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

Hi Chris, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Any bold move in your personal or professional life inherently involves a pretty high degree of risk. I feel like the most important thing is just that we truly understand that before we dive in, & then that we accept that & are willing to take the shots anyway when the time comes.

I analyze risk based not only on whether I can truly tolerate it or not, but also on how effective it is in drawing me closer to my primary career goals. Really great opportunities will be opened up to us, but but that doesn’t make them the right opportunities FOR us. We all have finite time & energy, so perfectly good things that are truly just drawing on & diverting that time & energy are actually pulling us OFF our course.

Achieving anything of substance in a start-up or highly competitive field requires such dedicated focus that I believe the majority of risks we need to say “no” to are those perfectly good options. Because our time, energy, & resources are limited, & because of that reality it’s important that we are able to draw lines for ourselves & not cross them.

Lastly, one of the biggest roles that taking risks has played in my career has been that it’s kept my momentum going & my mindset & goals future-focused. Personally, I always want to stay five steps ahead of entropy in my career, so I’m often analyzing where I am in the present against what steps I would need to take to reach the next goal in the future.

That has often resulted in me “making the next move” long before it seemed necessary at first glance, which in turn has preventing me from getting settled into a comfort zone where I might have found myself becoming too content with things the way they are.

Please tell us more about your work. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about. How did you get to where you are today professionally. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way. What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?
Through my acting work, my art has shown me so much about exactly who I am & why! I don’t think that phenomenon is unique to me at all, but I do think acting (& most all forms of art) holds the power to reveal to each of us these things unique things about ourselves.

One example from my own life: I’ve always been painfully empathetic, & cursed that many times when I was younger, not understanding why I had to feel things SO extremely. Even for others, as they were experiencing rough things.

When I discovered acting, I soon realized that already having this trait enabled me to honestly & authentically tap in very quickly to what my characters & those around me were going through, even in cases where on the surface it would seem that I’d be able to identify with them very little.

Not only is that by far my most useful tool to my acting method, as I’ve used that more & sharpened it professionally, it’s also helped me to develop a keener sense of empathy, appreciation for, & a desire to reach out to all of my fellow human beings as we each walk our own paths in this life.

That’s one of my most effective things that my craft has taught me, & most importantly it also opened my eyes to ways in which I needed to work on my own self in my personal life & improved my relational health with those around me.

As far as my editing business through Breakthrough Reels goes, I was an editor before I became an actor, so I have over a decade & a half of experience doing that now. One thing that always bothered me about the business was the way that actors were required to have certain marketing materials, but most of the work out there was poor cookie-cutter editing work, & to make it worse it was big corporations charging actors a premium that they often could scarcely afford.

I’m EXTREMELY proud of how we our able to collaborate with our actors to do work that not only actually maximizes the material that they have, but is custom-tailored to help them go from where they currently are in their careers to where their next goal is.

Some of our actors I’ve collaborated with for over a decade now, & it truly fills me with joy to see how they have gone from one 48hr film all the way through network co-stars, recurring roles, & now are series regulars. Getting that front-row seat to their talent & determination is really a unique experience, & I’m always excited that we can continue to partner with them in whatever way they need us to.

It’s also just been a wonderful community experience, where we work hard, treat people exactly how we would want to be treated, & deliver exceptional work; so those actors not only come back to us again & again for updates, but they gladly refer us & the circle of community grows naturally.

I have a small team here at Breakthrough Reels who does exceptional work too & adds so much to areas that aren’t my expertise, so it’s been a really rewarding experience as we’ve grown from editing for 3-5 actors in the beginning all the way up past our 500th actor mark.

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.
I love the Arts District in downtown LA; LACMA, The Getty & The Broad have a wide variety of pretty incredible installations; the beaches are great, but personally I like to go out & find a quiet one in Malibu sometimes just to decompress out there; I think both the Tar Pits & the Venice Canals have a really unique energy to them; Rooftop Cinema Club is just a fun movie experience, & of course if you haven’t done the Chinese Theater you kinda just have to. Plus I know it’s cliche, but I’m still a sucker for Griffith Park – & Observatory!

Of course there are a million things to do, whether more mainstream touristy or more eclectic off-the-beaten-path unique spots. That’s one of the things I love about LA, you can customize visits like this to fit your personality & come up with a wide variety of different options.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for both the Kansas City & New Mexico film communities. I first discovered acting just in indie films in the KC film & commercial scene, & there I was fortunate enough to meet 100s of truly kind & generous individuals who worked hard & treated me with a lot of patience & love.

That’s where I learned & honed my own acting technique that worked for me, & I was also able to produce, cast, & directing a lot of productions, which gave me an incredibly well-rounded sense of the business & how my acting work fit into it.

I later moved to New Mexico to get into the episodic movement that I loved so much as purely a film & tv consumer, & I was again welcomed with open arms there as I took this new step in my craft & in life. I advanced both my method & my career there, & it was in New Mexico where I truly realized that I had the work ethic, confidence, & ability to own my space on-screen – whether it was another indie film, an Emmy-winning show, or alongside idols of mine like Vince Gilligan & his Breaking Bad universe.

Two incredible markets that I am so grateful for & always try & go out of my way to support.

Website: www.imdb.me/bylsmadness

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

Other: Breakthrough Reels Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breakthroughreels/

Image Credits
Western stills are Godless (NETFLIX) El Camino: A Breaking Bad Story (Vince Gilligan) Plaid headshot is shot by Matt Timmons Green vest headshot is shot by Jeff Nicholson Western BTS with stunt dummy is The Kid (directed by Vincent D’Onofrio) Long beard western hat is News of the World (directed by Paul Greengrass) Horizontal profile with flower wallpaper is shot by Ryle Yazie

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.