John Crosthwaite: He's what you get when you cross the class clown with Shakespeare

John Crosthwaite didn't always know how best to describe himself; there was a time, in fact, he wasn't even sure he'd ever get beyond high school. In college, he finally found his calling.

"I was in a play for a final," Crosthwaite explains. "The lead got sick and had to leave during the show. I went backstage and asked the teacher what I should do. She told me to go out there and fix it,  do improv." Crosthwaite smiles as he recalls the rest of the story. "She must have seen the look on my face because she just smiled and told me to go have fun. It was like I was given the green light to destroy the world. I went out and just started making stuff up, playing around, and we fixed the show and did every scene, and it was funnier, scarier and more interesting then anything we'd ever done. I've never forgotten that. That's when I realized the power of theatre ...."

In the last six years, Crosthwaite has beeen in over 100 improv shows, 25 plays, and at least 9 films. Asked what he'd most like doing that he hasn't yet done, he exclaims excitedly, "Hamlet or a Disney bad guy. Every actor wants to play Hamlet, 'cause he's so dark, deadly, dangerous, depressed... and any other related "D" words. I'd love to also pay homage to Shakespeare and the countless other actors who've done it before. On the other hand, Disney has the best bad guy characters in the world, and I grew up a Disney cartoon kid, so that would be my career coming full circle."

When, asked what interested him about working on The Trade, Crosthwaite says, "by the time I had gotten to the audition, there were already about 20 people waiting in line, so I was a little intimidated, but I like challenging and new things, The Trade looked like both, and I followed my instincts. Nobody in Sacramento seemed to be doing anything at the time and the project really stood out."

Although Crosthwaite always had something funny to say on set, he took to his tormented part in The Trade like a second skin, no doubt inspired by those that have most influenced him. "I've always been a sucker for the witty and dangerous comedic actors; Robin Williams is my king, but Jim Carrey and Jonathan Winters have always inpired me on stage."

The old addage still seems true, that if you can do comedy, you can succeed in any other type of part. John Crosthwaite certainly proved that he could handle playing the serious and even chilling part of Tom, in this darker remake of The Trade.