McFarlane chasing his dreams of the big screen

A young man with local ties to the area is hoping to make it big in Hollywood.

Cole McFarlane, 22, who has an independent film under his belt (House Arrest), is starting to find success as an actor in Los Angeles, most recently in the comedy genre.

Under his production company ‘The Best Friends Club,’ started with – as the name would suggest – his good friends, McFarlane has starred in multiple videos that appear on the popular comedy site ‘Funny or Die,’ including the coveted home page.

“So far, I am extremely proud of the group I’m involved in,” McFarlane says.

“We have only been doing this since July and already we have a good following and some of our videos have gotten over a hundred thousand views.

“It’s a huge privilege to be able to work with Funny or Die, and I’m very lucky to be able to work with so many talented people already.”

Perhaps the most notable video so far is ‘The Hand Bra’ with Rebecca Romijn, in which he makes an appearance. The video received more than 1.5 million views, and was linked by Huffington Post, among others.

The aspiring actor says this is something he’s always wanted to pursue, but at times didn’t ever think it would be more than a dream.

“I have always wanted to do acting since I was little, but there was one point in my life where I thought that it would be way too hard to actually get into.

“Then after high school, I saw everyone going to university and starting their lives, so I decided to go ahead and give it a try.”

McFarlane, who attended New York Film Academy classes at Universal Studios in LA, has been working at it for over two years now. “It’s starting to pay off,” he says.

“I’ve had the privilege of working with a few big actors such as Fred Willard, Rebecca Romijn, Tony Hale, Jesse Tyler Ferguson.”

Working with successful talents, he says, has given him perspective on his own pursuits.

“I look up to a lot of actors. No one specific, but when you realize that these people have been where you have been and they have felt the struggles that you’re going through, it helps make you realize that this isn’t impossible.”

LA life has not been all glitz and glamour, however.

A few weeks ago, while at home in his apartment, two men attempted to break in.

“He could see them through the peep hole and his initial instinct was to open the door and ask what they were doing,” explained mother Alisa Anderson. “After thinking about it and realizing this isn’t Canada, he called the police instead.”

McFarlane said it took the police just over 11 minutes to arrive, but he described it as the longest 11 minutes of his life.

While living in one of the largest centres in the world poses its challenges, McFarlane is simply hoping to live his dream of acting professionally and entertaining audiences far and wide.

“I think when people actually go after these types of careers and dreams, a lot of people will doubt you and not understand. That’s also what can push you to achieve them,” he says.

“The Ultimate goal in the end is just to keep acting and pushing myself to learn as much as I can about the film industry, and hopefully turn it into a career down the road.”