Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to William J. Bruce III. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, William J. thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you share a story about the kindest thing someone has done for you and why it mattered so much or was so meaningful to you?
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
So my story starts while I was a student at Kingston College in Niagara Falls. One day we were told to evacuate the school.; a neighbor had been digging in his front yard using a backhoe but had not checked with the city first and accidentally hit a gas line. Dirt and debris were shooting some 50 feet in the air due to the pressure of the gas. While we were waiting outside a man approached me saying that he was a production manager and needed my help to speak to other students about being in a film. The man’s name was Bob Wiggins and the film was Home Beyond the Sun.
Bob had asked me as I was the only non-Asian student there and the film was about China. I didn’t get to be in the film but I was able to be a production assistant and what an awesome experience.
So that was my start, but after the film wrapped up I didn’t know what to do so I took a call center job here, a factory job there. Then one day I just felt like I needed to pursue this film thing again, I was depressed and just needed something to look forward to.
I walked into the office of Byron M. Jones, a film producer who was a managing partner of a small company called Pure Flix (now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment). Byron had produced the film I had been involved with under Bob Wiggins.
Byron’s a cool guy. I feel like we’re cut from the same cloth as far as expectations and goals. So I got hired and had been working for Pure Flix doing back end work for their streaming and DVD store, as well as helping to promote films.
In the same set of offices Byron also owned a company called Willowcreek Marketing. Willowcreek had handled film distribution for other small production companies in the past as well as bookings for wrestlers like Sting and the “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase of WWE. One day Byron came over to me and informed me that the person who had been handling Ted had messed up and wanted me to take over. So at this point I was now juggling both my duties for Pure Flix as well as Ted….what a trip!
I was blessed to handle Ted’s bookings and publicity and it was a really great ride, there was a lot happening and I had to learn fast so each night I would go home and study. Not everyone gets an opportunity like this and especially at that time, I was handling him at his biggest rise in Google Trends. We were getting calls from NBC, Fox and other networks and I knew we had to smash everything while creating more and more exposure. I didn’t go to school for this stuff, I just had to learn on the fly and trust God given instincts.
With all that was happening with Ted and Pure Flix, and me being a little crazy I thought, “Hey lets sign more guys”. So I managed to talk Byron into signing a guy named Shawn Harper from the NFL. I remember calling him nervously trying to sound confident. Shawn was great and that night I drew up the contract staying up til about 2 am. The next day Byron didn’t feel like it was the direction Willowcreek was going so I asked him if I could sign him to my own agency. Byron’s awesome, for some strange reason he gave me the green light so I signed Shawn myself.
Lol that’s how I got started!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Sure, so I have two examples, the first was when I was given the opportunity to handle Ted. I was really just hired to be his booking agent, but I couldn’t sell nails to a carpenter, it wasn’t my expertise, but I had this thought, “what if I could create even more demand for Ted, so people would be calling in vs me calling out”. So I started pitching to every media outlet I could think of. And as I said I never went to school for this so I played by my own rules regarding marketing and by the grace of God it worked.
The second example was a lot more painful.
Near the end of 2010 after three and a half years Byron decided to part ways with Ted. So now I was out on my own under my own banner representing Shawn and signing other talent. It was then that things just went sideways, I made a bad deal with a really close friend and needless to say, if I didn’t have family I would have been homeless…true story. I had to close the agency and let clients go.
I had been able to continue magazine writing, something I had started while representing Ted, but writing oftentimes didn’t fully pay the bills. I began to take the contacts and experience I had and “shop them around”, looking to create new creative paths. Personally I don’t like the idea of someone giving me a label and saying “he’s a this”, or “he’s a that”. As soon as someone tries to push me in that corner I slip out with this mentality of proving them wrong. Sk8er Boi by Avril Lavigne is often my inspiration.
So in 2011 I changed gears and assembled a compilation album that featured Mahogany Jones (four-time Champion of BET’s “Freestyle Friday’s” battle competitions), and F.E.R.N (produced by DukeDaGod of The Diplomats)
By the grace of God I was able to bounce out of the mess that had happened in 2010 and have been able to work on many projects since.
Shortly after that I got involved with another film company where I got to really understand a bit more on the acting end of things. I had always been behind the scenes prior to that. And later in 2016 I used the skills I’d learned interviewing people for magazines to create a show to interview celebs.
I feel you need to stay fluid and not let circumstances faze you. Don’t let people define you, go and prove them wrong. Take their negative opinions of you and use it as fuel.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
There are a lot of people who are hurting in this industry, people who have sadly subjected themselves to drugs, alcohol and suicide. I know we talk about people dying in this industry with some sort of awe like it’s glamorous to be a part of the 27 Club. Each time a name is added it just pains me. It also breaks my heart when people use dead celebrities to try to drive home some narrative, I’ve even heard preachers drop names in sermons for a joke and it just angers me, as if they understand this side of the canvas, like our loneliness and hurt is any less.
I have times where I’ve met with individuals who later passed. I’ll be honest I didn’t really know them, just had a few laughs and took a few pics, worked on a scene, etc., but later when I find out that they passed I feel like shit for a day or two trying to understand what went wrong.
Honestly I Google friends in the industry at times if I don’t hear from them, just to know they’re still ok.
So please know that we are human.
There is an acting term called method acting, it’s where an actor/actress needs to bring about scenes using their own feelings like pain. Sometimes we see an actor/actress on screen crying and we think wow that’s a great act, meanwhile they’ve conjured up pain from their childhood to bring out those tears. They have literally gone back to a place of being abused as a child and we tend to judge them for not getting over things when they have to keep going back so we have something to watch while eating dinner. Then we complain about how much they’ve earned.
We’re humans, just like you. Oh and P.S., that’s not my car in the picture, hehehe
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.williamjbruceiii.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WilliamJBruceIII
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamjbruceiii
- Other: https://linktr.ee/williamjbruceiii
Image Credits
Lead photo by Sir Henry of Toronto © 2023 William J Bruce III Mario Kingpin Harris photo courtesy of CubeCity © 2014 CubeCity – Used with Permission Aussie Osbourne DVD © 2016 Aussie Osbourne – Used with Permission Wedding Photo by Ile Villegas Dorado and Clifford Alvarico (Philippines) © 2014 – Used with Permission William Ted and Virgil © 2011 William J Bruce III William studio photo © 2012 William J Bruce III William, Mankind and Ted © 2009 William J Bruce III William, Ted, True Hollywood Stories © 2009 William J Bruce III