Aspiring actor, Ethan Wood explains his dream to catch his ‘big break’ and what acting meant to him while growing up.
When growing up Ethan’s parents would have described him as an ‘intelligent child’ as he says he picked up things quickly and didn’t need to be shown something multiple times. However, he was also described as being quite the ‘poser’ in photos by his mother as he was always showing off.
“I always loved dressing up and had a really vivid imagination, making up stories in my head, so I was a bit of a daydreamer.”
The aspiring actor wanted to follow this dream ever since his leavers play for primary school, he ‘absolutely loved drama’ and managed to get the role as the main villain: ‘The captain of the Curry Bean’ which he enjoyed due to having a love for pirates and more specifically The Pirates of the Caribbean films.
Ethan Looks back on this time fondly as he remembers how he felt he had finally been noticed as fellow peers’ parents that he didn’t even know would compliment him. He said: “up to that point I’d never won star of the month, I’d never felt I was top of the class at anything and to have something that so many people were complimenting me on…made me feel so happy and proud of myself.”
At the goodbye ceremony this feeling of achievement continued as Ethan compared how the headteacher would give the students a book and would tell them that they should go to a drama school, as a way to say they did well in the play, when the headteacher got to Ethan’s name he told him that he could run a drama school.
Up to this point, the actor had wished to become an archaeologist, he said: “I thought that one day I’d discover Eldorado or the fountain of youth.”
However, he quickly found out that archelogy was more digging up pots than discovering long lost cities and now realises that this feeling of adventure was inspired by the films he had watched such as Indiana Jones.
“I wanted to be like these great heroes in the stories. So, these actors and stories had been leading and inspiring me towards acting all my life, I want to inspire people like they did me”
During secondary school Ethan developed his acting skills further by joining a drama club, something which he greatly enjoyed. “It was great having people with all the same interests all working to create something...we were free to create what we wanted and play around with the material.”
The dwindling drama budget
Although, when Ethan originally started at Thorns Community College (Now Thorns Collegiate Academy) it prided itself as a performing arts school , it felt to him as if the school didn’t care about drama, he said: “The drama budget dwindled the more I was there and in the final year, they got rid of the drama block completely, changing it into a sort of detention block.”
Ethan recalls the last day he spent in the drama block before it was completely transformed into a place to hold the misbehaving students at the school.
“I remember going into the empty black room, walls had been stripped, and the normally boiling hot room, was freezing and it honestly felt someone had died.”
College was also too academic for Ethan as it felt as if they were encouraging him to go to university which he thought most courses there involving drama wanted him to become a drama teacher rather than a better actor.
Due to being unable to drive and being from the West Midlands has had its problems for Ethan mostly because many of the main acting roles are in London and Bristol, this can be quite expensive for someone with no license and therefore makes getting to the casting calls very difficult.
Ethan has also spoke about how many of these casting calls already have a set image on who they want before you even arrive.
“ Companies also want to take on more accomplished actors most of the time rather than new comers, because they can trust in them and of course if they are a known face, they will bring I more people to see the final product.”
Encouraging words
His parents have always been encouraging of Ethan’s dream to become an actor and have never tried to convince him to explore something else. However, Ethan does admit that they do want him to find something in which he can make enough money to settle but wouldn’t want him to give up on his dream.
It's not just the encouragement of friends and family which inspire Ethan to keep striving for his big break but yet again the people that have watched him perform as he makes them laugh or cry during the performances “That’s more than the encouragement I need.”
Since leaving college, Ethan has worked a majority of background roles. However, he must balance finding this work while also having a regular job in order to get the money to travel.
He struggled at first to find a regular job due to having various problems with companies and also the issue of the pandemic. However, work is starting again, and Ethan has been able to get a job which means he can now continue looking for roles.
Although becoming an actor has been a lot of what Ethan imagined it would be, there has been times that it has surprised him. One of these is the amount of people that is actually involved in the creation of even the smallest scenes in TV shows and films.
“when you might see one or two people on screen, that entire room behind the camera is filled with people.”
The big break
When looking toward the future Ethan hopes that in the next ten years he shall start picking up more speaking roles and get even bigger parts in the TV shows and Films he stars in until he finally catches his ‘big break’ and has suggested that he may do more theatre work in the future.
“I want to be able to create new and interesting characters, that maybe will one day become as iconic as some of my own heroes, this all comes with quite a bit of luck though in the acting world. So other than that, I just hope to keep trying until I make it”