Work ethic helps Casey Brown establish Hollywood career; film premieres in NW Montana
In his job as a Hollywood actor Casey Brown does a lot of sitting around, compared to the work ethic instilled in him at the Bigfork Summer Playhouse Children’s Theatre and Alpine Theatre Project in Whitefish.
By the time he left high school his junior year and entered the University of Southern California in Los Angeles Brown had performed in over 50 productions, sometimes putting up a show in two weeks. That’s a big difference from the hurry up and wait ethic sometimes found on a Hollywood set. Brown, 21, will be back in the Flathead Valley this week for the Montana premiere of Copperhead, a film about the Civil War. The film shows at Mountain Cinemas in Whitefish on Friday at 7 p.m. and at the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts Monday at 7 p.m. All ticket proceeds from the Bigfork premiere benefit the Bigfork Children’s Theatre, which is raising funds to pay off a large note. The Whitefish show will benefit Alpine Theatre Project.
Brown said he’s excited to be back in Montana to showcase his work in Copperhead. “It’s a movie about community and family, so to share that with my community and family is the biggest blessing I’ve ever had,” Brown said. “And to raise money for the theaters, I couldn’t be more excited. I’m very proud of it, and humbled that I get to come back, to a town where people will want to see it.”
Brown started in children’s theater at the age of 12, and worked with Luke Walrath and Betsi Morrison at Alpine Theatre Project when he was 15. He never would have been able to leave high school and go to USC drama school without the hard work he learned from Brach Thomson, Don Thomson and Jude Thomson in Bigfork, and Walrath and Morrison in Whitefish. “I believe in these theaters more than anything,” Brown said. “I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing if I hadn’t spent as much time with them as I did growing up. I wish the rigor we did in the children’s theater was evident in Hollywood. I think we worked harder then than we work now. They taught me discipline, and meeting new challenges every day. It made going to drama school very, very easy.”
Brown said he misses that blue collar work ethic and is moving to New York City in September to be closer to hard-working Broadway actors. Before he gets to Broadway, though, Brown gets to spend some quality time at home in the Flathead Valley with his parents, Tom and Katie Brown of Bigfork, plus all the friends he made in community theater. Those are his closest friends to this day, and it reflects how much Bigfork and Whitefish embrace the performing arts. “The community that it fosters is bigger than itself,” Brown said. “It provided such an amazing foundation for me, and that doesn’t happen everywhere in the country. To have two of the best learning grounds in the valley is something that has to be cherished and defended. I really believe in it.”
Brown’s next film, “Reach Me,” due out next year, is with Sylvester Stallone, Kelsey Grammer and Kyra Sedgwick. It is about a former football coach who writes a self-help book.
Tickets to the Bigfork show are available at Electric Avenue Gifts and the Jug Tree in Bigfork. Tickets for the Whitefish show are available at atptheatre.org.