Prather
At the tail end of 2017, Memphis native John Prather published his first novel, a biblical thriller titled The Nephilim Virus. Writing, however, isn’t his only skill. Now living in Los Angeles with his wife, Mindi, his multifaceted career has included experience in film, television, and modeling. Prather took a break from shooting a commercial in Malibu to discuss acting, Hollywood, and his new book.
Memphis magazine: Tell me a little bit about this shoot you’re doing this week?
John Prather: I can’t tell you who it was with, there are always non disclosures to keep it under wraps. It was a commercial shoot though, where I play a superhero. It’s a production company I worked with a couple of years ago, and they really liked me. They came back around again and they had the same character, so they used me for a couple days of shooting in Malibu for some commercials, and then we went to Hollywood for print shoots for magazines, billboards, website, and all that kind of stuff.It’s been a lot of fun, and I love doing that type of stuff. Television, you kind of work on stuff that can go on and on, but commercials are just a couple of days. It can be tough as far as having a deadline, but this shoot was super interesting.
A few weeks ago we shot a commercial, and we took a day to do it. For this shoot, we did five spots in a single day, which meant that everyone really had to be on point. It’s unbelievable how much time goes into a 30 second or 1-minute television spot. But, this crew was great. We had a great director who had a vision for what he wanted, and then he moved on. So, we didn’t take any time overdoing things, as some directors might like to do. Some people hate them, but I really enjoy commercials, especially if you’re working with fun people. Everyone’s got that good energy going in, like “we’re only working on this for two days instead of a few months!”
I think the company will redo this character every year; they’re great people and I really enjoy working with them. If I were a betting guy, I bet they’d have me back to do it again next year. It’s great to be liked enough by this group; like any industry, once you get to know it it’s a small world. If people hear you’re not a nice person to be around, then it’ll get back to other people. Then, a casting director might not bring you back even if you were phenomenal.
It looks like you’ve got a few projects going on out there in California. Can you give us a bit of an overview of your career so far?
Out here, you have to diversify to have a chance. It’s a tough market in L.A., a big market where you have a million people show up to auditions. I’ll go to an audition, and there will be 30 other guys, and they’re all a bit better looking or have a better resume, and are probably more talented. It’s a tough industry, so it’s good to have multiple talents, like for people who can act, sing, and dance. I don’t sing and dance, but I do some acting and then modeling, mostly in the fitness industry. Then, I also wrote a book, my first novel just got published! I do a little bit of each, which helps. I actually got into all this back in Memphis, where I’d do a few local things that would come through town and ended up with a couple of smaller commercials or print projects. Maybe eight years ago, not as much stuff came through. I did some things there, but I always knew I would move to L.A. So, I moved out here, threw everything in the back of the truck with no job. I’d never been to L.A., but I took the two day drive out and thought I’d try my hand at it.
I got lucky at first, especially with some of the fitness modeling stuff. I did Men’s Health right off the bat. WIth the fitness modeling, it’s good, because you have to work your way up to the bigger magazines. For the smaller ones, the shoots are a bit tougher, a bit longer, and aren’t quite at the level of the bigger publications. In that sense, I was lucky to get a few big magazines right off the bat, which meant that I didn’t have to spend as much time working my way up. After that, I landed Muscle and Fitness, and I do them several times a year now. I was on the cover once, and then in the magazine every few months. I’ve also done GQ and People magazine.
For commercials, I booked my first one in L.A. I had no idea what I was doing. I actually walked into the audition room and nobody was there, so I went into the back office and said “I’m here for the audition.” I looked like a complete rookie, and the guy there was like “no no you can’t be in here, go back outside!” So he took me back to the audition anyway and I was lucky enough to book that. It was a really fun one, and I played the superhero in that one as well.
I’ve done some television stuff too. I was on WWE, and then on Scream Queens, the Ryan Murphy show, and then a few web series. I also did an independent film and some other things in that vein.
In addition to all that, you have your new book, The Nephilim Virus, that was recently published. Can you elaborate on the process of completing that and talk about the premise?
I’ve always felt like a writer at heart, but I never just sat down and finished something. So, three years ago, I did sit down and finished a manuscript. It wasn’t very good, but it showed me that I had the ability to finish a project, so I began working on a new book, which has now been published.
I had an idea floating around that involved a virus that infected most of the world, but I didn’t quite know what the story was. There are a couple of strange verses in the book of Genesis about the sons of God sleeping with the daughters of men and creating the race of Nephilim. So then the idea became, how would the world look if this race of giants or superhumans were still around today. What would they be doing, or what would happen? Putting both of those ideas together blossomed into this situation where this race of hyper intelligent superbeings spreads this virus. I knew the beginning, where a man wakes up from a coma to find that the world is changed, and everyone is interested in him for unknown reasons. I knew the end as well, but I had zero in-between.
So, I sat down and just started writing. I had to get the idea out on paper, so I started with a short story, but then the words just kept coming. It probably took a little over five months to finish this manuscript, as it felt natural, like I was just following these characters around. It was a lot of fun for me since I had no outline. I’m writing the sequel now, but before I started this time I created an outline. I’m finding it much harder this time around, rather than just free writing.
To get this thing across the line, it was about making the time to do it. Life out here keeps a pretty good pace and will squeeze out anything that you don’t specifically make time for, so it was about setting aside at least an hour each day. Sometimes I would sit down, write a sentence, then erase it, and just keep doing that. Other days, I would sit down, and five hours later I’d look up and realize how much time I’d spent.
Since you’re close to the film industry, do you have any plans to turn this into a movie or television show?
When I wrote the book, being in the film industry helped me write it, as I could see how people tell their stories, whether it’s an actor, director, or writer. Also, people are pretty visual these days, so as I wrote it, I kind of saw it as a movie. I wrote it with that idea in mind, so i wanted to make a fast-paced book that could read kind of like a Netflix series, where there’s a lot of cliffhangers, short chapters, short paragraphs. I also wanted people to see the world of the Nephilim, done through the eyes of the protagonist, Nick Reese. These scenes are set up like in films; you go in, you do the scene, and then you move forward. In tv or film, the scenes are pretty short. You’re usually looking at 30 seconds to a minute for a scene, except for maybe a big fight scene. I would love to see it on screen one day.
If The Nephilim Virus were adapted, would you like to act in it?
Well absolutely! You hear about Sylvester Stallone writing and acting in Rocky. He was offered money for the script, but he refused to sell it unless he was allowed to star in it. He was turned down eventually but stuck to his guns. I don’t know how true that story is, but I wrote my book in first person and sometimes felt as if I were Nick. I think it would be a whole lot of fun.
It seems like there’s some industry support for an adaptation; looks like Megan Fox gave you her endorsement on the book?
Yeah, she’s great! It was very nice of her to do that, she’s best friends with Mindi. When i wrote the book and started the publishing process, my wife sent it over to Megan to read, and she loved it. She read it in a couple of days and was nice enough to write an endorsement for me and to recommend the book to people.
Do you ever regret leaving Memphis?
I’m happy in California, but it was very difficult to leave Memphis. It’s just got so much soul. I love the city, and most of my family is there. I come back often and wear them out with barbecue every single day and catch a Grizzlies game. When the Grizz come out to L.A., some friends and I always get suited up and go out to support them. I didn’t want to leave, but I felt that there were more opportunities out here for what I wanted to do.
Copies of The Nephilim Virus can be found at Novel or Barnes & Noble, or ordered online.
