Franco Lo Presti

FLP – A little about myself… I’m always trying to figure out myself, every single day, to be honest. But, I’m a guy who just really loves people. I love sports. And I love to act as well, and perform. What gets me up in the morning, to be honest, is just trying to conquer the day. Anytime, I think my motto that I kind of live by internally is just like, okay, time to get after it. Time to get after it. What can I do to feel good at the end of the day, and sometimes the day is not the greatest, but as long as I tackle the things that I need to do then I am a happy guy. And I know I’m getting forward with what I need to do.

So, I’m from Toronto. And I’m a pretty big sports fan. And I love to sing and play music as well.

And I remember when I was a kid she would always play these little voices with me and my sister. And she was always playing characters, stuff like that. So, I kind of got it from my mom. And when I was a kid I would always be imitating and doing impersonations and entertaining the family and being the class clown.

But my first passion was soccer, right? But I always had this love to perform. I loved Elvis. My mom saw that I loved Elvis and I’d be singing in the mirror in my room. She said, ‘Do you want to play guitar?’ and I said, ‘Yeah! Play guitar!’

So, I started playing guitar. And my family members were always kind of like when I was a kid, ‘oh, why don’t you do acting?’ And my mom was like, ‘why don’t you do acting?’, and I loved Jim Carrey. I was obsessed with Liar Liar.

And I knew, my heart, my first passion was soccer. And I pursued that. So, I ended up going to school and even in high school I would take drama class and I loved it and I was great in it and I really felt great doing it, but I could never be a part of drama club. I could never be a part of any extra-curricular activities because my life in high school was, go to school, go home, eat, soccer. It was just like the military.

So, I ended up getting a scholarship at the University of Rhode Island for soccer. And every semester I’d get to choose an art course to take, so a theater course pops up. And I said hey, I’ve done this before a little bit, so this is an easy class, I know I could get an A, I get to perform and be a clown, which will be fun.

And I was like, it just went through one ear and out the other. And I ended up graduating and I pursued my soccer dream. I traveled to Italy and was knocking on doors trying to find a team to play with because that was my dream. And I ended up finding a team, in 4th division out there, and at that time, my coach in Canada called me back and goes, ‘Hey, Toronto FC, they want to have a look at you’. So, I went back to Canada, I went on trial with Toronto FC, I was in the best shape of my life. Everything was perfect. You know, I was like, I’m about to be on trial for my hometown team.

And I go to Florida on trial. And all that energy of wanting it so bad, you know, I could have eaten the grass, that’s how much I wanted it. I always say that when I tell this story. I could have literally eaten the grass.

All that energy worked against me because I was just tense and nervous and trying to prove, oh, I can’t make a mistake, can’t make a mistake.

Because the coach is watching me.

And instead of being loose and relaxed I under performed and I got an injury on the trial. And I kept playing through the injury. And now, my mind is going crazy, I can’t stop playing because if I stop on this trial they’re not going to sign me. So, I’m just overly compensating in practice and games, and just played terribly.

Long story short, they don’t sign me. So I come home and I was having trouble walking.

FF – Right.

FLP – I wanted this to be a decision that I was solidly making. So I studied for like eight months and I’m loving this. And after eight to ten months my acting coach said, okay, you’re ready for an agent. So, it really changed my life. If it wasn’t for my mom, you know.

FF – How amazing though that she saw that in you, already at that age!

FLP – Yeah, since I was a kid.

FF – Did you let her say I told you so?

FLP – Yeah, I did, I did.

She was like, ‘can I just take some photos of you and send them to my photographer friend in New York’? I was like, fine. You know, just totally fed up.

I went to New York and I did this photo shoot and I get placed with an agency there. I was so poor.I did two shoots and made no money. There was no way I’m doing modeling. I want to play soccer.

Then I went back to Toronto after a month and my friend, my best friend, he was like, Franco, you know you can work here in Toronto and make some money in the meantime, while you’re playing soccer. You can book a couple of jobs.

I was like, okay, so I started doing that. I started to experience what it’s like to shoot as a model and do those types of photo shoots.

And you know it’s crazy because I would be doing these photo shoots and photographers are talking to you and a lot of what makes the photos beautiful is personality.

And the photographers are working with the models and talking with them and all of a sudden you start embracing the clothes you’re wearing, like, oh wow, okay. I’ve got this suit on. You feel like you’re portraying a character. You’re representing the brand. Or, this is the Calvin Klein guy. Or this is the Brunello Cucinelli guy. This is how he wears the clothes. And then you start playing these characters.

A lot of the time when I was doing these photo shoots, you know, photographers, and casting directors I would meet would be like, you have a lot of actor qualities. And that was one thing that I would always hear. You’ve got a lot of good instincts on camera. And photographers would say that, but I’m like, again, in one ear and out the other. I was doing the modeling as a very part time thing. I was never fully committed to it. I was using it as an outlet for me to actually play soccer.

Because modeling led me to Milan. And I was about twenty-one, my agent in New York goes, ‘hey, an agency in Milan wants to represent you and they want you to go there for four months’.

And I was like, wow. First of all, I hadn’t talked to my agent in New York for three or four months to begin with, because I left. So I just get this phone call saying they want you to go to Milan.

And I said to myself, I said, okay.

I go to my dad and I say, ‘Dad, I’m going to go to Milan for this modeling opportunity but I’m going to try and find a team to play with while I’m there’.

I’ll knock on doors. I’ll use modeling, first of all it was a gift, an opportunity. And so, I’m taking this gift and I’m trying to achieve my dream. Being in Italy, which is my dream country to play in, since I was a kid.

So, I was living in Milan for about four months. It was interesting. Four months turned into ten months of me staying in Milan. And during that time I was working and trying to find a team. But my first time in Milan, a lot of these teams didn’t take me seriously. They’re like, ‘look, you’re coming, what are you, from Canada? Really? You play soccer? Come on! Where’s your hockey stick’? They were like that. It was hard for me to find a team and I ended up coming back home.

And again, the modeling thing was so part time. I was working in restaurants and I’d book a modeling gig here and there.

Modeling has opened so many doors for me.
This one guy, his name is Gianluca, he was the first Italian guy that I ever met. And I was always fascinated by Italians because I wanted to talk soccer with them, you know what I mean?

He barely spoke English, I barely spoke Italian. He used to play soccer. He goes on Facebook and writes a post and someone contacts me back, they’re like, ‘hey, there’s a tryout on Monday’. So, I went to the tryout and the coach, the team, and the president of the team really liked me and at the end of practice, he’s like, ‘come back tomorrow’.

FLP – By the end of the week it was Friday. They’re – ‘We’re going to go to dinner’. They were staring at me… I don’t know what’s going on here, I barely speak Italian. John Luca was kind of acting like my agent at the time because he spoke Italian, he was translating everything to me. Then they were like, okay, we really like you. And I remember the coach, he was like, you remind me of myself as a young player and I really like you and I want to have you on the team.

And then that’s how my soccer dream happened. I was playing there for a little bit but unfortunately, visa and passport issues halted my time there.

But modeling opened all those doors.

FF – You just never know where it might lead you.

FLP – Just being on camera. And I enjoy photo shoots, they’re really fun. Because you are playing with the camera and embracing the character, which I think helps with being on camera with acting.

There was a bit more naturalness that may have come to me for it, because I’ve had cameras on me for those seven years of modeling I’ve done. Okay, there’s a camera there, I get it, I know my angles.

But then being on camera on TV and film is completely different. You have to pretend the camera is not even there. You’ve got to be unconscious of it, you got to know that it’s not there.

There’s more of a study of that I’m learning still to this day.

But I always played on my own, played for family, played for myself. I played for friends. I was obsessed with playing covers, and learning music, and playing my favorite bands’ songs and stuff. And I also started writing music.

I had my first infatuation. My first girl that I saw, I wrote her a song and just played melodies and stuff like that. And in college, I brought my guitar to college, I played a little open mics, and stuff like that.

Along the way, writing some music, for my own self, like poetry that I make into a song.

I always treated music as my escape. My guitar is my sweet escape. Whenever I’m stressed out, or I was dealing with issues, I’d pick up the guitar, I’d be free.

The team, we would eat in his hotel’s restaurant after practice. And he had a guitar just hanging out among the tables. And I pick up the guitar and I start playing for my team. And they’re enjoying it.

And the president, he was a man who would, when you would talk to him, he was thinking a million things a minute. His mind was always working. And so he’s watching and he goes, ‘Franco, Franco, come here’.

He was speaking to me in Italian. ‘Pick up the guitar’. I go, okay.

And he puts on one of his artist’s songs, and he’s like, can you play this? And I’m listening to this song, and figuring out the notes I’m playing, kind of like a freestyle, ad libbing and improvising here.

I get on a plane, fly to Rome, and get off the plane in Rome, I go straight to the studio with his assistant, not knowing what to expect. Get into the studio, do a little rehearsal thing.

I see that this is like a three hundred seating theater that I’m in. These seats are going to be full. I do my performance. It was insane. My heart was racing, I could not believe it. I was like, this is crazy, I sing this old Italian, a very famous Italian song. I do an acoustic version of it. And then I start playing one of my own songs. Anyway, long story short, the audience votes whether you get to pass on to the next round. So, I end up passing on to the next round.

But then the showrunner of the program, she brings me backstage to her office, and her assistants are talking to me and the president’s assistant.

This guy was opening so many opportunities for me. I got to open for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band in a little charity concert.

FF – Oh my gosh.

FLP – Yeah. They do like a little tour for charity, raising money for Parkinson’s. And his artist was performing for them and he brought me in to perform in a little venue in Cantú, a little town outside of Milan.

And it was just the drummer Vini Mad Dog Lopez; the saxophone player’s nephew was there, and another saxophone player, and they were doing a show. And I got to open for these guys.

And this president was providing me with these music opportunities but in my heart I was not happy.
Because as a musician, I’m aware of my abilities.

I do it more as a passion project, I like to play and I do have my songs, and I’m proud of my work. In the future, if anything were to come of it that would be great but my mind was playing differently at that point.

FF- Yeah.

FLP – I was focused on soccer. And my father always told me, in order to be successful at something in life, you have to put one hundred percent of your effort into that one thing. I want to be a soccer player. But I put twenty-five percent into soccer, twenty-five percent into music, twenty-five percent into acting, and twenty-five percent into modeling and think I’m going to be successful at all. No, I’m not.

Focus on one thing. So, I have to put my focus on that and I pursued soccer and it led me to where I ended up. And it came to, my mom talking about acting, I pursued the acting thing and I really found my vehicle, I found my forum in that.

I could have been bitter and said, no, Mom, I don’t want to do the acting thing, I’ll figure it out on my own. I trusted my instincts and made a choice that led me into this art form where I’ve really said, okay, I’ve found purpose and peace in what I’m doing. And I can translate my soccer experiences into acting.

I can translate my music experience into acting, because sometimes you’re doing a scene, you gotta find the music of the scene. What’s the music of this character? What songs does he listen to? What’s the soundtrack for this scene I’m about to do?

FF – Well, and also with the soccer, it’s a team effort, and you don’t ever go it on your own, you play off of somebody else, in a scene. So, that training that you’ve had, with looking at where everybody else is, and how can you bring the game, or in this case the scene, into the direction that you want it to go?

I see a lot of parallels there, actually.

FF – Exactly.

FLP – He might shoot the ball at me really hard, how am I going to control… you know, there’s so many things that my mind just translates to soccer. And with the music. I’m blessed to be on this journey that I’m on and that I’ve done in the past, how it’s just shaped what I’m on right now.

And I don’t regret anything that I’ve done. I’m happy, I’m happy that I’m able to do what I do. You know, the word talent, I don’t really like that word, talent. Because I think I’m a blue collar guy who just works hard. I’m disciplined to what I’m trying to do. When I played the guitar, I worked at it, to become an actor, to play soccer, I worked my butt off and did all those hours of training to be the player I was. And now with the acting, I’ve only been doing it for three years now, there’s a lot I still have to learn.

I’m always working and learning from guys like Louis, and my roommates who are, they’re also in the show that I was on. Like, Dylan Taylor and Ryan McDonald, learning from these guys who have been in the business for twenty years and know things that I don’t know. And I’m always eager. I’m like, okay…

FF – There’s always something new to pick up.

FLP – I gotta work, I gotta work.

FF – Yeah.

Now, we’ve already touched a bit on that, so, what’s it like to play Louis’ son on TV, and what did the two of you do to establish that father son relationship and rapport, and how has that continued to this day?

FLP – So, what was it like to play Louis’ son? I think I talk to Louis as much as I talk to my own father. He’s become a mentor in my life and a father figure. We just really connected. I remember meeting him for the first time. He’s like, ‘my boy, my boy’. You know, like come here. He just embraced me and we looked at each other and we knew. I mean, we’re going to work here, but we’re building a relationship. And I remember, he would ask me questions.

What does your dad sound like? I’d imitate my dad’s voice, and he be like okay, what’s he like, and just taking me in. And I mean in every scene that we worked on, along the way we would talk and he really treated me like a son, on and off set. He was always there. Even when I was in my trailer he would come knock on my door and come hang out with me on set. And he would talk about life. About experiences. I would ask for guidance. And so I’m doing these things unconsciously, just talking, but it really was like he was a dad.

And that translated into our work.

You know, a couple times, he gives me a little smack in the back of the head, like in the scene, but it was so natural. It didn’t bother me.

I received more than a handful of those shots in the back of the head growing up. It was just so natural.

FLP – Since shooting Bad Blood, we talk all the time. He’s really been an advocate of the process of what being an actor is, because I’m so new to it, and sometimes the frustrations that might come with the business. And talking to him about it. Louis is there. He’s always been there from the beginning. Because he was the first person I really, really bonded with on set. You know, if I wouldn’t have him, it’s different talking to an acting coach or anyone else.

I’ve been blessed with a guy like him, a beautiful soul like him. He’s just there for me.

He’s just a fantastic artist. Watching him work was like a master class in acting. Watching him work and the whole Cosoleto family, I spent a lot of time with these guys on set. Dylan Taylor, Daniel Kash, watching them work on set was a master class.

Watching Louis fighting for his character taught me a lot. There was a naiveté to me,  just inexperience. Like, ‘these are the lines, I got to stick by the script, I can’t improvise unless, do I have to wait for the director to tell me to improvise’? Or just watching him do his thing, he just did something that was natural and it made sense but it wasn’t on the page. And then he went back to the lines, and he’s fighting for his character, and explaining, talking out loud.

And then everything just makes sense afterward. And you’re looking around and you’re on set and you’re like, wow. This is beautiful, something really beautiful to be a part of. From watching his old stuff to watching him on Bad Blood now, he’s a chameleon. People recognize him but people might not recognize him. But he’s been in a lot of stuff, he’s a working actor.

And that’s what I strive to, the way I want to model my career is, I see myself as a working actor. I’m happy, and I’m content.

Keep Up With Franco!

Franco Lo Presti on IMDb

Franco Lo Presti on Instagram

Franco’s Video Collection

“When we first met, Louis had to teach me a listen in vowels… check it out!”

The name of this original song is ‘Lotus Girl’.

The name of this original song is ‘Ghost’.