Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was replaced with Bowness Bowness Bowness, as the star of the eponymous musical production visited Calgary drama students on Jan. 8.
Justin Collette, who has been starring as Beetlejuice in the touring North America production of the show, stopped by Bowness High School to take questions and to provide some insight about show business.
Top among those was how to make it as a working actor on stage, in television, or as a voice actor—all mediums Collette has performed in during his career as an actor.
But his main advice to students was to work towards being really really good at their craft, essentially boiling down to “be good.”
“It’s because if you are in this business waiting for someone to give you something, it can be incredibly depressing. I think that just working on something and getting good at the craft of it, if you can get enjoyment out of the craft of this, it’s more palatable when you’re not working to exist as a human being,” he said.
“Then you’re not like living and dying on the rejection or acceptance of the people in this industry, which is flaky at best.”
That advice turns the luck of being cast in a production but not having the skills to back up a career, into something more substantial and fulfilling,” he said.
“I love finding a new little tidbit of acting advice, or seeing somebody who really inspires me in this in this field. Then I can try either their affect or their style. That’s what keeps me going when I don’t have the success of work,” Collette said.
Don’t live on luck alone
Although two years into a run on Beetlejuice, a run on the Broadway production of School of Rock, and in roles on television and movies, his success as a working actor was an inspiration for many of the Bowness High School students.
Collette chose to visit Bowness High School after hearing about their efforts to fundraise to refurbish the theatre’s seats and lighting.
Grade 11 student Ruby Campbell said that learning about the business of acting in more detail made her think about how different that world was from her own work as a student actor.
“It’s really a confidence booster to hear what he has to say because it’s from someone from Canada. It’s inspiring to see what he’s done, and take that into consideration for your own life and your next steps after you graduate,” Campbell said.
“If you love acting, you always put at least 110 per cent in—or at least I’ve tried to, and I know everyone who’s been in the drama program has also put 110 per cent in, because they love it so much. His words are just so inspiring to hear, because it’s great to know that people older than us have that same passion, and they carry it through their whole lives.”
She said that his message of keeping your spirits up, even though acting can be a financially difficult career to follow, was also inspiring.
“He says to keep your hopes up, and even if you don’t get a job all the time or you have troubles, you know, as long as you keep your passion alive,” Campbell said.
That passion is what took Collette from a trailer park as a child in New Brunswick to being a working actor in New York, he said.
“This business is hard enough as it is without people lying to you on your way up about what it’s really like to do it… that path was extremely hard. Along that path, I’ve met a lot of people. Not all the things that I’m giving, not all the pieces of advice I’m giving are original, hard fought by me. It’s just people that I trust, that I also took these things from,” he said.
That’s something that drama teacher Gillian Exley said was good for the students at Bowness to hear, and to see the effects of firsthand.
“All I hear is it’s who you know. Well, not necessarily. Look at how far he came and what he was able to do. I think, for students to realize that he made so much out of a variety of different puzzle pieces, it wasn’t just one thing…. that’s huge,” Exley said.
“It’s really important for the students to know that it’s tangible.”
Beetlejuice runs from Jan. 7 through 12 at the Southern Jubilee Auditorium.
