Jeff Ornstein 0:02

Hi everyone and welcome to Next Act with Jeff Orenstein. I am Jeff, and on this show we celebrate people on the cusp of greatness, those building on past successes and some of the curious, inventive, and sometimes unexpected ways they have achieved those and stepping into moments that could define their legacy. We'll talk about current projects, lessons learned, and the extraordinary opportunities ahead. So the best is yet to come. From the laundromat to immersive gaming experiences, he brings depth and authenticity to every role. With training from NYU Tish and Lee Straussburg, Till's career blends storytelling and performance across every medium. Today we explore his journey, creative process, and the milestones that define his work. Welcome, Till. Welcome.

Till Wolter 0:56

Thank you. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Jeff Ornstein 0:58

So very impressive academic credentials there. Tish and Lee Strasbourg. I mean, oh, I would love to study both those places. I'm a Stella person. But one day, one day, did you enjoy working at Strasbourg?

Till Wolter 1:10

Studying? Well, it's uh back then in uh I'm Germany where I'm originally from, like Lee Strasbourg is like the guru in like uh acting. And uh, you know, I read a lot about method acting in Germany already. Uh and so yeah, I w I was excited. I I wanted to see what the fuzz is all about. And uh so I I had to try. I applied and uh got in. And yeah, I was excited to uh just to go to New York and and study a method and the place where some of my favorite movies have been have been made. So it was a great school. It was a great school. So was Tish.

Jeff Ornstein 1:46

I'm very excited about learning a little bit about your process, and you you exemplify the exact profile of the people we like to talk to that have sort of dabbled in lots of different things that are all interrelated, but have taken their careers on sort of parallel and convergent paths. So can you speak to us a little bit about your experience? Many people start in theater, then they go to film and television. What's the genesis of your career from the beginning to present in terms of the performance qualities?

Till Wolter 2:13

Well, I mean, my first professional gig was probably Alexander Vaschini off Broadway. That was because of my teacher, George Loares, who I had the honor to work with. He was actually in the sopranos. Um he was one of the Goombas in the Sopranos. He was one of my best teachers, and I learned the most from him. We had had a very in-depth advanced class uh with him, and he did actually end up like directing an off-Broadway play where I played Alexander Lashini and Three Sisters by Anton Picheco. The three sisters. And this was probably my first professional role on in a in a professional play. That was my first one, and then after that, it was it was like small off-Broadway play, The Spirit of the Flesh. That was a name, and that was a theater festival they had in in New York City, The Fringe. It was part of the fringe. Then I started to get into like dabble into like uh uh commercials. I did like an MCLite commercial, and my poster was everywhere. That was kind of uh an exp an interesting experience, and I was so proud. And yeah, it was my first big commercial. And then little by little, uh, you know, I did some I did a lot of background work in the beginning as well. And matter of fact, I still actually um doing background work because I feel like I I wanted to learn about the set and who the DP is and what they do and all of that. And uh learning it in school, uh, mostly in um at Tish, uh where I learned all that stuff, productions and stuff, is not the same. And you're on set, actually you'll be learning all the different positions and and um you you you know you kind of know how to ask, no w who to uh who to ask for, like a test tafarty at the time, or like a waiver. I think everybody was hunting down these waivers because I wanted to at that at that time my goal was to become a SAG After member, become a union member already, because I know that's as a union member that's when you're really uh taken serious or more serious as an actor. So I knew I had to get to that point. And so I I did a lot of uh I learned a lot by doing extra work and background stuff. And then uh really when it kicked off for me, I'm pretty sure it was when I when I went to LA because I felt like once I I met my wife in New York, we we got married, and then we moved to LA. I was able to convince her, dragged her with me, because I had to try, you know, the LA market, and I uh got an agent, and then I felt like more commercials start kicking in and the guest stars and the co-stars, and I felt like okay, now I feel like I'm on the path of really becoming a professional actor. You know, it's don't we all I mean you you understand it, you you're an actor yourself, so it's it's like you want to be taken serious, you want to feel like you're part of the family. You're working as an actor. A working actor is this, I think this is something that you want to call yourself. If I can call myself a working actor, I'm I'm I'm a happy camper, really, because it's such a tough industry to get into. And any job I was able to get, especially as a foreigner, you know, I was working on my accent, you know, I had a just still very distinct German, strong German accent. So I had to, I knew I had to work at that. So this is all a process of becoming a professional actor and and looking at it as a business and not just, you know, oh, this is fun, you know, I want to be a star. You know, it it became more real for me after that.

Jeff Ornstein 5:33

Interesting because for the moviegoer, when they see a movie, they see the characters, of course, but they see actors acting. But for the actor, at least for me, I feel a very different than I'm when I'm performing live in a scene or when I'm performing in a scene for a film, because of the sh the quick edits and the the shortness of the angle, every angle that takes in. I think they're really different. How you prepare for them emotionally, how you get your character in sync and out of sync and maintain sync.

Till Wolter 6:03

Have you always felt a calling for film over theater, perhaps? No, I can't, I can't say that. I think I love both.

Jeff Ornstein 6:10

Yeah.

Till Wolter 6:11

It's different energies, you know, it's a different, different approach, different kind of working. What I enjoy with theater, actually, matter of fact, I'm auditioning this Sunday for uh for the here at the Manua Valley Theater, which I'm excited about. I I haven't been I haven't done theater in a long time. And I think it's a different lesson I learned doing theater than in in film and television. Television specifically, as you probably know, tell the television is is really fast, you know. It's just they move along really fast, especially comedy. So like they're so fast. There's more pressure because you have to be ready and it's you know, action and go. In theater, there is more, you know, you have rehearsals, and I feel like the whole brew, the whole cast is it becomes a family, more so, you know, and I really enjoy that. Um, so I I miss theater so much that I have been doing more theater editions lately. And uh I think it's a different lesson, different kind of acting than it is, than it is for for film and television. Yeah. The film and television aspect is also more real, it's more more to yourself, more quiet, more you know, acting off of the other person. And so you act off the other person in theater as well, but it's the the projecting aspect is is it's a technical, the technical aspect is is different. You know, you have to project. Right. There's a responsibility to reach the the back row of the theater. So I I I I think about those things, you know what I mean? So it's it's more technical. It's more technical, but it's just a different approach. I would almost say I learned the most valuable lessons in theater. I think theater, I would always recommend to do theater first before you break into television. Right. Television is and and and to and and movies, like I said, it's very fast, fast-paced, and especially nowadays, I would always want to do both. Theater is totally for the actor, immersive of the 3D of whole body, where you know, film you got your frame and you better stay in it, and you have your cues and you better make them, you know.

Jeff Ornstein 8:12

It's like so now you've also had some pretty good accomplishments in the in the film industry: the laundromat, lost fair, Wolfenstein 2, the new colossus. Do you have any great stories you'd want to share or that you're allowed to share about any any of those productions that was really memorable for you?

Till Wolter 8:27

So when I did uh, for instance, when I did the scene with with Gary Oldman in the The Laundromat, it was such an honor to meet Steven Soderbergh and Gary Oldman. And the scene was given to me, but it's such a small scene. They don't give you the time of day, like you know, Merrill Street, like when you're like a main character. So I had to be ready. I all this. I was meeting one of my biggest inspirations, uh, you know, Gary Oldman, and of course Steven Soderbergh. I'm a huge fan of his. So there's all that, but now you gotta zoom in and you gotta just focus and be. In this case, I was a doctor. I was playing a German doctor removing a Nazi tattoo of his arm. And I didn't know really how Soderbergh worked, and so I did some research and stuff like that, but I I couldn't really find anything specifically how what how he works, so I was nervous.

Jeff Ornstein 9:15

You have a distinctive, you know, there's there's this creative side, the actor, producer, writer, and also this really accomplished uh business between your work with PushArt with Vine Talk.

Till Wolter 9:26

What's your engagement with Vine Talk? So Vine Talk was a passion project. I got interested into, and and that's probably on the on the Tish side. And Tish, we learned a lot about production and how to create a movie or a TV series from the ground up. And so I was got interested into production and wanted to do my own thing, and then YouTube was became a thing, you know, and so you were able to to produce your own shows basically, do your own thing. So a friend of mine, my best friend from Brooklyn, New York, he lived in uh Crown Heights, he grew up in Crown Heights. Sean McQueen and I decided to do a wine show, and that was like a you it was like uh you know, back in the days, like the beginnings of like uh YouTube channels and all that stuff. Uh which was it wasn't a thing then. We just started to just buzz around with like we we we had at the time we we drank a lot of wine, we enjoyed wine, and we decided this whole wine thing needs to be demystified, you know. It's like uh the people think wine you have to spend a lot of money to get it to in order to find a good wine, and we felt like no, we wanted to demystify it a little bit, and we there is actually good wine at the for under ten dollars, under $15. So we were like, why don't we approach this, do like a little show, and just we were just lazy basically, you know. Um, I don't know if I can use the F-word, uh, but I would I would say we were fucking around on the top of uh at the rooftop at a friend's house, you know. We were like, camera set up, he had a good camera, and we were like, let's just let's just shoot and see what happens. And then it became this passion project, and we were just choosing different varietals and an affordable budget for people like us that can afford wines that we don't have to spend 50 or more dollars to to uh for to find good wine. So our thing was fight finding wine that's affordable, like for people like like uh you know, my friend Sean and I, and then pairing it with like foods that we eat, like hot dog, you know, simple stuff, pizza or even chocolate and sweets, candy. This is how it all started, and we started gaining followers really fast. And obviously there was an interest, uh, and we were really uh blown away. And so we kept going until we were called by Jersey Woolly Productions, it's a production company at the time from uh in New Jersey, and they were interested in working with us. It was just we you know, they wanted to, I guess, feel out what what this is all about, how uh and also how we're willing to work with them. And yeah, we were totally interested, yeah, of course. And yeah, they they were interested in doing uh creating a TV show. They have a I have an idea they had an idea for a TV show, and we were all ears, we would like to hear what you guys have to uh what kind of ideas you guys have. We were sitting down with them and we were discussing it, but they wanted to do something completely different, they wanted to move away from what what the idea that we had, like simple, you know, affordable wines with simple foods. They wanted to spruce it up and and make it and turn it into a TV show, which ended up on PB PBS. And for us, we couldn't come to an agreement, but they wanted our following, they wanted our social media, our URLs across the board, you know, uh at the time. What do we have? YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook. They wanted to have all our internet presence and taking our idea but taking it to another level. So they were doing food pairing as well, but with more expensive wines, and of course they had affiliations with like Napa Valley, wine producers, etc. etc. So it was more commercial. We sold them all along with part of our idea. We sent we sold them our URLs, all the the internet presence, our name, Vine Tog, is a trademark. We trademarked it. We sold that to them. We would then become become more part of the production part of the of the two of the TV show on PBS. We were very proud what we've created and what is what this has become. You created the and somebody else took it and germinated in a different field. Correct. And we had guests like Steve Buscemi, Nathan Lamazon. Oh my god, he was hilarious. We were cracking up on set. We had to cap so many times.

Jeff Ornstein 13:25

Exciting endeavor. Yes. It took unexpected turns, but it was still something that you know was propelled forward, and you were a part of it. Yes. Congratulations.

Till Wolter 13:34

Exactly. It was a fun project. And again, we were very proud what we did and how obviously that set the foundation to create something to turn this into something bigger, and where this became a TV show and uh we're shooting two seasons.

Jeff Ornstein 13:48

Is there a character you played or a project you took part in that taught you something unexpected about yourself and made you sort of alter your trajectory?

Till Wolter 13:58

Probably one of my biggest breakthroughs and most defined moments was actually in class. I was working on Biff and Death of a Salesman, and I had a that I was working on that for I think about a month. Say because he my you know, I think it was George Law, I was in George Claw George's class, and I did I did it in Robert Cass's class as well. That role really I went down to the nitty-gritty with that role because it's very like heart-wrenching, you know, it says that monologue where he's talking to his dad, where he's talking to his father and trying to get through to him, explaining to him that he is not who he thinks he that he is. And so that was very intense for me. That was for me, I think, a very defining moment where I realized this is why I'm doing this, this is why I love acting so much. And it has changed me as an actor altogether.

Jeff Ornstein 14:45

I bet you the author would love to hear that, that that scene changed you as an artist. I hope that you enjoyed yourself. I think you shared every role has a different emotional composite. And you know, if you're gonna try and get to it, you've got to find where those exist in you, and they may be covered by other things or masked or suppressed. So yeah, I think it was a great interview, and I think you did fantastic. Thanks for tuning in to Next Act with Jeff Orenstein. Follow, subscribe, and stay connected to your favorite socials at www.nextdackpodcast.com. Keep chasing your next act. The best is yet to come.