Summer — 2005

Kyle Hackney

Psychology / Theatre Arts

“When you’re just 18 and you move from a small town to a big city and have to adapt and make new friends, it isn’t easy. So coming to SMC was a very big accomplishment.”

Ah, yes. ’Tis the siren song that woos many a landlocked boy and girl during their childhood. The coast and the ocean. Beaches and sunshine and surf. But perhaps most of all—when you’re surrounded by scrub pine and small-town ideas—it’s Hollywood that spills out onto the Big Screen of your imagination. And so it was with Kyle Hackney. “California is the ‘land of opportunity’ for people who want to act and model and be creative,” says the recent transplant from Arizona. “If you want to be a cowboy, you go to Texas. But if you want to get into the entertainment industry, this is the center of the universe.”

But Kyle, a resourceful guy if ever there was one, also has a lot of back-up plans if fame and fortune don’t pan out in show biz. “I can just as easily see myself as a police officer, running a business, or getting some kind of advanced degree,” he says. “But the most important thing I’ve found out about getting to where you want to go is to write your goals down on paper. The power of writing things down is just amazing! If you simply listen to someone giving you suggestions, you won’t remember 90 percent of it. But if you make a pledge with yourself in writing, you’ll remind yourself that it’s all up to you.”

Kyle works. Kyle studies. And Kyle keeps all his options open vis-à-vis future fame. And though he says, “I definitely have the passion and personality to become an actor in films where I can entertain millions of people,” he adds that Psychology is also a passion for him. “Maybe it’s a weird thing about me, but I’ve always been attracted to the way the human mind works. Why is she cursing me? Basically, I just want to be a student of human nature. I think it helps you a lot in the real world.”

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