We recently connected with Colton Tapp and have shared our conversation below.
Colton, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
I’ve been working on two tv series this year that have been a blast. Quite different characters, too, which keeps it fun. One of the series, “Walker”, a cop/crime show on The CW, just started airing Season 4 last week, which I had the pleasure of working on. The other series is still in production but is expected to release this Fall ’24.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Sure. I‘m an actor for Film/TV/Commercial as well as a print model. I spend my time working through the audition process for roles in TV/Film or for commercial/print, which sends me all over the U.S. I’m based in Dallas, TX, but depending on the project, I may travel to Los Angeles, Louisiana, Arizona, Florida or wherever they need me for the project.
I got my start at a pretty young age behind and in front of a camera. My friends and I would shoot, act and edit little backyard films. Then, I became the high school newscaster my Junior and Senior year, where I would put together and present the daily news on TV to everyone. But I never really decided to take acting seriously as a career until a few years after I had graduated, when I had to opportunity to act in a couple of small film projects and I just decided to keep going from there.
Like any craft, it has taken a lot of work, practice, coaching and failures to find my lane, but I’m proud of getting to a place where I know I bring my own style and brand to an audition and give the producers my brand for consideration. I don’t have to worry about playing out a scene like another actor, because I’ve carved a niche place for myself that works well for the stories I get to be a part of. And I’ve been lucky to get roles that I’ve really enjoyed in both TV and film that were fun to work through and that had a lasting connection to me that I carry with me on the new ones.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I have lots of stories about developing resilience. I think you get rejected more in acting than you do in just about any field. And I’ve done door to door sales, so that tells you something. But to give you one story, I remember one time, a few years into my career, I moved out to LA and was staying in a small, glass guest house. There was a bathroom and the showerhead was about 2 feet too short, so I’d have to hunch over to rinse off every day. As I lived there, I was trying to get a talent agent. I researched and wrote down a list of around 700 LA agents I found through reading any resource i could and talking to people. I also networked mixers, events, screenings, etc. and wrote down every agent contact I came up with. Finally, I put together mail-outs for every one of them, with my headshot, resume and links to my demo reel. I also emailed the packets to the same agents, if I had their emails. I spent the next few several weeks sending all of these out to the agencies. By this point, I already had years of work, classes and auditions under my belt, so it wasn’t like I was just coming in fresh looking to make it big. I was feeling pretty confident in hearing back from at least a few agents for an interview. Well, after a week or so of sending everything out, I finally received ONE email from a single agent I had sent my information to, who said “I’m forwarding your information to our director of talent”. I was so excited. This is it! Then, a few hours later, I received an email that agent, which simply read… “Pass.“.
And that was the fruit of my labor for years of working, moving to LA, continuing to audition and sending a kit to every agent I could get information for… ONE email from an agent that said “Pass.“.
Honestly, I found the email itself funny but it was obviously disappointing. It ended up being one of those lessons that I learned pretty early on, that the key to getting work as an actor is to get rejected more than the next guy, because everyone’s hearing the same thing and the ones that win roles just do it more. By the way, my car got stolen from that guest house I was living in about a month after I moved in and was later found trashed in the LAX parking garage.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
It’s tough to say if the most rewarding part of creating is the process or the finished art. I think that since the final result is the most important part to the world, it’s the most rewarding part as an artist. When you share your finished art with everyone and not only see how they react and respond to it, but allow it to become a part of their lives, that’s the ultimate reward and indication of whether or not what you did was worthy of being put out into the world.
Contact Info:
- Website: coltontapp.com
- Instagram: coltontapp
- Facebook: coltontappofficialpage