We were lucky to catch up with Marcos James recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Marcos, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

The arts is something that always resonated with me. However, I was initially very active in sports. I was a very promising hurdler in the 100 and 200m specifically.

Heading into my teens, I did an audition for a performing arts academy. I thought at the time, it would be something interesting and fun to do after school.

With the training I was receiving in the arts, I started to excel as a performer and realized that it was important for me to continue. As I developed and became more advanced, I eventually chose the arts over sports and essentially never stopped and never looked back.

I got the opportunity to perform on stage in my early teens, do television commercials, do theatrical tours to Europe, Canada, throughout the US and other places and was fortunate to be surrounded by likeminded people who were passionate and goal oriented.

My personal drive and focus, coupled with the support of my family and other performers I trained with, made me realize that I could have a promising future in the arts.

Eventually, I ended up on stage in the broadway production, The Lion King (London Cast) and that is when my true professional career started.

I’m quite happy I stayed the course.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Marcos James and I am an actor. I initially started in theatre as an all round performer. Early credits include the Disney Broadway Production, The Lion King (London cast), the London production of Aida and the lead role of Arjuna in the UK production of The Mahabharata,

I have done several commercial shoots for brands such as, Nokia (Worldwide Campaign), Heineken, Cadbury’s Chocolate, Viasat Europe, Freddy Sports (Italy) as well as music videos for the rock band Shinedown, The Sugababes and others.

My breakout international role , was the role of White Rat in Game Of Thrones. I currently play the recurring guest star role of William French in the LMN television series, Keeping Up With The Joneses.

Im looking forward to the continuation of Keeping Up With The Joneses, as well as a very interesting role in the upcoming psychological thriller, Folklore.

Folklore is set for cinematic release in 2024 and I will be playing the role of Victor “The Raven”.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In my first audition for a major theatrical production, I was in the back of a group of auditionees and while going through a movement routine, I fell off the stage and into a pile of stage props, (I believe the stage props looked like grass or some type of foliage).

I thought no one had noticed, so I climbed back on stage, only to realize that the person conducting the audition, had stopped the audition to ask if I was ok. So basically, everyone saw.

Although I was embarrassed, I am a very resilient person and considering i originally started off in sports, I’m always going to finish the competition. So I continued.

I did not get that job, but a few months later, I was asked to audition for Disney’s, The Lion King, (London Cast). This time, I definitely did not fall off the stage, I was fully focused, ready for my redemption and I booked the job.

It must be stated that to get into The Lion King, I went through a total of about eight audition rounds. Similarly, for Aida I went through seven rounds.

Since Aida required stage combat and complex physical movement, the first three rounds were more of a physical test and obstacle course than anything else. The tenacity to go through these rounds while maintaining focus is also a testament of resilience.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

At the start of my career, I did several year long theatre contracts.In order to facilitate my focus on film and television, I decided to shift away from long contracts and opted for some alternatives.

I started to lean heavily into doing commercial modelling work and also took on a job working with one of London’s top commercial real estate companies. This was a wise decision, as I developed an understanding of the importance of having multiple sources of income.

With my commercial real estate job, I freed myself from the necessity of having to book artistic work. This allowed me to walk into casting rooms with a relaxed and focused energy and helped me to create strong performances, as I was focused on the art and not rooted in worry.

I routinely booked commercial jobs, short theatre contracts and film and television work. As the bookings came in, I did not give up my commercial real estate job. I found a way to multi task.

Multi tasking meant, dashing to castings in my lunch break (I kept a change of clothes under my desk), taking time off to shoot commercials and film/tv projects (the real estate job had a flexible schedule as long as the quota for minimum hours was met) and routinely doing theatre shows at night after finishing a full day at the office. In several instances, I was the only person walking into the theatre in a full blown work suit.

I worked in commercial real estate for quite a few years and what was initially a side job, turned into something lucrative.

It must be noted that at the time that I booked the role of White Rat for Game Of Thrones, I was also working in commercial real estate.

This was a particularly interesting experience, as one day I would be shifting office furniture and showing office buildings and meeting rooms to prospective clients and the next day I was being flown out to film in Croatia. It felt like a dual existence.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/themarcosjames

Image Credits
Main image by: John Gore *Other images include an image of me as White Rat in Game Of Thrones *And also the shirtless image is an image of me playing the role of Valentino for Cyberpunk2077