In our ongoing series, Newberry News editor Carol Stiffler caught up with Newberry native Chad T. Wood, who has gone from here to Hollywood, and beyond. These comments were shared in February and saved for this issue.
Tell me about your childhood. What was Newberry like when you were growing up here? What does the “T” in Chad T. Wood stand for?
Growing up in Newberry felt pretty idyllic as a kid. The State Hospital was still in operation and Newberry had nearly twice the population it does now. Town was always bustling. The drive-up A&W and my favorite, the Paul Bunyon where all I wanted was a bowl of coleslaw and a handful of saltines from the salad bar–despite my mother’s attempts to get me to eat something else – it was really good coleslaw.
When I wasn’t in school, I was playing in the woods, biking to the lake, or playing football or kick-the-can with the neighborhood kids until dark. We had bowling leagues (my team was the Turkeys), roller and ice rinks, and a couple of arcades. And we found time to get into mischief, like jumping parked train cars and exploring abandoned buildings.
After I turned 12, I usually had summer or weekend jobs like being a go-for (go for this, go for that) for my uncle who was a carpenter, managing the front desk or cooking meals at the KOA, or working at Anderson’s Christmas Tree farm in my high school years. At school we had all the base classes, plus things like band, foreign language, shop, Natural Resources Management, debate and forensics.
The “T” stands for Travers. When getting into the SAG Actors union, there was already a “Chad Wood” registered, and I thought adding the “T” might be more memorable.
What year did you graduate from Newberry High School, and what were you involved in while you were at NHS? What might we remember you from?
I graduated from high school in 1989. I was involved in a range of sports including hockey, basketball, baseball, football, and track. I also enjoyed debate and forensics. I’m not sure what I’d be remembered for – probably having more fun than I should. But hopefully also as a good-hearted person that others enjoyed spending time with.
Which of your NHS teachers made an impact on your life?
The first teachers that came to mind are my third-grade teacher Mrs. Fahler and my fourth-grade teacher Mrs. Husband. Both had lots of patience and were creative in keeping us interested. They were also my bridging teachers between my move from Pentland school in the country to the big city of Newberry. Mr. Mills, my sixth grade history and social studies teacher, had one creative project after another, and he let me bring my pet turkey in for show and tell. In the afternoons, he would read from The Hobbit, doing unique voices for each of the characters.
In high school, Mrs. Larson made accounting interesting and was always available for life’s questions. Although I didn’t know it then, Mrs. Karchefski’s guidance in debate and forensics and her introduction to Shakespeare and more created a nice foundation I’d draw on later. Mr. Jensen sparked my curiosity about the world with his Spanish class. His patience and that introduction to a foreign language inspired my international travels throughout the years. I felt the confidence to grab a travel phrase book and simply make my way.
One teacher who became a friend was Mr. Anderson. I admired his passion for nature, strong work ethic, and unique humor. I worked on his Christmas tree farm a few seasons – too often I’d just miss seeing a jackalope he’d told me he spotted.
Finally, Mr. Maki, our computer teacher. His introduction to computer programming inspired an interest that led to competitions, scholarships, a degree, and a career that I’ve enjoyed and benefited from to this day.
I see that your career stretched wildly over various fields; can you fill us in on your next steps after high school?
After high school, I attended Northern Michigan University, intending to earn a bachelor’s degree, then head to law school. I made friends from many different cultures and walks of life. While there, opportunities like caravaning to spring break in Florida, a six-month software development internship in Springfield, Ill. and a month-long international business class trip throughout the Pacific Rim, fed my curiosity to see and experience the world. I graduated from college in 1993 with degrees in accounting and software programming.
I landed my first professional job with Schnieder National in Green Bay, Wisconsin. – a good-sized trucking company that needed a computer programmer.
I absolutely loved Green Bay. It was big enough to offer opportunity and close enough for easy visits back home. I enjoyed the work, and a year later I accepted a position with a medium size consulting firm in St. Louis, Missouri, then moved to Minneapolis a couple years later. I fell in love with Minneapolis and made it my home for 12 terrific years.
Minneapolis had a broad range of cultural, art, and business opportunities. I hadn’t considered acting before I moved there, but after a couple years, a weird series of life events led me to enroll in a theater program.
After a few years of software consulting by day and acting in the evenings, I heard about a conscious awareness coaching program from my best friend’s wife and enrolled. Here’s the concept: We usually react to life in unconscious patterns or habitual ways of being – childhood defenses, if you will. As adults, these unconscious patterns can get in the way of having fulfilling relationships. This idea was similar to preparing for acting – understanding a character and their motivations – so it seemed like a good next step.
Studying theater and human nature opened my mind about myself, others, and humanity in general. To portray a character believably, one must understand themselves and be able to suspend their thoughts and beliefs in order to become the character. That exploration, along with performing for an audience – potentially having an impact on people – never gets boring. Frustrating, scary, and thrilling at times, but never boring.
While going through the two year coaching program, I found I had a knack for working with people who wanted to make changes in their lives, so I started a coaching business while still doing software and acting.
The coaching program curriculum included a few multi-week training courses per year in southern California. Although I enjoyed Minneapolis, I was excited to try acting in TV and film. I was in my mid-thirties and it seemed like a now or never situation. In 2008, I sold my home in Minneapolis and moved to Los Angeles. I slowly got involved with a theater and began making connections and inroads into the acting community. At first, I did mostly small theater and non-union projects but by 2011, I’d worked my way into the SAG union and got an agent. This allowed me to audition and land work at the professional level.
When spring of 2021 rolled around, I was a bit burned out on the city and the entertainment industry. So, I put my belongings into storage and moved back to Michigan for the summer to reconnect with my family. In October I received an offer to move to West Virginia as part of a remote-worker program to introduce people to the state. I’d heard about it on NPR eight months prior and had sent in a submission. Ready to explore east coast states, I accepted the offer. West Virginia turned out to be a fabulous state and its proximity to Michigan made trips back to see family convenient. Little did I know that my mother would pass away in June 2022, but by following my impulses to take a break from LA, I was gifted with spending a good part of that last year with her.
By the end of 2022, I felt a renewed passion for acting. I arrived back in LA in the spring of 2023, just in time for the writer’s strike. The actor’s strike soon followed, so not much industry work happened that year. Networks struggled last year, too, and projects were down about 60%. The industry has been finding its way back and I’m looking forward to seeing what 2025 brings.
Somehow, you manage to work in all these fields to this day. What is a typical day like for you? Which of your careers takes up most of your workday?
My days can vary, which keeps things interesting. Acting can be feast or famine. Fortunately, software programming and life coaching offer flexibility, so when I book a gig, be it a play, a TV show or a movie, the project’s schedule often dictates my day and my other work fills in around it.
On an average day, I’ll get up and do a bit of meditating and a quick jog. If I have an audition, I might spend part of the morning working that, then some software programing, maybe gym or some outdoor time for lunch, a few more hours of programming, and maybe a coaching call peppered in here and there. Currently, I’m also wrapping up the last class of a master’s degree in organizational leadership, so studying and homework take up a good bit of time.
As an actor, what roles have you enjoyed playing? Where might we have seen you?
Most roles I’ve played have been enjoyable in one way. Some of my favorite roles have been in live theater, but you would have had to be in Minneapolis or LA to see those.
A couple of very satisfying roles were in Shakespearean plays, but my favorite theater role was the character of Henry Harry in a play called Brilliant Traces. A man isolates himself in a remote Alaskan cabin between six-week shifts on an oil rig. The play begins during a white-out blizzard when a woman in a torn wedding dress stumbles into his cabin and passes out. The play is 90 minutes long with no breaks, and the characters never leave the stage. As the play progresses the audience learns that the man is struggling with guilt over the accidental death of his two-year-old daughter. It was a labor of love put on in a small theater – one of those artist things where you don’t make any money, but the experience is priceless.
From a film perspective, a favorite role was playing Vicent Bugliosi in Manson’s Lost Girls. He was the real-life prosecutor of Charles Manson, and besides being one of my first union film roles, it gave me a chance to play an attorney–a fun nod to my father and brother’s careers. (I rubbed it in that I didn’t have to attend law school or pass the bar.)
As for television, one of my favorite roles so far was playing a warden in The Orville series. The character was a bit of a villain, and the size of the role offered time to really enjoy it.
Forgive me, but you’d make a very convincing “bad guy” – I think it’s your intense eyes and bald head. How do you feel about playing the bad guy?
Thanks, I think (laugh). Playing the “bad guy” can certainly be fun because it offers a safe way to experience behavior that I wouldn’t normally do. However, I will say that I try not to label a character I’m portraying as good or bad. For an actor, judging their character as “good” or “bad” can get in the way of creating an authentic portrayal of the character. Most people don’t see themselves as “bad” no matter what their behavior. Instead, people find ways to justify or deny their behavior, no matter how questionable or obvious it is. My challenge as an actor is to set aside my morals and beliefs and side with the character by finding justification for their behavior and allow myself to comfortably behave as they would.
As a holistic health and life coach, what piece of advice do you think most of us can benefit from?
Hmm, that’s a tough question because everyone is so unique. If happiness and connection with someone you care about is the goal, I’d say a great place to start would be letting go of the need to be right and/or make the other person wrong. We’ve been trained to interpret the world through a right/wrong lens, it’s a tactic that has been used on us and we use on others. But the fact is, right/wrong seldom really exist–it’s just one person’s preference versus another’s, and seldom are those preferences based on facts. Declaring we are right is a manipulation we use to give our preference more clout and get others to do what we prefer.
The next time you are interacting with someone whom you care about, and you sense a disagreement between the right or wrong way, see if you can muster the courage to rephrase your view as a preference. To do this, you’ll first need to have respect for the person, which is why I suggest starting with someone you care about. You’ll also need to be willing to let go of getting your preference satisfied. But if you can, you will certainly have a more fulfilling connection with the other person, and you might just learn something new because you’ll spend less time trying to be right.
What do you do with your free time? Do you actually have free time??
I feel fortunate to have more free time than most. I try to exercise or workout each day. When I can, I love getting time in nature – whether hiking or kayaking or just doing yardwork. I’m often working on a DIY project for family and friends that saves them money or just makes their life more enjoyable; that’s very rewarding to me. And recently, I bought a guitar in hopes of finally teaching myself to play.
Where are you now? Do you plan to stay there long?
Currently, I’m in Los Angeles and lately I’ve been splitting my time between here and Grand Rapids, Mich. I’ve got an upcoming trip to Montana in a few weeks where I hope to get some winter hiking at Glacier National Park and later in the spring I’ll be spending a couple of weeks in Italy.
Do you get back to Newberry often? Does it still feel like home?
I enjoy going back to Newberry a few times a year as I still have some family and friends there that I visit. I think I will always have a fond feeling of home when I visit Newberry, although it’s changed quite a bit since I last lived there.
