Meet Clark Moore | Actor & Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Clark Moore and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Clark, do you have any habits that you feel contribute to your effectiveness?
Yes absolutely!  It’s all habits.  Everything I do, but it’s about forming good quality habits that align with my goals.  Don’t get me wrong I have plenty of bad habits as well, but I try and be very conscious about them and self regulate as they come up.

Most of the effective things I do stem from the “do it anyway” state of mind.  Each day something is going to come up that I don’t feel like doing, but it’s ultimately good for me.  So I DO IT ANYWAY.  Does it suck? sure, but there are no guarantees and no one said this path was going to be easy.  I am constantly figuring out how I can find ways to motivate and push myself to move forward.  The mental game of it all.  What I have found doesn’t just apply to me but applies to almost anyone regardless of the way one might process it in the brain.  It’s discipline and perseverance, those are the building blocks you need to accomplish just about anything.  Whenever I feel resistance to a task or responsibility, that’s usually the thing I know I should be doing…..So, I push through and do it anyway.

The saying “discipline is freedom” is very true.  It trains the brain to be focused on something.  Doing things over and over again, even when we don’t want to forms habits and that produces results.

Not every day or week is going to be a good one or a home run and knowing yourself well enough to understand that those ups and downs are completely normal.  You might say, “Okay today isn’t my day, but I tried, I went through the motions with the best of my ability and this is where it got me and this is what I learned.  And tomorrow I get to get up and do it all over again.”

Bottom line, I’m willing to do what it takes to get the things I want.  And that is really what the battle is. Early on I asked myself, what do I want? And then I started doing the things that it takes to move me towards those goals.  I can’t tell you how many people I hear say that they want something but yet aren’t willing to do the things they need to do to accomplish their goals.  The only conclusion is that they don’t really want to accomplish what they say they do, because if they did then they would get up off their ass and do it.  It’s not pretty or glamorous….it’s work….it’s discipline.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I think what sets me apart from others is that I don’t get caught up in all the acting nonsense that I hear on a daily basis. When I start hearing people talk about “the craft”, “the work”, or start calling it “art” I’m just turned off by that. It’s far more blue-collar than people realize. I like to be much more realistic and down-to-earth about the whole thing. The nuts and bolts of it, and challenge myself to see just how relaxed I can be about it. The art, in my opinion if there is any, is seeing how much I can throw away and then looking at what I’m left with. Watching masters like Spencer Tracy or Jimmy Stewart just do their thing without any strings attached, It’s impressive.

As an actor, I’d have to say I’m most proud of my work on the hit ABC mini-series called WOMEN OF THE MOVEMENT. The true story of Emmett Till, his mother Mammy Till-Mobley and his tragic murder that helped spark the civil rights movement. The show was executive produced by Will Smith and Jay-Z.

For this role, we got to shoot in the actual locations in and around Money Mississippi where these events took place. And it was such a great experience to get to learn what was going on in our country at the time. I felt that I gave life to the words of the character I played and helped tell a very important story.

Along the way one of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that one must cultivate discernment, especially in the entertainment industry. People walk around LA talking with confidence about things that they have no idea about. They have no clue what they are talking about, yet they talk with confidence, and are highly opinionated. And they are just flat out full of sh*t. It might be an LA thing but it was a lesson that was difficult to learn but has served me well. Stay clear of people who make claims about things that they themselves have never actually done.

Another lesson was acting classes which literally everyone says you must do in order to be a working actor, but now after years, I find that very misleading and not advice I would give to aspiring actors. Most of the time actors need to be deprogrammed from all the bad advice and misleading acting techniques which literally hinder a person’s ability to act believably.

Then came the naysayers, rejection and criticism all from people who were either insecure and scared themselves so they projected it onto me. Either telling me I wasn’t good enough, or I’d never make it or that I had zero chance in the business. Literally all true stories. As a very young man living on my own, I had wished I had better internal tools to handle those types of things coming at me from different people, but never the less it was a great learning lesson and taught me a great deal about people.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

If I had a friend in town first thing I would tell them is this. LA is a BIG place and a week isn’t enough time to see everything Here is what we would do, in no particular order:

Grab a bite in Santa Monica. There are so many places where you can enjoy delicious delicious food while looking out over the ocean. The sunset view and weather alone are worth going.

If they wanted to see some unique stores and things that are unique I’d take them to do some shopping on Abbot Kinney which I have found you can just browse places for hours and see different stuff all the time.

I’d make sure and spend an afternoon in downtown LA, where I’d take them to The Last Book Store, which is just an amazing place. It is so unique and special. Also, the Broad, modern art museum, is always a hit with it’s unique art exhibits, it’s very impressive. For food downtown? Philippe The Original boasts having invented the french dip sandwich, none the less it’s incredibly delicious and when you enter the place feels like you went back in time as they have kept everything the same.

Since I’m a big fan of dive bars I’d definitely take someone to El Carmen which is one of my all time favorite dives in LA which has some pretty damn good mexican food too.

For enertainment, I would check the schedule at Largo. It’s a great place to catch a band or a huge stand-up comic act up close and personal.  It’s an intimate venue with limited seating, which keeps things very interesting. I’ve seen so many good performances there.

This is just the tip of the iceberg for LA as there is so much to do.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
This is a question that would take me awhile to unpack. From books, interviews, quotes, youtube videos, and people.  I get my influences from all over. I’d say all of these things have had a cummulative impact on me while navigating my way.

However one that has had the most impact, by far, is my friend Paul Duddridge. When I really began this journey, meaning decided to go all in, I really didn’t understand where I was, what I was doing or how my thinking needed to shift in order to move forward.

Paul helped me set all those things straight and then some.  I initially went to him to improve my acting, and he did in a major way. He got me from lousy to good (which for me was no small task). He did the same with my career path, and more importantly, straightened out my thinking when it came to the entertainment industry. The mental game of acting and how one needs to be approaching it isn’t something that is taught in LA and if it is, it’s taught with a faulty narrative as though acting is some sort of sacred endeavor or therapy.  It’s neither of those, it’s a business and incredibly straight forward.  I can say my success has been a direct result of what Paul has taught me.

Website: https://www.officialclarkmoore.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clarkmoorela

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/clarkmooreactor

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/myinstantbreakfast

Other: https://www.imdb.me/clarkmoore

Image Credits
Paul Smith Photography