We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michael Wagemann a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Michael, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I knew very young that I wanted to be an actor. Instead of following my passion, I let the fear of financial uncertainty get in the way of going after what I desired. So, I ended up going to college to be safe. Get a degree and have a safe job with a paycheck every month. At least have a backup plan just in case. I was in my last year at Northern Illinois University enrolled in the Health Education program. I was on the path to being a teacher. My father had talked me into going the teacher route as I had no clue what I wanted to do besides acting and writing. In fact I changed my major 3 times before sticking with education. I started doing my classroom observations and the first day I observed, I had this overwhelming feeling of sadness and fear. I had no desire to teach. I didn’t even enjoy school myself. I was lost and unhappy and felt stuck. It was at this time that my Mom called me and told me about a play that she heard about, and that they had cast everyone but the lead part. She told me I should go audition. At this point it had been about 4 years since I had done anything with acting. I told her I would have to quit school if I got the play and the play wasn’t even a paid gig! I’ll never forget what she said. “Quit school, Michael. You’re unhappy. Do what makes you happy”. I went and auditioned a couple days later and got the part! I quit school the next day with less than a year left. I did the play and fell in love with the art of acting on a whole new level. About a week after wrapping the last show I moved to California to continue my dreams. It was a risk for me to audition. A risk to quit school. A risk to move to California. As an actor you bring to the table all of your life experience. That decision to take a huge risk led me on a path of life experience that has only brought more to the characters I live and bring to life. I’ve never once regretted my decision. I am where I am now as a result of each risky decision I’ve made. The journey has been one incredible ride thus far.

Michael, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I got into acting by doing theatre but I always loved movies and television. So California seemed like the choice to make that all possible. I moved to California when I was 25 years old after I finished a play near Chicago, IL. I started to do extra work and find short films I could do. I ended up being introduced to a woman that became my acting coach and she ended up introducing me to my first agent in Los Angeles. I started going on auditions that were higher caliber and I was excited. Not long after signing with my agent some unfortunate events took place and I found myself sleeping in my car. I had a friend getting married in Dallas Texas and so I took off in my car/house for Texas to stand up in his wedding. This was in September of 2009. The wedding was fantastic and I was having a blast in Texas. My friend knew of my situation and offered to have me stay with him in Texas while I figured things out. He is a firefighter and told me the process of how to get hired as a firefighter. All of a sudden I found myself testing for fire departments around the DFW metroplex. Within a year I was hired on as a firefighter and started the fire academy in November 2010. Fire academy is a grueling 9 months, so I put all my efforts into the process. After I graduated and started working as a professional firefighter I had that aching again, of wanting to be creative. So, I got some headshots and found an agent in Dallas and started working right away. With the fire schedule I had time to act and have a steady paycheck. After a year with the agency and numerous jobs, the agent that was with the agency abruptly left without a word and a new agent was assigned to the theatrical dept. She was very green and had no experience and I went from numerous auditions and jobs to crickets. At this time I was getting married and taking on more responsibilities and I was not there emotionally or creatively. I felt uninspired and felt it was time to move on. I made the hard decision that I was done. I marked my body with a tattoo as a memorial to the acting world and put my head down and walked away. About 6 years later I had bought and sold three houses, had a daughter and was expecting a son on the way. I had money in the bank and if you looked at my life from the outside you would say I had it all. But, I was dying inside. I was hurting. I didn’t know why. I was in a bad place emotionally and felt life slipping by very quickly. One day my wife turned to me and said, “Why don’t you take an acting class”? This is the second time that a woman who loves me helped change the course of my life for the better. I was so scared. I had no clue what to do or if I could be any good. But, I googled acting classes in Dallas and contacted Theresa Bell of TBell Academy. First class I was all in. I signed up and trained with her for two years. She is incredible and it was the first time that I actually stuck with training for what I wanted. I believe that going through the fire academy had prepared me for the discipline needed to conquer obstacles. I signed with an agency but ended up leaving them after 6 months as they were a bit unreliable. But, being in an acting class you meet people that pluck you into the world of acting, and so I started self submitting myself. I ended up doing featured extra work on a Richard Linklater film and it was that job that would change my life. I ended up meeting a guy, Nicholas Rice, that gave me info on an acting class that was kind of a secret. It is run by Glenn Morshower a veteran working actor. I audited his class and that was it. I was in love. I was inspired. I was home. One week later after I audited the class, Covid hit and everything was shut down. But, Glenn went to zoom classes and the format in which he held the class only made us better actors for film and television. Best training I could have ever dreamed of. Glenn is more than just an acting coach. He teaches mindset, and without the right mindset, all the talent in the world is nothing. It was the missing ingredient in my life and career. Once I started meditating and working on myself, everything else started to come into fruition. The belief system has to be on autopilot and nothing can take you away from that belief. Glenn is my mentor. My friend. A man that gives everything to those around him. Thank you Glenn for teaching me what is important. That same friend that introduced me to Glenn, also introduced me to his agent. Nicholas, is just a standup guy. I’ll never be able to thank him enough. When I met the agent it was not even a year into Covid. I was older and had been out of the game for quite a while, but the agency took a chance on me. The first audition I had was for a LIFETIME film and I booked it! After that I went on to do three more LIFETIME films, a Co-Star on WALKER, a film on AMAZON, and numerous commercials. All within two years of signing with my agent. The auditions that are coming in are incredible. Each “No” is just one step closer to a “Yes”. One of the positive things that came from Covid is that it opened up the world to actors. We were able to send in self tapes and so our reach was now anywhere in the world. I have since gone on to write, produce, and act in my own project, that at the time of this interview is in post production. I am so excited to share it with the world when it’s ready. I am inspired everyday. I take nothing for granted and I feel blessed for all that is within me and around me.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect is taking an audience through an experience. To tell a story that was in someones mind, that was put on paper, and is now being told through myself and other actors. The process of working together with creative people to make something from nothing is exciting and rewarding. I might have an idea that I bring to the table and that idea gets built up by other ideas from the people I’m working with. The team effort is what’s beautiful. From the makeup artists to the writers, producers, directors, other actors…everyone is bringing something fresh and new to the project. I’ve watched a scene that was written in such a way that completely changed as we started acting. It was organic and what happened was even better than we all expected. That’s the “magic” of story telling. Same thing goes for theatre as well. There isn’t one night that is the same as the other. The audience brings an energy. There could be a “mistake” on stage that we all have to go with and work around. Film is so interesting because you get the opportunity to try different things out from one take to the next. If it doesn’t work then there’s always another take that can happen. The art of being someone else and having empathy for that person and not judging them is wonderful. You also find the similarities between yourself and that character. It’s all rewarding from the moment you get the job and start reading the script to the last day on set.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson I had to unlearn is that failure is a bad thing. Failure is vital in the growing process. It’s a learning curve. Michael Jordan failed at making thousands of baskets but you don’t remember him for his failures. You remember him for his success. People see these great actors and think they just one day became a famous artist. They don’t see the hundreds of auditions that they did and didn’t get. They don’t see the hours of study they do. They see the end result and think, that’s easy. There’s a saying that says, “It takes ten years for an overnight success”. I would say that is truth. I am grateful for the journey. It’s in the journey we find what we are made of. We fail more times than we succeed. When I was a kid I wanted to play roller hockey. I was amazing on skates and could do most anything on them. My family didn’t have a lot of money, but I finally pleaded enough that my Dad took me to a hockey tryout. I couldn’t believe it! It was my turn and I rolled out there with my stick and skated a few feet and was making a turn around a cone when I fell. I never fall! I was so embarrassed I threw my stick and rolled off the rink. My father tried to get me to go back out there but I refused. I failed and thought that was it. That story sticks with me to this day because I was a great skater. I somehow fell but that didn’t mean I couldn’t get back up and show them what I got. It’s not about the falls, its about getting back up and facing that failure and not letting it define you. In fact failure should inspire you! If everyone with a great idea gave up on the first failed attempt we would have nothing in society worth anything. It took me a long time to figure out that it’s okay to fail and there is no such thing as perfection. There is perfection in the failure when you take what went wrong and apply it to your next attempt. We all have greatness in us. We just forget that greatness takes trial and error. Rinse and repeat.

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