‘Ladies & Gentlemen: The Great and Powerful, Tim Holmes!’

Interviewed by: Russell A. Trunk

Tim Holmes, a Lansing, Michigan-born, action-suspense actor and stuntman and father of three-year-old twin boys, has successfully transformed his career as a firefighter into becoming a Hollywood actor.

Holmes began his career in entertainment by successfully pursuing music and was able to parlay his contacts into a thriving acting career, appearing in afternoon soap operas, B films and various other TV pilot projects.

In 2011 Tim was seen in multiple feature films, including DreamWorks Pictures’ ‘Real Steel,’ Raw Nerve’s ‘Hostel 3,’ Sony Pictures’ ‘S.W.A.T.: Firefight’ and in 2012 he appeared in QED Internationals’ ‘Alex Cross.’

And with the just-released ‘Oz the Great and Powerful,’ Holmes in the role of The Strongman has just become a break-out star!

‘Oz the Great and Powerful’ is a 2013 American fantasy adventure film directed by Sam Raimi, produced by Joe Roth, and written by David Lindsay-Abaire and Mitchell Kapner. The film stars James Franco as Oscar Diggs, Mila Kunis as Theodora, Rachel Weisz as Evanora, and Michelle Williams as Glinda.

Chatting recently with the Strongman himself Tim Holmes, taking it from the top, I first wondered (being that he is actually a Fireman by trade) when he had first gotten the firefighting bug? “I became a fireman in the late 90`s in Los Angeles CA. I was freaking out a bit because I did not make a career yet in the entertainment business. So I decided I better get a back up gig and a fireman was my choice.”

Born here in Lansing, MI do you still live and work here or have you moved to Hollywood? “I live in the house I grew up in, in Michigan from April to October and travel in and out alot to California for auditions, meetings and acting work throughout that period. From November to March I live full time in Los Angeles. We have a place there in Woodland Hills, CA. Depending on where this acting career takes me will depend on where we live full time.”

“If I hopefully keep working in film I can keep the same schedule. Yet if I get a gig as a series regular on a TV series I would have to relocate with me and my family to that area for the run of the show.”

And the same question applies to your acting bug? When did that first bite you? “I got the bug in junior high school when I was in jazz band. We used to play alot of events and I would have to go out front of the jazz band and do my trumpet solos. The thrill of being on the spot in front of people was a great rush for me. I then took drama class the next semester and got the the same rush. And so the acting/performing bug bite me, baby!”

 

Read the rest of the interview at Anne Carlini

How To Make It In Hollywood with Tim Holmes on FOX 2

See the interview here.

Actor Pulls Back Curtain in OZ Movie on Dr. Carole’s Couch

 

Tim Holmes, plays the circus Strongman in the box- office hit movie Oz: The Great and Powerful. He takes us behind the scenes to reveal what it was like to work on this blockbuster, and how he realized his dream of being featured in it.

Listen to the interview on VoiceAmerica

 

Lansing man relishes ‘Oz’ strongman role

Tim Holmes worked hard to get right look

By: Mike Hughes

So there was Lansing’s Tim Holmes, asked to strip for some of the most important people in movies.

Sam Raimi — the Michigan State University alumnus who directed the “Spider-Man” films — was there. So was Joe Roth, producer of movies with Johnny Depp, Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise.

They were casting him in “Oz,” but wanted to be sure he’d look fine in a circus strongman suit. The reaction when he removed his shirt? “Sam said, ‘You are going to work out, aren’t you?’ ” Holmes said.

YES he would, Holmes said. “You only get one chance like this. … Film is forever.”

Especially this film. “Oz” was No. 1 in its opening weekend, making an estimated $80 million in the U.S.; the next nine films combined for $45.5 million. It’s heading toward $300 million, with about the same overseas. Then comes TV, cable and more.

Holmes, 45, wanted his forever image to be right. “I worked out seven days a week” for 10 weeks.

Then filming started, on seven sprawling sound stages in Pontiac. He hit a gym at 5 a.m. daily; by 7, he was in his trailer … which had more barbells. This strongman would be large and menacing.

And that, a friend said, is the opposite of the real-life Holmes. “In high school, he was pretty much a band geek,” Laura Farhat Bramson recalled fondly. “He was a gentle, kind guy.”

She worked with him at the Country Parlour ice cream restaurant and they hung out afterward. “He was a real goofball,” Bramson said. He was also, she said, “ridiculously good-looking.”

That may have led to a sometimes-wild youth. “I was a problem child,” Holmes granted.

Read the rest of the article at Lansing State Journal

Tim Holmes from “Oz the Great and Powerful” in The Detroit News

By Tom Long

Tim Holmes had gotten the part. He was set to play Strongman in “Oz the Great and Powerful.” It was a dream come true.

And then he had to take his shirt off in front of director Sam Raimi.

“I’m sitting in a little onesie bathing suit-leotard thing. And man, I was out of shape, bro,” Holmes says on the phone from Los Angeles.

“This was like a year into me and my wife having twins. I was sleep-deprived; I hadn’t been to the gym in over a year. I weighed about 220 and it was not in-shape 220.“

“Sam was like, ‘You’re going to work out, right? We’re shooting this thing in six-to-eight weeks.'”

Holmes, who was born and raised in Lansing and still lives there much of the year, worked out; twice a day, in fact. And he started gorging himself — “Ice cream, weight-gaining shakes three times a day, steaks, carbohydrates, potatoes” — in an effort to add more and more muscle to his frame.

Read the rest of the interview in Detroit News

OZ The Great and Powerful

By: Rick

To book the part of “The Strongman” in Oz The Great and Powerful Tim Holmes, a firefighter from Lansing, had the idea of creating his own audition piece by making a short film on location. When he uploaded it to his agency, they only agreed to submit this unconventional audition piece after much convincing. However, when Sam Raimi, the Michigan-born director, saw the piece, he requested reference letters from past productions Tim Holmes had worked on. They were sent in on a Monday morning and Tim Holmes got the part that afternoon.

When Tim met with the director at Raleigh Studios in Michigan, Sam asked him in the nicest possible way if he was going to work out at the gym for this role. Tim explained he had not worked out in over a year because he and his wife were raising newborn twin boys at the time. However, from that point forth, Tim committed to training every day and to continue to do so during shooting.Tim weighed 220 lbs when he started training. He was up to 245 lbs. by the end of shooting. He trained every day, sometimes twice a day.

“I would train before I went to set at 5am and continue throughout the day in my dressing room. I did no cardio, only lifted heavy weights, ate everything I could think of, and spent a thousand dollars a month on weight-gain powder, protein powder and 10 other things the huge guy at the health food store told me to take. Weighing that much was strange to adjust to. I bumped into walls in my home. I actually fell out of the shower and broke the shower curtain rod. When I would tie my shoes, I would be out of breath from bending over,”Tim said.

Tim also immersed himself in the Strongman role by researching the lives of carnival strongmen from the past. He would walk around in costume all day, to lunch and rehearsals. He had pictures of carnival strongmen in his room.

Read the rest of the article and interview at Livingston Parent Journal

Tim Holmes, The Strong Man in Disney’s OZ The Great and Powerful, Joins LCO’s VP Zuzana Korda, at The Premier on Wednesday 2/13/2013