ENMU grad makes living in Hollywood

Landall Goolsby, former Portales resident and Eastern New Mexico University graduate, is currently trying his hand as a career actor out of Hollywood, California, having played over 40 roles in television and film since 2001.

His two most recent roles will be on the shows “Cooper Barrett’s Guide to Surviving Life” and “Love.”

What has been your favorite experience acting in Hollywood?

Landall Goolsby

It was Marvel’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” Every on of them is joyful, but that was the one where I had a large role, and I got to interact with two people that I really admire on the show. It was all very secretive, and a character had disappeared months before, and we hadn’t seen him, and my episode brought him back.

Part of the reason I enjoyed it so much is that I had been targeting this film office for years. They do all the Marvel movies; they do big Hollywood studio feature films. It’s just a nice office to get into. I had been targeting them, sending them my promotional materials, just doing everything I could to get them to consider me for an audition. I sent a postcard, and out of the blue, I got an audition for “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”

My character’s name in “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” is called Selwyn, and there’s a comic book character who’s maybe in like one or two issues called Selwyn, so I actually got to be a comic book character brought to life. I don’t know how yet, but I absolutely plan to be in the D.C. Universe next.

Did you have an idea of acting in Hollywood when you first moved there? How has that changed in the years since?

I thought I could just kind of show up and people would say, “Oh, he’s interesting. Let’s hire him.” I mean, Hollywood is built on discoveries. I just thought, well, people are just going to get discovered. That didn’t happen. I really wanted it to, but it didn’t. Then I started training under this one particular commercial casting director, and I started working in casting through her as well, and that’s when I saw the reality of the business. It has changed completely since. I have learned that people, I believe, that have more success than others are people who know who they are and don’t try to be anything else other than that. It’s not that they cannot do more, but there are certain people who have certain careers playing the same characters again and again. Whenever you’re not a star or a household name, you probably recognize certain people again and again. That face looks familiar. You’ve seen them. You may not know their name, but you recognize them from something else.

What advice would you have for aspiring actors, something that you wish you knew when you first started acting for a career?

Don’t try to be perfect. We’re in a different world than when I started. Back when I started, we didn’t have YouTube; we didn’t have web series or four second Vine videos that tell a joke. That didn’t exist, and it does now, and people who live in different parts of the world can now put content up online and find an audience. We have YouTube stars who share everything. At one time, you didn’t want to share your life. We had gossip magazines that would go and discover the secrets of people who tried to have a private life. Now we have reality stars and YouTube stars who share everything. There’s room for everybody.

Is there a particular person/film/moment that made you want to pursue acting?

Whenever I saw “Back to the Future,” the first one, in Albuquerque. I saw that and just thought, “I want to do this. I want to be an actor. I want to be in movies.” I was so excited by what I saw on “Back to the Future,” I couldn’t stand it. I remember going home, and I just thought, “Every night I’m just going to pray, and I’m just going to think that I’m going to be an actor.”

I remember, I had just done a commercial, and I remember I was in the shower scrubbing the makeup off my face, and then I thought, “I just got paid to be in a commercial.” I remember my young adult life and teenage years, every night thinking, I want to be an actor, and I’m suddenly washing makeup off my face, because I’m an actor. Oh my gosh, I did it. That was the moment.

— Compiled by Staff Writer Eamon Scarbrough