The New Guard of Acting

Originally published in Rolling Stone

The story of NeuThrone is the story of outsiders building their own kingdom.

The NeuThrone Creator Spotlight Series celebrates the bold voices of the "New Guard"—a generation of visionaries redefining creativity in a world increasingly dominated by big technology companies and cultural conformity.

These are creators who have thrown out the old playbooks for success.

In this latest episode, NeuThrone spotlights KC Wolf. KC is an actor, a filmmaker, and a social media creator. But he's also an entrepreneur who's determined to break into Hollywood, even if that means literally breaking in. His fearless streak shows up on the big screen, and in the conversation below, he talks about how he's carving a new way of doing things and how he's not waiting around for anybody.

NeuThrone: We connected on a couple levels when we first met. We're both from blue collar towns, blue collar families. It's a classic story right?  A kid moved to a big city with a big plan, no one understands why, and the first thing that happens in the big city is, their plan doesn’t work. They fall on their asses. This is your story too? Can you tell us about growing up in Baltimore and coming out here?

KC: Yes, my dad was a cop and my mom was a stay at home mom.  I moved to Florida in between Baltimore and LA, but I was in a pretty dark space in Baltimore at the end of it. I was so “sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Like, I am not living my life's purpose. And it's affecting everything. My attitude, my sleep.

You're driving to the Nestle factory to go put on a freezer suit and forklift ice cream.  Literally ice cream.  You’re in a sub-zero freezer, where you breathe through your mask and your eyelashes accumulate ice. You’re inside a warehouse, you have no idea what time it is. 

For the people I grew up with, there's only a couple of lanes. It’s like: real estate agent, cop, nurse, banker, or go work for your dad's company.

NeuThrone: So when you first said hey, I'm going to move to LA to become an actor, did you frame that as a practical decision?  Was it “I need to get out of here and this is my ticket?” Or was it more “I’ve discovered acting?”

KC: There was a practical side, yea. People saw a bright side to it.  They felt that if this will get me excited, doing things I excel at, they saw it as a positive.  But I overthought the initial move.  You think, how is this ever going to work? And then you do that for a couple years, you put it off, you get another girlfriend, you think, maybe I'll go back to school and get an accounting degree.

But there’s not enough there. Not enough concerts, or enough whiskey and vodka to hide forever.

But there were some strange looks.  People would say “you've talked about it when you were like eight shots deep at the bar, but I didn't know you're being serious”, but once you set your sails, people say oh this is a good thing, maybe this can work.

NeuThrone: But the inspiration for you, was it a love of acting? Was it a love of filmmaking? Was it a love of just kind of like doing something creative, like entrepreneurial creative work?

KC: It started as acting. I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for a couple actors. Guys like Johnny Depp. Guys like Tom Cruise, where it's like, you feel like he wants to be there more than anybody.  That’s a quality that I have when I lock in on something. 

Johnny Depp was a musician and who got him into acting was Nick Cage. Nick Cage made some connections for him and then he starred in Friday the 13th, and then he popped off in a couple commercials.

Anthony Kiedis is another one.  That whole group ran together and I always loved that, like Joaquin Phoenix and River Phoenix and Johnny Depp, it didn’t seem like it was about the fame, they’d rather go low profile and party with girls and play music.

Growing up in the nineties, I always thought they were cool. It wasn’t about the money.  There were the commercial kids - they’re like the preppy kids in school - but I always felt kind of punk rock.  Which is why I'm frustrated with the industry now because it's like, where's the fucking punk rock?