For most UCLA students, finals week means pulling all-nighters
in a last-minute attempt to learn 10 weeks’ worth of
material. For actor and third-year philosophy student Colin Bain,
however, finals week last quarter consisted of 14-hour days on the
set of crime drama “Cold Case.”
Bain’s eight-day shoot happened to fall on the same week
as finals. He had to plead with his professors to postpone his
finals until the first week of this quarter. Such is life for an
actor/student. Fortunately for Bain, finals went just fine, and the
latter part of his occupation still holds.
According to Bain, there was no way he could have passed up the
chance to do “Cold Case,” which he considers is his
best work so far. The episode airs Feb. 20 on CBS.
“I’m really excited about it. I really felt like I
stretched myself,” Bain said. “Hopefully I’m not
shooting myself in the foot, and people end up telling me,
“˜Gosh, you really sucked.'”
Prior to “Cold Case,” Bain has appeared in several
other television shows, including “7th Heaven,”
“American Dreams” and MTV’s
“Undressed.” He also took on roles in feature films
such as “Rules of Attraction” opposite James Van Der
Beek and “Longshot” opposite Britney Spears.
So why pursue an education, having already established himself
as an actor in Hollywood? Initially, Bain chose to go back to
school mainly to kill time between auditions. Now, he can’t
see himself not getting a college degree.
“Unless I got a show ““ where I had to work every day
““ and even then, I’d still try to do school. Having my
degree is really important so I can be a well-rounded
person,” he said. “That’s why I’m not a
theater major, because there’s more to life than just acting.
A lot of people get too submerged in theater and scenes when
really, day-to-day, it’s all play.”
Bain wanted to take subjects that interested him, no matter how
impractical they might be. Philosophy turned out to be his study of
choice.
“I love philosophy ““ it’s great,” he
said. “I don’t really have any real-world aspirations
with it; I just want to get it under the belt. There are all these
professors out there who are writing these great dissertations on
Descartes or Aristotle, but that’s a little too much work for
me. I just want to get the general idea so I can better understand
the world and myself and my place in it.”
Bain admits that juggling school and a career in acting is
difficult, especially when timing conflicts occur as they did
during finals week last quarter. But Bain is extremely versatile.
When he isn’t on campus or on the set, he holds a steady job
bartending at the Jimmy Kimmel Live show.
“It took him the longest time to tell anyone that
he’s an actor. Now his rep is starting to get out, and we
sometimes refer to him as “˜Hollywood Colin,'”
said Larry Brown, a fraternity brother of Bain’s. “We
do more publicity for him than he does on his own.”
In some ways, Bain experienced the stereotypical “starving
artist” lifestyle when he first moved to Hollywood.
“When I came out here, I was like everyone else. You have
your three-year plan; you’re going to make things happen in
this amount of time. But it doesn’t work out like
that,” Bain said. “Acting is like any sort of
addiction. It’s like gambling. It’s like your next hand
is your high hand ““ it’s what keeps you in the game.
But it also gets really discouraging. I got into a lot of credit
card debt when I was first starting out because it’s like, if
I just get one big job, then it’ll pay for a lot.”
While Bain does get discouraged from time to time, it’s
never for long.
“I’m stubborn, for better or for worse,” Bain
said. “My acting instructor used to say, “˜Hide of a
rhino, soul of a rose.’ If you don’t like me at first,
well, I’m going to come back 10 times harder.”
At 25, Bain isn’t suffering from any “quarter-life
crisis.” He’s comfortable where he is, and that’s
making the most of life in Los Angeles. Whether he’s on set,
on campus, behind the bar at Jimmy Kimmel Live or alongside his dog
Buster on Sunset Boulevard, Bain’s got peace of mind.
“I’ve let go of my stranglehold on trying to
“˜make it,'” Bain said, “and I’ve
gotten a lot more work because of it. I’m letting the
universe breathe, so to speak. I let fate take its
course.”
Versatility seems to be Bain’s philosophy, and so far, so
good. The future isn’t freaking him out. Bain hopes to
graduate by next spring and return to acting class.
“(If things don’t work out) then I’ll reassess
my values and ask myself, “˜Hey, is this worth it
still?’ and take it from there,” Bain said.