Getting To The Soul of Actor, C.Thomas Howell AKA Pony Boy

Recently I had the opportunity to have a conversation with C. Thomas Howell.

Known to some as Tom, Tommy or C. T.; Mr. Howell had some fascinating insights to share about his life from his childhood on the rodeo circuit to doing feature films with directors Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola among many others.

He also handed out some powerful tidbits about how he utilizes his views of the universe in his daily life. It's all fun stuff and what I love process…the spirit of things.

Tom is still as handsome as in days when he was featured on teen magazines just now with the mellow tones that life gives. He shared some deep perspectives on what propels him to work with and motivate young people and adults alike.

His views here will shock some, but others who know him as a warm and engaging friend, a hardworking actor and loving family man with three amazing children, won’t be surprised at all. They will see it as another layer of an enigmatic character who strives to give everything he does his maximum output.

C. Thomas Howell has appeared in more than 90 projects including, ET, The Hitcher, Red Dawn and H. G. Well’s War of the Worlds. His breakout role as Ponyboy Curtis in the Outsiders in 1983 set the stage for him to appear in other major movies. For that role he received the Michael Curtis Young Artist Award. It was also the first but not the last film he did with actor Patrick Swayze.

Since 2009, Tom has had a reoccurring role on the TNT hit, Southland, where he plays the ‘hard to like but never to be forgotten,’ Officer Billy (Dewey) Dudek. This is a part where he was only scheduled to be on the first episode. Yet the writers are still putting him in. He hopes that this year when the show shoots in the fall that he is put on to stay.

His character is such a part of the universal paradigm we are in now in this country. Dewey is an inescapable piece of who we are as a people. There in lies the fascination.

He shared a story with me about how he was recently in a grocery store when a woman came up to him and looked right into his eyes.

She asked him, “Aren’t you Dewey in Southland?”

When he answered to the affirmative she gave him the look of death and said vehemently, “I hate you!”

He said it left him a bit shaken but when he had time to think about it, he realized that things like that are the powerful elements of being an actor…the believability factor. It’s an incident he shares and laughs about now.

“When you can make them believe it is real then you are doing your job,” he said.

In his mind, Dewey is an archetype of humanity. It is a role that he finds draws people to him all the time when he is out in a crowd. Many people can relate to Dewey because he reminds them of someone, either themselves, a friend, coworker or relative with some of the same cringe worthy yet very human attributes.

“Dewey represents what some people are feeling but maybe not saying or expressing. The man is flawed. He is racist, chauvinistic and an alcoholic, but deep down he has a strong sense of what is right or wrong. He went through rehab and is trying to redeem himself. This character is a catalyst to reflection on oneself. Dewey makes people think about things and perhaps how they can change.”

This he loves. It’s the type of role where his unique brand of acting can really come about. He knew this role was a hard one where he could be harshly judged. Yet he has passion for the part and it has strengthened his acting and his life.

He is working hard on many projects at the moment. He recently finished filming The Amazing Spiderman due to come out in 2012 and an episode of Torchwood which will be out this summer 2011. Sure to show up on the Torchwood blooper reel is the funny kiss on the mouth that he gave to Scottish-American actor John Barrowman in a hectic moment on set.

Tom Howell is down to earth and entertaining. His detailed memory is just like a book. Join us in our next installment when he talks about his days on the Junior Rodeo Circuit and spooky sightings after filming ET.