We recently had the opportunity to talk with Colin Egglesfield, America’s latest heartthrob and star of Something Borrowed, on his company, Shout Out! Clothing, and his goal of using it to impact education, his acting career, and what he dreams of doing someday. You don’t want to miss this.
If you’re a soap fan, you may know him as Joshua Madden on All My Children, and if you’re die-hard chick flick fans like us, you are probably in love with the popular new movie, Something Borrowed, where he was in the the center of a love triangle (how couldn’t he be?!) the whole way through.
What did you major in while you were at the University of Iowa?
I majored in biology pre-med. My freshman year, I went to Illinois Wesleyan University, which is a tiny little school, and I went to play football. It just wasn’t what I wanted college to be, and my sister went to Iowa and I would visit her there. It was a fun place with fraternities and big enough where there were football games and lots to do, but still Iowa, so it wasn’t too big where you felt lost.
And you’re out in California now?
Yep, in Los Angeles, but I wouldn’t change growing up in the Midwest for the world. It gives you such a good perspective on so many things.
Tell me a little bit about Shout Out! Clothing.
Well I started Shout Out! about five years ago when I was working on All My Children. I did a movie and I first came across the idea when I was in Thailand and I thought it was a really cool idea. I had always wanted to start my own business and I’ve always been kind of entrepreneurial, so I started looking into buying shirts in America.
I knew about this soft, Velcro material, so I got some of it and I brought it to my drycleaner and had them sew it onto a t-shirt. I showed it to a t-shirt store and they said ‘this is a great idea,’ so I started putting some samples together. I got booked on All My Children and moved to New York City where I started doing some trade shows and people really started responding to it. The great thing about it is that kids love it so much because they get to create and practice their spelling.
Now I’m at the point where I’m looking to get a major retailer to commit to an order.
So where did the idea of Spazz come from? I saw Shout Out! Clothing’s mascot and it’s just hilarious.
Well that has to do with the name Shout Out! – just shouting out whatever you want to say or what’s on your mind – so I wanted a little guy who kind of exemplified shouting something out. When you say things right off the top of your head without really editing yourself, some people, I guess, call you a “spaz.”
I also saw that you’re a big supporter of education. Do you still use Shout Out! to promote and support the cause?
Yeah, well that’s the thing – as soon as this thing takes off, my intention is to have a portion of proceeds go to schools and education, and to be doing events where we go to schools and give free t-shirts out and do some sort of pep rally kind of stuff.
We did one for the Junior Achievement organization last year, where we had 100 kids from one of the local high schools come in and we had a couple of guest speakers talk about the importance of staying in school. We gave out free t-shirts and had little contests and stuff, so it was really cool.
It just feels like teachers need a little more support in what they do nowadays because they don’t get paid enough for what they do. (The essentials) are not there to really give the kids what they need in order to really feel like it’s important to learn what they need to learn.
So, that’s my intention.
How do you manage running this business and your acting career with being so busy?
Yeah, it gets kind of crazy because I don’t really have a normal schedule, so it’s not like I can really plan for anything – I kind of have to plan for the unexpected. That’s why I like what I do because I don’t really like having a set schedule, but at times it can be a little frustrating because it’s hard to plan anything and you never know when your next job is going to be coming around the corner.
I have a few things I try to keep routine like going to the gym and going to acting class, but when auditions come up, you have to rearrange your schedule a little bit and just be ready for anything to happen. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of trusting that things are going to happen.
Ever since Something Borrowed has come out, it’s been good because people have started to see that movie and I’ve been getting a lot more meetings. I just have to be around the right kind of directors and producers that I need to be in order to get more work.
I can’t imagine how hard it must be to be an actor and have to keep jumping into things. How difficult is that to have to switch up your characters?
It takes a couple weeks to really rehearse and research and work online. I’m actually going to Thailand to play a Wall Street trader, so I’ll talk to people who are Wall Street traders and ask them what their daily life is like. I’ll start writing a little biography of my character and start rehearsing my lines, and then it just kind of goes from there.
I’m so jealous that you get to go to Thailand – that’s amazing! What’s it like being able to do all of this traveling with your career? Is it just mind-blowing?
It’s awesome. I mean it’s really cool to get to go to all of these amazing places. I’ve been to South Africa to do a movie, Thailand once before, Australia, all over Europe… The great thing is that it gives you such great perspective on what cultures are like and what the view on life is in other countries.
What do you see happening in the future? Do you want to keep pursuing getting your company started or are you aiming more towards acting, or just a little bit of everything?
Yeah, a little bit of everything. And the more I get into movies, the more I’m able to do the t-shirts. Hopefully I continue to keep getting more roles and then it allows me to invest more in the t-shirts and hopefully get these things into some stores.
My dream would be to be a successful movie star where I’m doing movies that I’m really inspired by and that inspire other people. Actors like Matt Damon, Tom Cruise, Daniel Day-Lewis… to be able to have a career like theirs and do movies that I feel have a purpose and a message. That’s what I want to really want to do and then be able to use the platform that it provides to go to schools, get my t-shirts, and hopefully inspire people to do what they want to do.
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By Michelle • October 08, 2011 • Interviews • Comments: 0