Education Quote by Gary Cole

There is a whole working actor’s autobiography tucked into that casual shrug of a sentence. “Messed around” is deliberately minimizing language: not the tortured “I studied,” not the romantic “I always knew,” but the kind of half-dismissal people use when they’re describing an early flirtation that didn’t yet feel like destiny. Cole’s phrasing keeps ego in check, and that’s the tell. He’s not selling a myth of inevitable greatness; he’s describing a craft that sat on a shelf until a real-world opportunity yanked it back into relevance.

The subtext is about permission. High school is where a lot of performers try on identities because the stakes are low and the audience is captive. “Put it away” hints at the standard detour many actors take: practical life, self-doubt, maybe the fear of wanting something too loudly. Then the pivot arrives not through a grand epiphany but through a job: “a television show in San Francisco.” Work, not inspiration, is the catalyst. That’s a quietly unglamorous truth about entertainment careers: the industry often confers legitimacy first, and confidence follows.

San Francisco matters, too. It suggests a cultural ecosystem outside the Hollywood center of gravity, where experimentation is possible and a young performer can get reps without being instantly sorted into a brand. Cole’s intent feels less like confession than a reset of the narrative: talent is real, but so is timing. Acting, for him, wasn’t a lightning bolt. It was a tool he rediscovered when the world finally gave him a reason to pick it up.