With Cabin Fever 2 and Wicked Lake due out later in 'o8, Marc Senter is a star on the rise. Having won an award at the notorious Screamfest for his role as Ray Pye in Jack Ketchum's The Lost, horror fans (and critics) have lauded Senter's efforts. And Senter is sure to be seen by wider audiences following two more project announcements: Hippy, with Lindsay Lohan, and a medieval epic flick titled Ironclad.

At our request, Marc took a moment to put pen to paper to share some thoughts with Moving Pictures readers on the stepping stones paving his path to proving himself.

Marc Senter: Tips to Turquoise (A Young Actor's Ascent)
By Marc Senter
(February 2008)

It started with break-dancing to Michael Jackson in the basement.

Although my family would say I was a born entertainer, my acting journey didn't really begin until I was a freshman in college. From there I started dancing professionally in television commercials, at fashion shows and for various benefits, which evolved into some work as a print model. It got to the point where I was "working" so much that my mom's "he's sick" excuses to the school were wearing thin, so much so that my 6th grade teacher took great satisfaction in posting in the classroom the TV Guide issue that I had shot while "sick."

As I got older, I stepped away somewhat from the dancing and modeling and took up martial arts, music and skiing. I threw myself into them 100 percent. If I wasn't performing with my martial arts troupe, I was playing with my band; and if I wasn't doing that, I was on Blackcomb glacier in British Columbia.

When I graduated from my all-boys Jesuit high school, college seemed like the next obvious step. I applied and got accepted to the University of Colorado - Boulder. I decided to minor in dance mostly on a whim, and was up against a wall to pick a major; theater just seemed like it would tie in well with dance.

It didn't take long for me to realize that I didn't really fit into the typical college "scene." Fortuitously, my closest friend in the theater department, Court Butler, asked me if I wanted to go see a movie that, at the time, I knew nothing about... a little piece of cinematic genius called Fight Club. As crazy as it sounds, it was that movie, and particularly the character that Brad Pitt played, that really lit a fire under my ass to get serious about acting and move to New York or Los Angeles. Armed with this desire to be Tyler Durden, I started asking my theater department professors what they thought of me moving to L.A. to seriously pursue acting. While most of them discouraged it, Sean Kelly, one of my favorites, gave me the confidence to make it happen. Luckily, I was also blessed with the most supportive parents in the world - once my dad saw the determination in my eyes, he was on board with the move, too.

When I arrived in L.A., my transition from boy to man began, at times a little quicker than I was ready for or would have liked. Thank God for the strong foundation and support I had at home...

For my first little stretch in town, I stumbled around a couple of L.A. acting classes that ultimately failed to hit home. With the help of a great friend and rock-climbing partner, George Stults, I found my first manager (this is where George earned the first 25 feet of what would later become many, many feet of slack on his rock-climbing rope). My manager got me an agent, and, equipped only with my instincts and a go-getter attitude, I was miraculously able to land a few television guest-stars and co-stars.

While I was excited to have any work, it was at this point that I started to realize there was something I was missing as an actor, but I couldn't put my finger on. I can remember being in certain classes and watching fellow actors work and not believing it. This deeply bothered and frustrated me and drove me to figure out where I was going wrong. I started obsessively watching the work of the early greats like Brando, Clift, DeNiro and Pacino. Around this time, I was watching "Inside the Actor's Studio" with Johnny Depp (another guy whose work I admired) when I discovered the rabbit hole... in the form of Johnny Depp talking about how No Acting Please, by Eric Morris, was one of two books that greatly influenced his work.

I went out literally the next day and bought the book, and I burned through the whole thing in a couple hours. I was blown away and had finally found what I was looking for. I immediately sought him out as a teacher, and he and his wife, and partner in crime, Susana Morris, soon became my mentors, and their studio, a second home.

Under their tutelage, my determination and drive to work like the greats blossomed. I credit them completely for giving me the tools to book my first character-driven role as Ray Pye in The Lost. This film, being released in L.A. this week, had a nice little run on the festival circuit and produced some positive reviews and an award that helped me realize that I was absolutely doing what I was supposed to be doing.

The director of The Lost, Chris Sivertson, and I saw eye to eye, and this fostered a creative collaboration between us. It was this collaboration that later gave birth to the character I play in one of my most recent films Wicked Lake. Chris and I literally created the character based on the quirky characteristics of an eccentric guy we met at a Comic Con party. This character gave me an amazing opportunity to display some versatility, as he was Ray Pye's polar opposite. While Ray wore only black, listened to Elvis exclusively and had a hair-trigger temper, Caleb was a vulnerable, pink-wearing Brian Eno enthusiast. Between these two roles, I also got the opportunity, in Ti West's Cabin Fever II: Spring Fever, to bring to life a character based on the typical '80s bad boy, specifically influenced by, ahem... Johnny from Karate Kid.

My journey thus far has led me to where I'm at today; with hair past my shoulders, listening to '60s psychedelic rock and keeping my bell bottoms held up with my dad's killer turquoise belt that he hand-crafted in the '60s. This is all part of sculpting the character of Monster, whom I will play in HIPPY, my next collaboration with Chris Sivertson.

This journey has been a series of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, but ultimately I've come to realize that this is what I'm supposed to be doing, or, to put it more aptly, what I have to do.

Photos by Lionel Deluy (www.lioneldeluy.com)