You may be quite aware that launching a successful career as a movie actor is a difficult challenge. But rare is the soul who manages to do so twice. Such is the case with Kirk Taylor, whose career as a supporting actor working for the likes of Stanley Kubrick and Spike Lee in the 1980s eventually lead to a successful second career as an acting coach, musician and composer. Now, with his upcoming appearance as the apostle Simon Peter in the feature film musical “Revival!,” Taylor has found his own “second act” as a film performer, and couldn’t be more thrilled to see what the next chapter brings. Meet our Feature Guest “Every time I have thought I would give up acting, and move on to something else I love, some opportunity would come up and lure me back in,” says Taylor, reflecting on his now three-plus decades as a professional. “There was a time a few years back when it felt like the right time to move on,” he recalls. “I talked and prayed with my wife about it, and decided to leave acting, and literally two minutes after our conversation, the phone rang, and my agent told me I had landed a role.” That role turned out to be for “The Angriest Man in Brooklyn,” one of the last films to star the late Robin Williams, and reunited Taylor with director Phil Alden Robinson, who had previously cast him in “The Sum of All Fears” (with Ben Affleck) and “Freedom Song” (with Danny Glover). In a similar way, the part of Simon Peter (called “Cephas”) in “Revival” found Kirk Taylor (rather than vice-versa). “My wife was a script supervisor on the project, and a friend was producing it, and they recommended me to Harry Lennix, the executive producer.” Taylor was again a bit reticent to dive back into acting – he’d been working steadily as a respected acting teacher for a while – so he was surprised when Lennix offered him the part. “It’s one of the best parts in the film,” Taylor enthuses. A musical retelling of the Gospel according to John, is the passion project of Lennix (“The Blacklist”), co-directed by Danny Green (“Troubled Waters”) and Obba Babatunde (“Miss Evers’ Boys.”) with music written by gospel music star and three-time Grammy nominee Mali Music. Taylor will co-star with an all-star cast that includes Lennix, Chaka Khan, Michelle Williams, T’Keyah Crystal Keymah, Dawnn Lewis, and others. The role seems like one well-suited for Kirk Taylor, who has balanced his spiritual and professional lives for many years. A graduate of NYU, Taylor cut his teeth studying with the great generation of method acting teachers, including Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler, before making his first uncredited screen appearance as a waiter in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Cotton Club.” While on the set, Taylor was inspired to suggest a bit of business involving bringing a bottle of champagne to Dutch Schultz (played by James Remar). Failing to get the approval of the assistant directors, he took advantage of seeing director Coppola on his own to boldly offer the bit for the scene and some improvised dialogue. Coppola loved the idea and put the scene in the film. For a while, Taylor was sky-high – until he saw the film, and realized that because his scene wasn’t scripted, his name was not included in the credits. “I was crushed! I literally cried in the back of the theater, then walked into the lobby wondering if this career was a big mistake,” he says. “Then two girls walked up to me and said ‘hey, aren’t you the guy who played the waiter?’” His faith in himself restored, Taylor knew he was in the right place. “I call that a ‘God wink,’” Taylor says, regarding other times in his career when he was down and felt comfort from unexpected places. It happened again after he appeared as a cop in the Sundance drama “MacArthur Park” in 2001. Immersing himself in the supporting role by spending time with both police officers and drug addicts, he was again chagrined to discover at a screening that his name had been left out of the credits (an er...
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