Please introduce yourself. What do you do? Why? What do you want people to know about you?
My name is Liam James Collins and my career as an actor started with a big splash back in 2009. Never having acted a day in my life I auditioned for a play at my local amateur theatre at 19 years old. From that very day my life was taking on a whirlwind journey that lead me to becoming Tom Hardy’s body double in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ (2010) to acting opposite Benedict Cumberbatch in ‘Little Favour’ (2012). As well as having lead roles for the BBC. My acting career went from 0 to 100 within a matter of months.
After 5 years as a full time professional stage and screen actor, I made the difficult decision to quit acting in order to start a business. I’m very proud to say that my business (The Coaching Masters) has become the fastest growing online life coaching academy on earth and valued at $25,000,000.
I now have the freedom to do what I want, and what I want is to make movies! So I’m back….
I started 2023 by becoming an Executive Producer, investing in Western staring Eric Roberts ‘5 Outlaws & a Saddlebag’ (2023) and becoming a part-owner of Camelot Film.
Since returning to the film industry I have also been cast as Dr Leo Bronner in ‘Peripheral’ (2024), the first feature film produced by MixedMedia and upcoming British Drama ‘The Kings Arms’ (2024)
Now I’m back, I’m back for good.
What qualities make you different and unique from everyone else in the industry?
I have a darkness and gravitas that can’t be purchased and it can’t be trained. It comes from childhood trauma, a desperate desire to be heard and the kind of presence that turns heads when I walk into a room. I use these attributes to deliver performances that stay with audiences long after the film or play is over.
Yet at the same time I am full of love, light and a desire to positively affect the lives of all. Hence why I’ve been able to create such a successful life coaching business within record time. It’s a strange combination that people try to achieve through years of study at Drama School but it can’t be taught.
Actors know that they must achieve genuine empathy in order to understand their characters in depth and they must understand pain in order to give justice to drama, but the kind of pain I have endured is immeasurable.
To be not only believable but deeply affecting can only come from someone who has walked through fire and is still moving forward. That makes me unique.
Describe THAT moment when you realized you’re doing what you were born to do.
Amazingly enough it was the very first curtain call at the end of the very first play that I performed in. The year was 2009 and I had never once acted a day in my life, literally. I didn’t every perform in a school play and I used to ditch drama class in school. It was my idea of a nightmare. Until one day, at 19 years old. I woke up and decided that I was going to be an actor. I walked down to my local amateur theatre and inside was a little old lady, sitting alone and holding a clipboard. I remember the smell of the musty old theatre and it was strange how dead quiet the place was. She just sat alone, almost like she was only waiting for me.
I said that I had no acting experience but I wanted to try. She told me that there was an audition later that week, she gave me the script and I walked out. I learned the script, improvised developing some kind of character and went to the audition. I got the part. The next week I am rehearsing.
3 months later I am standing up on stage taking my first ever bow in front of a room of 7 people (2 of which were my Mum and Sister)
I felt like a star! And I knew from that very first curtain call that this was what I was supposed to be doing with my life.
What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve had to go through and how did you grow through it?
The biggest challenge I’ve had to go through is losing my Dad to suicide. My Dad (John Collins) was my best friend. A great man, full of life, humour and kindness. He was the funniest, most selfless and caring man I have ever met.
He hated people people sad. He would cut the tension in the room with a joke and have a room of previously preens people rolling around laughing. I loved him immensely. I still do.
One day he phoned his Dr and told his Dr that he was having trouble sleeping. This Dr didn’t take the time to ask my Dad any questions about his lifestyle. He didn’t even examine him in person. Over the phone he prescribed him a combination of sleeping pills and anti-depressants which have a very high suicide rate. 9 days later my Dad stepped out in front of a train.
That’s the kind of fire that would have crumbled most.
I want to see how far I can do in the film industry to make my Dad proud.
Who are the TOP 3 people you’d want to meet that could elevate your career or business? Why these specific individuals?
As a business owner I am going to be strategic about this. I am not going to list people just because I am a fan of their work (even though I am a fan of all these people!) – I am going to list 3 people that I know will be able to catapult my career.
Agent : Lindy King of United Agents. Tom Hardy’s agent. Hardy has always played roles that I know I would suit and he’s 12 years older than me. So I can imagine Lindy is the kind of agent that would understand that there is a lot of money to be made from finding an actor with that same level of darkness and gravitas.
Writer : Quentin Tarantino. Now of course we all know Quentin Tarantino as one of the greatest directors of all time. But he is only making one more film so that ship has sailed. However he has said that he still wants to write and his writing is unmatched. And they do say that if you can win over a writer and have them thinking about you as they write, you will work forever.
Director : Chris Nolan. I was fortunate enough to meet Chris whilst we were filming The Dark Knight Rises. But I was only 20 at the time and one of my greatest regrets was not speaking to him properly. Because he did always appear very approachable on set. I believe he is the greatest director of his generation and acting in a Chris Nolan film, I think most actors would agree, would be a pinnacle career highlight.