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Q&A: This New West actor is living the Hollywood dream in La La Land

Boris Bilic was 16 years old when he first started appearing in the Record's arts pages. Now he's landed the lead role in two feature films.

Boris Bilic was a 16-year-old high school student when he started making the pages of the Record’s arts section.

He was a student in Richmond at the time but quickly became an active part of New Westminster’s theatre community when he started working with Vagabond Players – with roles in the comedy Alone Together and the Shakespearean romp Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) in 2014.

The latter production was the company’s entry in Theatre B.C.’s Greater Vancouver Zone Festival, where – despite a warm response from audiences – it earned a withering critique from the adjudicator.

Bilic rallied his colleagues by presenting them with small plastic Oscar statuettes and individual tributes for their efforts.

It turned out to be a formative experience for the young actor, who also met people who would become some of his closest friends, and with whom he went on to form Alchemy Theatre and stage Shakespearean productions at the Vagabond Players’ Bernie Legge Theatre in the summertime.

With Alchemy, he had a chance to play Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2015, which he lists as his “all-time favourite” role.

Boris Bilic
Boris Bilic on the set of the short film Confetti. - contributed

That would be his last show before leaving town. With his New Westminster acting experience under his belt, Bilic headed off for Los Angeles, where he studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, which boasts a long list of Hollywood luminaries among its alumni.

Now the just-turned-21-year-old Bilic is living in L.A. to pursue his acting career full-time. He has already landed the lead role in two feature films – one of which is premiering on Amazon Prime later this year and the other of which has been submitted for the Toronto International Film Festival.

His own short film, No Surprises, also just earned a few awards in its first festival, the Festigious Film Fest - including a nod for Bilic for Best Original Story, one for Audi Finn for Best Actress in an Indie Film, and an honourable mention for Ben Fisher for Best Actor in an Indie Film.

"It's super humbling, and it makes (me) even more excited to see where the movie goes in the future," Bilic wrote in an email.

He corresponded with the Record by email from his home in L.A., taking the time to answer questions about life as a working actor and his dreams for the future.

An edited version of that interview appears below.

 

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Which shows did you do with Vagabond Players and Alchemy Theatre? Can you pick a highlight or a favourite from your past works?

I started with Vagabond in 2013 with a little show called Alone Together, and almost immediately after, I was cast in another show there called Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), and there met people who would become some of my best friends. In fact, we got along so well that we formed Alchemy Theatre and started putting on summer Shakespeare shows at the same theatre that summer. My all-time favourite was definitely A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2015, where I played Puck. Coincidentally, that was my last show before leaving town.

 

How did those experiences onstage in New Westminster help you grow and develop as a performer? Was there a particular moment – especially a challenge, a problem, a setback – that stands out in your mind as a formative one?

Until I found Vagabond, the only things I had acted in were my high school drama club and an acting workshop I was taking at the Gateway Theatre for a few years. Getting the chance to act in a professional environment and with people who weren’t always my own age and were much more experienced than me was both extremely challenging and extremely beneficial. I think that if I hadn’t been a part of those shows, then I wouldn’t have pursued an acting career. The people that I met there were so ambitious, driven and talented that it inspired me to rise to their level and be the best, most professional actor I could be. And now, their infectious ambition has led me here!

Boris Bilic
Boris Bilic with actress Audi Finn on the red carpet at an Oscars after-party. - contributed

 

The most formative challenges for me, honestly, were those first few auditions. As someone who had hardly auditioned for anything and now does it on a regular basis, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know what the etiquette was, where to stand, how to talk, if I was allowed to hold the script … you name it. I almost didn’t go to my first audition altogether. New Westminster was 30 minutes from where I lived at the time and I just kept coming up with excuses (“Oh, it’s so far, I wouldn’t be able to go to rehearsals all the time. What about school? Will I still have time to do homework? Everyone else auditioning probably has so much more experience than me. Why should I bother?”). But the act of not letting myself think about it anymore and just doing it was the best thing I could have done, and it showed! The director later told me that I was the best person to read for him that day. Getting over that initial fear of putting myself out there started a drive in me that’s been steadily gaining momentum ever since.

 

 

The American Academy of Dramatic Arts has certainly graduated some famous alumni. Does that thought inspire you – or is it intimidating to think that you’re following in some very big footsteps?

Definitely inspiring. I think because this is such a competitive industry, if you’re always stopping and thinking about who’s bigger than you, you can never get anywhere, because there can always be someone who’s “more successful." Plus, it’s comforting to know that they were all in my shoes too at some point!

 

 

What made you decide to make the permanent move to L.A.? How did you feel about the idea of leaving Canada?

My parents helped me enormously. It was never even really something I even considered was possible as a career, or something you could study in an actual accredited university until late in high school. Obviously it was intimidating at first, but I have some of the most supportive friends in the world, and they really made sure that I knew I was doing the right thing. I felt really confident.

 

 

So, what’s it like in L.A.? Are you living the life we see in the movies, where the young aspiring actor works as a barista on the side and auditions relentlessly on a quest for their big break while sharing a home with a group of other hopeful performers? Is it really like La La Land? 

Fortunately, I have my own apartment and acting is my only job. That being said, La La Land was actually one of my favourite movies of 2016 and I can confirm it is VERY relatable. I can’t even tell you how many times people have broken out into song and dance on the freeway.

Boris Bilic

(Interesting bonus fact!) My girlfriend and I actually dressed up as Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling for Halloween last year. We just added some fake blood and make ourselves look dead, and then we told people we were “La La Land when Moonlight won Best Picture." We thought it was hysterical. L.A. was definitely the right crowd for that joke. 

 

 

In seriousness, it can’t be easy to get a break in L.A. when you’re surrounded by so many other performers trying to do what you’re doing. How have you found the process going for you?

So far, the biggest thing I’ve learned about the process is: never wait around for things to come to you, and if they do, be grateful for them. I’m always trying to find the next thing to do. I’ll either be writing something, or directing, or going to class to make sure I stay sharp, or learning lines for an upcoming play – anything I can get my hands on. The days where it’s the hardest for me are days where I’m the most bored. The days where I have the most work are the most fun!

 

Rejection must be a thing that actors face. How do you deal with the process of audition-rejection-audition-rejection? What makes you keep on keeping on?

I’ve been on the other side of the audition table a couple of times, and that really taught me that more often than not, the people that don’t get chosen for any given play or movie aren’t necessarily always bad actors, they just aren’t right for that particular part, and that’s something I think a lot of people don’t think about. So I know as long as I come in and do a good job for that one audition, that’s all I can do, and everything else is out of my control, because you never know exactly what casting is looking for. So as long as I’m proud of what I’m doing, I’m never bothered by rejection.

 

 

How did you find the two films that you’re playing the lead in? Can you give us any details about them – what roles you’re playing, when we can expect to see them?

The first film I’m playing the lead in is called Afterthought, and it’s a coming-of-age story about a juvenile delinquent who becomes jealous of his best friend getting her life together, and I get to play the villain, Avery, who’s the son of a wealthy music producer, a real Draco Malfoy type. That one will be getting released on Amazon Prime later this year, and is aiming to do a run at TIFF and Sundance in 2019. The trailer is available now on Youtube. The other is called Survival Box, and I can’t say too much about the plot unfortunately, but it’s been submitted for TIFF 2018, and my character, Travis, is much more of a comic relief, and very different to the one I play in Afterthought, which was a real treat.

 

 

Is L.A. what you expected? Harder or easier than you thought it would be?

A bit of both. It’s definitely much harder in the sense that you can never get a sense of how competitive it truly is, because it’s almost a case of being in the centre of it all and not seeing how far the forest goes. But I guess that also makes it feel easier, because like I said, I’m just trying to focus on my goals and my ambitions, and by taking it one project at a time, I feel like I’m going at a really good pace.

 

 

When you’re not acting or auditioning, what do you do with yourself?

I’m generally a very artsy person – I love writing, drawing, painting, playing music, you name it. For exercise though, I’m really into yoga. Never thought it’d be something I’d love, but now I’m doing it almost every day.

 

 

Who’s your favourite actor? What’s your favourite movie?

I have dozens!! If I were to pick a top three though, it would be Bryan Cranston, Sir Ian McKellen and Jake Gyllenhaal. My favourite movie is Her, directed by Spike Jonze.

 

 

What’s your acting dream? What’s the one thing you could achieve that would make you say, “Now I’ve made it!”?

I have hundreds of ideas of things I want to make, and projects I want to be a part of, and people I want to work with, and I know that those things are always going to be there. As long as I’m on the right path and enjoying the journey and not giving up I consider it a success. If I had to choose one thing though, the big dream is to be in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, if being an actor has taught me anything, it’s to be appreciative of the moment, celebrate every achievement and learn from every loss, regardless of how big or small. I think just the act of following a dream is “making it,” so I guess I am living the acting dream :)

 

 

Anything else we should know about you that you’d like to share?

I just recently finished my first short film that I wrote and directed! It’s called No Surprises, and it’s about a pair of old co-workers who had an affair, reuniting when the girl discovers she may be pregnant. It’s doing a festival run right now, but it’ll be released for free online later this year. The trailer is available to watch on Vimeo.

 

No Surprises (2018) - Official Trailer from Boris Bilic on Vimeo.

Find out more about Boris at his website, www.borisbilic.com.