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OUDAILY
For 100 years, the student voice of the University of Oklahoma
“I thought I was going to move there and get famous in five minutes.”
SIANDHARA BONNET/THE DAILY
TASTE OF FAME Public relations sophomore Megan Sherrill poses for a photo inside of the Kappa Kappa Gamma house Nov. 14. Sherrill played Winona Ryder’s daughter in “The Iceman.”
Three OU students talk show business success
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ights, camera, action. For three OU students pursuing careers in performance, this was the norm. But after trials, rejection and a lot of patience, each student is either moving forward with life, moving on from a short-lived career or embracing the fast-paced business and moving up the chain.
MOVING FORWARD Caleb Brown auditioned for American Idol three times — twice in the same season — and failed to make the cut. The health and exercise science senior grew up in Michigan, playing the cello and listening to classical music. As he got older, he turned to artists like Adam Lambert and Chris Daughtry, and he even performed Josh Groban’s “You Raise Me Up” at his high school graduation in spring 2013. Brown left home for Michigan State University, putting music behind him until he saw a general call for American Idol auditions in Detroit. He dropped out of school to focus on his voice for the show, but he immediately got cut in the first round of auditions. He went home upset but determined to try again. He looked up the schedule and saw another call for auditions in Omaha, Nebraska. Brown looked around his room and wondered what could make him stand out, what could separate him from the thousands of people who audition in the first round — his cello. Brown auditioned again, instrument in hand, and made it all the way to the fourth round of auditions: the celebrity judges. “I got three no’s from the judges — I got absolutely murdered in the audition,” Brown said. “It was one of the best things to ever happen to me ... I was way in over my head that year, and I had a lot of soul-searching to do.” Done with the competition, Brown transferred to the University of Oklahoma, his mom’s alma mater, after receiving scholarships in the spring of 2014. Brown spent the majority of his free time teaching himself how to play the guitar and piano, focusing on his music and diversifying his repertoire. “I would go into Walker (Center) ... on weekends, and I would just sit and play,” Brown said. “I would try
SIANDHARA BONNET • @SIANDHARAB to sing a little bit. It was really awkward, but it was the only street performing I could do.” Brown said he was done competing on the show until he got a call from a friend to audition in Minneapolis that fall. And he did, making it all the way to the celebrity judges. This time, all three said yes. He was going to Hollywood. Once there, contestants were lined up in tens and were asked to make their case for a spot on the show — he didn’t make the cut. Brown returned to Norman from Hollywood, bought a big box of Oreos, went up to his room and didn’t leave until the box was empty. Looking back, Brown said he realized the show isn’t the end-all beall — it’s about the music and the song. “The destination is every time you pick up the instrument and every time you perform,” Brown said. “It’s because you’re at this destination, but you’re dragging everybody else along this journey with you through the songs that you sing, whether it’s a cover or a song that you’ve written.” Brown performs music when he can, and he also performs as OU’s mascots Boomer and Sooner, preferably known as being a “friend of” the mascots, Brown said. After he graduates in fall 2018, he plans to travel the country and perform his own music. MOVING ON Megan Sherrill can scroll through the contacts on her phone and see Winona Ryder’s name — yes, that Winona Ryder: the woman who starred as Veronica in the 1980s classic film “Heathers” and now stars in the Netflix hit “Stranger Things.” The public relations sophomore played Ryder’s daughter in “The Iceman” (2012) during her freshman year in high school. While there, producers made sure she had the opportunity to get a proper education by having tutors on set — but school didn’t distract from Sherrill being awestruck, especially when she met “Friends” star David Schwimmer. “I fangirled like crazy when I met him — I started quoting ‘Friends,’” Sherrill said. “I told him that him and Rachel were not on a break — this was all within the first two
minutes of meeting him.” Sherrill’s acting career began when she was a child with the show “Barney and Friends.” As she got older, she attended Cathryn Sullivan’s Acting for Film school and received an agent. After graduating from high school a semester early in December 2015, Sherrill moved to Los Angeles to pursue her career. She went on audition after audition, waiting to hear about callbacks or offers. She modeled for Life Time Fitness, Razor Scooters — anything she could find. “It paid me money, I didn’t care,” Sherrill said. “It got me 600 bucks for the day.” But the opportunities for money were few and far between. As she got rejected for parts and waited for callbacks, Sherrill said she realized living alone in Los Angeles was more expensive and more difficult than she imagined. “I thought I was going to move there and get famous in five minutes,” Sherrill said. “And that’s just not how it works.” After speaking with another actress who was working three jobs to sustain her living in Los Angeles, Sherrill said she realized she didn’t want to go broke trying to make it in the business. In July 2016, she left Los Angeles and enrolled in a community college in Dallas. By fall 2017, Sherrill had transferred to OU to pursue public relations in Gaylord College and pledged to join Kappa Kappa Gamma. She said she is much happier now than when her life was more “glitz and glam” and felt like constant competition, but she doesn’t regret her experience. “I’m glad that I did it — otherwise I would’ve always wondered, ‘Oh, what if I hadn’t done it,’” Sherrill said. “If you’re just one of those people who lives, breathes, ‘I would die without doing this,’ then that might be worth it, but I can go to school (and) be happy doing that, too.” MOVING UP Michael Breath walked into a studio in Atlanta looking to audition for “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2.” Instead, he received a role in “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” When the acting junior arrived at the studio, he learned the “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2” auditions had closed. That’s when
he saw open auditions for a movie called “Summer of George,” and he decided to audition for it, instead. “I didn’t hear anything for a month,” Breath said. “In the acting world, (if) you don’t hear anything in two weeks, you didn’t get it — don’t try.” But Breath got a callback and, two weeks later, met with the director. That’s when Jon Watts, the director of “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” walked into the room. And that’s when Breath found out “Summer of George” was a cover name for Marvel’s newest movie at the time, and he had made it into the cast as a featured extra. “I was so freaking out because, at this point, I was thinking I was being pranked,” Breath said. “(I thought,) ‘There’s no way I landed this, this is such a lie, I’m getting pranked.’” Watts wrote down an address and told Breath to be there at 5 a.m. the next day. Breath expected a movie set, but he arrived at a bus station — further making Breath believe he was getting pranked. A bus pulled up, Breath got on, and he was taken to the set and immediately put into hair and makeup — but it didn’t hit him until Tom Holland walked across the room. “I said, ‘Is that Tom Holland?’ And the lady (doing hair and makeup) said, ‘Yes, this is Spider-Man,’” Breath said. “And I lost it.” Breath’s acting career began with his love of Disney’s “Mulan” and the opportunity to play Mulan’s father in his sixth grade show. He
discovered a love and a passion for acting, entertaining people and becoming a character. But he wasn’t the type to be considered the class clown, he said. “I was the shy and timid kid, so people were really shocked when they found out I was doing theater,” Breath said. “When I was in seventh or eighth grade, kids in athletics, they would bully me ... They would beat me up, they would make fun of me.” “When I went to theater that day, I had a black eye, my nose was bleeding, and everyone there was just worried about me, they took care of me,” he said. That’s when theater felt like home. Since that sixth grade musical, Breath has had roles in “Okay, OK” and “Mime Cop,” and he just finished filming “Sleeping in Plastic.” With each film and play, Breath said he learns more and more that what directors care about most is being yourself. “I was having this conversation with some extras on the last movie I did,” Breath said. “They were asking me how did I get it, what did I do, and I said, ‘Honestly, you’re saying you’re just an extra, you’re just in the background — they could’ve picked other people to be in the background, but they picked you. You have a unique something about you. Roll with that.’” Siandhara Bonnet arahdnais@ou.edu
SIANDHARA BONNET/THE DAILY
Health and exercise science senior Caleb Brown performs on a trailer for Campus Activites Council’s Boomerfest Oct. 15, 2015. Boomerfest was the last event for the Oklahoma Creativity Festival hosted by CAC.