A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of getting to chat with the extremely talented Paul Campbell. I've always loved this guy's acting and after chatting with him, well, yeah, of course I'm even more of a fan! He's no stranger to Hallmarkies (having appeared in many fan favorite movies) and I know y'all are as thrilled to learn more about him as I was, so let's get started!
Mercy: Can you share a little bit about yourself?
Paul: I could share a lot about myself. *laughs* I'm Canadian, I was born in Vancouver. I started out as a carpenter; that was my big dream. I wanted to be a carpenter growing up, and then when I grew up, I realized that wasn't my big dream. Took an acting class, fell in love with it, went to theater school, and started acting when I was about 23. Now I kind of bounce around between Vancouver and Los Angeles. I've been married for 10 years and I have a 3 year old son named Kingston.
Mercy: What is the most rewarding part of being an actor?
Paul: You hit me with the big stuff right away, huh? I think personally, for me, it's having an outlet for all of my creative impulses. I mean, all of the recognition, all of that stuff; it's never been important to me. I have so much fun at my job.
Also, there are a ton of really fun parties that you get to go to. I'd be lying if I didn't say I loved going to free parties! *laughs* That's 100% true, I'm not joking with you. There are some great parties!
Mercy: What is your favorite part of being in the Hallmark Channel Family?
Mercy: Plus they have really cool parties! *laughs*
Paul: So many cool parties. Did I mention the cool parties? Hallmark has, like, the best parties that I've been to in my entire career. They know how to throw a party!
Mercy: What is one thing most people don't know about you?
Paul: I am a terrible, terrible dancer. And the reason they don't know this about me is they've never seen me dance. I refuse to dance. But...if you were to see me, you would know this about me *laughs*
Mercy: What actors have influenced your own acting?
Paul: I grew up watching Bill Murray, Chevy Chase; a lot of the comedians from the early to mid '90s. Saturday Night Live Shows I watched over and over again on VHS that I would record from the TV. Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, Mike Meyers... all of those actors were extremely influential. I would also say later in life, guys like Jason Bateman - watching Arrested Development really changed the way that I approached playing the straight man in comedies because he did it so deftly and subtly and was still able to steal scenes with his humor. That was really inspiring to me because usually the straight man doesn't get the funny lines and Bateman somehow flipped that on its head and he became the funny one. That sort of opened my eyes to a different style of acting. Also, Meryl. I mean, come on, can we talk about Meryl? Meryl Streep.
Mercy: What is your favorite character that you played?
Paul: Thats a tough question to answer without getting in trouble with every other person that's written a character for me. My favorite character that I have ever played... I'll be honest, I did a little series in 2010 called Almost Heroes. It was a quirky little single camera comedy that was made in Canada and I played Peter who runs a comic book store with his brother and I think, I think that role was my favorite. Because it was so silly, and it was so fun, and the comedy was so off the wall and bizarre that it really spoke to me comedically. And I haven't found in network television or any of the movies that I've done that sort of freedom. To just do all the silly things that I really want to do to elevate the material. So I think that would have to be my answer.
Mercy: What is a piece of advice you'd give an aspiring actor?
Paul: I would tell every single actor two things. I would say, own every decision you make. Have confidence in every decision you make, or at least take ownership. Every decision you make, who you are, how you dress, how you present yourself. You are who you are, you can't change that. You can't worry about people liking or not liking you. What they think or don't think. What they want or what they don't want. Just be yourself and you will persevere.
The second piece of advice would be, be prepared to put in 10 years before you feel comfortable. Before you start to really figure out your craft and what you're doing. It took me about 10 years before I felt pretty confident walking through an audition and that I knew what I was doing and who I was. Maybe that comes more quickly to others? But I remember my teacher in college said it takes 10 years and I kind of scoffed at that. Of course, that was a dumb 22-year-old kid. You know, I know who I am now, I think I'm pretty good. When I turned 32 or 33, I remembered his words and I thought "Oh, yeah, he was right." *laughs* I was the dummy. It took 10 years, so be prepared. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
Mercy: If you got the chance to choose, who would be your dream cast for a movie?
Paul: Oh, my gosh... It would have to be Meryl Streep and Bill Murray together. I'd probably have them as a married couple. I feel like I should be in this thing, so that's three of us already. And then, can we give Daniel Day a cameo in there somewhere? And let's have Jason Bateman in there. I think I need another female. Charlize Theron, why not? So we got Meryl, Bill Murray, Charlize, Daniel Day, Jason Bateman and then me, obviously, starring in it. *laughs* And I heard we didn't win the Oscar that year, which is so weird. I feel like it was Meryl that was the anchor though, she really dragged us down. Frustrating...
 |
| "Paul and his wife" |
Mercy: What are three things you can't live without?
Paul: Air, that's a big one (I think that's scientifically proven). My wife and my son, I couldn't live without-- I mean, I could, I would live, but it would be a horrible life. It wouldn't be an existence worth calling life. And then maybe peanut butter? I'm not going to say air, that's ridiculous. My tools, I need my tools. My tools, my family, and peanut butter, and I'm a happy man.
Mercy: What is the most useless talent you have?
Paul: That's a great question. I feel like I have a lot. *laughs* I can speak Pig Latin, that's horribly useless. I can make that little duck noise when I put my hands together and blow between my thumbs. If I was a hunter that would be incredibly useful, but I am not a hunter so that's wildly useless. I can also do that thing where you stick a spoon to your nose and let it hang there. Although, I would argue that's not useless because you do that at a dinner party, let me tell ya', big laugh. That's a good ice breaker so scratch that off the list. That is wildly underrated in terms of usefulness. You should add that to the list of MOST useful things that I can do. On demand, by the way, I'll have you know.
Mercy: I was going to say, I think we need photographic proof of that.
Paul: As soon as I said it, I knew you were going to ask me for that. *laughs*
Mercy: Can you share a little bit about The Last Bridesmaid movie?
Paul: Yes! It is called The Last Bridesmaid. It stars myself and Rachel Boston, and it was written by the incredibly talented Nina Weinman Swift. It is the tale of a young lady who has sort of become the all star maid of honor for all of her friends. She's going onto her 10th wedding as the maid of honor but is a little unlucky in love on her own end.
 |
| Paul and Rachel Boston. "The Last Bridesmaid" |
She meets this guy Kyle (played by myself), who's a videographer, at one of the weddings and they don't hit it off right away. You might be surprised to learn there is a little bit of friction there, but over the course of the movie as they get to know each other a little better, a romance develops. And I don't want to give away the ending, but let's just say, you don't leave disappointed.
Readers, Paul is without a doubt one of the most comedically talented actors out there today, and I can't wait to see him in The Last Bridesmaid tomorrow night.
It was such fun getting to have Paul on my blog, and I hope we can do it again sometime! If you don't already, please click through the links below and give him a follow on social media.
Remember, tomorrow night on Hallmark Channel starting at 9pm/8c is the premier of The Last Bridesmaid!
Links-
Website
Comments