Growing up, Richard Gallion always ditched his theater class, not knowing his future would be in acting, writing and producing stage plays. Chicago’s streets were filled with many choices, and Gallion chose his life. He knew that if basketball wasn’t going to be his future, he still wanted success, despite what his inner city environment might have dictated.
“I didn’t want to be a menace to society or a product of it.”
He got his start in writing plays under the mentorship of Chicago playwright John Ruffin. And now years later, Gallion has garnered roles in FOX’S APB, Transformers 4, USA’s Sirens, FOX’s Empire and Chicago PD.
For Gallion, acting was natural. His challenge never was his ability. His only challenge was navigating the array of talents he possessed; acting, writing and directing. And after navigating through what he learned was his craft, he crowned himself founder of his own entertainment company, RGE (Richard Gallion Entertainment). He’s owned his talents, and he’s got a list of receipts and credits to show for it.
Watch the interview here:
Vee Harrison: I was reading up on you over the last few weeks, and I learned that it was a basketball injury that eventually landed you into this industry. Talk to me about how that went down.
Richard Gallion: I mean, the thing is, it’s hard for athletes to transition to any other thing, which is why you have a lot of athletes that are 30 years old, still trying to chase a hoop dream, but thank God this acting bug bit me. I had a wrist injury, and I went to a rehearsal with a mutual friend. They were in a stage play at the time, and there was a guy that was also in the show, but he was a no-call, no-show, so the producer asked me to read the lines just to fill in. I’m sitting back there, I’m bored, and of course, I didn’t have an acting bone in my body, and the worst part about it, while I was in college, I was playing NCAA Division I basketball for Chicago State. While I was playing basketball, I had a theater class that I never went to.
Vee: Cut it out, do y’all hear this?
Richard Gallion: I had a whole theater class and never went to it. I went to it once, and that was just for the final, and I’m sitting there, I’m bored, I’m like, okay, if this dude asks me to read one more time, I’m going to just do it. I got up there, I read, had fun with it. I was a natural at it, so the dude was like, hey, I don’t like no-call, no-show, so if you want the role, the role is yours. As an athlete, I like challenges, but I don’t know if I was ready for that challenge, because I was shy as well, and I didn’t speak well. My accent is still country, but it was even worse, I didn’t articulate my words and finish my sentences, so you know, I had a fear of speaking, and anyone who talked proper, I used to say they talk white, so I had to get over that.
When I did the show, that acting bug just bit me, and I came to a conclusion, I said, well, I’ve been injured a few times, I had a daughter to take care of, I said, if I can do anything else for the rest of my life, and money wasn’t an issue, what would it be? Basketball was hard on my body. I said, well, acting is it, because I can act until I’m boobooing in a pamper. I can be an old man acting, so I’m like, well, I think I like this, and I just pursued it ever since, and gave it my all, and continue to give it my all.
Vee: Richard Galea Entertainment, RGE, I mean, from there you birthed this monster, right? This really sparked a career for you in acting. Talk to me about your entertainment company, and what you are hoping it does over the next few years.
Richard Gallion: This is what I do full-time. I partner with the APC Theater, it’s an 1100 seat theater. For the last 15 years, I’ve been doing my own productions, writing, producing, directing, acting in them. I don’t like people telling me when I can work. I just feel like as a creative, and as one who’s really a go-getter, I don’t like to just sit around and just wait on what’s the next project from someone else. And if I’m being very honest, I don’t like a lot of people writing. A lot of people, their stories are just not good, storylines are not good. I don’t like other people trying to tell our story, so I just wanted to get to it and make this a real career thing. And that’s what I did. I put all my focus and energy into building my own company. And for the last five years, I’ve partnered with the APC Theater on 114th and Vincennes, where I became the artistic director. And yeah, I’m a CPS vendor now, so schools come there for field trips.
We always have packed houses. And 1100 seats is not easy to pack out. I have a consistent fan base now who’s aware of my work and is consistently growing because I feel like I’m just getting better as the story comes. I’m getting way better with writing, creating real storylines, and storylines that’s of interest, that teaches people. If you look at your most viewed podcasts, YouTubes, anything where someone is actually teaching people something and is helping people, they get the most traction. That’s been my motto with my productions. I want to be able to teach. I want people to be entertained, but at the same time, I want them to be able to go away with something. I don’t want you to just come see a show. I want you to have an experience. So that’s what we’ve been able to create.
Vee: How much of this hustle comes from being Chicago bred? From the West Side, nonetheless.
Richard Gallion: I mean, well, for one, I knew I didn’t want to be a menace to my society or a product of it. And honestly, I wouldn’t give credit to what side of town I was from. I’m going to give the credit to being an athlete. It’s just that competitive nature and just having that work ethic. I boxed most of my life. I played basketball. I played football. I played baseball. Just understanding work and just being integral. I understand how to work with teams. I understand you need a team to win. I don’t go into it with a selfish mindset.
The only place where you’re really in it by yourself and you’re still not by yourself for real is when you’re in a boxing ring, because you have to depend on you. But at the same time, you have to be able to hear sound advice from coaches as well. So I understand how it is to work together and how it is to build something, how it is to make just the magic happen with chemistry. So that same sportsman-like conduct and just being an athlete, I brought that over into the industry. Now, what I will say is my mindset and my mentality for not dealing with nonsense, now the West Side and K-Town and Uptown, that’s where they came from. It’s just knowing who I am, knowing what I produce, what I bring to the table, and knowing my tolerance level.
Vee: I mean, a black man straight from the hood, writing plays. Even in the age of Tyler Perry and all that we’re seeing a break through the industry, it’s still very special, especially coming out of Chicago. You’re saying that you broke yourself out. You didn’t want to be a menace to society. Let me tell you, neither did my only brother, and he got murdered like less than five years ago. Wput celebrities in these young people faces and NBA players. Talk to me about the moment you said, no, this isn’t for me. What was going through your head? How did you know you wanted more?
Richard Gallion: I mean, I’ve seen people murdered right in front of me. As a 10 year old boy, like legit, their blood got on me. That’s how close it was. I used to look at drug dealers and gang chiefs and all of that as heroes only because I didn’t know any better. As I realized the hell they were causing, when I really looked into that life, how scared they really were, I didn’t want that, you know? I don’t want to be dead. I don’t want to be in jail. I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder. I don’t want to do any of that. So, um, I’d rather take this way. That’s not, um, dangerous.
Vee: Anything you would do different, Richard?
Richard Gallion: I wouldn’t. I feel like every step, every downfall, every hardship, every pain, great or small, I feel like it was all a part of the story. It helped me become the man I am today. It also helped me not take certain things and people for granted. If there is one thing that I would do better or different, I would say, pray more.
Vee: Hmm. Why is that?
Richard Gallion: I would have prayed more as a kid. It was like, you, you don’t understand God’s voice until you really start to read his word and really learn how to just sit and not be anxious for nothing. That’s when you understand that God is really answering prayers. When you put reading the word with having an actual prayer life, when you put those two together, mix it in a bowl, it’s much easier to make the best decisions. So you’ll learn to take yourself out of it.
Vee: Let’s talk about your upcoming play, “ A Fall From Royalty.”
Richard Gallion: My adult life is when I really started to learn about real black history. I didn’t know anything about us being Kings and Queens and owning resources and land and controlling the wealth. I didn’t know about that because again, just only known of being slaves and just being spenders, you know, we’re consumers. So this story, I wrote it to help uplift people. When I write stories, I want to write stories that are going to help people. Right now, a lot of us are in an identity crisis and I feel like if we can go back to the drawing board of what we really come from, like our actual roots, where we were Kings, we were Queens, what is a King or Queen? They think royalty, you know, we don’t act such as peasants and animals, you know, but if you look at the world today, that’s how we are. We act as if we’re just peasants. At the same time, I also wanted to show the importance of making the right decisions. Decisions you make today will affect tomorrow and generations to come.
So what happens with the show, I take the African Kings and Queens, I fast forward them from the 1800s to see what their greed has caused and what that one decision to put that signature for the transatlantic slave trade has caused. And the question I posed to them, if you would have known that your greed would have enslaved your people 400 years later, would you still have signed that transatlantic slave trade?
Vee: My heart couldn’t exit this interview without giving some time to your daughter. Let’s talk about your daughter. You brought her up several times. I’m a mama. Nothing has been more challenging. Nothing has been more fun. Nothing has been more ugly, you know? I think it molds us. You can’t sit inside of a career, especially one that came by way of a mistake, without crediting what really made you a man. Share with us more about your daughter and the legacy that you’re looking to leave her.
Richard Gallion: I have five kids. It was my oldest daughter that really, really helped transform me into a man. I stopped being impulsive. I realized that I didn’t just have me to live for. I had my daughter to live for as well. I did not have a relationship with my father. So me having that fear of failing her, it made me father a little better. It made me very conscious. She’s 21 years old now. She went to school off a full scholarship academically. She had 11 scholarship offers. Beautiful young woman working on getting into real estate. I’ll never forget sitting in the hospital room when she was first born.
The promise was God, if you, if you teach me how to father every step of the way, every child I ever bring in this world, I will be the best father to them that I could be.
And, and I always get a reminder from her, and just random people. Oh, you did an amazing job as a father.
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