Harry Caudill walks along nature’s runway. *Photo by Robert M. Prosser*

By Tom Victoria

Harry Caudill lights up the lens with stunning images. He graces the covers of magazines and appears in film.

The Texas model and actor explained how he started posing for the camera a year-and-a-half ago.

“I really didn't discover my love for being in front of the camera until two years ago when I had one too many people tell me you look like so and so,” he said. “I got Tom Holland a lot. Sometimes, people would say Timothee Chalamet, which I didn't understand. Harry Styles. I never got in front of a camera until a scout actually reached out to me and was like, hey, you should go do some modeling.”

One thing led to another for Harry.

“That was for John Casablanca, which is a franchising school,” he said. “I did some courses with them and then I picked up another agent and then had more interviews come in. That's when I realized, yeah, I actually do fairly well in front of the camera. I think just intuitively from watching people, from watching so much content in my life I know what looks good, especially on me, especially on my body.”

Harry focused on fitness.

“I've been working a lot on my body,” he said. “I've been going to the gym more and it's exciting to be able to feel proud about that. I love being able to incorporate just myself, my body into my art and self-expression.”

Harry, 23, enjoys being in front of the lens.

“Style is the first thing people see about you,” he said. “It's the one thing that you can show the world how you feel on the inside. It's the first thing people see, so I just have a ton of fun taking pictures and seeing how cool they look overall.”

Harry finds one emotion harder than others to convey in modeling.

“True joy is really, really hard to capture,” he said. “And a good, genuine smile. That's something that I really need to work on. It's just because I'm not happy with my smile often. I don't like to show teeth.”

Harry doesn’t favor outdoor shoots over studio or vice versa.

“I really don't have a preference,” he said. “I suppose it depends on the temperature inside or outside. If it's too hot, my face is just going to be really, really red. I run hot and my face is more often than not going to be red in any situation.”

Harry appreciates working with photographers who take input from the models.

“I need my photographers to listen to my vision as well because I know what looks good,” he said. “Obviously, not always what feels best is what looks good, but again, I still know best. I know my body best and I really do appreciate it. Unless the photographer is this world famous that's-just-how-it-is kind of person, I would prefer a collaborative photographer.”

One reason Harry models is to show folks it doesn’t matter what type of clothing people wear, including men don’t have to be adorned in masculine garb.

“Everybody should be able to feel comfortable wearing whatever they want,” he said. “That's a big goal of why I'm here in the fashion industry is just show people men don't have to be wearing suits and ties and stuff. Obviously, there's other people doing that, but not enough.”

Harry said that freedom extends to wearing makeup.

“Makeup is amazing,” he said. “The only thing that I really use is some blurring powder on my face because I think my natural skin looks better rather than with makeup. It might just be because I haven't found the right product yet. I love my skin. I'm comfortable in my skin and I don't feel like I need to cover it up. Even though a lot of the times when I go to shoots, they'll have makeup artists and they'll want to cover up my blush and I'm like, do what you have to do.”

Harry said it comes down to what people like.

“Makeup can be incredibly beautiful,” he said. “I've only worn natural makeup for photo shoots, only masculine makeup. I don't really have a passion for crazy makeup looks like eyeshadows, lipsticks and contour and because I'm comfortable with my face and how it looks now, but I have no problem with anybody wanting to just go wild with it because it looks amazing.”

Harry recalled the first model to have an impact on him.

“I would say Zoie Zeller,” he said. “She's an international model and she was one of the first model coaches that I ever had. I met her at an expo and she got me a little online commercial gig where I was just typing away on a computer. It was my first time in front of a camera that would be shown to people, a video that'd be shown to people. It was just incredible being able to meet an actual real-life celebrity, a model that travels and does photo shoots for work.”

Harry plans on expanding his acting.

“I've done some extra work in a couple local movies here, but I would love to be a lead or a supporting role in a big screen film, particularly a Wes Anderson film,” he said. “His filmmaking style is so good. I couldn't tell you how thrilled I would be if I was on the big screen going to a premiere and seeing a bunch of celebrities up there on the screen with me. I mean that's everybody's dream, right? I want to be a serious screen actor.”

Harry explained acting is about behaving naturally.

“The extra parts that I've done, it's real easy,” he said. “It's very natural. You just talk to people. This one time, I was just sitting in a chair, reading a newspaper. I didn't even have to talk to anybody. The best actors don't act. They just live. They just do. And that's the best way I can explain that. When you try to act, when you get in your head about it, it doesn't look real, it doesn't feel real. You don't connect with it and the audience doesn't connect with you. But again, that's talking more about a main role. If you're an extra, just be there. Don't be too much.”

Harry recalled an actor who made a lasting impression.

“I worked as an extra in the movie Only Here a Little Longer with Kruz Maldonaldo, who was the lead in that film,” he said. “He was so calm and cool off set. But then he snapped into these roles on set and it was crazy. And he was so young. He was incredible for such a young kid. I was like, oh my gosh, if he can do it, I can do it. I could totally do this. He was younger than me, 17 I think. It was just less than a year ago. I was still 23.”

Although Harry didn’t get any lines in the film, he’s had larger roles on stage.

“I believe my character’s name was Ricky but he didn’t get any lines unfortunately,” he said about the short film. “Kruz went on to star in Peter Pan the Broadway musical national tour, so I didn’t get to do much with him. But I played the Mad Hatter and Thelonius in the Fredericksburg Theatre Company’s production of Shrek the Musical though.”

Harry also is impressed with a prolific thespian.

“Pedro Pascal, just because he got famous later in life,” he said. “He tried for 30 years to be an actor and almost gave up, and then he finally made it. That's an incredible story.”

Harry also is a musician.

“I've been classically trained on the clarinet for over 10 years,” he said. “I made it all the way to All State when I was in high school. I sing. I want to start writing, composing my own music. I've been writing lyrics down, but I've never composed or written my own song and that's partly because I can't really read music. I did really well in high school playing the clarinet, listening by ear. Playing by ear is the only way that I've made it through with the instrument.”

Harry always loved music.

“When I was young, I loved classical music,” he said. “And I would listen to everything that my parents listened to in the car. They had an old CD player, and I would listen to all kinds of tracks and stuff from my favorite movies. It wasn't until middle school when I got my first phone that I started listening to music with headphones. As I'd be walking around, it became my outlet. It became the one thing that made me feel sane. After a crazy interaction with some people, I would just sing and sing my favorite songs and cry, get goosebumps to it.”

Harry recalled how he started playing an instrument.

“I wanted to play the saxophone,” he said. “It was in sixth grade when I transitioned from the viola to a wind instrument. I could have stuck with strings, but I really wanted to play saxophone. However, I was a small kid and my hands were not big enough to fit around the saxophone to get to the keys. The director said, I think you would really like clarinet. Then I just took off with it. So I never learned how to play the saxophone, but I could make a sound on it if I wanted to.”

Harry’s art extends to the canvas.

“I did this painting a few years ago,” he said, pointing to the art behind him. “I haven't painted in a while, but I do like to do any art that I can. I'm going to carve a pumpkin out, make a little graveyard inside of it and doing a photo shoot with it for October in general.”

Harry makes art out of almost anything.

“I like to sculpt,” he said. “I've done ceramics. I build (elaborate) Legos. I like building with my hands. I built furniture. I built a shed, chicken coop. My father is an architect and contractor. I've done a few jobs for him working on houses. So I'm good with my hands. I like to craft and I like to feel tangible things, so any art that is tangible, nondigital, I like.”

Although Harry enjoys modeling, acting is his primary passion.

“I know that I could be an incredible actor,” he said. “And this is gonna sound quite arrogant, maybe even narcissistic, but I see a lot of these A-list celebrities on the TV. They just fumble some of these roles and I'm like, I don't know how they got there. I don't want to be that guy, but I know that I could be an incredible actor if given the opportunity.”

Harry said talent doesn’t always equate to being the right fit for every role.

“I'm not going to deny that there are incredible actors out there,” he said. “They have done roles that have moved countless people to tears. They have worked their ass off to get where they are. I'm not discounting that. I don't want to discredit that. I'm just saying that some roles don't fit.”

Harry finds a different emotion than joy is hardest to depict for film.

“I would say that real tears, genuine tears are the hardest,” he said. “If I'm modeling for a picture, you can use fake tears. I can look really sad. But if I'm acting, if I'm talking, if I'm conversing, it's an active scene. It's way more difficult to bring a convincing, depressing emotion forth and while I can do it, it's just more difficult.”

Harry said creativity is prevalent in the gay community.

“I discovered that I was not straight probably from a very young age,” he said. “That's on account of my generation in general being so open about their sexuality and their gender identity. I was able, thankfully, to have friends that I could talk about stuff with and realizing that the traditional norms of this world that I was raised on, I don't connect with, and it's really freeing to be yourself. The LGBTQ community has come so far, and unfortunately, we're seeing pushback now, and we're losing progress in a lot of areas. But I still see all of the effort, and I still see all of the people out there that are fighting for not only their voices to be heard, but everybody's voices, and that gives me hope.”

Harry stressed the importance of helping others.

“I'm here to support anybody that needs it,” he said. “I want to be people's support. I would love to be somebody’s support who's struggling and has nowhere else to go.”

Harry said the main message for people should be: do what they want to do and be who they really are.

“I have been trying my hardest to embody that to the fullest,” he said. “Every day, I've woken up and chose to do what I want to do, even if it's not something somebody else wants me to do.”

Harry doesn’t feel too pressured about maintaining a certain appearance in public.

“It's not the certain clothing that I would avoid in public because clothing is clothing,” he said. “You know that's not permanent whatsoever and you can change it at any moment, anytime. But tattoos and piercings, I've been told avoid to be as marketable as possible. And that's fine. I've not had a real desire to get tattoos or piercings. There's been temptations when my friends get them and I'm like, that's actually really cool. But it's better if I just stay au naturel for now until I really, really want to get something.”

Harry offered advice to aspiring models.

“I would tell this to a lot of people,” he said. “Just be honest. Be yourself. Don't try to fake being some big shot. Just be yourself. Be as loud or as quiet as you want and somebody out there is going to see you for you and that's going to take you where it needs to.”

Harry advised new models to be cautious.

“If there's one thing that I've learned throughout my year-and-a-half with doing modeling, is that there's a lot of people out there willing to take advantage of you because you are a person with hopes and dreams,” he said. “You have to do what you have to do to protect yourself and your sanity. And you need to know when to say no.”

Harry doesn’t have qualms about doing certain things such as artistic nudity.

“People need to get over it,” he said. “Nudity is not inherently sexual. And if you're worried about something like a child seeing somebody naked and then a switch flipping in their brain, if you're genuinely worried about something like that happening, then I think you need a reality check because it's gonna happen to everybody eventually. We all see somebody naked one way or another and it doesn't matter.”

Harry doesn’t lack motivation to pursue his passions.

“I don’t need motivation for my passions, what makes me happy,” he said. “You don't really need to find motivation for that. It just makes you feel good. It makes me feel good. Being able to go out and create art and show the world how I feel with my fashion, with my modeling, with my music, with my singing, whatever it is. Creating art, that's my passion. And my passion creates its own motivation.”

Harry’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harrycaudill/

Artist is model, actor and musician

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