Tim Carr on Life, Lessons & Legacy

Tim Carr shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Tim, 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 makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
Anytime I travel now, when I work on scheduling where I have to be and what I have to do, I add in what I call a “get lost day”. Now, please don’t let my bad title of it feel overwhelming, but I do realize, sometimes when I get to a place, I may never get back to that place again, it’s the nature of my life, so when you get somewhere, anywhere, what I like to do, is get away from all of the potentially tourist spots and REALLY see the place. I just did this in Washington DC a week ago. I just did this in Long Island, New York two weeks ago. Wander around, ask around, get lost, keep your eyes open. Last summer, in Toronto, I got away from the city and my “get lost day” was a 3 hour- in each direction-drive to the Bruce Peninsula. It was gorgeous, the water was bright blue, if there was a way to spend a “get lost day” perfectly, that was, 100% the exact way to do it. You’d be amazed at how, simply just wandering around can inspire you and can also “recharge your batteries”.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m really grateful for the opportunity to catch up with everyone. I have been a guy you may have seen in films or TV, or daytime talk shows or for some of you, early on in my career, you may have seen me on some really late night carpet infomercials. I know many of you have seen them, and I love you for the support and I’m so impressed that so many people watch carpet infomercials. I have a TV series coming to streaming called “The Grounders”, and we’re allowed to put the first few episodes out, but if you all like it and tell everyone else, we get to do more of those. Even if you don’t like it, could you still tell everyone else to watch it? That’s TV now in these modern times. the more the merrier. I have a film coming out, and I wrote, directed it and I’m in it a lot, so if you like it, I’ll be very happy. I am talking with my new friends in England about finally getting this project made with a great movie star, a road trip and me. It’s closer to getting the greenlight than it’s ever been. So if that happens, I hope we can talk again and you’ll post a video of me on set doing “the running man” in the most celebratory way that I can. I also roam from town to town doing a mix of filming and/or kind deeds or both at the same time. I met a ton of friends in Montauk New York a couple of weeks ago, and on the same night and in the same spot there were some great actors like Liev Schreiber and some great causes like “The Surfrider Foundation”, talk about a perfect storm of my worlds colliding on a gorgeous night in New York. I’m also really proud to be part of a book that’s coming out really soon called “Now Act”, where I got to talk a little bit about my life and career, and also, I got to write about a great actor, my late great friend Matt Myers.

To make the future even brighter, I get to share the stage with my talented and gorgeous wife Jacci in a play called “Treblemaker”, where I play someone who just wants to take pictures of her. That’s a typecast that I’d happily accept anytime.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
On a good day, some may call me “funny”, on a REALLY good day, some may call me “witty”. I think on a regular day, most just see me as maybe a loud person with his heart in the right place. But that’s boring, let’s talk about those gooooood days when some may think I’m funny. That’s the only thing that’s gotten me through anything in life. You’d be amazed what you can do if you can make someone laugh about something. This happen to me as a kid, I’d realized that adults would “politely laugh” at a kid, but then adults would also “for real laugh” at a kid. That’s when they’d stop doing whatever they were doing, because I got them. For the first time, I had some sort of power. I was a kid, and suddenly, I’d realized, that adults were crowding around a loud kid, because maybe that impression of someone was accurate. In school, maybe another teacher would laugh, and not intentionally, because maybe I did an impression of one of their colleagues. (EDITOR’S NOTE: Tim asked to include: “Hey kids! Don’t do this in school. Sure, it ‘may’ make your teacher laugh, but it can also get you banned from Earth and Space Science. Not ‘sent out of the classroom’, I mean “banned from attending science”. Why does this sound so specific? Trust me. Be kind and gentle in school, and don’t forget to attend Earth and Space Science. Some people that you may be currently reading about, lost that privilege.”). Intelligence looks great on a resume, but a good laugh? That makes the world go ’round.

What’s something you changed your mind about after failing hard?
In my world, showbiz has a lot of failure. Saying a “lot” may be generous. In my world, failure can absolutely rain down on you. A big movie or project can land on its face, and it can sometimes do that in front of everyone. I have a wonderful network around me, if something that I’ve worked on, fails or no one sees it, no one really mentions it, I always appeciate that.

One time, a movie I was in, everyone knew about, which is a little funny, because the box office receipts on that one… didn’t necessarily show that “everyone knew about it”. And the people that did see it, would not say many nice things about it. One time I saw one of these reviews, and it definitely blasted the movie, but was sort of “funny” in doing so. So I emailed them “you know, the version of that movie you saw was different that the director’s cut, which rules”. They were pretty gracious about that, or maybe they were freaked out that some guy in the movie saw their review and stood up for it.

Maybe it’s time or maturity or the wise words of Elsa, but I just “let it go”. I don’t do that anymore. Maybe I should, I don’t know. I don’t mind sharing my opinion, and everyone has a right to their opinion.

Luckily, I’ve done enough work where I can’t worry about opinions, and unluckily, with enough work out there, there are probably a LOT of opinions out there that I would like to talk about. But, in this showbiz world, you can only do what you can do. You can pick your projects, if you’re lucky, and you can prepare, and you can do the best job that you can. You can write the best thing you’ve ever written, but once, that all of that work is released? Once it’s out there? Let it go. Because it no longer belongs to us. It belongs to the audience, the viewer, it’s now theirs to consume, to watch, to own, and they’re absolutely entitled to their opinions.

I’ve learned to not worry too much about any disappointments or reviews, and just really focus on giving my best work on whatever I’m currently working on.

Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
The world is a hot damn mess. My lifelong project, is to try and not be a part of that hot damn mess. It is really really easy to vent on social media or whatever. But what good will that do? You may get 50 “good job” comments and 50 “I hate you, now” comments, and really, it’s “whatever”. But, I’d rather just get myself out there. Maybe try and be some solution to something. If I’m upset about a current event, I’ll go give blood, or I’ll go make sure we get fresh clean socks delivered to the less fortunate, I’ll get into a car and deliver meals to senior citizens. Will any of this change the world? No, probably not, but I do put photos out there of it sometimes, or will post something about it, because, no, I don’t have the answer to whatever is ailing the world, and I don’t have a solution for whatever recent awfulness is in the news, but if I can, I will try and at least do my part, for an hour, for an afternoon. It may not change how we feel about whatever may be happening in the world, but giving back, will absolutely make us feel a little better about ourselves for a little bit..

Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. Are you tap dancing to work? Have you been that level of excited at any point in your career? If so, please tell us about those days. 
Always. I try to keep things optimistic anyway… but I get to work in a business where we get to work with people from all over the world, from all different cultures, together, to tell a story. How can you not be optimistic about that? In every project I’ve done, I have met new and amazing people, have experienced different cultures and have always learned something.

So when there’s a new project about to happen, I’m practically “moonwalking” in there. I do know, that in this very same article, I mention that the same business can “rain failure on me”, but that doesn’t deter me.

I know I get to wake up and work with great directors and writers, I get to make new friends, I get to make really amazing TV shows, like “The Grounders”, which is now out for everyone, it’s streaming wherever you like to stream things. I really love that show and the cast and the crew that worked on it, and I really hope that you all do too. I was able to write and direct “M.O.W.” a very little film about a day in my life working with my friends in “Meals on Wheels”, that one was shortlisted for a couple of big awards, ones I’m not going to mention because.. well please see the “raining failure on me” line above. But I’m really proud of this one. Half of it was filmed on some very good days in 2024. The other half was filmed on some very not-good days in 2025. It should be out soon, it’s definitely going to be streaming, but by the time you all read about this, it should be on a couple of big screens somewhere too.

But that’s the key, there will be good days, there will be bad days, but as long as we can try and be optimistic about our jobs ahead, maybe tap dancing to work isn’t such a bad thing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ParkingLotFilms.net
• Instagram: NotTimCarr
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/parkinglotfilms

Image Credits
D’mont Reese