We were lucky to catch up with Ben Taylor recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ben, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I grew up wanting to be an actor, but coming from a small town in Alabama I had no real understanding of what acting was or how to get into it. That being said, the military was a really easy thing to get into since the recruiters came to my school every week. So, I joined the military and in my last year I tried out for special operations. I had already tried out a few years before but didn’t make it.

So I tried again in my last year; and again, didn’t make it. I was sent back home to Hawaii. Since this was during COVID times, I had to quarantine for two weeks due to travel and about a week into it I was killing time watching a movie. I really have no idea what movie it was, but that doesn’t matter. The dialogue I had in my head was way more interesting than the movie.

“Well, what else did I want to be as a kid?” I asked myself. I racked my brain, thinking through all the different memories. When I was really young, I wanted to be a lion, but that probably wasn’t gonna happen. I kept thinking.
“An actor…” I mumbled, almost as if to admit a secret to myself. I sat there feeling weirdly… exposed. What did I just say? The leather couch I sat on felt far away, and the sound from the TV didn’t phase me anymore. My life for the past eight years had been solely dedicated to living out my military dream. Now I approached the idea of leaving it all behind, and stepping into this career that I knew nothing about. All I knew was that this 7 year old kid had wanted it; and I had to honor that. So I said it.
“Welp, I guess I’ll go do that now.”

That arbitrary moment totally changed the course of my life. I tore away from all I had known. You see, I believe that in order to live a fulfilling life I should pursue the dreams I had as a kid, before money and societal expectations influenced my thoughts. I knew that as a child I had wanted both of these seemingly contradicting careers. So, at this point in my life I had all but made peace with my failure in the military, and was ready to pursue my only other dream: acting.
I guess it just took two failed attempts at special operations for me to admit that I wanted to be an actor.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hey everybody,

My name is Ben Taylor. I’m a 25 year old actor and writer living in Los Angeles, California. I’m in my last year at USC and will be heading out into the “real world” soon. I’m commercially represented by True Artists Agency. I’ve been in a few feature films, and plenty of shorts.

The thing I’m most proud of is making the transition from the military to acting. I mean talk about a left turn. Bridging that gap and getting into the industry has been a tricky road, but I do admire the tenacity that gotten me to this point.

As an actor, the guarantee I can give is my work ethic. Growing up in a blue collar family really taught me how to work hard, and the military doubled down on that.

Lastly, something I really to make sure the viewer knows about me is that I am honest. That sounds weird coming from an actor but truly, in an industry that is anything but honest, I want to make sure that people I work with know that they’re talking to me, not the companies behind me (as there are none).

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Ha, yea I have a story for that.
So when I was 19 years old I lived in Hawaii on the island of Oahu. I was stationed out on Pearl Harbor. Anyway, on January 4th, 2019 I went on a hike out on the North Shore. It was a beautiful hike that finished with, what I expected to be, a grand opening with the view of the Pacific Ocean. However, after I climbed the final slope I saw that there was in fact no grand reveal, and that it was just a dead end. Kind of bummed, I decided I would perch up on a ledge and look at the view that way. So I climbed up the nearest rock face. Half way up I reached out for a good hold and the rock I was holding onto broke off. So I fell, what I imagine, was about 12 feet. I mean it felt like forever; I can still remember seeing my hands outstretched, thinking to myself “ok, a branch is gonna stop my fall…. there’s no way I’ll actually hit the ground.” And yes I know logically that doesn’t make sense, but hey, in that moment, whatever stopped me from hitting the ground sounded good to me.

But, I hit the ground; and I started rolling. I rolled and rolled, faster and faster.. Then I rolled off of a ledge. At this point I felt this intense pressure consume my right leg. It felt like I had been ran over by a semi. I rolled a few more times and came to a violent halt at the bottom of the slope I had just climbed. I looked over and my right foot was facing east while my leg was facing north. It was gnarly. Now without getting lost in the details, I wound up crawling about a mile and a half back to the base of the gulch I had hiked into, just so I could get cell service. It took a little over 2 hours. Once I got to where I could call, I called one of the officers I worked for, who was a nurse, and I said “Hey ma’am, I think I messed my ankle up a little bit. I’m on the North Shore; do you know where the nearest hospital is?” She didn’t know the extent of my injury, so she told me about an urgent care not far. Haha, neither of us knew how bad it really was, but I knew it was definitely messed up. I I think I was hoping for a dislocation, since it definitely looked dislocated. I just didn’t know that the dislocation was a result of my ankle being in 3 pieces instead of one.

So yea, I think there’s a little bit of resilience in that story.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Man, one book that really changed the way at look at my life is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I feel like that may be a cliché, but if you’re reading this and you haven’t read that book, please do. It’s only like 12 bucks on amazon. It has some real gems in there.

For me though, it came at a time that I needed it; and I didn’t know I did. It was right before I left for Assessment and Selection ( Air Force special operations selection course) a second time and I was solely focused that.

I would wake up everyday at 5 AM (or earlier depending on the workout) and I would workout three times a day. I would run in the morning, swim at lunch and lift after work. I did this day in and day out. I was on a special diet, and reading and watching anything and everything that related to military training or self-improvement- and that’s how I found the Alchemist.

I don’t want to get too much into it, as I don’t want to spoil anything, but the biggest lesson it taught me was that the Journey I want, may not be the Journey I get, but it is the Journey that was intended for me.

That lesson proved true in my military life as well as my life as an actor.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: ben_.taylor

Image Credits

Midnight Runs

Say Less

Chris Jon Photography