We caught up with the brilliant and insightful G Anthony Joseph a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
G Anthony , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
First of all, it’s an honor to be featured in your wonderful magazine. When I was 10 years old, around 1971, my mother enrolled me in a Martial Arts school. I have been working out and practicing ever since. The system of Martial Arts I learned (known as the TCF Martial Arts System) requires constant adaptation, creation, thought, especially in the midst of unplanned combat attacks. More importantly, it translates to dealing and overcoming life’s obstacles to attain all the goals I wanted for my life. There is never a dull moment in this unique system so my mind is constantly activated trying to come up with new and creative ways to continue to improve. When I opened my own school in 1981, my goal was not only to teach and pass on this knowledge, but to continue to improve myself comprehensively. Around 1986, one of my wonderful students in Trinidad, Brian Carter Green, who was already into theatre and drama, got me an opportunity to audition for a play and with no experience, I landed the part. I was hooked. I realized right away it had all the same qualities as being a Martial Artist i.e. no two rehearsals were the same, no two performances were the same. I had to be able to think quickly on my feet and create at a moments notice on stage, dealing with all the unplanned moments that we call improv. Being completely in the moment and ready to respond to anything an actor might do or say on stage that was not always written in the script was my goal. It helped, that I was up against one of the best actors at that time, Bernard Michael Hazel, who threw every curve ball at me on stage (To this day, I still think & implement how much he taught me working with him). I realized then, I had found my second passion because it was simply a compliment to the creative intellectual way I approached Martial Arts. I must also give credit to my first amazing acting teacher, Sonya Moze, who I am still in touch with today.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Well, as an Actor, Martial Artist and Fitness practitioner, my story goes something like this: Around 1971 at 10 years old my mother brought my three sisters and me from the Caribbean to the wonderful USA to live. I watched my single mother work two consecutive jobs daily for over 6 years to provide for us.
That was the beginning of watching what hard work every day was about. She also didn’t have weekends off since the evening restaurant job was also available on weekends and she grabbed every shift she could. When public school wasn’t working for us, she enrolled us in a Catholic school. She also enrolled me in a martial arts school when she found out I was bullied in public school. So, from a young age, my goal was to practice every day and move up the ranks and become as proficient as possible in this unique system called the TCF Martial Arts System of combat.
My first job was as a dishwasher, then I moved onto become the assistant to a very successful businessman in Baltimore. When I achieved the top ranking in martial arts under an amazing man, LeRoy Cunningham (who I am still with today), I opened my own school in 1981 and it ran for over 22 years. My martial arts journey affected every aspect of my life from fitness, to healthy eating, to education which consequently led me into the other highly creative field of Acting / Drama.
I never stopped working-out and practicing martial arts. That discipline has translated into the Hollywood entertainment world of acting: for stage performances of Shakespeare’s plays, and film / tv. The craft of acting requires so much dedication, time, years of struggle, study and more study, long hours on set, long hours preparing for auditions. It never ends. It took over 8 years to finally break into the industry and that was after many odd jobs and I mean many.
I arrived in Hollywood in 1987. I worked a graveyard gas station job. I drove limousines. I moved chemicals. I stuffed teddy bears into boxes on an assembly line. I answered phones for an answering service and I worked delivering scripts to actors for what is today’s gold standard of companies in Hollywood- BREAKDOWN SERVICES.
I believe what gives me an edge in this very challenging / competitive world of acting in Hollywood is my ability to just do what needs to be done. No complaining, no favors, and always remembering what makes me truly happy i.e. my 36-year marriage, my kids, my grandkids and my constant pursuit of perfection in my martial arts training. These are the things in my life, of which I am most proud.
I also really enjoy giving lectures and motivational seminars to adults, grade school kids, and college age students. My journey from a small Caribbean island as a child, to ending up as an actor in Hollywood and how I have maintained by fitness level and my 36-year marriage all provide fodder for these seminars. My goal is to always leave a very clear vision at these talks so that those who want to improve themselves and achieve their vision have a clear idea of what can be done, using concepts for their own unique situation. I also absolutely love to talk about Shakespeare and all the plays and roles I have portrayed on stage and why it’s so important for anyone to learn and understand that incredible author.
Today, as time allows, besides my general Hollywood / Acting instagram page (@ganthonyjoseph) I have also opened a separate Martial Arts / Fitness Instagram page (@jetfitnessg) which offers programs for any level of student who are really interested in Martial Arts as a lifestyle which of course is combined with Fitness, (healthy), very healthy eating habits which, at 62 years old, works for me.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I love this question. Let me start with my over 50 years of practicing martial arts, the ability to have a ton of individual moves, combinations, sequences that you have to work on day in and day out in order to be a more all around effective martial artist keeps the mind totally engaged, active and growing creatively on a day to day basis. I am always improving, always focused and those elements translates to many other aspects in life quite easily. I just love that feeling of daily accomplishments which depends on no one but myself. Also and not in the least, the creative aspect of having to come up with more interesting and unique ways to make the TCF SYSTEM OF MARTIAL ARTS more effective.
The other rewarding aspect is, since I started posting more about my martial arts system, I am very surprised how many people from all over the world find satisfaction in how I practice and why, then you can see how they themselves decided to make changes in their own lives after seeing some of my posts. This has been quite rewarding and interesting to witness.
As far as Acting for Film, TV and stage, what I enjoy the most is the deep research I do on each characters lives that I have to portray. Having to breakdown their lives, where they are from, their childhood, their visions, hopes and dreams, why are they saying the lines in the script that they are saying now that I have to repeat. It gives you a deeper appreciation for lives that are not your own. I also end up taking away some aspects of a characters life and incorporate it into my own life even after the film is over. As an example, I recently had to portray a Butler on screen and in the course of my research I took a Butler course for over 3 weeks as I prepared to play this character. One of the main things I took away from a real Butlers life is how, since their job is to serve people constantly, was their core belief that the world does not need anymore customer service, what the world needs is HOSPITALITY i.e people who really care about other people. Other things I took away from the life of a Butler was proper etiquette at the table while dining, keeping things in perfect order as an example, not leaning over your plate to scoop food into your mouth but to bring the utensil up to your mouth etc. In both examples above, what I love most is how you end up affecting people and making the world a better place.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
To me, Social Media is free enterprise at it’s best which also has the down side elements to it also. But one thing is certain, it puts the power of influence into anyones hands world-wide and there-in lies the true power of social media. Building my audience was easy. After ignoring social media for close to 2 decades then being encouraged by my kids about three and a half years ago to start sharing my life, I decided to share more consistently than I had been. I realized early on that you are really holding your own TV STATION network in the palm of your hands and now you really have no more excuses on what content you want to see and share with the world. So Number 1, unique content is King (Be YOU). Rule number 2, you have to post consistently. Once a day up to twice a day or every other day but if you post some days and post other days then don’t post for a while then you must realize that you are only using it as a casual user rather than something that will help your brand or a specific vision you are trying to get to. Number 3, you have to ask yourself this most important question since it guides who you are and what you are going to post,, WHAT MAKES YOU SO SPECIAL THAT THE WORLD CAN’T DO WITH OUT YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO GIVE THE WORLD THAT THEY DIDN’T REALIZE THEY NEEDED IT UNTIL YOU GAVE IT TO THEM (Think of the iPhone brand as an example). The answer to this guides what content you post that you believe the world will be interested it and in fact, it drives the core of everything you want to attain in life as far as major accomplishments. If you post UNIQUENESS and something of VALUE the world will come to you. One thing that I DECIDED not to do for sure is, I DON’T TRY TO BE CUTE and I stay away from current news events or social movements. The world is seeing enough of that on the news and they don’t need to turn to your social media pages and view that also. That’s my opinion on that subject.
To end on a specific note on my content and what I post. I made up my mind early on that what I love was A) My acting career which includes roles in TV network shows and on streaming networks, movies and Shakespeare performing live on stage. So I post about any new shows I am in, my process of auditioning, when I land a role how I prepare to portray a character etc. B) Then I love martial arts, fitness and working out which I have been doing for over 50 years. I broke that into two segments, my martial arts and then I realized people were fascinated on how fit I am in my 60s so I post separately about the kind of work outs I do, what I eat, nutrition etc.
In CLOSING just remember, find out who you are at the core then just GO GIVE THE WORLD THAT UNIQUE YOU!!!!!
Contact Info:
- Website: http://ganthonyjoseph.com
- Instagram: @ganthonyjoseph & @jetfitnessg
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ganthony.joseph/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/g-anthony-joseph-79169a1
- Tiktok: ganthonyjoseph
Image Credits
Main photo by Duanell “Taye” Spearman , PLEDGE LOOKS ARE DECEIVING PLEDGE LOOKS ARE DECEIVING by Matthew Brooks