet has a story that will blow your mind. You just haven’t heard it yet. Go hear some stories, you don’t need to tell your stories at that moment, after all, we all probably have broccoli in our teeth anyway. Just listen, ask questions, I bet you hear some amazing things. I hope you all try this, right after you finish reading this.
Take some risks. One time I had an idea to make an “arthouse football movie”. Would it be too “arthouse” for the football crowd? Would it be too “football” for the arthouse crowd? Well, I made that movie and can confirm the answer was “yes” to all of those things. But that movie got made, and I’m very proud of it and am so proud of that cast I lucked out with in that movie. I read this amazing book called “Round Ireland with a Fridge” by Tony Hawks, not the skateboarding Tony Hawk, this is Tony Hawks, a very funny man from England, I managed to find the people with the rights to the book and I sent them a pitch so I could have the rights and make the movie, turns out that Mr. Hawks adapted his own story to a film, but here’s a loudmouth from Avondale, Pennsylvania pitching his idea about making a movie about a guy who hitchhiked around Ireland with a little fridge. One time, I reached out to the great musician G. Love to come be in a movie with me. He said yes. Take some risks, if it doesn’t work? It’s okay, because we always get to try again.
My advice? I’m pretty sure we all have some self-doubt creep into our minds from time to time. Just tell that self-doubt to take a seat in the waiting room, you’re all too good to deal with it right now.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I will collaborate with anyone. Now please, don’t take this as a “I can get any project funded” because my first name is not George and my last name is not Clooney. But I really love it when I hear an idea from someone who isn’t a “regular” in this business. I have buddies in completely different careers who will pull me aside and say “I have an idea for a movie” and it turns out it’s incredibly original, incredibly brilliant. I have read scripts that charmed my socks off and said “who wrote this? I’d make this movie and if I can’t get this made, I’d at least watch the heck out of this” and it was written by someone who just wanted to see if they could write something.
Collaboration can come from anywhere, a first time film director, an ambitious producer, someone with maybe even an inkling of an idea.
I remember hearing about a filmmaker who was going to make a no budget film, and handed over a script to his acting teacher, who then handed it a friend, and that friend happened to be Harvey Keitel. That filmmaker was Quentin Tarantino, that film ended up being “Reservoir Dogs” and it seems that Mr. Tarantino did pretty well for himself after that.
It’s okay to have your own path, but it’s also okay to collaborate on a path as well, it’s like Michael Jordan said, “talent wins games, but teamwork wins championships”.
Contact Info:
- Website: ParkingLotFilms.net
- Instagram: NotTimCarr
- Linkedin: ParkingLotFilms
- Twitter: ParkingLotFilms
Image Credits
Tee Shirt Pics- D’Mont Reese Photography www.dreesephotography.com Blue Shirt Pic-D’Mont Reese Photography www.dreesephotography.com Suit Picture- Jennifer Beers Photography www.jenniferbeersphotography.com Stadium pic courtesy of SAG-Aftra
