Meet Walter Buck! Walter is currently working on The Mousetrap at Playhouse 615 with me (opening tonight!), as well as a scare actor job at Slaughterhouse. We’ll talk about Walter’s current projects and how he found acting at the perfect time in life after retiring from the military.
Walter grew up in Jacksonville, Florida and spent a lot of his life serving with the military. He originally served in the Marine Corps and then transitioned to the Army. In total, he served for sixteen years. After he retired from the military, he moved to Nashville to be closer to family. During this time, he made a point to “decompress from military life” and seek help for some issues. He would later learn that acting would play a part in his healing journey as well.
His introduction to acting was in 2016, when he decided to be a part of a play happening at a church. After two productions with this group, he happened to meet someone in the film industry and learned a lot from their conversations. At this point, Walter wanted to really dive into acting. Since then, he has mainly worked in film and some of his favorite projects include Blue Beetle and Ghosted.
Of course, it’s spooky season! Walter is currently a scare actor with Slaughterhouse, “Nashville’s longest running haunted attraction”. It is housed in an old movie theatre, and guests enjoy the attraction by traveling through five of the theaters. And true to the location, it is horror movie themed! Walter is a big horror movie fan and decided to audition this year. He is now playing Freddy Kreuger of the Nightmare on Elm Street film series. He remembers how scared he was of these characters as a kid and now he is embodying one every night!
Working at a haunted house is a bit different from a rehearsed theatrical production. Walter prepared a lot on his own, and this involved studying the movies in which the character Freddy appears. “I would play it over and over and over again to get his laugh down, to get his walk down, to get his mannerisms down, and when I showed up everybody was kinda blown away”. Walter will continue to scare visitors through the end of October.
Walter is also playing Major Metcalf in The Mousetrap at Playhouse 615. It was a type of project he hadn’t done before, and he appreciates the chance to explore acting in a new way. His favorite part of the process has been accent work. The cast has studied Standard British with dialect and acting coach Jill Massie.
Acting has been a great outlet for Walter after his time in the military. “I like performing because it’s an opportunity for me to be somebody else. I’ve been myself for 42 years, all the traumas, all the anxieties, the depression, the attempted suicides…Whatever the character is, it’s an opportunity for me to actually step away from the realities of life and be someone else for a change. So that part is really cool to me.”
Walter found his love for acting later in life, and he shares: “There’s no perfect time. It just has to be the right time for you. Obviously everybody says ‘Start when you’re young, start when you’re young’ but that may not be your life. Your life may not be conducive for you to start acting as a kid or as a teenager or even a young adult.” For Walter, he found the arts and acting at a perfect time in his life. He has the freedom to do it, and has found it to be healing as well. For anyone who may be thinking about acting, especially those who are starting at a later age or just haven’t taken the conventional path, Walter encourages them to go for it. “For somebody who wants to start, I would just say start.” Take classes, make connections, and get involved in the community.
Thank you Walter for sharing your story!
Come see Walter as Major Metcalf in The Mousetrap at Playhouse 615 Oct. 14-30:
https://www.playhouse615.com/shows
Check out Slaughterhouse for the rest of this month:
https://fullmooninc.net/slaughterhouse
Instagram: @walterjbuck
Check out my last blog for Nashville Theatre Events happening in October : https://peytonwhite.net/blogs/nashville-theatre-events-october-edition/
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