When it comes to putting in the hard work to achieve his goals, Percy Bell is keeping it real. The Louisiana-born actor (who now calls Nashville home) does not beat around the bush when it comes to just how much work and effort it takes to “get it out the mud.” His career is at a new high after a once-in-a-lifetime role as the body double for Michael B Jordan in Sinners (yeah, that Sinners.) Read below to hear all about how that came to be. You can also catch him as a new character on 9-1-1: Nashville. Despite all that, he still made some time to connect with us about how he came up, fully going after every opportunity, and the vinyl library at 888.
Share how you got the role on the new show, 9-1-1: Nashville?
Man, that was interesting because I got to audition as I typically do and It was a one-liner. I said, you know what? I’ve been a police officer. I’ve been an EMT before in a TV show. Let me make sure I send those reels over to them also. So I sent that over to them along with my audition, and they reached back out. They said, We want to book you for this role. However, it actually wasn’t the role that I auditioned for. It was a different role. Before I knew it, they had written me into five episodes.
Has acting always been your thing?
Unconsciously, it has, but I didn’t always know. I was the one friend who would always mimic everyone. I could pick up on their mannerisms, tonalities, vocal inflections, and other identifying aspects fairly quickly. I think that was sort of the precursor to me really getting into the craft.
A couple of other things along the way contributed to that. I didn’t know anyone who was an actor. So I didn’t know how to get into it. I didn’t have a mentor. I wouldn’t say I even have a mentor right now. I have just always been on a path to practicing the craft, and even now, I’m still learning on the fly.
What has pursuing your “craft” looked like?
I started doing stage plays, and then transitioned into film and television. But with this craft, there are just so many different avenues in it. No one path is the same. If someone says that they’ve identified a formula for it, it’s very difficult to kind of buy into that because, honestly, there is no formula to it.
Art is one of those things that you can’t take a linear approach to reach where you ultimately want to go. For example, I know if I go to high school, go to college, get into med school, there’s a 99% chance that when I get done with medical school, there is going to be a position open for me as a physician. With acting, there’s no certainty on that. You can practice all your life, but because it’s an art and it’s something that’s sort of indefinite, there are a lot of great actors who don’t work often.
How did this play into your opportunity to be Michael B Jordan’s body double in Sinners?
Working on a project like Sinners can be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for actors like me. It may not ever come along again. You have to think about how many actors there are in the world, how many look like Mike, and have the talent to take on the role. So I’m blessed to say that I was selected for that.
That audition was actually a self-submission. There’s a website called Actors Access, and usually my agent submits me for things. But I also submitted myself because I feel that if I’m working just as hard as my agent, I can have just as many possibilities of getting the audition and increasing my chances. So I self-submitted the tape and they liked my look, and they requested that I submit an audition.
I ended up submitting the audition at the very last minute, from a hotel room in New York. I had to put two lamps on a bed and get a ring light from Target. I had someone call in on my laptop to read the lines with me. I submitted the video, and then on may way back home from New York they contacted me.
I went to LA to do a week of chemistry reads with Mike and Ryan (Coogler). Two or three weeks after that, I was in New Orleans, filming.
What a blessing! I can tell you have an “I’m going to just do it” kind of spirit. Where does that come from?
Just being from a small town, you see people who get it. I guess the term that we hear often is “get it out the mud”. I’ve always had this gut feeling that for me to be successful, I’m going to have to go for it.
I feel, luck to me is when preparation meets opportunity, and for me, “getting it out the mud” specifically means I’m going to have to put as much effort in as possible and try to create as much luck as possible. Even though Sinners was a boost to my career and a major milestone, there’s still plenty of work to put in. I still have that gut feeling that until I put in that 10,000 hours and create those opportunities for myself, I won’t have that next big break.
That’s what’s up – can you share what projects you have coming up?
Nashville 9-1-1 is a big thing coming up, of course. I also just narrated the audiobook for Robert F. Smith’s most recent book – Lead Boldly.You can find that on Audible. I also shot a short film for Mount Zion, with my good friend and their creative director, Myah Lipscomb. Along with a role in an upcoming feature film with David Arquette.
What have you enjoyed about working and living in Nashville?
I’ve been here in Nashville for over 10 years, so Nashville is home now. I went to MTSU for a while, and moved up to Antioch after that. I’ve been in this area ever since. I’ve been able to watch the evolution and changes in Nashville, from before “Nashville”, the TV show.
It’s good to see that filming in general is coming to Nashville. Nashville is one of those cities that’s in high demand right now for so many different things: be it travel, food, bachelorette parties, to music.
Lastly, I have to ask, what are your favorite Nashville spots?
My favorite spot right now is 888 – attached to the JW Marriott. It’s an Asian fusion spot. The food is amazing, and the space definitely has the vibes, and they also play vinyl records, which is my favorite part. They do everything from Lil Wayne, Mac Miller, to The Commodores. It usually starts at like 9 p.m., and they’ll roll until the album is done.
The hack: get there at like 8 o’clock, sit down, eat some food, have a drink, and just chill for a great night.
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