We were lucky to catch up with Bryan McClure recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Bryan, thanks for joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

Bryan, 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?

It’s always fun for me to talk about how I got into the entertainment industry. It’s never something that I planned on doing. I wanted to be a professional basketball player, but as someone who’s right around 5’7”, God had a different plan for me.

I remember one summer, I was looking for a summer job, and I saw something online that said, “Make money acting.” I had some family friends that did a lot of plays, print work and commercials growing up, and I thought it had always looked like fun, so I signed up. I kind of forgot I signed up for anything, and then I got a random call out of the blue that said they wanted me to go to a commercial audition. I thought I was getting a prank call at the time, but I decided to go anyway. It turned out it was for a commercial for Windstream Communications that I ultimately ended up booking. I really enjoyed the experience, and realized that the phone call actually came from a local talent agency in Omaha, NE where I was at the time. I told them what a great experience I had and how I wanted them to consider me again going forward. After that, I got involved in a couple background roles, and some other short films, and a play. Eventually started taking acting classes and before I knew it, I felt like God was calling me to pursue acting professionally. I packed up everything and I moved to Los Angeles. Similarly, a number of years later, I got a similar calling to move to Atlanta. It’s been a challenging journey, but I’m super thankful for it.

And overtime, I have been realizing, and trusting the voice that I have as an artist. As of late, I’ve been writing and producing more.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Since I feel like God called me to this place, I really feel like part of my mission here in this space is to share with people what God’s love looks like. Do I mess up and fall short of God’s perfect love? Absolutely. But I’m always trying to love other people and help other people as best I can. I feel like the entertainment industry provides a great space to reach out to many people across the world.

I want people to know that they are loved. I want to create things that touch people’s hearts, make them laugh, and make them think.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Man, I remember this very distinctly. I had finally got the opportunity to audition for a casting director that I really admire. Rickie Maslar is her name. It was an audition for a comedic movie, and I really wanted to do well. Unfortunately, when I got in the room, I froze up and couldn’t deliver the lines that I had worked so hard on. I remember going to my car after that audition, and literally saying to myself, “What are you even doing in this industry?” If you can’t do something like that, that you’ve worked so hard on, what makes you think you can succeed?” I really beat myself up about it.

Whether it’s the acting journey, or just challenging life events, I feel like we are often faced with a really difficult hardship that we weren’t planning on. For me, I have found in these moments, that by just taking one step at a time, one after another without stopping (even if we have to slow down some times), ultimately, we find ourselves out of the difficult season or situation, and we can look back and be thankful that that experience taught us something that we could grow from. One of my favorite pieces of advice I received when I was first starting out from actors that were a lot further along on their path than I is, “It’s a battle of attrition, you have to outlast everyone else.”

Contact Info:

• Website: Bryanmcclure.net
• Instagram: @bryanmcclure
• Facebook: www.Facebook.com/ActorBryanMcClure
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanmcclure
• Twitter: @bryanmcclure
• Youtube: @bryanmcclure

Image Credits
The first image I’d me as a headshot is by Brian Jones. The others are ones I took.