Katelyn Simmons interview with Canadian actor Michael Teigen
Today is Thursday, February 11, 2021 and I am interviewing actor Michael Teigen. I chose to interview Michael because I am very passionate and interested in working in the movie industry. Michael is one of the first people I think about when asked about what career I am passionate about.
A Vancouver based performer with over 90 movie and television credits and 30 plus commercials, Michael, is an amazing actor who is hilarious, and I am very inspired by him. Michael is one of my dad’s lifelong best friends that he met in school, that’s how I know him. Michael invited my dad and I to a premier of Spooky Buddies released 2011 where I got to meet his working puppy Butterball too. Michael has also done many more parts in the Buddies movie series starting out as a referee in Air Bud and then playing the goofy lovable Deputy Dan in the later movies. Michael is an accomplished Canadian actor who has played many different parts in movies from emotional, comedy, serious to horror scenes.
Along with movies and commercials, I’ve seen Michael live at the Vancouver Theatre Sports, a fun interactive improv show, where all the actors are so talented at singing, dancing, and joking around with the audience participating – it was a special Christmas show and we had so much fun and when the pandemic ends, I would like to go back and bring some friends.
I emailed Michael to ask him a few questions about his career, and even though he is busy he was kind to take the time to answer my questions via video message. Michael began to talk about when he was younger his dad told him this amazing and inspiring sentence, “if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life.” Those words that his dad said have stuck with him for all these years and he really took it to heart. Michael followed his heart, and he continues to love being on set, making TV shows, movies, and commercials. Michael said that he loves it so much he feels like he is not working and it’s what he’s supposed to be doing because he just loves it and it makes him happy. It sounds to me that he loved his dad very much and had always looked up to the amazing person he was and took his words to heart.
I asked Michael what obstacles he has faced to get to where he is today. He told me that being an actor can be difficult because whether you are a theatre actor, film actor, or a voice-over actor, you must face rejection time and time again. Also, to be ready for anything. He told me that you have to hear “no” a lot and not to expect to get the part. The obstacle is that you must hear no, but it also teaches you that you can try harder. By saying that to me, he taught me that I’m going to face a lot of rejection in my life, but I can always learn from it and exceed from it. Another one of Michael’s big obstacles was that when he was going to school in New York, he had to have multiple jobs such as babysitter, dog walker, pizza delivery guy, walked around in foam dancing slice of pizza, worked in a bar and got no sleep but still tried to do studies and he worked really hard to get the training he needed to grow as an actor and to further his career. He worked very hard to get to where he is now.
Next question I asked him was, what advice you would pass on to someone who’s interested in doing what you are doing? He gave me one of the best answers I have heard, he said, “to be nice, be kind, be courteous and respectful to everyone.” Learn to improvise if you are going to become an actor, was one of the other things he told me to do, he explained to me that it is incredibly useful; also, don’t give up because people in your life might give up on your dream or not believe in you. They might drift apart but if you give up it’s not really a dream.
Next question I asked him if acting is what he wanted to do when he was little, he said yes, because ever since he was around ten years old, he had a chance to be in a video at the Blues Brothers Experience at Universal Studio. He remembers that he loved it so when he got to grade eight, he had all these class choices, but he chose drama because he knew that it was what he wanted to work hard for and what he wanted to do.
I asked Michael if there was there ever any doubt about his job or role in what he was doing. Michael told me that he never had any doubt of being an actor and he would try his darndest, but he did have some doubt about it because the student debt started to pile up, but he knew he would be fine in the future. It cost him a lot to reach his dreams whether it be in dollars or sleep loss or how many hours he’d have to do another job to support this. Sometimes Michael thought about how much money it would be to chase his dreams and make an amazing career out of it.
The final question I asked Michael was if anyone from Riverside Senior Secondary could contact him and he said yes, he would love that and thinks it’s fun. If anyone is interested in acting as a career and would like to reach out to Michael for more information, please contact me and I will forward you his email address you may also find more information about what shows he’s been in at: www.michaelteigen.com