Plano Profile May 2010 : Page 102
community Actor and Collin College graduate Brian J. Smith. Photo/MGM Studios international success the sweet taste of Busy TV and theater actor credits Collin College with helping realize his dream PROFILE
On Campus
Heather Darrow
A Brian J. Smith has found the proverbial chocolate cake of success, and he is eating it with two forks—one in television and the other in theater.
Smith stars as Lt. Matthew Scott in the hit television series Stargate Universe and was recently cast as Hector MacQueen (the American previously played by Anthony Perkins) for the ITV production of Murder on the Orient Express, slated for PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery. Though he is rubbing elbows with internationally renowned actors like Dame Eileen Atkins and David Suchet (known as Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot), Smith will tell you there was a time in the not-toodistant past that he nearly gave up on his dream of acting.
After graduating from Collin College, Smith graduated from The Juilliard School and was released into the harsh world of constant auditions and part-time jobs. “My bank account was negative $30. I hadn’t paid my rent in two or three months and was bartending on the side. I auditioned for The War Boys. I really wanted to do it, but they offered the role to a well-known actor. I decided to join the Army. I was supposed to get the physical the next morning. I called the agent to tell him I was joining the military, and the agent said, ‘You can’t. They are expecting you in New Mexico. They offered you the part. Tell the Army you can’t go.’ “A lot of actors tell the same story,” Smith continued. “You give up, and then the universe says, ‘Just kidding.
Here’s a cookie for you.’ You shake your head and think there has to be a higher power that is guiding me along and taking care of me. Every day Pinch myself. I am constantly reminded of how lucky I am.” Smith clearly remembers being star struck while doing a Stargate Universe scene with Lou Diamond Phillips (La Bamba) and realizing that three months before that day he was unemployed and on the verge of entering the military.
“It has been a really good year. I get to work with famous people who are amazing and dedicated. Toby Jones, who plays Ratchett, blows me away.
Robert Carlyle has always been a favorite actor of mine. In a seemingly inconsequential scene, he builds a character from a look. I am learning so much and getting paid to do it,” Smith said, laughing.
Smith takes care of his mind and his body. He describes his workout program as military-boot-camp-meets Olympic-weight-lifting. When he is uninspired, he cranks up Brahms, Wagner or Chopin. He is currently slogging his way through War and Peace and loving it.
Smith gained a new perspective on acting when he enrolled in Collin College in 2002. He adopted Collin Theatre Director Brad Baker’s belief that theater has social significance and should be a teaching tool for society.
“It was new for me, but Professor Baker was adamant. He always had something to say about who we are as Americans, and I really enjoyed that discourse. The plays he selects like In God’s Country about white extremism and how hate affects society, and A Clockwork Orange, show that even the Most violent and hopelessly ugly can find redemption through love.” According to Smith, Baker is one of the first professors that saw something in him that he didn’t see in himself.
“I wouldn’t have auditioned for Juilliard; he literally pushed me toward the audition. He gave me the need to say something. That sustains you.
You can make millions and have big houses and people that will stroke your ego, but at the end of the day it will not matter. What matters is what you have said as a human being through your work. I wasted two years at a different college before coming to Collin College. I wish I had gone to Collin College first. The success rate coming out of Collin College is headand- shoulders ahead of expensive colleges. That says a lot about the professors.” I ronically, the innate quality that nearly pushed Smith away from acting is the feature that draws him in. Simply put, Smith loves the challenge.
“Acting is a very different lifestyle.
You are constantly shown where you are stuck. If you go into acting for validation, you quickly get out of the business. There’s a lot of rejection,” said Smith. “If you are anything of an artist you constantly feel like you are not quite there, not quite living up to your potential, and I actually like that.
I am constantly up against the things that limit and scare me and that let me grow and become a civilized person.
In a strange way, I am attracted to the things that are inherently difficult. If you stick with it though, it pays dividends in a spiritual way.” — HEATHER DARROW Freelance writer Heather Darrow is a frequent contributor to Plano Profile.
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