CHRIS RICHARDSON Actor Making Moves Please tell us who Chris Richardson is? Chris Richardson is a 50/50 split of disciplined hard work and a free flowing spirit. Being from Germany, the son of an active duty military father and mother who is from the soil of Jamaica, is what gave birth, literally, to his persona and outlook on life. He is genuinely a very curious, sometimes naive and goofy person who wants to know and explore all that life will tell and offer him. When it’s time to work and get something done, he has a level of discipline that’s normally attributed to an athlete preparing for the Olympics. Refusing to accept failure without a try, leaving tasks unfinished or not inquiring about every resource available. He often characterizes himself as a dry sponge, soaking up whatever is around him, be it common knowledge, wisdom or a life lesson. His mantra in life can be summed up in two words, Stay Ready, meaning to prepare himself daily, by doing the “little things” that leaves him in position to accept, deny, move or be moved by what life brings or takes away from him. How did you get started as an Actor? I got started in church, acting in Easter or Christmas related plays and skits. Professionally it was when I first moved to the New York City area. I was unem-
ployed and moved to pursue life as the storybookbeginnings of the struggling entertainer, a stranger in the new big city. One of my favorite shows is Law & Order: SVU and I would always tell people I wanted to be on that show as an actor but would accept playing a dead body or someone in the background. One day I was coming from dance class and I walked right onto a street that was closed off and they were filming an episode there! I took pictures and promptly got ushered away by security thinking that was the closest I would ever get to being on the show. Fast forward two years, and me getting a full time job because I got the harsh reality check that this world is not free and I needed to make some money or forever be a struggling entertainer. By the recommendation of a coworker I signed up with a casting company and the very next day I get a random call on my phone asking me how long it would take for me to get downtown because they had a background role for me on...Law and Order:SVU. I honestly don’t remember what all I did after I hung up the phone, as the next thing I do remember is looking up and realizing I was on set, in a Hugo Boss suit from wardrobe and in a scene with Ice-T and Peter Scanavino. As an artist, I was awakened in the middle of the night about 20 years ago, with this
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