Drew Waters Quotes

We have a slate of four films. From Karen Young - the USA bestselling author - we have Blood Bayou. Again, we're relying on the story to tell itself and the characters tell it and not (relying on) shock value. It's a suspenseful drama...The best way I can describe it is Pelican Brief meets Time to Kill.

I was more of kind (who was better at) building businesses and selling them. That was a big thing for me. I was very good at that. I wasn't good as a boss. I was either your best friend or your worst enemy. I didn't balance the two very well. (So) I sold them.

What footprint do you want to be known for? (It's) the legacy and the journey that you're on. Trust in yourself. Trust in the passion you have (inside) yourself.

I was gonna open a gym and was in negotiation to buy the gym I was working out at. It was a small mom-and-pop and (the owner) wanted to move back to the west coast. My wife at (that) time came down with skin cancer.

We were young. We were 23. I was a kid, growing up, that would burn and fry. I didn't understand why. We did all this study and research and learned so much about skin cells and rejuvenation and how the body works and (how) everybody is different. (We) learned what doctors do for treatment of certain things and so I changed my direction and opened up a skin-care company - healthy tanning, skin-care products and rejuvenation and all of that and it took off.

I traveled the world ten times over doing something I never thought I'd do in a million years. I found myself in Tokyo, Japan. I (was in) a Dell Computer commercial, the first thing I had ever done, and I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the green screens, I fell in love with (everything). The translator was explaining everything to me. It was a passion like I had never felt before. I came back and it took me five years to really accept that that was okay.

And each one of them has a redemptive message. Blood Bayou's redemptive message is (about forgiveness). Can you forgive somebody? Can you come back (from the hurt)? (Can you find_ your way back from it. Can people change and can you forgive somebody?

In the Navy, I was introduced to the modeling world and something I never thought I would do in a million years. I never thought about doing it...I was kind of against doing it for a while until he introduced me to an agent. I went down to this big event (and they wanted me as a model) So, I was getting out of the military and decided to take that opportunity.

The biggest message, we hope, is that money is not the most important thing in life. You have to have it to survive and live but it's not the most important thing in life. It's the legacy you leave and the people that you wrap around you and the love that you have wrapped around you (that) should be the most important thing.

I made the decision (that), if I was gonna do this, I was gonna do it 100% because before in my life I had been an entrepreneur. It was weird. I would wake up in the morning (saying) "You know what? I'm gonna do this." (I'd) set out (and) in three months (I'd) have a new business on its way. I didn't stop and think about the repercussions of anything. I just did it. I moved forward in doing it to succeed.

Rick Eldridge over at Reelworks Studios has the same vision that I have. They want to make good family quality product with a redemptive message underneath to allow people to open their hearts and minds. That (mindset) really drew me to The Ultimate Life...Their vision and what they want to do very similar to me and Erin.

I try to learn something from every character I take on. I try to better myself personally from it and Red allowed me to go ahead and accept what I did. Even though I had passion driving me, I still felt a little guilty that I gave up all the businesses in the pursuit of happiness.

When I read it and I realized that Michael Landon, Jr. was the director of it, I thought...this could work out well. This is not gonna be a hard stretch for me to get the character figured out at all. Outside of the billion dollars, I was living his life...chasing money down. It was a lot of fun.

I moved to the east coast when everybody else was going to the west coast. I (then) chased it back toward the west coast. I built my career up by doing small roles (which led) to principal roles and getting bumped into main character roles.

When I woke up later, I had established all these businesses and we were growing and everything was going well and I was miserable because I was chasing money and not happiness. I decided that day in August that I would quit chasing money and start chasing passion and allow the money to grow around me...I wanted to have passion in my life to show my girls to live by passion.

I love taking on challenges. I think one of the funnest things in acting is creating a character - wrapping yourself around a character and bringing him to life. I love a lot of different genres. I'm not a big horror guy by any means but I love the challenge. But the fifties and sixties is where I feel the most comfortable.

Jesus was a storyteller with amazing messages wrapped around them. What we want to do is get back to that. I'm not a preacher. I'm not the person on Sunday. I am the person that is trying to figure out life and wants to be pushed to be a better person. The first one that we're in production with right now is called Nouvelle Vie.

It's the purest form of silver and our tagline is "Taking the 'except fors' out of movies." We're trying to make movies with pure story - without the derogatory sex, violence and language to (rely on) a good story.

Well, you know, it's been in the back of my mind. I just cannot get it out of it. I'm miserable chasing money. I'm 30 years old going through a mid-life crisis!" I just couldn't shut (it) off.

As luck would have (it was) in God's hands. It was me...The billionaire (part) was a stretch but I thought the almighty dollar was the way to be happy...and I woke up one morning and I had three retail establishments and a full-blown construction company with partners making great money and I was miserable.

The problem was with construction and retail, you have to be able to shut things off at night and spend quality time with yourself and family. I couldn't do it. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to give 100% to my passion if I held on to them.

I talked to my partners (about) the decision I wanted to do and we all wished each other good luck. My partners have been very successful in the companies that we've created. They're very happy about it and have the mindset to run them and do well with them.

Don't rely on the money to drive you. Allow the passion to drive you and allow people to come into your life that love you the most and (who want to) enjoy that journey with you.

I've changed my ways - from what roles I was picking till now. I don't do straight "faith" movies. It's one thing I always tell people. I'm not a preacher, I'm a sinner. I'm still learning and falling in a journey that God has me on and doing the best I can.

I want to make movies - and I want to portray characters - that make people think. I want to make movies that have a redemptive message. I want to tell good quality stories and take out the derogatory sex, violence and language.

(I want to) make good stories that have a redemptive message and allow people to dig into their own lives and personal struggles and go "Am I like this? Do I have these flaws too?" and open up a conversation.

That's the most important thing when you're trying to portray a character for the audience to believe, you have to have the ability to journey in uncomfortable areas in your own personal life - to bring them out and make (the characters) true. Michael Landon is incredible at pulling those (emotions) out of you.

I'm a big fan of James Garner. That was the other thing. When I heard that I'd get to play his younger years, (I thought) things are looking up. Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet him. He was in bad health at the time. I was a big fan of his for a long, long time - and still am! I think he's a great actor to follow a career path with.

You know, Longmire and all those other great (whodunit) series, I would love to one of those. We just haven't found the right one...I really am, I think, an old soul, I think, in the acting world. I'm very comfortable in the fifty, sixties era. I love it.

One thing I've never been accused of is slowly coming into something. I always go full on (and ask) "Now how do we make this work?"

I had so many other things I could fall back on as an entrepreneur (with multiple businesses). When I finally was true to myself and what I wanted to do - and acting was it - there was nothing else I could think of. I thought "If I fail, I'm falling hard (because) I don't have anything else to fall back on. Am I going to accept that?"...I never looked back. I never (let myself) put it in my mind to fail.

When I decided to take on acting as a career and a profession, I didn't know much about it. I knew that I was passionate about it. There was nothing else I could think of that I wanted to do and that's when I knew it was the right choice. It was also one of the scariest moments of my life.

One day I realized that that was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I wanted to chase my dream and I wanted to show my young daughter that it's okay to chase your dreams. So, I set out to do it.

I had retail businesses. They were beauty businesses, skin care and all that. I got into that as a fluke. I was going to open up a gym. I just had a Men's Fitness cover come out that was the third bestselling of Men's Fitness covers.

We didn't push it down people's throats...One turned into three in a short period of time. I built the first one and...one day someone walked in and said "You know, I really like the design on this. Who built that?" I said "I did." He goes "Well, would you be interested in building me one?" I went "Yeah, I'll do that."

Me and my family growing up, we cleared our land built our homes and all that. So, I was very well knowledgeable in the construction world. That turned into a commercial development company and construction company.