Success Story: How Mark Willis Turned Vivid Visions into Reality By Booking ‘Black Panther’ On Casting Networks
In Arnold Schwarzenegger’s book Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life, he talks about visualizing your goals clearly to manifest them into reality. Whether intentional or on purpose, Mark Willis did just that, landing a role as a Jabari warrior in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther.
After hearing about the film from his fellow actors, Willis began researching the Marvel character and never stopped thinking about reaching Wakanda. Eventually, the SAG Award-winning Jabari tribe found him on Casting Networks under the guise of a project codenamed Motherland.
Here, Willis shares the uncanny story about how he booked Black Panther, becoming a man on the move in the process.
You played D-1 football at University of Wyoming, how did you fall into acting?
It’s funny, because I just never thought about acting before college or anything. Really, the only thing that was semi-acting was I used to make little Facebook videos for my friends in college and high school and have them laughing. And they’d always be like, “You should go do standup or be an actor or something.” I just never really thought about it because everything before that [it] was just straight sports and that was it.
I went to the University of Wyoming and played ball. Two knee surgeries later, I fell out of love with football and decided this is the end. I didn’t even try to go to the NFL or anything. I just decided to graduate and started a new journey.
When I got home, there was this time where I’m like, “I don’t know what I want to do next. All I know now is that I have two bad knees and a communications degree.” I didn’t know what was the next step.
My aunt was reading a newspaper and she sees this ad about Star Wars going to different major cities and they would audition people at an open casting call situation. She was like, “You know what? You’re kind of weird, you’re kind of a character. You should go and try this.”
I’m like, “I’ve never thought about acting before, ever. But you know what? I’m going to go and give this a shot.” I go to downtown Chicago, and when I get down there, there’s a line that’s wrapped around several blocks. When I get close to the entrance, I see people starting to come out from the building and they’re handing out pieces of paper to everyone in line. When it gets to where I am, I hear what they’re saying and they’re like, “I’m sorry, guys, but the line is now cut off.”
I’m freaking out because I’m like, “I just stood out here for hours and got rained on for no reason.” And they’re like, “It’s okay because if you go on these websites here, any one of these, we have a way for you to submit an online audition. It’s pretty much the same thing as if you were to have gone in there and done the audition in person. You can just do an online version of it.”
Which, besides actually just going in there and nailing the role, was probably the best thing that could have happened, because that was actually the first time that I saw Casting Networks. Now, many, many years later, we’re still here. We’re still doing this. So, it’s been a journey for sure.
Photo courtesy of Mark Willis.Tell me the story of how you booked Black Panther. What was that process like?
That was definitely my best story. Long story.
Back in 2016 or so was when the movie got announced, and all my Black actor friends were like, “Oh, my God. I have to be in this movie.” At the time, I didn’t know that much about the character minus the few [Marvel] movies that had been put out at that point.
I go and look up the character and look up the backstory and everything. They started to announce more and more cast members, and I’m like, “I definitely have to be in this movie.” Shortly after that, I started having a lot of dreams and visions about being on set, and I’m like, “Okay, this must be going to happen. These visions are just so vivid, it has to happen.”
Then a full year goes by and I’m on Casting Networks. It gets to one project there, it’s called Motherland. For this casting, it says that they want someone who was Black, tall, muscular, handsome and athletic. I figured that I was at least one of those things. So, I submit to it.
The next day I go to Dallas because I have booked another project from Casting Networks, a Pepsi commercial. It was at the Cowboys Stadium, it was to play a Dallas Cowboy. It was a national commercial, it had Dak Prescott in it, Jerry Jones was there, Dion Sanders was there, Rob Corddry from Hot Tub Time Machine.
It was such a big deal that we couldn’t bring our phones out with us on set because they didn’t want any leaks or anything like that. We were out there until 2:00 AM the next day.
When I get back to my phone, I see that I have a text from some Georgia number, and the text said, “This is the casting director from Motherland. We saw your submission. We like you, but we need more information on you and we need this information in the next 30 minutes.”
That text was sent at 5:00 PM the previous day while I was working [on set], and it’s now 2:00 AM the next day.
The next day I fly back to Chicago, [and] I get a text from a totally different Georgia number. This time it says, “This is the casting director again from Motherland, AKA Black Panther.” I’m like, “What? No way.” I totally don’t believe it. I’m thinking “How? They were casting a year ago. They had to be done filming by now.”
They texted me back and they’re like, “You are confirmed for the audition tomorrow. It’s at 10:00 AM. Please bring your athletic gear. Please be on time. And this is the address right here.” I’m so excited. I’m like, “Yes, I get to go audition for Black Panther.”
Then, I look at the address and I notice that it’s in Atlanta. It’s now probably 6:00 PM, I’m in Chicago, and I’m like, “Crap, I got to get to Atlanta as soon as possible.” The only thing that worked was a 9:00 AM flight and it had one seat left. I’m like, “Okay, this must be it.”
I get into the building, and now they’ve already started doing auditions and everything. They’re teaching everybody the first fight sequence from the film. They’re like, “Somebody else is here.” One of the stunt coordinators comes over and he’s teaching me some of the things that I had missed because I was kind of late.
I rejoined the rest of the group and we learned the whole sequence. At the end, we had to pair up and do it in front of everybody. That was the judging, grading, audition part of it. After that, we’re done. That was probably about maybe 30 minutes in total.
[Later,] I get a call from some number I don’t recognize, and I’m like, “I’ll just let that go to voicemail.” And the voicemail pops up and it said, “This is the casting director from Black Panther. Call me back as soon as possible.” I’ve never hit redial faster in my life.
He’s like, “We loved your audition. We loved everything about you. We’d love to hire you.” And I’m like, “Yes, when am I needed?” And he said, “Tomorrow at 9:00 AM.” I’m just like, “No, I’m in New York right now [for an Apple commercial].”
This time there’s no flights that work. Everything the next day would take me past where I needed to be there.
I call one of my aunts who I talked to about everything and tell her my situation. And she’s like, “Boy, if you don’t get off this phone and get to Atlanta right now… Try it again. It’s going to work,” and hangs up on me. Now, there’s one flight, one seat that night that worked at 9:00 PM. I’m like, “This must be it.”
Then, I take off running because I have to go. It’s like 5 PM. I’ve got to go.
While I was on the flight there, my mom had contacted one of my cousins and told her my situation. She’s like, “Oh, yeah. He can stay here.” So I go to my cousin’s house. I go to the bedroom where I’m going to be staying in, and I’m just thinking like, “I made it. I’m here after all of that.”
It was perfect because with the Apple job, they told me to bring wardrobe options, so I brought a ton of my clothes. It just worked out perfectly.
That’s amazing. What was it like being on set and what did they have you doing?
It was so amazing being on set. First, when I got there, we had to go through a fitting for everything. I got to put on the Jabari warrior outfit for the first time and try that on. I was playing a Jabari warrior.
We had to go and get haircuts. I was one of the few people who actually had a bunch of hair at the time.
They give me a normal kind of fade cut to begin with, then they send me off to set. Set was like, 30 minutes away in the middle of the woods.
I get there and one of the stunt coordinators looks at me and he’s like, “You look so much like Winston Duke [who plays M’Baku] with that haircut. People might get confused, so we need you to go and change it.” So, I had to drive 30 minutes back to get a new haircut. This time they had this zigzag design in my hair on both sides.
I do that and then go back to the set. By then, they’ve already started learning all the stunts for the movie. I’m behind in everything. There were five fight sequences in total that we had to learn. That first day, they taught us everything. Since I was behind, I had to hurry up and try to learn everything that I missed.
Each fight sequence has about five different parts to it. Some of them are similar, so it’s very easy to do number one — and it’s similar to number three — and you get confused. At the end of the day, they did this contest to help us learn, and they were like, “If you make it through all five parts, then you can make everybody else do pushups. But if you mess up, then you have to do 50 pushups.”
We did a lot of pushups because none of us were getting it right.
So they were like, “All right. That first day was kind of terrible, you guys, but you can take the karate sticks home with you and practice at your house.” I take the karate stick home with me and go to my cousin’s house. I wait until it’s in the middle of the night and I’m out there in my cousin’s front yard, and I’m just training all night, just doing so many stick workouts.
The next day, we come back and learn everything else. They’re like, “Okay. We’re going to do that same contest again.” Me and my partner get through it and we make everyone else do pushups. It was so much fun learning all the fight sequences and being a part of the Jabari warrior tribe. It was an amazing experience for sure.
Photo courtesy of Mark Willis.You basically went from Casting Networks to a SAG Award. How did you feel in that moment of knowing you had just won the SAG Award for Best Stunt Ensemble and what’s it like to reflect on that moment?
It was just so wild. I had no idea what I was submitting for on Casting Networks to begin with. And then, that turns into me eventually being a part of one of the biggest, highest-grossing movies ever. A movie that is so impactful for many people, especially minorities. I’m just like, “I’m part of something that’s huge, massive and has so much importance.”
Later on we find out that we won the SAG Award, and everything was so perfect. This is definitely a testimony that I can inspire others with. I realized that this story wasn’t just for me, it’s for others to be inspired by. I can’t believe it even to this day.
I remember going to the theater to see Black Panther on opening night in New York City. This was more than a movie. You went to an event.
It was an amazing experience. I had no idea it was going to be like that. I’m just so happy to be a part of something that meant so much to so many people.
Photo courtesy of Mark Willis.What would you say helps someone succeed on Casting Networks?
I would say what helps them succeed is, of course, having a complete profile. List your special skills. If you could play basketball, if you were a former football player, if you have some musical skill, put that on there too.
Then, I would say get on the emails. When they come in, be sure to jump on those as soon as possible because you don’t realize how many people are submitting to that same role. Be consistent with submitting to roles.
Don’t be afraid to branch out to other markets and get your name out there. They’ll keep you in mind for something else, and you’ll definitely be successful that way.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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Chris Butera is a voice actor specializing in commercial, eLearning and corporate narration reads. When he’s not helping clients achieve their goals, he's playing guitar and bass.
