We didn't push it down people's throats...One turned into three in a short period of time. I built the first one and...one day someone walked in and said "You know, I really like the design on this. Who built that?" I said "I did." He goes "Well, would you be interested in building me one?" I went "Yeah, I'll do that."
Me and my family growing up, we cleared our land built our homes and all that. So, I was very well knowledgeable in the construction world. That turned into a commercial development company and construction company.
In the Navy, I was introduced to the modeling world and something I never thought I would do in a million years. I never thought about doing it...I was kind of against doing it for a while until he introduced me to an agent. I went down to this big event (and they wanted me as a model) So, I was getting out of the military and decided to take that opportunity.
I moved to the east coast when everybody else was going to the west coast. I (then) chased it back toward the west coast. I built my career up by doing small roles (which led) to principal roles and getting bumped into main character roles.
When I read it and I realized that Michael Landon, Jr. was the director of it, I thought...this could work out well. This is not gonna be a hard stretch for me to get the character figured out at all. Outside of the billion dollars, I was living his life...chasing money down. It was a lot of fun.
I try to learn something from every character I take on. I try to better myself personally from it and Red allowed me to go ahead and accept what I did. Even though I had passion driving me, I still felt a little guilty that I gave up all the businesses in the pursuit of happiness.
I made the decision (that), if I was gonna do this, I was gonna do it 100% because before in my life I had been an entrepreneur. It was weird. I would wake up in the morning (saying) "You know what? I'm gonna do this." (I'd) set out (and) in three months (I'd) have a new business on its way. I didn't stop and think about the repercussions of anything. I just did it. I moved forward in doing it to succeed.
When I decided to take on acting as a career and a profession, I didn't know much about it. I knew that I was passionate about it. There was nothing else I could think of that I wanted to do and that's when I knew it was the right choice. It was also one of the scariest moments of my life.
I had so many other things I could fall back on as an entrepreneur (with multiple businesses). When I finally was true to myself and what I wanted to do - and acting was it - there was nothing else I could think of. I thought "If I fail, I'm falling hard (because) I don't have anything else to fall back on. Am I going to accept that?"...I never looked back. I never (let myself) put it in my mind to fail.
The problem was with construction and retail, you have to be able to shut things off at night and spend quality time with yourself and family. I couldn't do it. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to give 100% to my passion if I held on to them.
Rick Eldridge over at Reelworks Studios has the same vision that I have. They want to make good family quality product with a redemptive message underneath to allow people to open their hearts and minds. That (mindset) really drew me to The Ultimate Life...Their vision and what they want to do very similar to me and Erin.
