Lynnwood to Hollywood: Local actor finds success on the big screen

Published 1:30 am Sunday, September 4, 2022

LYNNWOOD — On the eve of the pandemic, Jon Meggison set out to become a professional film actor. At the time he sold cellphones for Verizon. He had no prior acting experience. No formal training. No industry connections.

“I’m a big competitor,” said Meggison, 29. “I had to prove to myself that it was something that I could do.”

Over the past two years Meggison worked his way up, from small projects to local TV commercials. In 2021, the Lynnwood resident starred in his first feature-length independent film, “A Haunting in Ravenwood.” He followed that with a movie called “Conjuring the Beyond,” released in July.

This October, he’ll fly to Atlanta for a role in his first Hollywood-produced movie. Meggison has three scenes in the script for “The Legend of Johnny Jones,” starring Danny Trejo, of “Machete” and “Breaking Bad” fame. In the upcoming film, Trejo plays a cartel boss and Meggison is one of his underlings.

“I’m hoping doing this film is going to kick that door open that I’ve been knocking at for the last year and a half,” Meggison said.

Meggison is a rare talent in the industry, having no prior acting experience. He never starred in school plays (he was on Mariner High School’s basketball team). He didn’t pursue acting in college or any formal training either, unlike many actors he’s met.

“I had no interest (in acting),” Meggison said. “It never even crossed my mind to do what I do now.”

Meggison’s acting journey started on a whim, in 2019, when he decided to try print modeling. He thought the side hustle could be fun.

“I’ve always been comfortable in front of cameras and taking pictures,” he said. “So I figured, why not do it and get paid to do it?”

In April of that year, he signed with Seattle Talent and did a few commercial photo shoots with the modeling/acting agency.

But Meggison initially struggled to find modeling gigs, so Seattle Talent owner Hank Ritter encouraged him to give acting a try. In December 2019, an acting coach invited Meggison to audition in an actor showcase called The Celebrity Experience.

“I just had to go. Something in my gut was telling me, ‘Just go.’ So I took the risk,” Meggison said. He flew down to Los Angeles to audition, with nothing but his plane ticket, a suitcase and a few bucks in his wallet.

After the showcase, the actors received a list of talent agents interested in signing them. Meggison’s number of callbacks? Zero.

“It made me really mad,” the actor said. On the plane ride home, he replayed the audition in his head, over and over. After the anger subsided, he realized this was a learning opportunity and decided not to take the rejection as a “no,” but instead as a “not right now.”

“It took a lot for me to even get on this plane, go out to L.A., get on this stage in front of all these people, the professionals in the industry. And I was like, I’m not going to take this as, oh, I should quit. Because I’m a real hard-headed person,” he said. “And I don’t do things to try. If I’m going to do it, then I’m going to do it. So I took that as a motivator.”

From that moment forward, Meggison spent every day working on his craft. He studied. He read books. He watched acting tutorials on YouTube. He practiced monologues in front of his bathroom mirror. Then he started looking for work.

Meggison searched through the end credits of films for the names of Seattle-area filmmakers and casting directors. He reached out to several and offered to do free gigs so he could build up his resume and demo reel. He joined Facebook groups for local actors and started networking. He made his own opportunities.

“I’ve noticed a lot of actors or actresses will wait for projects to come up,” Meggison said. “And I’m not the type of person to wait. So I went out and found things myself and just thought outside of the box.”

The effort eventually paid off. Meggison landed his first role in a short film called “Operation Y2K.” He drove down to Portland for filming in March 2020. He hasn’t gotten word on when the project will release, but the experience forever left its mark on the aspiring actor.

“That was the film that really let me know this is what I want to do for the rest of my life,” he said. “Being on the set, I was so comfortable. The energy, the people, just everything about it. The lights. The cameras. I was so drawn to it. And then from that day, it was like, yeah, this is what I actually want to do.”

From there things snowballed. Meggison made connections, got more clips for his reel and kept landing gigs. By the end of 2020, he had acted in 11 film projects and two commercials.

“At the end of the year, I made a name for myself out here with the local filmmakers,” Meggison said. “And then from there, everything grew and took off.”

Today, Meggison is signed with Eris Talent Agency, but he’s kept in touch with Ritter. The Seattle Talent owner attributed Meggison’s success to his tenacity, saying it’s uncommon for someone with little acting experience to get bookings, even in independent films.

“He’s been relentless about this,” Ritter said. “I wish I could say all of the different jobs he’s gotten has been because of us, but it really has been because of Jon.”

The acting industry is a numbers game, Ritter said, and it takes an aggressive person like Meggison to break through. Meggison isn’t in it for the fame, Ritter added: He wants to make a living as a full-time working actor.

In the beginning, Meggison took whatever job he could get. That will change after filming “The Legend of Johnny Jones.” Meggison said he’s now at a point where he can pursue quality over quantity, of taking on projects that challenge him and make him a better actor.

“I’m working to solidify myself in the industry,” Meggison said. “At the end of the day, when it comes to my career, I want to go as far as I can.”

Eric Schucht: 425-339-3477; eric.schucht@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @EricSchucht.

Sound & Summit

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