In a career spanning over 30 years, Holt McCallany has worked with some of the world’s best directors including David Fincher, Guillermo del Toro, David O’Russell, Guy Ritchie, William Friedkin, Lawrence Kasdan, Walter Hill, Clint Eastwood, Brian De Palma, and Michael Mann among others.Holt currently stars in the Netflix series Mindhunter where he plays Bill Tench, an FBI agent researching serial killers in the late 1970s. He also has roles in three upcoming films: Nightmare Alley by Academy Award winning director Guillermo del Toro, Wrath of Man by Guy Ritchie and The Ice Road by Jonathan Hensleigh. Holt has appeared in memorable supporting roles in movies like Fight Club, Three Kings, Alien III, and Men of Honor to name a few. In 2011, Holt was the star of the raw and gritty FX series Light’s Out where he played a boxer with pugilistic dementia.Born into a theatrical family, Holt’s father, Michael, was a Tony Award winning Broadway producer and his mother was the legendary cabaret singer Julie Wilson. At 14, Holt ran away from home and took a Greyhound bus to Hollywood with dreams of becoming an actor, but he ended up working in a screwdriver factory. His parents eventually tracked him down and sent him to a boarding school in Ireland.At 18, Holt traveled to France where he studied French at the Sorbonne, art at The Paris American Academy and, later, theater at L’École Marcel Marceau and L’École Jacques Lecoq. He went on to study Shakespeare at Oxford and later worked extensively in theater in the United States and abroad.He is unmarried and lives in New York City.
Holt McCallany
Movies
Fight Club
A nameless first person narrator (Edward Norton) attends support groups in attempt to subdue his emotional state and relieve his insomniac state. When he meets Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), another fake attendee of support groups, his life seems to become a little more bearable. However when he associates himself with…
Bullet
In New Orleans, hit men James Bonomo, a.k.a. Jimmy Bobo, and Louis Blanchard execute dirty cop Hank Greely in a hotel room. But they are betrayed and Louis is stabbed in a bar by a mercenary named Keegan while waiting for the payment of the contract. Meanwhile, Washington D.C. police…
Fun Facts
Studied theater in Paris, France.
He made his debut in the Broadway production of "Biloxi Blues"".
He has been a supporter for the Teddy Atlas Foundation (charity) for years.
Son of actor/producer Michael McAloney and actress Julie Wilson.
Speaks fluent French.
Maintains homes in NYC and Los Angeles.
Trained in Mixed Martial Arts.
Attended Harrison Elementary School in Omaha
Quotes
I love boxing. I really respect the guys and admire the guys who do it. But, I'm very, very happy with my career as an actor. I made the right choice and things are really working out for me right now, but I won't pretend that there isn't a part of me that always secretly wanted to be a boxer.
Not all television scripts are created equal. And the process is ridiculous. They send you a script and want you in the next morning. That's not how acting works. You can do anything to me as an actor; I'm a very resilient guy. Just don't rush me. If you ask me to do it immediately with no time to prepare, I know you have contempt for actors.
I would say that one of the really special gifts about playing an athlete is that it's the best motivation you'll ever have to get in top shape and stay in top shape because you know that you're going to be expected to deliver.
I've always believed my success in the entertainment business is an inevitability. You have to believe that; you have to be an optimist.
The greatest gift that an actor can have is good scripts because then you're relieved of the responsibility of trying to elevate the material.
I had been in the gym training for many, many years, but I definitely stepped it up when it was time to get into shape to play 'Lights'. I began trying to live the life of a boxer, and that means everything that you would expect.
I take my hat off to my friend, Mark Wahlberg, because I know that it took him a long time to make 'The Fighter', and he overcame a lot of obstacles to do it, and now the film is an unqualified success.
I always wanted to play a boxer because some of my favorite films, as a boy, were those great boxing movies, like 'Raging Bull', 'Rocky', 'The Set Up', 'Fat City and Hard Times'. I just loved those films.
I love boxing, and boxing has always been my favorite sport. I was always into it, and I boxed recreationally all of my life.
I love the whole world of boxing and the sense of community that exists there.
You've got to wake up every morning and believe, 'I was born to do this.'
When I do a movie, I have the script. I know how it begins and how it ends. I know what my character does and where he's going. If I have ideas I want to express or changes I want to make, there's one guy: the director. It's different in television.
I've done a lot of fight scenes, and I always find that it's better that they be meticulously choreographed. You want them to look as real as possible, but you don't want anyone to get hurt. So I believe in really working it out in rehearsal, and when you get to the set, just go for it 100 percent.
One of the most gratifying things about being a professional actor is the fact that you get to walk in other men's shoes for a time and you get to really try to understand everything that you possibly can about their work, and their lives, and their beliefs. And what you hope for is fascinating subject matter.