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MEET RON MEgaSON
If you've had the pleasure of meeting Ron Megason, maybe you recall his dice-rolling scene in the Barry Manilow "Copacabana" music video. Although he didn't become a serious actor until his 30s, Megason took his handsome 25-year-old face from his childhood home of Fairfield, CT, where he was an award-winning high school drum major, to New York City to become a fashion model.
“But at 5'8, I was too short,” he laments, adding that he posed for many great photographers, including Leland Neff, Ruven Afanador, and Paul Palmero.
“Modeling is like acting,” he compares. "If you're a good model, you're a good actor. With modeling, your lines are your clothing, the setting, and whatever the shoot is about. The photographer is like another actor. You have to create a moment. You can feel when it's happening, and you know when it's not.”
For Megason, acting was a sort of inevitability – stemming from his roots.
Born and orphaned in Athens, Greece, he was adopted before his first birthday. His biological mother was a 17-year-old whom he suspects may have been sexually assaulted. His adoptive parents, now deceased, were loving people, although were both challenged by alcohol addiction, and sadly didn't entirely accept him. (In 2015, he actually met his birth mother and lived his dream to visit The Baby Center in Athens where he lived as an infant. "I held every baby and wanted to bring them all back with me," he shares. )
"Eventually I just wanted to get away," he admits, and did. “I lived in a fantasy world because it was the only way I could survive, and even though I knew I would miss my parents terribly, I packed my car one day and headed west toward the Hollywood sign. I loved LA, and the drive and West Coast life- style were therapeutic, but for most of my two years there I was told I looked too exotic. wanted to continue modeling and I also wanted to be accepted for myself, and I decided to move back. I packed two suitcases, got on a plane and landed on New Year's Day. That new year brought me so much good luck!” he happily recalls.
Megason landed a few commercials and enjoyed several other new opportunities. He courageously wrote and performed a one-man show titled, "I Wouldn't Open a Can of Worms If I Were You You'll Only Be Disappointed" echoing his mother's answer to his curiosity about his birth mother. He delighted audiences with it at the 2014 United Solo, the world's largest solo theatre festival, located on Theatre Row at 410 West 42nd St.
That deep, unabashed emotion is an engine that drives acting, he believes. “As an actor, you get to take everything within yourself and use it in your work,” he relates. “Acting gives you that opportunity to deal with uncomfortable feelings. You can bring all your 'crazy' to the job, but it may also take a lifetime to be comfort able with your own crazy.”.
Megason, whose "coming out” story recently ran in the Pride issue of W42 magazine, is a member of The Studio, where he acts weekly on camera, as well as at the groundbreak ing Act Out, which helps LGBTQ actors thrive. Most recently, he was cast in "The Boy," which opened in September at the Hudson Guild Theatre Summer Festival with the play that pondered, “Can a 30-year-old gay slacker grow up in enough time to play caregiver to his older partner who is dying of cancer?”
Ron Megason learned he could.
RECENTLY, Ron was awarded Best Actor for “Dreamy” at the TheStudio I-Phone festival. He was also was cast in After Duel, a feature film in production. Keep an eye on this page to hear more!