On his daily motivations as an actor, he said, “It takes one day for everything to change in this career. I am excited to see what the next character I play could be, or the next project or the next group of people to work with. That keeps things exciting for me.”
“I think 2021 is going to be good. I think we will have some cool projects this year,” he added.
‘American Fighter’
This spring, the film American Fighter will be released, which was directed by Shaun Paul Piccinino. “It was good. That was my first film with a lot of fight choreography,” he said. “It gave me a whole new respect for that kind of work because it’s quite difficult along with learning the regular dialogue and doing the movie. The fight choreography took hours and hours of prep and practice. It was a great experience.”
“I love Shaun. He made it a lot of fun,” he admitted. “Shaun is a goofy guy and a talented director. He always kept it light on set, which made things easy. I loved working with Shaun too.”
Craig plays Ryan and stars opposite George Kosturos, who portrays Ali Jahani. “I love George, I knew him before the movie because he had done The Ride,” he said. “When I heard they were doing this film, I actually fought to be this character. Everyone liked how George and I worked together so it ended up working out.”
“I was excited to work with Tommy Flanagan, I’ve always been a fan of his. We became really close over the course of filming that movie,” he added. “American Fighter has been a long time coming. I am excited about the release. It’s a fun movie.”
“It’s a fun and funny action film about friendship, family and it’s really fun to watch all the way through. It has a great message to it. You won’t regret watching it, it’s a fun one,” he added.
‘Women is Losers’
He enjoyed being a part of Women is Losers, which was written and directed by Lissette Feliciano. “It is named after a Janis Joplin song. This is exactly what I wanted to do coming off a big network show. I wanted to do a true story indie film,” he said.
“It’s a heavy movie but we pulled it off,” he said, prior to adding that he was thrilled about the SXSW recognition it received. “The film looks great, I think it is going to do really well at the film festival so I am excited.”
Craig was the winner of two Daytime Emmy Awards for his acting work in General Hospital. “That was an incredible experience,” he admitted. “It feels like a lifetime ago now. I was beside myself. It was just a shocking, cool experience. It is nice to get some recognition for the work that we were doing. It was consistently tough work. Maurice Benard and Laura Wright were incredible to work with, I was very lucky that I was teamed up with those people.”
When asked how he handled being dialogue-heavy on the hit ABC daytime drama, he said, “After you train your memory for a while, it gets better. I reached a point where I could look at a scene once and know it. My memory is still very good but it wasn’t as good as it was back in the General Hospital days. I was actively training my memory each day on that show.”
“Grand Hotel was incredible too. I loved working on the show and I wish it went longer,” he added.
For young and aspiring actors, he said, “It’s a new world right now. In today’s time, take online acting classes. Get into a good acting class or Zoom class and keep training. When things open back up, maybe find representation. Never stop practicing, never stop learning. When things do go back to normal, get an agent and go from there.”
On the title of the current chapter of his life, Craig responded, “Rebuilding from 2020.”
In his spare time, he enjoys working out, meeting up with friends, and talking. “You appreciate the simple things now a lot more after everything,” he said. “I am bettering myself and I am focusing on the work. That’s all I am really looking at right now.”
Craig defined the word success as “feeling content, at a later age, of what you have accomplished.” “Success keeps on morphing as time goes on,” he said.
For his dedicated fans, he said, “I appreciate the fans more than ever. It’s really cool to have people that have followed by career. They are always super supportive and complimentary. At the end of the day, we do this for them.”
To learn more about Emmy award-winning actor Bryan Craig, follow him on Instagram and Twitter.
