Posted in: Movies, TV | Tagged: American Woman, Sam Morgan, Shameless

Sam Morgan on How "Stand and Deliver" Director Inspired Acting Career

Sam Morgan (Shameless) spoke with Bleeding Cool about his path to acting, NYU filmmaking, moving to LA, film vs. TV preferences, and more.

Sam Morgan is as versatile as it comes in Hollywood as an actor, model, and musician. As far as chasing his dreams go, he was reluctant to pursue them until he went to film school at NYU and embraced his networking opportunities. Since breaking out in 2016, Morgan's had steady work in his near-decade-long career, starting with shorts before making his feature debut in 2018's Mississippi Requiem, an indie anthology, and later, his TV debut on Paramount's American Woman, which starred Alicia Silverstone and Mena Suvari. He would also appear in Showtime's Shameless, CBS's Bull, and Blue Bloods. Morgan spoke to Bleeding Cool about how his leadership on stage from an early age helped forge his path in the arts, how his professor and Stand and Deliver (1988) director Ramón Menéndez inspired him to chase his dreams, and why he prefers film over TV.

Sam Morgan on NYU, Moving to LA, and Pursuing His Onscreen Dreams

Was acting and show business something you set out to do from the get-go? I know you started when you were 14, but was it your first passion, or is it something you fell into?
It's interesting with acting, I was one of those kids who was always making people do plays and stuff. I would direct my friends and little cousins in plays and everything. I went to this film summer program at the New York Film Academy. They had this thing for high schoolers, and I met some great friends that I still have today there. That put me on this tip that I was going to do directing. What happened was I didn't have the confidence to be an actor, so I wasn't really a theater person in high school.

I was a bit of a burnout [laughs], and I went to NYU for the master's program very young. I was like 21 when I got in, I was 22 when I started classes, and almost immediately, the upperclassmen would start putting me in their directing exercises, class assignments, all this stuff. That was my entire first year at film school was on-camera acting training for me. By the end of that year, I had a teacher, Ramón, who directed the movie 'Stand and Deliver', which starred Edward James Olmos. He pulled me aside and was like, "Oh man, you got to go to LA and be an actor!" I was like, "Ramón, that's terrible advice. That's the worst! The only thing that's going to make my parents more disappointed than me than going to film school and not law school is the fact that I'm going to come out of this as an actor instead," but he was right.

I started doubling down on acting, so then in the summer, I went to William Esper Studio, which was an acting studio in New York, and I got my training. By the time I was in my post-grad thesis year, I ended up getting passed on a TV show. I moved to LA, and then I was cast on a TV show, and what was so crazy is that the director of photography, totally by happenstance, was one of our adjunct cinematography professors. On the first day of the shoot, I got cast (for 'American Woman'). It was a rigorous casting process. It was my very first audition, and then I showed up to the set and he's like, "What are you doing here?" I was like, "Well, you're about to shoot me, so maybe we should figure this out together." It was nice because then there was a full circle moment where all those people who had cast me, my classmates who had put me in their projects, they all came to LA from China, India, or wherever for this LA-NYU meetup, and I got to take them on a tour of the sets. It was a full circle. It's like they were the first to see me as an actor, and then they got to see it firsthand on the set of that show.

When you get involved in your gigs, whether it's acting, modeling, or music, did you ever think about going full court press, focusing on doing one, or is it whatever opportunities come your way?

That's a good question that I talked to my therapist about. That's interesting. I feel doing just one thing hasn't ever been an option. I feel jobs will come and the industry will go this way and that way, so for me, I felt like I always had to do everything, or at least put the different irons in the fire. What I'll say is that acting feels nice as I'm navigating the earlier part of my career. I like having just one job, being responsible for this one piece of the puzzle, but directing, I always see as part of the long game. I don't feel like there's as much of a sense of urgency around my directing career. You're right to say maybe take the, what do they say? "Eat the elephant one bite at a time," that type of analogy. Have you ever thought like that? That analogy is so crazy to me.

As long as humans are on the earth, they have tried everything in every way possible. Some are masochistic enough to still eat pufferfish, despite about 99 percent of the animal being poisonous to eat, one little part to be like, "Yeah, it's good. It tingles a little bit." Are you sure that's your tongue just tingling and not your heartbeat slowing down? I don't know.

Exactly, exactly. Your life is flashing before your eyes at a sushi restaurant.

As far as on-screen roles, do you prefer films or TV?

What I like about film is that you usually only have one director. I prefer that relationship. I'm an actor who enjoys getting notes from a director because I enjoy the collaborative style of working. I like somebody watching the choices I'm making and being like, "What if we try this?" or "What if we try that?" I'm like, "Okay, cool," and when people pass me the ball, but I'm not responsible for the full thing.

A TV show, you might have one director for an entire season, but usually you're getting like a director for these two episodes, and then this director takes over for those two episodes. You must take more of it on yourself, and you might not have enough time. If your show only goes for a season, you might not have enough to fully explore the character, and it just feels more collaborative with directors on films. I would say I prefer films and the process of that.

Sam Morgan currently stars in Strike Media's The Red Mask, which debuted at FrightFest.

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