4 minute read
BURLY MAN
Diverse Roles
Spencer Kramber’s life in Hollywood involves acting and helping actors
By Joe Tougas ‘86
Spencer Kramber ’98 outside his trailer in the new film ‘You Can’t Run Forever.’ His bit role is that of “Burly Man.”
Spencer Kramber’s grade school field trip to the Ted Paul Theatre would be what dramatic types like to call fateful. That trip, taken years ago, is where Kramber and a fellow student from the small town of Glenwood, Minn., broke away from their group and explored the theater on their own, taking great delight in the mysterious rooms throughout the building. “We just totally got lost in the bowels of the theater, one of the most magical places for a kid to explore,” Kramber said from his home in Los Angeles, where he works as an actor, coach and session director. The excitement of that environment would guide his school and professional life as a University theater grad and now an actor in L.A. “Some people walk through a church and feel this energy and awe. That’s how I feel walking into a theater. It’s my church.” Kramber came to the University in 1994, determined to become an actor, despite the odds. He remembers
former theater professor and director Ron Olauson giving students in a Fundamentals of Acting class an early lesson in reality. “He said ‘There are about 15 acting majors in here. In 10 years, only one of you will still be doing this,’ Kramber said. “And there wasn’t a hesitation. I just thought: ‘Well, that’s me.’ And that wasn’t an ego thing. It was a dedication thing.” With his 1998 bachelor’s in acting in hand, he went to UCLA and obtained a master’s in acting. While living in Venice Beach, Calif., shortly afterward, he found work as a studio manager for three years and in 2006 began his career as a session director. In that position, he’s part of the casting process, working with and coaching actors seeking auditions for films, plays, TV commercials and audio roles. “I’m the one who the casting director hires to bring you in, audition you, send you on your way,” he said. “What I really try to do is get them to a call-back. I give them the foundation. I like to give actors the blocking and the eyeline. And then we discuss tone and character … everyone’s doing the same blocking, they walk in from this way, they look right at the camera and they say the line. How do you make that different than everybody else?” You quickly learn, he said, that there are no permanent jobs in acting. Ordinarily, graduates in other areas take their degrees, get a job and show up to work year after year. Unless you’re looking at a longtime series such as “The Simpsons,” he said, consistent jobs are rare. “Your career is waiting for the opportunity to interview for a temp position.” It’s the real-world experience that he brings back to the University every couple of years to teach aspiring actors about ways to make it and stay acting. Rule One: You need to nab jobs other than acting. He’s also likely to tell students in the University’s Theatre & Dance program that they’re lucky to be studying here, which he referred to as a unique playground for an actor. “The theatre department was, and is still, one of the best you can find for a regional theatre school. I’m not kidding. The production design, the opportunities to be on stage. I was doing five plays a year every year. There was no time to do anything else except theatre, which was all I wanted to do. “By the time I was done with Mankato I felt I had a whole professional career.” He’s nabbed television roles in shows including the “Young and The Restless” and “Criminal Minds,” the latter of which gave him his first case of the flutters in a long time because of the way things work on set when your part is small. In a roomful of cops, he was the one with a speaking part. “I’d not been that excited or nervous since I was probably a seventh grader,” he said. “If you watch the scene there’s about 15 extras behind me who are all the same role as me. So I know that if you don’t hit it on the first read, they can easily turn to somebody and say “Hey uh, Joe, why don’t you come up here. Spencer, you can go chill in the trailer for a bit.” And you’re not seen for the rest of the day and you’re not on the show.” Today, Kramber can be seen in the new thriller starring J.K. Simmons, “You Can’t Run Forever,” in which the Academy Award-winning Simmons stars as a psychotic stalker chasing down a young woman. Kramber has a bit role in which he’s an unlikeable cur who’s verbally abusive to a dog. The scenes of talking mean to the dog required several takes, Kramber recalled. “Boy, nobody liked me,” he said. “Finally J.K., after about 10 takes, comes up and says “you know that dog’s going to think you’re bi-polar.”
