Finding Balance
I have always considered myself to be an auto enthusiast but the further I delve into acting the more important my fascination with cars has become. My parents worked hard to exposed my brothers and I to as many cultures as possible, but movies, comedy and cars were undoubtedly the family favorites. While other kids were doing whatever other kids did, I was mimicking James Bond in the mirror and filming comedy sketches with my brothers. While other kids watched football, I was watching Formula One races with my Dad and learning how to drive the perfect line through a corner. Most weekends you could find me piloting the family lawnmower around the yard like I’d stolen it because that was the closest I could get to the freedom of driving my own car. These interests helped to define me as a kid. They helped me to find myself and my tribe along the way.
When I quit my regular job to pursue my current path, I forced myself to find any kind of entertainment work that would pay the bills. I acted, performed, coached, and hosted almost every single day for about a year before I realized that it was starting to kill my spirit.
I had turned my hobbies into my career and as a result I lost all my means of escape. Around this time I bought a 1989 BMW 325i Cabriolet. It’s a special car with a rich history in racing that earned it the nickname, “God’s Chariot.” It was definitely worth restoring such a car and I quickly found that repairs would be frequent and expensive. Most shops don’t want to work on older foreign cars, and the ones that do can justify charging through the nose for their services.
With a decent understanding of cars and YouTube as a guide, I decided to restore the car to its original glory on my own. I don’t remember what my first project was but it took days of sweat and bleeding knuckles before I emerged from the garage. I was proud of what I’d done, but more importantly, I hadn’t thought about acting or comedy once during the repair. I was too busy trying to figure out how in the hell to remove some bolt to worry about my next career move and that was just the recharge I needed to keep doing what I do.
It just so happens that my career occasionally allows me to drive amazing cars on set but nothing compares to my own. When the car is working, which I’m happy to say is often, it drives in a way that erases my worries just like ripping around on the lawnmower as a child did. My career means a lot to me but so does balance, and my fascination with cars has provided just that.
