Junior Mark Holzum stars in independent film ‘Welcome to Shirley’

His friends refer to him jokingly as “The Actor,” but Mark Holzum did not always want to be in the movies. Now, his name appears atop the poster for the new film “Welcome to Shirley.”

While he got his start on the stage at age 13 playing Jim in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Holzum, a junior at SLU majoring in theatre, did not take acting seriously until his junior year in high school.  A self-identified “sports guy,” Holzum first cut his acting chops as the emperor in “Amadeus.”

“That’s the first time it was work. I had to learn French,” Holzum said. “I thought ‘I’m done with this.’”

But acting was not done with him.

Holzum auditioned for and was accepted into many acting schools including Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, but ultimately selected SLU because “here I got to meet real people and live a life. I experienced a broad spectrum of what people feel,” Holzum said. “Our theatre has professionals who really know what they’re doing.”

Holzum’s first role in a SLU production was as Gerry in Brian Friel’s “Dancing at Lughnasa.” The play was directed by theatre professor Gary Barker.

“I cast him in large part because of his own personal natural charm which the character needed. He was able to find appropriately this underbelly of the character’s downfall,” Barker said.

However, their collaboration did not stop there. Before shooting for “Welcome to Shirley” commenced, Barker ran through some scenes with Holzum to help him analyze the script carefully.

“Mark, in life, is very eager to be good, and this carries over to his acting,” Barker said. He recalled how Holzum “would come to rehearsal with an openness, and really wanted anything a director can give to him to challenge him to go to the next level and deepen the performance.”

St. Louis independent filmmaker Joe Weil recognized similar traits in Holzum and cast him in “Welcome to Shirley” after just one audition.

“I saw him audition, and it was like ‘that’s the guy,’” Weil recounted. “He came in and nailed it.”

“Welcome to Shirley” was shot entirely in St. Louis over 17 days in June. The film had a miniscule budget, roughly $15,000. Taking place entirely in one day, “Welcome to Shirley” examines a mid-western family through a warm, quirky lens as they reconvene after the death of the patriarch and local bowling legend.

While the transition from the stage to the screen can be tough on actors, Holzum found it afforded him opportunities to infuse subtly into his performance, choosing to “mumble” his lines at times in favor of articulating them more theatrically. His choice to take on a more naturalistic acting style pays dividends in “Welcome to Shirley,” hitting the dramatic and comedic payoffs in equal measure. But Holzum still faced the challenges of the cinematic process.

Because of the time it takes to set up shots, there was lots of waiting on set.

“One time, in someone’s basement, I just pulled out Shoots and Ladders, and a bunch of us started playing,” Holzum said.

Similarly, unlike a stage performance, not all thespians must be on set at all times. So, Holzum did not meet the actress who plays his love interest until the day of shooting.

“I think we Skyped one weekend,” Holzum joked. “We shot the entire relationship on a Saturday, the last day of shooting. We went in complete reverse order.”

In fact, like most film productions, “Welcome to Shirley” was not shot in chronological order. The first day of shooting entailed an emotional scene between two brothers that called for animosity, shouting and cursing.

“I blow up in his face over a miniscule thing, and everything pours out,” Holzum explained. And that was just the first day.

“Every meal was pancakes. I ate a s***load of pancakes. Beer and pancakes,” Holzum said. He estimates he ate upward of thirty pancakes in a single day, and the entire cast totaled several hundred.

On Jan. 3, when “Welcome to Shirley” debuted at the Tivoli, Holzum’s family and many of his friends packed into the theatre to see him make his big screen debut.

“I’m sure we had fire hazard issues,” Holzum joked.

Junior Kevin Murphy was in the audience. A long-time friend of Holzum’s, Murphy had been excited to see his roommate on the big screen since first seeing the trailer months before.

“Seeing him up there was amazing,” Murphy said. “It didn’t seem like Mark. It seemed like his character. He was able to make his best friends forget that was him up there.”

Murphy said that he has admired Mark’s acting ability ever sense they shared the stage in high school.

“He’s doing stuff that a lot of people look at and say ‘Wow! I wish I could do that,’” Murphy said.

Holzum believes the film will resonate with viewers because it deals “with some things that I think a lot of people have to deal with. How do you deal with life when things don’t go your way, or when they do? What is your general outlook when things go down? Besides, everyone has those crazy family members.”

The film was well-received and sold out two more shows subsequently. Now, Holzum has his own page on IMDb.com, an infallible sign of celebrity.

“That’s silly,” Holzum said with a smile. He admitted that he is “trying to get a picture up there, but [doesn’t] know how.”

Even though shooting a film presented its own challenges, the experience reinforced Holzum’s desire to act in the movies. After graduating in December, he will move to L.A. in search of film roles, giving his dream a try for a couple years instead of settling for a “safer” path.

“What distinguishes Mark is that he is an ambitious young man. I forecast success for him because he was the talent, and he has the drive,” Barker said.

A follow-up project with Weil and Psycho Films is already being discussed. Details are not yet available, but Holzum hinted that the next film might be a thriller.

“If you know Mark Holzum, you know he’s a stud, and that should be reason enough to see the film,” Weil said.

Holzum and Weil are working to organize a screening of “Welcome to Shirley” on SLU’s campus.

In the meantime, Holzum hopes to enjoy his last two semesters at SLU, return to writing creatively, and take a breather from acting before moving to L.A.

Holzum said that he knows some people in L.A. who have offered to support him with “a bowl of pasta or a place to do laundry.”

Others have offered to help put him in the movies, and Holzum hopes that his experiences will work to cultivate a promising acting career.

All he’s got to do is act naturally.