We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chris Levine a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Chris, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Over the last 10 years or so I’ve written, produced and acted in some great projects but my first feature film is the most meaningful and most emotional. I had been in LA taking acting classes while working a full time job for almost 2 years and not much was happening as far as bookings.

I decided to write a short film one morning and invest in it. “They” whoever they are always said “write what you know” and at the time the biggest event in my life was my multiple years as a competitive bodybuilder and everything that went with that including drug use.

Writing my short film, it dawned on me, and this isn’t exactly the correct way to look at feature film scripts, but I told myself a feature length script is just a short film script with more scenes. While it is technically but there’s a lot more to writing a 90+ page screenplay. But I got to writing. I spent 3-4 hours a night for a month straight writing a partially non-fiction version of my bodybuilding career in college.

I called it Most Muscular.

I remember sending it to my mom to read and she was beyond words, she knew this movie was going to be made and that it was going to jump start my career.

And that it did.

Through my acting coach I was able to link up with another actor who wanted to produce something. He in-turn connected us to a director who wanted to make something big, his first feature. All of our first feature. And within 6 months I was starring in a movie I wrote with, to me, actors beyond my years with Sharon Lawrence and Daniel Baldwin.

A few years later the movie was released (and titled changed to Anabolic Life) and is now available all over the world.

I can still remember the last night of shooting, me sobbing the entire way back home thinking how this could be the last movie I ever act in. While now I look at that moment and wish I would’ve enjoyed the process making the film instead of worrying it was going to be my last, but it truly was the most meaningful project I’ve worked on yet.

Chris, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi. I’m Chris Levine. I have been storytelling for 15 years and have been a full-time actor/filmmaker for 10 now. I say storytelling because I was a marketing director for a young company and was able to create video content and write daily there. It really opened the doors to filmmaking for me.

So yeah 10 years or so ago I moved to LA, left my day job as the marketing director and started my journey.

Since then, I have written and produced 2 feature films that I also starred in, Anabolic Life and No Way Out. Anabolic Life is free on video on demand platforms like Amazon Prime and Tubi, No Way Out is as well. I won best actor at the Orlando Film Festival a few years back so that was a highlight of my career. I also just starred in an action movie that ended up on Wal-Mart shelves called The Handler where I learned how to look like a fighter in 30 days during Covid lockdown. I also have multiple films yet to be released that will carry over to 2024.

I realized very quickly that becoming an actor later in life meant I had to do more than just wait around for a call. That’s how I became a writer, producer and even an editor as well. I’ve produced multiple movies, shorts and web series with a few more in pre-production today. And I’m lucky enough to be a decent enough writer and have used that ability to sell screenplays with a few in pre-production now.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I think as an artist of all types there’s a few general lessons I learned along the way.

Know your worth. Know that people will make a profit off of you for as little as they can. From an actor’s standpoint they give you these challenging, emotional and maybe even physical scenes for a low rate and they will expect greatness without any care for your well-being. So, know your worth. If they can’t pay you what you think you are worth than that project isn’t for you regardless.

Networking. Every time I got a project completed it was due to my network. And the only way to network is to be in groups and classes with likeminded people. I always tell actors starting off to get into an acting class for 1 year and then reach back out. I won’t talk about headshots and all that other bullshit until they have proven to themselves, they love acting at this level. There’s so much more to this industry than an agent or a commercial… You need to learn the terminology, the pacing, the freedom of being in tune with yourself and in-turn any character you will play. Don’t think you will have a lifespan here if you are not.

Lastly ask questions, seek advice, take notes but only listen to 10% of it. Just because someone has been doing what you do for longer, don’t automatically assume that they know more. The truth is if they are within your reach and do not have credits to back up their “knowledge” they probably only know just as much as you do, so hear 100% but only listen to that 10%.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I can relate to choosing a non-creative life. It’s easier. It’s proven. Hell I graduated with a marketing degree, worked from the ages of 15 to my mid 20s without any creative desire. But, I’m telling you, when that creative change switches there is no turning back.

If you are reading this thinking, how could you quit a 6 figure job at 25, how could you sacrifice starting a family or even move 3000 miles away from your family for a dream? I get it, you just don’t… yet. I’ll tell you why it’s worth it, because becoming a successful artist seals your name in history. When I die you’ll still be able to look up the films I worked on, my name will always be associated with my art and to me that’s the legacy I want to strive for even if that takes some sacrifices.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.onlychrislevine.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/onlychrislevine
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/onlychrislevine
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/onlychrislevine
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ7r1Tbq-Igaz9wJ7WyLgTg
• Other: https://tubitv.com/search/chris%20levine