Chris Carmack

Chris: (About visiting and living in London) I believe it (the last time he visited London) was 2000. I was in Italy, studying Italian renaissance art and cinema history for a semester, and I took a five-day trip to London. So until now I'd visited only as a tourist, never living or working here.

Chris: I was talking to my manager about what I'd like to do next, and I said that if something came up like a Tennessee Williams play, I'd be eager to do it. I auditioned for this (Entertaining Mr. Sloane) on tape from New York, and then I got it.

Chris: The theater experiences I'm looking for are not so much to build a career as to build my craft as an actor. The better I become as an actor, the less crafty I have to be in putting together a career, and if I'm a really good actor, they can't take that away from me.

Chris: (About the play Entertaining Mr. Sloane) It was a wonderful show and a wonderful experience but it wasn't the smoothest sailing.

Chris: (Explaining his play, Summer and Smoke) I play John Buchanan Junior, the drunken and dissolute son of the town's respected doctor, who is rebelling against society and his father and everything he's supposed to do in life. The play centers on his next door neighbor, Miss Alma [played by Rosamund Pike], the daughter of the local reverend, and their love affair that's not to be. They are such different people that they can't come together, but they love each other so much that it breaks both of their hearts.

Chris: Making your stage debut in New York also comes with a lot of butterflies, especially for someone like me who wants to be considered as an actor but only had lightweight credits under my belt. I had to prove to myself that I was worthy, too—that was the biggest hurdle.

Chris: Television has been my bread and butter, but I'm hoping to break into film. I starred in one that never came out, and I've had small roles in a few others—and I want to do more theater.

Chris: (About the play, The Compiled Poetry of Tennessee Williams) It was a well-conceived but poorly executed idea, but it allowed me the joy of getting to know Williams' poetry and speaking it out loud for an extended period of time. Of course, we do a lot of Williams in drama classes all the time—he's our Shakespeare, so I have a pretty strong familiarity with his work.

Chris: I worked with him (Milton Justice) on a production of Kevin Elyot's The Day I Stood Still. I did a little bit of theater every year. I was always finding a reason to get on stage. I think the stage is the greatest challenge for an actor, because nobody can save you but you. You're in the deep end.

Chris: I did theater all the way through high school and had a wonderful drama instructor, Michael D'anna, who was very dedicated to the theater program there and really encouraged me all the way through to stay involved.

Chris: (About modeling, and trying to get out) You're treated like a coat hanger. If you're as turned off by it as I was, it was not hard to break out of—I was constantly trying to run away from it. I only did it until I was making enough money as an actor, so I no longer had to do it again.

Chris: (About modeling for Abercrombie) She (a friend) said I'd be crazy if I didn't go for this. They sent me to an agent, who booked other jobs for me. I didn't have to work at it. And it paid more than the computer labs did, so it was a no-brainer.

Chris: (About growing up) I didn't come from the smallest town in the world, but I didn't come from the big city, either. I grew up around farms and cows and horses. Magruder High School, which I attended, was in a cornfield.