Life is good for Spencer Hill.
He’s gotten onto one of America’s top TV shows, even if only for 90 seconds.
He’s in an independent film set for release next spring in Kentucky.
Most importantly, he’s getting to entertain people. And he’s having a lot of fun doing it.
“It’s getting better every day,” said Hill, the son of Don and Robbie Hill of Emporia, as he celebrated his 29th birthday Wednesday. “It’s been five years and it feels like it’s been about two weeks.”
Why five years? That’s when he graduated from Kansas State University and moved to Los Angeles to chase an acting career. It was a bit of a stretch — he had never acted at K-State or at Emporia High School — but some friends he made while modeling at college talked him into it. So he gave it a shot.
He made his way into a number of print ads, commercials and small, non-speaking television spots. But at first, his biggest break came on a game show. In 2003, Hill won $25,000 on the now-defunct “Dog Eat Dog,” which required contestants to answer trivia questions and perform silly stunts.
It was fun. But it wasn’t really why he came to L.A. And about a year ago, he started chasing his dream in earnest.
That’s when an acting coach encouraged him to tap into his vulnerable side, rather than the wise guy character that came so easily. Ironically, going for that vulnerability not only made him more accessible, it helped build his confidence.
That, in turn, put everything in reach.
“Auditioning is more about the confidence than it is about the acting,” Hill said.
That holds double for its close cousin, persistence.
“I’ve never been a very patient person so it’s tough to get in that mode,” Hill said. “But I’ve seen guys who I thought were great actors, ready to pop, and they didn’t have the backbone it takes to make it.”
Nobody can say that about Hill. Last week, he appeared in his first network television role — a 90-second speaking part on “CSI: New York.” Hill played a man whose estranged wife has just caught a man in a bear trap, believing he’s an alien. Hill is brought in for questioning and makes it clear he hasn’t seen her for three years.
A small part, true. But worth more than the game show in the long run as far as Hill’s concerned. And he’s already looking to the next step.
“I hope the next time I’m on TV, I get to be a guest star who appears in half the episode,” he said. “You always want to do more, I guess.”
More, for now, is an independent film that a friend got him into. Called “My True Self,” it’s about a man with cancer who decides to live his life without chemotherapy even though it shortens his life expectancy to three months. He starts encouraging others to make use of the time they have, including Hill’s character, a successful businessman who buried his dreams of art long ago.
Hill’s character fights him tooth and nail, naturally. But the underlying challenge — to do what makes you happy, not what makes you money — is one that Hill accepted a long time ago.
And one of the best parts, he said, is that it makes his folks pretty happy, too.
“It’s their unconditional love that makes it 100 percent possible for me to do this,” he said.