Sam Carter Learns You Can Always Come Home

Sam Carter Learns You Can Always Come Home

By Keir Chapman

Sam Carter Interview Audio: https://soundcloud.com/user-977828599/sam-carter

Sam Carter is Central New York’s prodigal son. Born and raised in Rochester, Sam left home to pursue his dream of being a professional actor, but found the road to be a bit more bumpy than expected.

Reality began to set in at The Theatre School at DePaul University. There, Carter’s attitude landed him in hot water with the school’s teaching staff. Carter took his talents to the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, where similar problems arose.

Carter moved to Los Angeles, and performed in multiple national touring shows. It was the life most actors dream of, but for Carter, the grass was not so green on his side.

“I had just done a sold out show, 500 seats, of Proof, it was great. Standing ovation, it was such a good show,” Carter said. “I’m sitting backstage drinking a beer, and I’m talking to people and everyone leaves for a second. I sit back, and I put my hands behind my head and I close my eyes, and I think, ‘I thought this would feel different.’”

This was Carter’s cue to exit stage east and return to Central New York to attend Syracuse University, and pursue his passion for sports. Although he has no formal training in journalism, Carter thinks this may give him an edge in the long run.

“I don’t anyone else’s voice in my head telling me, ‘this is right,’ or, ‘this is wrong,’” Carter said. “[Newhouse's] way of doing it, will be my way of doing it, which seems to work out for people.”

Interview Transcript:

Keir: Alright I’m here with Sam Carter. So, you’re from Syracuse originally.

Sam: I’m not from Syracuse, I’m from Rochester.

K: What was it like growing up in Central New York?

S: Everything sports-wise in Central New York revolves around Syracuse basketball. Everything football-wise revolves around the Buffalo Bills.

K: Is this your favorite place to be?

S: It’s my favorite place in the whole world. Syracuse University specifically, is my favorite place in the whole world. It gave me a chance to rediscover that I wasn’t only good at one thing, and that I could be good at other things. And, that the world didn’t revolve around theatre, or acting, or film or whatever. The best decision I ever made was to move back to Central New York.

K: You said you studied for half of a semester in acting.

S: I studied at two different schools. I studied at the theatre school at DePaul University, the Goodman School of Theatre. They didn’t like me there, and I didn’t like them there.

K: Why didn’t they like you?

S: I had a pretty crappy attitude about everything, and I thought I knew more than I did. So, to prove to them I knew a lot more than I did, I got in to Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh for another semester, and they didn’t like me equally as much.

K: Same reason?

S: Exact same reason, if not more. I have since become a lot more humble, life does that to you. After that, I moved to LA with my girlfriend at the time, and then she left after about a year, and out of spite, I stayed, and as you would say, dicked around for the better part of a decade.

K: You’ve kind of lived the life that a lot of actors wished they could.

S: They do, and then they live it, and they go ‘Man, this is not what I thought it would be.’ For instance, I was in Detroit, and I had just done a show, sold out show 500 seats of Proof, it was great. Standing ovation, it was such a good show. I’m sitting backstage drinking a beer, and I’m talking to people and everyone leaves for a second. I sit back, and I put my hands behind my head and I close my eyes, and I think, ‘I thought this would feel different. I thought I would feel differently than I do now, and about myself, and my career.’ That’s when I knew it was time to get out, and about four years later, I dipped.

K: So you still stayed for four more years?

S: Yeah, about. I worked a bunch more, I worked all over and did a lot of cool theatre, but I don’t know if I really loved it. I think I did it because I was good at it. I did it because it scratched an ego itch that, as you get older, needs to be scratched less and less, I think.

K: What made you come back to Syracuse and study sports broadcasting?

S: Well, I’ve always loved sports. I have, a pretty good knowledge of sports. I can tell you how many points Billy Owens scored on a given day. I can tell you how to play Jai Alai. I love sports, and I want to use performing, because I do love to perform, just not as other people I guess, if that makes sense.

K: This is like your first kind of dive in broadcast journalism, what are some of the challenges you’re facing?

S: I’m a very verbal person, and I’ve alway been a verbal person, and in my major at Syracuse, I was always allowed to be very verbal. I was allowed to present things, as opposed to write things, but here I have to write, which is different for me, and it’s a totally different adventure. I think a lot of the people Keir and I are in school with, Keir might be included in this, have a lot more experience than I do. So I kind of feel like I have a chip on my shoulder to prove that I can do it, which is a good driving force.

K: Do you feel like your rawness in the field, gives you any kind of advantage?

S: I think, because I’ll learn to do it their way, and there way seems to work for people. I don’t anyone else’s voice in my head telling me, ‘this is right,’ or, ‘this is wrong.’ I have their way of doing it. Their way of doing it, will be my way of doing it, which seems to work out for people. That’s how I learned to play tennis. I learned to play tennis when I was 17, and I’m pretty good at it, because I learned when I was older and could understand what the hell I was doing.

K: Is there anything you want to share that I may have missed?

S: No, I’m just super pumped to be doing this, and super stoked, so we’re all good. You can hit stop now.