Meet Michael Pierce | Actor

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

Hi Michael, is there a quote or affirmation that’s meaningful to you?
This is funny to me because it is something I say constantly in various forms. I have it posted throughout my home office, and I cannot count how many times I have hash tagged it or used it in some way on Social Media. “Manifest what you Believe.”

This was something that just popped into my brain probably back in 2018 when I was managed by a different management team, and it sort of stuck in my brain and as I said I have had different variations of it, but honestly it is my philosophy. I really and truly believe that something good will come my way or that something I want is going to happen. I will have focused thought on that subject until it does. It makes me even more determined to make it happen. Instead of just saying, “Oh I wish this would happen”, by manifesting it, I really put effort into making it happen and focus on it.

It has not let me down yet. There are goals I am still working toward, but I have my belief.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I was born and raised in San Diego however I moved to Los Angeles on my own for the first time when I was eighteen for an acting job. It wasn’t easy at all because I was truly on my own. I am proud of that. I was managing my own money and on my own for the first time. I was living in a studio apartment in Hollywood off of a side street on Hollywood Blvd. I want to say it was an old apartment complex off of Wilton and I could easily look out my kitchen window at night and see things I probably didn’t want to happening in the parking lot outside my window. I was off of work more days than I worked so I drove all over Los Angeles in my Ford Pinto discovering LA and dropping my headshot and resume off at casting offices. This was back when casting agencies still had offices and it was the norm. I learned that being a “pest” wasn’t going to get me a job. I listened to too many people on sets that said keep “knocking” on the door. So I would – Literally. Trust me, the people that sat at the desks got really tired of seeing my naive face with the same headshot and resume. It may have worked getting my first acting job, but at that time, I wasn’t desperate. Now I was living in Los Angeles, and on my own and literally starving. Now, I was desperate, and it showed.

I would read the Backstage West Industry Newspaper every Thursday for Casting Notices, and if I saw something was being cast by Lynn Stalmaster I would be at the office on Friday with my headshot and resume and a typed letter of introduction. I imagine by this time, they must have just been tossed in the trash. But I was persistant. They easily had received 25-50 of my headshots. Yes, I was desperate. This is what young non working actors go through who relied on acting to make ends meet. I imagine it isn’t too different today, except most might have a job (i.e. waiting tables, bartending, retail, etc).

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I love LA. I love exploring. I like out of the way restaurants and places that aren’t the norm.
For just a fun night of beer and conversation I would probably want to hang out at TINYS HI-DIVE on Pico Blvd https://tinyshidive.com/ – its fun and a cool vibe and mix of family and local and industry folk coming in after a long day after a chaotic day of work.

Also, you cannot miss Micelis Restaurant in North Hollywood on Cahuenga. The Italian Food is amazing as is the HUGE antipasto Salad and listening to the wait staff sing puts you in the BEST Mood. https://micelis.restaurant/

There is no way I would not go to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures either – if you are in Los Angeles why not go see what Magic started this town in the first place? I think Anyone who had never been will be in for a shock at the amount of exhibitions they have and the importance of them to Hollywood. https://www.academymuseum.org/

I also think a non miss would be the Los Angeles Hollywood-Vine Metro Subway, because its hard to make people understand that Los Angeles really does have an underground subway system. We would for sure enter at the Hollywood-Vine subway station. This station is the best looking station in Los Angeles. The walls are laden with artistic tiling and there is a subway platform that is covered in movie memorabilia, a cordoned off vintage movie projector and a ceiling covered by literally tens of thousands of Hollywood Movie projector reels. It is an old school Hollywood Memory in its heyday. It reminds me of what I always imagined Hollywood would be like, or thought it would be like when I was a young child.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
When I was sixteen, I received a book for my birthday, Those Endearing Young Charms, by Marc Best. It is a collection of memorabilia on 50 notable child stars from decades past. I grew up watching old films and rereuns of TV shows on Television and always wanted to be an actor and that wasn’t a secret. I still have that book to this day. It meant the world to me to be given this book as a gift, because it was a gift, and at that age I knew it was from someone who understood what I really wanted to do in life and it gave me an opportunity to read and study the thoughts of a Childs mind or what someone at that age would go through as an actor who lived within that industry. That book holds a huge hand in my career.

Website: https://michaeljosephpierce.com/

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

Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3019537/