Eric Schumacher is a critically acclaimed, multi-award-winning film, TV and multimedia actor/director/producer.Behind the scenes, Eric has produced or directed: films; streaming series; TV and radio commercials, music videos; live concerts; marketing videos; audio dramas and more.
Raised in an acting family between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area of California, USA, Eric’s parents instilled a love for the art in him and he has benefited from the mentorship and teaching of many other great artists who he’s come across in his artistic journey.
As an actor, he has a reputation for going deep into character and playing, emotionally, and sometimes physically, diverse roles. He is most notably one of only a handful of individuals to have ever played both American western legends Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday in nationally publicized productions. The most recent of the two was in the recently released mocumentary feature film Tombstone Rashomon directed by the legendary Alex Cox (Repo Man, Sid and Nancy, Walker, Etc.).
Eric is a frequent guest speaker at sci-fi conventions, comic-cons and film festivals and is the current president of Seelie Studios, LLC, a likewise multiple award-winning and ground-breaking multimedia production and marketing group specializing in niche markets. Eric has also studied the martial arts for many years.
Here Are Some Questions We Asked Eric, watch the complete interview above!
What’s been up Eric? Which project are you working on these days?
wow that’s a long answer um we have a lot of stuff going on although uh you know it’s very complex right now I think the most recent things that I can actually talk about some of them are kind of top-secret right now we have uh so the streaming series horse camp which is a western a modern western comedy series um is currently in post-production for his first season and I played a principal character in that and that was uh it was a lot of fun um and uh and also the uh the feature film the love song of “William.H.Shaw” which is a sequel to a nerd comedy set largely in a comic book store, in a game store called “Revenge of Zoey” it’s out right now and love song is currently in post-production as well so we were able to finish principal photography on both of those in-between big coveted waves so um so those are the most recent things that I can talk about…
So, Eric, you’ve been one of the only handful of people who actually played the role of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday at the same time…the most recent of the two in which you feature is Tombstone Rashomon so…would you like to comment on that? Would you like to shed some light on it?
Happy to! So, yeah Tombstone Rashomon uh first of all for those who may not be familiar with the characters Wyatt Urban, Doc Holiday is historical. They were real people uh who existed in the old American west they were um… they were very complicated people… but I guess the short summary is that Wyatt was a very famous uh lawman and the Doc was a gambler and a dentist and quite a few other things and a great uh… you know a very good gunfighter and so they’re most famous for having been involved in what is known as the gunfight of the O.K Corral which was immortalized in the movie tombstone and although doc would remind us that it was actually you know it actually didn’t take place at the O.K Corral in tombstone it took place on Fremont Street outside of the Corral. So, anyway um so those characters people have been featured as characters in many many films and so I’ve played Wyatt in a television series for Fox Tv.
And I played Doc in Tombstone which was directed by the wonderful and legendary Alex Cox who’s best known for films like “Repo man” and “Sid” and “Nancy” and a huge list of other amazing projects.
You have a great interest in science-fiction and you’re often invited as a guest speaker in conventions and all… so where does this interest come from? Is it something that you have already always liked since childhood or something or someone inspired you?
Yeah, you know I mean I was raised in an artistic family in an acting family…and so I guess you could say that I was always encouraged to uh imagine things and I and I’ve found it fascinating to you know think about and learn about different people different cultures different ways of thinking and so, I guess sci-fi was kind of a natural fit there because really at the base of it a science fiction or fantasy fan is somebody who likes to imagine different worlds and different cultures.
I mean you know when you think about Star Trek there are so many different races, it’s incredible. They’ve actually translated Hamlet into Klingon and the language is fully developed at this point.
I became fascinated with sci-fi and fantasy as a kid. definitely then when I was…I guess uh well or pre-teens um I went to a Star Trek convention in San Francisco, California where I was living at the time and uh and there, I met very briefly obviously you know there’s a line of people but I met a number of you know great performers one of them I got to see Michelle Nichols who was the original lieutenant of Hera on Star Trek speak and she was incredibly inspirational and really fascinating and actually that was one of the things that she spoke about was the social impact of Star Trek and that really got me thinking about the importance of science fiction and fantasy in terms of how you could approach really challenging subjects and get and stimulate conversation about them through something that was fantastical and extremely entertaining and so I just fell deeper and deeper in love with sci-fi.
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Loved it. Food for the creative soul. I love how Horse Camp is blending so many layers of story. Looking forward to watching!
Very nice! Eric is such a smart and in-depth actor. I love listening to him on and off screen.