Two local men – Bryan Kreutz, 38, of Imperial and Neil McDonald, 59, of Festus – have long wanted to work as actors, but life, including regular jobs to pay the bills, always got in the way.
The two never gave up their dreams, though, and over the past few years, have spent a lot of time acting in film and TV projects together.
“It’s never too late to start over,” said McDonald, who was well into his 50s when he got back into acting.
“I have a master’s (degree) in theater and did theater all through grad school,” he said. “But, after I got out of grad school, I was burned out on the (long) hours, and I went on a road trip. I ran out of money in Seattle and got a cold-water, walk-up flat. I ended up meeting my wife (in Seattle) at a bus stop and stayed there over 20 years.”
While living in Seattle, McDonald worked in sales for a printing business but transferred to the St. Louis area when his wife got a new job here.
Eventually, McDonald got laid off, and that’s when he got back into acting.
“I had no idea where I was going and I was depressed, but for my birthday, my wife handed me an envelope and said, ‘You used to have a dream.’ It was a certificate to get head shots.”
Not long after that, he got some work acting in a couple of commercials, followed by several other acting jobs.
Kreutz said he went to school to be broadcaster and that led to him to do some acting and producing, but it was mainly a hobby.
In the past few years, though, his acting career has been taking off.
Both he and McDonald worked as featured extras in “The Layover,” a film directed by William H. Macy that’s scheduled to be released this summer.
The film is about a “layover,” when main characters get stuck in St. Louis while flying from Seattle to Florida.
Kreutz said the scenes featuring him and McDonald were shot in June 2015 at the Southwest terminal at Lambert International Airport.
He and McDonald, who originally were set to be background actors in the film, don’t have any lines, but they were “bumped up to featured extras” who interact with some main characters, including one played by model-turned-actress Kate Upton, Kreutz said.
The men said they got the bump after they came up with a back story for their characters. “We have both been in the business long enough to know you have to have a reason for being in a scene, so we worked out a scenario for ourselves,” McDonald said. “We were two business guys who had just closed a deal and we were on our way to the Florida coast to go fishing and celebrate.”
That got them noticed, so they were asked to be featured extras, Kreutz said.
“We were asked by Anthony Cabral, the first assistant director to William H. Macy, to continue to do this businessman act in the scenes,” Kreutz said. “Macy and Cabral asked me if it would be OK to have Kate Upton spit in my carry-on bag while in this scene, for comedy, and, of course, I said yes.”
Kreutz has a speaking role, playing a TV host named Larry, in a movie called “Interview A Monster” that features comedian Tom Greene and “Survivorman” Les Stroud. That film was shot in Cape Girardeau and New York and is set to be released in the fall.
Kreutz and McDonald also worked together on a TV series called “Up on High Ground” that Kreutz helped create.
He said the nine-episode series aired in late 2014 and early 2015, and was shown on two CW affiliates, one in St. Louis and the other in Pennsylvania.
It’s a family-oriented show about a 20-year-old man taking college classes offered at his old high school who meets and befriends a recently widowed woman who has three children and another one on the way, Kreutz said.
McDonald plays the most senior teacher at the school.
Kreutz said another local resident is connected with the show – Aaron Basham of Arnold, who was the director of photography and editor.
Brayden Patterson of Collinsville, Ill., was the co-creator, Kreutz said.
The show can still be seen on Pureflix.com, a pay-per-view site that features family and faith-based shows.
Kreutz and McDonald, who have the same agent, Mandi Morris of Azaela in St. Louis, met on a film project called “Hercules, the Brave and the Bold.” The two were leads in the film, which was made in 2012 and premiered in 2013 at the Wehrenberg Chesterfield Galaxy theater in 2013.
“We’ve worked together so many times and spent so much time together, we’re really good friends,” Kreutz said.
Between the “Hercules” film and “Up on High Ground,” Kreutz was in a short film called “To Inflict,” an independent film that premiered at a theater in Granite City, Ill., and was shown at film festival in Garden Grove, Calif., he said.
“Not too many people realize how active the film industry is here in St. Louis,” McDonald said. “It probably doesn’t get the recognition it deserves,” he said. “It’s a very active independent film community.”
Both Kreutz and McDonald still have jobs outside acting.
Kreutz works full time as a business development analyst at Worldwide Technology in Maryland Heights, and McDonald is a substitute teacher for the Festus and Hillsboro school districts. He also works at the St. Louis Zoo as an “interpreter,” talking to zoogoers about animals.
Kruetz and his wife, Tiffany, have three children, Alexandra, Chandler and Madalyn.
McDonald is married to Kari Estes, and they have a son, Connor, who is in college.