Fostering a career as a working actor is tough – it takes ambition, chops, perseverance, savvy. Just ask William C. Vaughan about paying dues. The Acting for Film & Television grad has worked his tail off since graduation in 2007, taking jobs where he could get them, slowly building a reputation with casting directors, and auditioning, auditioning, auditioning.

The upshot? A line in this summer’s I Love You, Beth Cooper that was ultimately cut. Then another step: a recurring role as a Raptor pilot in the web series Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy, a series which, we might add, was recently nominated for an Emmy.

And now he’s got a recurring role on Defying Gravity, a CTV/ABC series starring Ron Livingston that’s being pitched as “Grey’s Anatomy in Space”. Defying Gravity‘s two-hour pilot premieres on Sunday, August 2nd at 9pm, and will continue on Sundays at 10 after that.

The Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia native’s career is still in its infancy, but his efforts are beginning to pay off. We caught up with him recently to find out more about his journey, his recent roles, and life as an actor who’s just getting started.

Since graduating in ’07, what have you been up to? I mean, apart from the roles in bigger film and TV productions? How does an actor fill his weeks when he’s just starting out?

Will: I was lazy in my first few weeks. I got my headshots done a month after I graduated, and didn’t rush to get an agent. I got a job doing security, working the graveyard shift at a video game company, and during this I did a short film with a VFS Film Production class in December 2007, where I would shoot in the day and work security at night.

A good friend and VFS grad, Sara Canning, referred me to her agent, Michael Levitt, who was looking for males like me for his roster. I applied, and read for him, and he said I was “good, but not great.” He suggest that I apply to as many other agencies as I’d like so he could be assured that I was making the right choice. I received no responses from the other agencies I responded to, so I signed with Michael in January 2008.

Now, let’s talk about the Beth Cooper, Battlestar Galactica, and Defying Gravity roles. What can you tell our readers about them?

Paul Bergie – I Love You, Beth Cooper

Will: I Love You, Beth Cooper was my first-ever real audition, and it was for the casting directors Coreen Mayrs and Heike Brandstatter. This is really where my career started.

Heike enjoyed my first audition enough that I got a call back where I auditioned for the director, Chris Columbus. It was very cool auditioning for him, because he was the first “famous” person I ever worked in front of.

I didn’t get the part, but they read me for four other parts in the movie, until I finally got the part of Paul Bergie, who had one line. I was so excited that I got it, that I didn’t care about the size.

When I arrived on set, I had no idea what to do, or who to talk to. I ended up walking up to the only person I recognized – one of the producers. He sent me to the 3rd AD, who sent me to hair and makeup, where a kindly older British woman told me not to write about any of my on-set experiences in my blog. “We wouldn’t want Fox’s Lawyers coming for you,” she said.

I won’t say anything about the shooting of the film, because although the film has been released, I’m afraid that legal threat may still be binding. Just don’t look for my face in the finished product. It’s not there. And I have a hunch I was voiced by someone else. Maybe it’s just my actor’s paranoia. Maybe it isn’t.

A few months later I was invited to be an audition reader for Coreen and Heike. This is why I say my career started with them – the next three parts I booked were mostly due to my reader’s job.

What does an audition reader do?

Will: An audition reader is the guy or gal who stands next to the camera and reads the lines of the other characters in an audition. The auditioner usually has no clue who the reader will be, and in some cases the reader can make or break an audition.

What are some of the challenges or rewards in taking on that kind of work?

Will: I couldn’t imagine a better job for a young actor to have. I’ve had the privilege of seeing literally thousands of auditions, and the honour of working with some terrific directors. It’s a very selfless job. You’re just there to give the auditioning actors a good audition, to serve them. You need to complement them – not literally, but if you say “good job” to one, make sure you say “good job” to all! – and be a quick study of the lines. You need to give the actors your eyes as much as possible, and give them as much feeling as possible, without being distracting.

Just the experience of being in the audition room for as many hours as I’ve had is a master class all its own.

J. “Shark” Finnegan – Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy

Will: I read for some episodes of Battlestar Galactica, and the director Michael Rymer was a friend of my agent. He cast me in a part that I hadn’t auditioned for, one that we didn’t end up shooting.

Months later, my agent called to tell me that I was cast for the part of J. “Shark” Finnegan in a webisode series for BSG that started shooting on my 24th birthday. Quite a birthday present. I had a ton of fun with the cast, and I got to be a Raptor pilot, which, being a huge sci-fi nerd, was awesome.

The series hit the web in December 2008, which gave me something to show people when I went back home to visit for Christmas. Kind of a “look at me! I’m really doing it!” to my friends back home.

Arnel Poe – Defying Gravity

Will: After the webisodes, I was “the” audition reader for Defying Gravity, a new series by the creators of Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives. The show is about eight astronauts embarking on a six-year mission around the solar system and the people in mission control who monitor them billions of kilometres away. Eventually, I was asked to audition for the part of Arnel Poe, an astronaut candidate who ends up being grounded and working in mission control while his friends live his dream.

Much more – and a trailer! – after the jump…

I can remember the first audition for Arnel had one of the executive producers say, “Look at how nervous you are going from reader to auditioner. It’s like you’ve completely changed going in front of the camera.” Many takes later, the first audition was in the can, and I was a bit surprised when they asked me to audition again. This time there was a full scene, and it was one of the auditions selected to be shown to one of the other EPs on the show.

In January 2009, I was sleeping on a friend’s futon, with next to no money in my bank account. My agent called me one day to say that they wanted to meet with me at the Defying Gravity production office for a meeting. At the meeting they inquired about my athletic prowess, which was limited. Asked if I could swim and jog, and I could do those things… well enough. They told me there was a pool scene that they were shooting in two weeks, and I’d need to lose ten pounds by then. I left the meeting not knowing if I had the part, but with a task that could ultimately prove fruitless if they decided to go another way with it.

After a few phone calls over the next few days, I was left with uncertainty. I was close to having the part, but my agent assured me that nothing had been finalized yet. After days of being on the hook, the word came down. “You got it.”

My life has completely turned around because of the show. I was able to move off the futon and into my own place. I was able to support myself financially solely by my acting.

The show debuts August 2nd at 9pm, so now I wait and see if we’re able to make more episodes, or if it was all just fun for while it lasted. No matter what happens to my career, I’ll always have the excitement that I’ve shared of launching a brand new show with a great cast and crew. Please note the pun on “launching.” Oh yeah, I meant it.

What first drew you to the actor’s life? Have you been acting since you were really young?

Will: I can’t say I was drawn to the actor’s “life” – I just liked to act. When I was in grade four, I did a musical called “Shortstop” with my elementary school choir. I was cast as the “nerd” in the show, and initially protested the casting with my teacher. She encouraged me to go for it, and on opening night, on my first line, I was sold. I had so much fun that I acted in another musical the next year, and then didn’t really do any acting until grade 12. My high school was doing a production of West Side Story and two friends of mine encouraged me to audition for it. I was cast, and had a whopping total of one line. While doing the musical, I met a guy named Chris Bessey with whom I would end up being good friends, and with whom I attempted to complete a few feature films, and a bunch of shorts.

I went to two VFS roadshows with Chris, and when I attended the second show, I figured I’d fill out an application. I had nothing to lose, so I went for it. I had attended university years ago to try my hand at a degree in Computer Science where the university life did nothing for me, and I finished the year being Academically Dismissed.

From speaking to the VFS advisors, and by looking at my financial situation, I felt it was time to take another swing at a post-secondary education, this time doing something I would actually enjoy doing for a career. Chris helped me put together my audition tape, and weeks later, I was accepted into the full-time Acting for Film & Television program at VFS.

I told my parents that I would attend VFS in 2005, and they vehemently said “no”. I just wasn’t ready to leave the home I’ve lived in since I was born. Also, I certainly hadn’t showed any fiscal responsibility, working at a video store with no money saved and many DVDs purchased. So, they told me to save my money, and they might let me go in 2006. I managed to save the money, and they gave me their blessing to leave Cole Harbour and move to the big city on the Pacific.

What can you tell me about the people you met at VFS, and what those people meant to you then… and now that you’ve been out of school for a while?

Will: I ran into a classmate of mine, Andrew Gawley, at that first audition for Coreen and Heike. It took a large load off to see a familiar face in an unfamiliar place. Andrew was a good friend of mine, who I eventually planned to move in with.

This never happened. Andrew was an innocent bystander who was involved in an explosion at that apartment, in which he suffered severe burns on nearly his entire body. He passed away in hospital three months later. At his service, the church was packed with his family and friends from back home in Salmon Arm, as well as alumni and faculty from VFS.

I knew Andrew had made a big impact on the lives of the people he had met here, but I was still amazed by the turnout. That’s a testament to the bond we have all formed with the people in our short year at the school. They are truly family. If class 28 had changed by just one person, the year would have been completely different, and there’s no telling how it would have ended if the two students who left the program in the first two terms had stayed.

I still love seeing the alumni and faculty at auditions, whether I’m auditioning or reading with them. We are all peers, and there to support each other in our triumphs and struggles. I still get audition coachings from faculty, and I’m still close friends with some of the alumni. Some have stayed to act, some have moved to act, and some have moved on to other things in life. But we all shared that year.

You’re not exactly a grizzled veteran, but you’re experiencing the industry from the professional side now. If you could give a current VFS Acting student – or a current acting student anywhere – one piece of advice that you’ve picked up since graduating, what would it be?

Will: One piece of advice: just tell the story. Audiences don’t want to see acting, they just want to see the story told. I feel like an audition goes well when the story makes the most sense; that’s when I know I’m onto something.

Thanks, Will! Tune in to ABC or CTV at 9pm on Sunday, August 2nd for the premiere of Defying Gravity!

Update: Halifax’s Chronicle Herald gives Will a nice little “local boy makes good” blurb!