I recently had the great pleasure to speak to the lovely Chase Edmondson, what a fun, down to earth young man!  I first noticed Chase pushing a piano on the auditorium stage of Glee and have recently watched his mad-cap exploits on the latest web based Buffering Series.

If you have not seen him yet, maybe now is the time to change that!

Hi Chase, how about you tell me a little about yourself?

About myself…hmmm…well, I’m an aspiring actor from Amarillo, Texas, home of The Big Texan with its 72 oz. steak challenge and also home of the Cadillac Ranch. Currently I’m on different movie and TV show sets everyday as a background actor while auditioning. It’s the most flexible job I’ve ever had and it pays decently, which is perfect for auditioning. I’ve also made some really great friends on sets that are really inspiring to be around since they too are aiming their sights on the same career.

Which shows are you currently working on?

Recently, I’ve been on MTV’s Awkward, ABC Family’s Secret Life of an American Teenager, and a new show which I’m not allowed to talk about yet, but I can say I’ve gotten some good screen time on it.

I see you were also on Kicking It, Glee and the new Buffering series, which was the most fun?

I’m going to have to say Buffering is the most fun I’ve had on a set. Not only because I’m a principal actor in the show with lines but the cast and crew are all fun to be around. We are all friends on and off set.

Buffering seems to be quite big at the moment, how many episodes are they hoping to do for it?

Well, we’ve agreed with SAG to produce 6 episodes for the first season. We’re hoping to do many more for the second season.

What is SAG?

SAG is The Screen Actors Guild. It’s the actor’s work union in the US. It recently merged with the other union AFTRA making it SAG-AFTRA, THE actor’s union of the US for film and television.

Ah, so even a web based series needs authorisation from them?

Not necessarily. There are many non-union web series. We had to make it a union web series since Curt and I were union members and aren’t allowed to work non union productions. Also, we did it so that we could help the other cast members in the show to become union eligible.

Do you have to be acting a certain amount of hours or shows before you can union eligible?

When the unions were separated, AFTRA allowed anyone to join while SAG required you to work three union contracts before being eligible or you could be Taft-Hartley’ed which allows a production to waive the 3 times rule. Its complicated and yet not at the same time.

 It sounds extremely complicated to me!

In the second Buffering episode, your character was rather excited with the erotic bead art, I have to ask, whose insane idea was that? And have you or any other cast members ever done bead art?

My roommate, Matt (Tim), and I had actually made bead art for cheap wall decorations for our apartment. Its 8-bit style shows off our love for video games. After telling Mike Tobias, our writer, about it, he loved it and said it had to be written in an episode somewhere.

That is certainly different decorating!!  Were there actually erotic ones?

I’m going to say PASS on the bead art question, or I guess the correct phrase is “No comment”

Even after finding out that Chase has a snake phobia, I could still not use this information to extract a reply regarding bead art. I guess we will never know!

I also found out that Chase Likes apple juice, kayaking and Doctor Who but dislikes bad drivers and long waiting lines which makes me question his sanity over moving to LA!

In life and career, what has been your biggest struggle?

Like most young adults, I didn’t anticipate the amount of money it takes to support one’s self after leaving the nest. Not only was I moving out of my parent’s house for the first time, but I was moving across country and unable to visit them as much as I’d like to. Career wise, getting that role that will launch a career is proving difficult as it does for many actors.

That sounds like a scary yet brave move. What is your dream role?

My dream role would have to be for a biographical movie that is an inspiring drama of an influential person who has affected many people’s lives. Right now I’m quite jealous of Ashton Kutcher portraying Steve Jobs.

 Is there anyone in particular that you would like to portray?

One of the actor’s that inspires me is Johnny Depp, I know it sounds cliché to have a well known actor as one of your heroes but after seeing him in Chocolat, Finding Neverland, and The Secret Window I knew what level of skill and talent I wanted to reach some day. If someone decides to make a movie about him, you bet I’ll try my hardest to get that role.

Nothing wrong in that at all, one day his film will be made. He is such a great and versatile actor. How difficult is it to find the auditions as well as prepare for the audition?

I just recently signed with an agent, so hopefully when summer is over and auditions rise in number I’ll have more to go to. Without an agent, I had to scour the internet for open auditions and submit my headshots and just pray they like my look enough to invite me to audition for the role. Preparing for them can be intense or a breeze. Most auditions for film and TV are cold reads, so you need to research the character more than anything and just start to feel and think like them instead of memorizing lines. My favorite auditions are the ones where they give you a scene overview and you just improv the scene with their reader. It’s fun creating material on the fly.

Do you sing too?

I’ve been told by many people I have a nice voice for singing, but I have an issue that my friends like to call “Melody Deaf”. I’m not tone deaf, but for some reason I think I hear melodies differently than other people or my brain just doesn’t store the memory of them correctly. Once I have the money, I will be investing in a vocal coach.

What has been your biggest success either personally or professionally or biggest accomplishment?

Growing up I never really thought I had a chance of seeing myself on TV so in high school I was studying medical classes to become a pharmacist. Luckily I got cast in our school musical and stuck with the theatre until I graduated. I started taking Biology courses alongside theatre courses in college. After my directors told me to move out to LA and start focusing on what I really wanted, I dropped the idea of being a pharmacist and put all my will into moving out here. In Amarillo, and most non-major cities, it was hard to actually get the courage to move so far away from everything you know and everyone you love. I’ve had friends move out here and return home after only a couple months. Just being able to get out here and pursue my career without giving up is my personal and professional success.

You certainly seem to have made some great friends out there

Anytime I have doubts about myself or my talent, they lift me up and encourage me to continue on. Best quality you could have in friends!

Do you have any words of advice for the readers?

Words of wisdom…don’t let people sway you from your dreams. I feel if I would have listened to people who told me how poor of a choice it was to pursue acting, I’d still be in Texas probably working a 9 to 5 I’d never look forward to doing every day for the rest of my life. But, I totally encourage having a backup plan when pursuing your dream career. It’s very hard for artists to make a living when the first start out so definitely plan for something to provide a steady income. Take care of yourself and your dreams.