actor William Erickson discusses his budding career

For a 13-year-old who has not yet entered high school, William Erickson is keeping awfully busy these days. Fresh into his teen years, the Lee resident has already acted in six independent films, along with numerous television commercials, theater productions, videos and now a PBS reality game show. On top of that, Erickson sings, plays piano, models clothing and runs track. What a showoff.

Erickson, who enters his freshman year at Oyster River High School this fall, recently appeared in the second season of the PBS children’s series “Fetch with Ruff Ruffman.” He described the series as a reality game show hosted by an animated dog who sends six contestants on a variety of challenges. “I became very good friends with those (five) kids. We got along pretty well,” Erickson said.

The young actor spent the entire summer of 2006 filming the series in a studio and at locations across the country. His favorite challenges included swimming in a race against a dolphin in Florida and riding the Silver Bullet roller coaster. All 20 episodes ran daily over four weeks last month, and reruns will air in August.  

Erickson also recently appeared in a national TV commercial for Subway. The commercial advertises a Scrabble game that begins July 16, making customers eligible for prizes. “People start winning and they start splattering Coke everywhere because they’re so happy. Me and my mom and my sister are drenched in Coke,” Erickson explained. “A scene before that, a guy wins and he starts making out with a girl, so it’s a pretty interesting commercial.”

Erickson’s most recent film appearance was in a short comedy called “Entropy,” directed by Nathan Ehrlich. Willie plays a troubled boy named Daniel, who struggles to cope with the loss of his mother while dealing with his irritable father and his own physical handicaps. “He had a lot of problems because he had one leg shorter than the other and he couldn’t walk, and his dad always got mad at him for not walking, even though his dad couldn’t walk either,” Erickson said. The role was challenging enough to require a stunt double, who executes many of young Daniel’s falls.

On top of all that, Erickson recently sang on a record of songs written by Paul Edward Yalen, and he models products for the McKevin Company, which offers resources for aspiring filmmakers. Despite all the activity, he still found time to run track and cross country at Oyster River Middle School, and he plans to continue running in high school.

Erickson’s mother, Marianne, is pleased with her son’s acting accomplishments, but she wants him to keep his head out of the stars long enough to complete his education. “He’s got his work cut out for him. If he wants to keep continuing with it, he’s gonna have to excel in school,” Marianne said.

Willie is following in the footsteps of his 15-year-old brother, KC, who also began acting at a young age. KC’s acting career has slowed down since he entered high school, but Willie hopes to keep going strong. “It’s been a lot of years to get to this point,” Marianne said. “He works hard. When he has an audition, he’ll learn his lines and do what he needs to do, and then we see the final result when he books the job.”

The process didn’t always go so smoothly. When Willie went to his first audition about eight years ago, he wasn’t so sure acting was for him. “When I was about five, I went on my first audition, but I said no because I was too shy,” he said. “But then I got over it as I went on more and more because I saw my brother doing it.”

Once he got comfortable with the auditioning process, everything else fell into place. His mother scoured the Internet in search of acting roles, and Willie began landing parts in film and theater. He acted in plays at his elementary and middle schools, and played Tiny Tim in productions of “A Christmas Carol” at the Palace Theatre in Manchester in 2003 and 2004.
“It became kind of a way of life for him, and he just naturally grew into it,” Marianne said. “He’s having fun with it. I think he would like to do it professionally when he’s older, but he’s still young now so he has a lot of other options.”

The young thespian dreams of one day landing a lead role in a major Hollywood film—and he wants to do so sooner than later. “That’s pretty much my goal right now,” he said. “I wanna get it as a child, too, at my age or before I become an adult. I want to get the experience as a kid.” 

Although he sometimes gets a little nervous before an audition, Erickson said he never gets butterflies in front of the camera. He enjoys watching himself on-screen, and although he occasionally cringes at his own performance, nailing a scene more than makes up for it. “I like the whole environment of it. I like being in front of the camera, and I definitely like the experience, and I think it’d be really cool to meet a bunch of famous actors and star in a lead role,” he said.

Erickson’s favorite professional actor is Shia LaBeouf, the hot young star of “Transformers.” Other favorites include “Pirates of the Caribbean” stars Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. “It used to be Tom Cruise, but I’ve heard a lot of bad things about Tom Cruise,” he noted. 

Erickson’s recent role in “Fetch” has brought him notoriety among his classmates and teachers, but his budding acting career has not distracted him too much from his schoolwork. Filming for “Fetch” occurred during the summer, and he only misses about one day of school every five or six weeks for the sake of acting. He has his own Web site at www.williamerickson.info, and a link to his profile is included on the PBS Web site at www.pbskids.org/fetch/show/index. Willie even has his own agent, and his mother is always there to act as his personal manager.