While I’m not one who gets especially invested in the lives of the royal family of England, I couldn’t help but take at least a passing interest in the story of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. After all, she is an actress who is now a princess, and this kind of thing just doesn’t happen every day. When I watched the Lifetime film Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance, I decided to reach out to some of the supporting cast for an interview, and with Marc-Anthony Massiah, I uncovered a delightful gem. For one thing, his first name is “Marc-Anthony,” and his last name is pronounced as one might imagine (Messiah), but that is not why I found our chat so refreshing. He was very open as we discussed the many facets of his career, and I’m quite pleased to be able to share our chat with my readers today.

Photo by Ian Redd Vancouver Headshots

RH: Nice to speak with you Marc-Anthony. It was great seeing you in  Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance.

MAM: Thank you, Ruth, for reaching out.

In fact, I didn’t realize until I was looking through your credits that you were in one of the Signed, Sealed, Delivered movies as well. 

Yes,  I was in the movie Truth Be Told.

So how did you get started acting?

Originally, it wasn’t something I thought about. I took an acting class in high school instead of Home Ec. I was a bit of a jock, and at the time, acting was thought to be the “easy” class. We did a few plays, and I had a good time. But it wasn’t until I started doing extra work after high school that I fell in love with the machine and all the working parts that filmmaking is. Seeing these actors get up and do their thing almost sparked a kind of jealousy within me. Like, I’d rather do that. Don’t get me wrong–there’s no shame doing extra work at all. But acting seemed so much more fun. I happened to have a conversation with an actor on the set of one of these films, and after that, I was in acting class one week later, and I haven’t looked back.

I find it so interesting how many actors I’ve talked with who don’t start out with the intent to become actors. Many are involved in sports, and that is their focus until they suddenly happen to take an interest in acting for whatever reason. And a lot of them start out with extra work, so I think that’s a pathway that makes sense. 

My dad was a musician, and he was quasi-famous when I was young. So the industry wasn’t foreign to me. While I can’t speak for anyone else, I think what it is for me is that I wasn’t very academic. I excelled in the classes where the imagination was key. None of the math or sciences, but social studies, English, and gym–what I call the “free thinkers breeding ground.” Then, for me, when I left school, going to work in an office just felt too confining. I’ve done that, and it just felt like there had to be more for me to do than that. But trying to find out what that “something more” can sometimes be hard. Then for example, with extra work, you go, “Oh, all that imagination and daydreaming I used to do while I was in math class actually has a use now.” Finally, there is a place where it is applicable. For me, it validated what used to be considered troubled kid behavior or being hyperactive or misbehaving. Instead, that behavior back then just wasn’t the right place at the right time. And now it is.

I agree, and I have seen that as a teacher in the schools. I was always very academic, but I loved the creative arts and performing. And I have seen it time and again that a student who is classified as a troublemaker, once I would give them a part in the school program, they would suddenly come alive. It has always been so wonderful to see that kind of thing happen.

Absolutely.

So what was the first thing you were involved in that wasn’t extra work?

Masters of Horror

I started taking classes somewhere around 2001/2002. Then I booked a really small part on Masters of Horror. I met my now friend Michael Johnson on that set, and we got to work together on that show. We played two cops who have to go into this house where the husband has killed his wife.  We sat down together before shooting and talked about who our respective roles.  Since Michael was older than me and larger than me, we decided he would be the more experienced cop. We were choosing how to make these two guys come to life and look like they’d been partners for a while. We had no lines, but when you look at the whole piece at the end, it was really cool. It was just a music montage put over our scene, but that was my very first acting role. My very first role ever was on the show Whistler, but that was just in

Once Upon a Time

a picture.

I recognize plenty of your credits, but I’m not certain if I have seen the episodes where you were featured. 

I have had some pretty cool opportunities. I was on Once Upon A Time. That was a really fun episode. I got to play a police officer and drive an actual police car. We were filming in Vancouver in what is considered the beginning of the East side which is kind of a sketchy neighborhood. It worked for our location, but I had to stay off the street because the locals were getting nervous. They couldn’t understand why there was a police officer wandering the streets. Some were actually calling the real police to find out if something had happened. But it was like, “No, they’re shooting a TV show.” So that was an interesting but great experience.

ONCE UPON A TIME – “Tallahassee” – SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/JACK ROWAND)
MICHAEL RAYMOND-JAMES, JENNIFER MORRISON, MARC-ANTHONY MASSIAH

I also got to be on an episode of Psych, and that was pretty early on in my career as well. That was a really funny one; the audition was very interesting. There were no lines, and I was a huge fan of the director, Andy Berman. I knew of him from The Wonder Years. Auditioning for him was a real blast for me. I remember leaving that audition feeling pretty good about things. I had a lot of fun, and everyone was laughing, and I booked the job before I got out of the elevator. I signed out, and by the time I got downstairs, my agent called and said, “I don’t know what you did in the room, but they want to book you for the role.”

That is something that doesn’t usually happen. That’s a very unusual story compared to what I normally hear. 

Smallville

Very true, so it is very memorable for me. But my first actual booking was on Smallville. In fact, I’m a little bit superstitious about booking a role and talking on my phone because I was so excited that I booked the role on Smallville that as I was talking to my agent, I stepped into traffic. And I almost got hit by a car. So now whenever my agent calls me to tell me about a job, I actually stop moving, hang out where I am, and look around so that I don’t do that again.

Oh my goodness, I can imagine how that would be a very important reminder because I bet that when you book something, it’s easy to forget about everything else around you. But thankfully, you didn’t end your career before it began.

Right, I’m very grateful.

Going back to Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Truth Be Told, are you aware of the fanbase for the show who are called the Postables?

Photo by Signed Sealed and Delivered Truth Be Told Hallmark

Yes, I have. I’m really good friends with Geoff {Gustafson}, so I know about the wonderful Postables. While Harry & Meghan was really great and amazing, Signed, Sealed, Delivered was the first time I got to work with a dear friend. Geoff and I both teach at the same acting school. So I was just over the moon to be on the same show with him and have a scene with him and also play his foster brother. It’s one of those things that you can’t wish or conceive of something that wonderful happening, and it was really fun to get to work with a great friend like him.

The Postables are honestly one of the best fan groups out there, and the cast is just spectacular as well. I love highlighting actors who have been a part of a Hallmark project, even if it is in a supporting role like yours. I am amazed at how many different pieces and how many people have to come together to bring a film or show to the screen.

That’s why I’m an actor now. I was doing extra work on the Halle Berry project, Gothika, and I accidentally hit her with a door. She was coming through this door, and I hit her in the shoulder. I said to her, “I’m really, really sorry. I don’t want to get fired. I’m just an extra.” She said, “No, no, I should have watched where I was going. It’s a big door, and I walked into it.” Then she said, “Honey, don’t worry. Extras are actors too. We can’t make this without you.” And my brain just went Kaboom! And that was it. A week later, I was in class.

It’s so great when you hear these kinds of stories from the A-list actors, so thank you for sharing, Marc-Anthony. We always get inundated with all the negative stories in the press, but it’s nice to hear that a big-time actor like her is as nice as you would hope she was.

You know, I have a friend who does promotions for musical artists. I heard a story that there was this artist who had a bunch of his fans come backstage after the show to get pictures, and he had seen easily eighty-something people in various groups. By the last group, he was yelling at them to get out of there and leave him alone. When you listen to a story like that, you realize that in that moment, that’s how it happens. Eighty-nine people are going to say that he was amazing, but that one group of four is gonna leave without any concept of the fact that he’d been doing it for an hour and a half. They’re going to leave with that negative experience which is a true experience. But we don’t have the whole story. So whenever I hear a story in the news about a celebrity, I remember that I’m not hearing the whole story. And if I meet someone, I try not to ever say, “Oh, I met this person, and he was a jerk.” After all, I don’t know what that person has been doing before I met them or what they have been going through.

I like that outlook. I know fans sometimes start gossiping, but that is something I just ignore or I try to change the subject. I will not put up with it. Even if what they are saying is true, if it’s gossip or negative, I really don’t want to talk about it. 

I know it can be really challenging sometimes not to do that, but I really try to keep that outlook too.

With Freddie Highmore

I know you were also in a couple of episodes of Bates Motel. I know a lot of my friends watched it, but I just couldn’t get into it. However, I know it was a great show, and I would love to hear about your experience on it.

Let me say that Vera Farmiga is a phenomenal actor, and to watch her go from Ugg boots in rehearsal and laughing and joking and talking about her seven-year-old and how much fun his birthday was to Norma Bates almost instantly is an acting class all its own. In fact, there was a part that the director had to get my attention because he told me, “You can’t watch the scene.” And I realized I was watching her act. I had lines during the scene, but I was supposed to be in the background. But I was just watching her, mesmerized.

Freddie Highmore did one of the greatest favors an actor on set has done for me to date. Most of the time, when you’re a day player and you walk onto the set, the family has been established and the inside jokes are established. And you’re just this entity that shows up for a little while. Everyone is really friendly and warm, but they don’t incorporate you that much into what’s going on because they know you’re only there for a day or two. With Freddie and me, we shot two scenes on the same day. I didn’t get the script in the same way he does because he’s the lead. I just got the part that I needed for the day. I didn’t realize that the two scenes were two or three days apart in the storyline. Because we were in the same setting, it seemed like it was a couple hours later. The director was trying to give me direction, and we were having a bit of a miscommunication. I was frustrated and was going over my lines and trying to figure out what I was getting wrong. Freddie just leaned over and said, “It’s three days later.” I went, “Thank you!” And it made sense! I just couldn’t understand why the director wanted me to change so drastically between our first and second conversation. But now I understood, and I ran lines really quick with Freddie, and I was back to business. That was such a joy for the lead of the show to throw you a bone like that. And Bates Motel is where I met a really good friend of mine, Damon Gupton. He played the psychiatrist on the show, and he and I hit it off swimmingly on set, and we’ve become really good friends.

I have heard such great things about the cast of that show. It’s good to know that everyone seems to have had the same kind of wonderful experience. 

Yes, I think that bad press gets way more attention than good press. Unfortunately, in this day and age, a juicy, dramatic story is more noteworthy than “He was a really nice guy.” For some reason, society loves to share the stories about how bad our waiter was at the restaurant instead of going around and saying, “My waiter was really nice.”

So let’s talk about Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance. Now, I’m not a major royal enthusiast. But this one happened to be interesting to me because I had seen Meghan Markle in a Hallmark movie, Dater’s Handbook. That was my introduction to her, and when I heard about her getting engaged to Prince Harry, I was casually interested. My mom and I both decided to watch the movie and really enjoyed it. 

with Parisa © Lifetime Television

Thank you, Ruth. I like to call it “the little movie that could.” The crew and cast were really small by film industry standards. Everyone was friendly and supportive. There wasn’t a huge budget in terms of big-screen movies that become a grandiose affair. I would call it the meat and potatoes of filmmaking. And it was absolutely amazing.

It certainly came off well, in my opinion. I thought every single person in the cast gave a tremendous performance. And while you say there wasn’t a big budget, I never would have known that. I would say they used the budget they had quite well.

Yes, they really did. And everything that you would hope for on the set was there. The director, Menhaj Huda, was insightful, but he was also playful. He knew what he wanted, but he also allowed you to take a few liberties in certain takes and see if it worked. That’s always fun as an actor when you get to flex a few muscles. Parisa {Fitz-Henley} and I ended up becoming friends, which was great because we were supposed to play best friends on screen. We would always have a little dance we would do before the camera started rolling, and we are still in contact to this day.

So I’m curious. Were you following the “royal” story before making the movie?

Well, my mother was a huge fan of Princess Diana, so it was in my life at some point. But not to the magnitude that it is with everybody who follows all that so religiously. For me, I was more connected to the story because Meghan Markle is mixed race, and she is effectively changing the way people thought the royal family was like, which is great. All too often, we get the sense that they are straight-laced and everything has to be just so. My character at one point says to Meghan, “You’re going to change the way people that see the world.” And that line for me was paramount because it’s true. The way Meghan was being portrayed at some point was that she was saying, “I don’t know why everybody is making a big deal out of this.” Well, it is a big deal. So in that regard, I think there is a huge social significance of these two people getting together. So in that way, yes, I do follow it a little bit. And she’s an actor that I watched and liked on a show.

I absolutely loved the movie, and I admire what you said about your take on it. I had some friends who were bored by the show, but I certainly wasn’t bored. 

Well, it’s not an action thriller or a suspense. You know what’s going to happen. They fall in love and get married. But I think when you’re dealing with someone as inaccessible as the prince, these movies can give just a little bit of insight into the people involved and how things transpired. As humans, I think we question the why and how of things a lot, and I think this movie doesn’t try to be gossipy. It tries to show why and how these people got together. There are troubles they had to go through in order for their relationship to work. Then you have the whole storyline where a girl from nowhere is now a princess. So follow your dreams. Don’t take “no” for an answer. No one can tell you that anything is impossible.

The best review I can give you is that my mom, who is even less of a royal enthusiast than I am, rarely watches films like this. But she did not fall asleep, and she sat through the film with me from start to finish. And really enjoyed it right along with me.

That’s so great to know. Thank you.

It sounds like you got quite an audience for this movie and it was received fairly well.

Yes, it’s been great. I was scared at first to take the role. Not in terms of how I feel about the character. I just wanted to make sure that when I played this role, it wasn’t a caricature. I didn’t want him to be cartoonish or comic relief. And the director just told me to play him how I felt him. People have really responded well to the movie and my character. Someone stopped me on the street the other day and said, “You were the hairdresser in Harry & Meghan.” And I was like, “Yes.” And they started freaking out a bit. And they told me I was really good, which was fun for me. It’s good to be recognized for something other than a commercial.

I can imagine. It’s good to see that it’s streaming in various places, and I think Lifetime has rerun it a few times too.

Yes, I’m just hoping they have a baby soon so that we can do a sequel.

Oh, that would be great! Now I also noticed you have some current projects and projects coming up.

Yes, I was recently on an episode of Take Two. I play Officer Dennis Parks on episode three. You can find me in a scene with the two leads, Rachel Bilson and Eddie Cibrian. I have to do some investigative work for them.

Take Two

Interestingly enough, this one was another one where I went in for a usual audition and saw a lot of people I knew who are in my same demographic who have become my friends. I ended up booking this one. With Rachel, to be totally honest, I was a fan of hers. This job has offered me the opportunity to work with people that I used to watch and aspire to be alongside. I don’t necessarily want to say that I want to be like anyone else because I am who I am. But you watch people do their thing, and when they do it well, I want to do it with them.

The scene we did was so funny because at one point, Rachel started joking around, and I started laughing in the scene because it was so hilarious. But then we reversed it, and I did the same to her, but not planning to. It was just the way it worked out. And I heard her say as she was walking away,” I really like what he’s doing. He’s really funny.” And again, it’s nice to have the lead of the show, a person who’s been doing this for as long as I’ve been training to say something like that about your work. And it wasn’t just lip service. She wasn’t saying it to me and walking off, rolling her eyes. She was saying it to her co-star as they were walking off.

Because it’s a creative outlet, there’s a part of acting that’s like your baby. You put what you have inside of you out and just hope that somewhere someone likes it. It’s not why you do it, but it’s nice when it works out that way. In the hustle and bustle of filmmaking, it’s really nice when someone takes a moment and says, “That was really good.” And that little goes a long way.

In addition to Take Two, is there anything else you can mention?

Well, if you keep your eyes peeled, you might see me in the upcoming season premiere of Trial & Error. And there’s a Christmas movie that I’ve been shooting too. Otherwise, that’s it at the moment. I just want to thank you for giving us a platform to talk about our craft and get the word out about what we’re doing.

Honestly, Marc-Anthony, it has been my pleasure to get to talk with you. You shared so many great stories that I know the fans will love reading. 

I am so grateful to all the fans for their continual support, and I look forward to being able to share even more works with them for a long time to come. I’m very blessed to get to do this for a living.

Photo by Farrah Aviva

I am immensely grateful that Marc-Anthony was so forthcoming about his career in general. While he is one who is often a member of the supporting cast, I refer to what Halle Berry told him about extras. Every person involved in a production is vital to the success of any project, and while many things may be out of your control as an actor, if you perpetually bring your best to each and every role you are given, I would call that the true definition of success. And in the case of Marc-Anthony, I consider him a successful working actor who continues to be entrusted with a wide variety of roles from a wealth of diverse genres within the industry. Furthermore, he consistently proves that he is up to the entirety of the challenges that are sent his way. He is a genuine team player, and his exceptional portrayal of these characters continues to demonstrate that he is not only gifted, but he is meticulous and precise. Whether he has no lines or has an especially significant scene, he shines as only he can, and viewers are making a connection between him and his roles on-screen. As a working actor in Vancouver, that’s all a creative professional like him could want and more. Moreover, he remains his humble self who embraces every single moment that comes his way. 

If you have not seen him in Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance, I would invite you to do so as soon as possible, for I can practically guarantee that you will not be dissatisfied with his authentic depiction of Neal, one of Meghan Markle’s best friends. I would also invite you to check out his recent performance on Take Two as well as his upcoming performance on Trial & Error. While you’re at it, I recommend that you visit all his links below and see what else he is achieving in the world of television and film, for I can assure you that disappointment and Marc-Anthony Massiah are two concepts that invariably do NOT go together. As one who seamlessly embodies all characters on screen that he has been honored to portray in his career, I believe that even more amazing opportunities will proceed to head his way as he conscientiously hones his skills and tackles each new character offering sent his way.

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