Michael Everest DeMarco has always been an achiever even during his younger years. DeMarco is known for his philanthropic work today but his childhood and teenage years were colorful years as well, marked by success in wholly different fields: modeling and acting.
Modeling Career
DeMarco started out as a model when he was 13. With his American-Indian ancestry, DeMarco had the versatility to adopt various looks that translated well in front of the camera. Being a model came naturally to the young DeMarco since he has always been outgoing and wasn’t shy about expressing himself.
He booked several modeling jobs that exposed him to new experiences and people in the industry. However, while he was relatively having a successful time as a teenage model, DeMarco also set his sights on being in front of the camera in a different level.
Hollywood and Acting
Auditioning for acting roles wasn’t any different from model castings so the teenage DeMarco took to it like a fish to water. His modeling career may have even helped him weather the potential rejections that so many child actors often have to go through before they get their big breaks.
DeMarco didn’t set out to make acting an amateur hobby. Michael Everest DeMarco dove head-on when he decided to give acting a try. He joined workshops and enrolled in classes for classical acting and the Stanislavski methods. He was taught by such masters as Sal Dano. He also trained in the Actors Studio in LA.
All these preparations paid off when he started bagging roles in several LA productions. DeMarco was cast in Clifford Odets’ Joe Bonaparte in The Golden Boy, Buckingham in Richard III and Bartolomeo Romagna in Winterset.
Winterset by Maxwell Andersohn is a popular play based on poetry. Bartolomeo Romagna is the father that play’s protagonist, who set out to prove the innocence of his father after the latter was executed for a robbery and murder that he did not commit. Even as a teenage actor, DeMarco dedicated himself to the role and made an impression, which led to more roles in other productions.
He bagged the lead role in Golden Boy, playing Joe Bonaparte who was a young Italian-American dreaming of becoming a professional musician. However, he also starts receiving fame as a skilled boxer. His father wholeheartedly supports his musical aspirations and watches as his success in boxing clashes with his dream of becoming a successful violinist. Romantic problems lead Joe to become violent in the ring, killing his opponent and ruining any chances of any career as a violinist because he ruined his hands. Joe goes on to become a top-ranked prizefighter although he becomes disillusioned with his fame. At the end of the play, Joe dies in a car accident with his girl and his father goes to retrieve his body.
His role as Buckingham in Shakespeare’s Richard III also drew praise given that Buckingham was a crucial supporting actor and the role demanded a skillful and realistic portrayal. This among other roles drew the attention of a few Hollywood execs which led to film roles later on.
His acting career took an even bigger turn when he bagged roles in film productions like Over the Line and Fine Stallion. While these were minor movie roles, they proved that he could have easily gone on to bigger projects if his attention wasn’t diverted to something else, like a career in medicine.
Successful people are not afraid to step into the unknown. The willingness to take risk brings valuable experiences and help hone skills that prove useful later on in life. DeMarco certainly learned so much from his younger acting years and continues to credit this time of exploration as one that gave him the boost in confidence to try out new things.
