Gaining your acting skills takes work and a break. It is often said that less than 10% of Screen Actors Guild (SAG) members support themselves with their craft. It is a difficult business. Despite the great odds, many decide to continue pursuing their acting ambitions.
There are acting schools like Hollywood Actors Studios and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts West – Hollywood that provide aspiring actors with a solid program to study the craft of acting.
Another popular way to learn is by attending acting workshops or bootcamps. The working body has a great program to study.
Others who try to engrave their names on film or television go a different path. They read books and watch acting DVDs to help them. Two newcomers to acting I met while filming an independent film, Consignment (2007), shared their personal stories with me. I’ve always been impressed with people’s ability to perform in front of a camera or an audience.
Newcomer Ruben Navarro brings a charismatic urban touch that connects with movie audiences. His acting debut came in 2007, where he played Smiles, a successful methamphetamine dealer who is shot to death in writer-director Sid Kali’s urban drama Consignment. This young Latino actor had a powerful impact on critics and fans alike.
Born and raised in Fontana, California, Rubén Navarro has experienced the harsh realities of life firsthand. His older brother lost his life violently in front of a family home. Two close friends were senselessly shot and killed. He himself survived a near-fatal shooting on the streets of Fontana that left him temporarily unable to walk for months. He recovered with the attitude that he would appreciate each day as it came and be open to new things in life.
When his childhood friend Sid Kali told him that he was writing a script for an urban drama and that he wanted him to appear in a supporting role, he was caught off guard. He didn’t see himself as someone who could lead a film crew by delivering lines. What sealed the deal was how natural it seemed to give an authentic representation of a gangster being shot. While filming Consignment in and around the Inland Empire, he made the role of Smiles his own as a seasoned actor.
The term has been used many times, but it was only natural that it delivered a powerful performance. A unique experience for him was working with East Coast actor Tim Beachum. Never traveled outside of the West Coast, it was interesting to see these two different personalities work well together on screen and behind the scenes.
His first film appearance, Consignment, has launched a promising acting career. The independent film has been well received by film audiences. Shipping is available at Blockbuster, Best Buy, Tower Records, FYE, and other outlets. The consignment is a story of trafficking in drugs, money and power. Based on true events, Consignment is about Tommy Jones, a reluctant East Coast drug dealer on the run with his wife, Yolanda, after a rival drug lord’s plan to get him ripped off and murdered goes awry. Needing quick cash to move on, the couple head to Southern California, where Tommy hooks up with his cousin, a reckless and short-tempered drug dealer. Tommy quickly goes insane and is forced to take a large shipment of crystal meth on consignment from a ruthless Latin gangster. Betrayals, a series of brutal murders, and an old secret from his wife’s past thwarts Tommy’s plans for a new start in life.
The role of Smiles in Consignment was the perfect role for him to use his natural talents and charisma. Ruben Navarro will become a breakthrough actor for the Latino community in the film industry. At first, his style is compared to Tyrese Gibson and Christian Bale with a Latin twist. A rising talent who will get movie audiences interested in seeing his next exciting appearance. Ruben Navarro is slated to appear in writer-director Sid Kali’s latest hot film Stash Spot, which begins filming in 2008.
Actor Tim Beachum started in the editing room before getting in front of the camera. When his close friend Super Bike Mike from Detroit invested money in a movie called Dope Case Pending (2000) starring Coolio and Kid Frost, he was invited to the set. Super Bike Mike was cast as a drug dealer named Flakes. The movie itself was very forgettable, but when Tim Beachum was asked to help edit the movie, he jumped at the opportunity. He has been a movie fan his entire life and loves every part of the business. After seeing all the images and editing parts of the film (uncredited), he got the mistake of acting.
He was hired as the editor of director Sid Kali’s urban action film Consignment, but decided to take a chance and audition for a role. He had read the script cold learning from front to back. He knew the story inside and out. So he took it upon himself to face the green screen in his editing studio and record his audition. As a movie editor, he cut two scenes he liked from the script and sent the DVD to casting director Stream Gardner. The two had not met and she had no idea who he was before watching the DVD. In the movie business, the editor doesn’t get the love that actors or directors feel.
She was impressed enough for him to come out for the last few calls. Tim Beachum walked through the doors of the acting studio in Los Angeles, CA to read the title role of Tommy Jones, a money-making East Coast drug dealer. Director Sid Kali was surprised to see the publisher auditioning and was skeptical that the publisher could perform.
Not giving him a break was a litmus test. Tim Beachum was paired with the female lead of the film, who was an active actress. This is the part of the story where it would be great to say he made it, but according to Tim Beachum, his performance was less than stellar. Nerves had taken over him. He flew from the east coast to the audition and screwed up.
I was going to be in Southern California for another week to go over Consignment’s post-production needs. The role of Tommy Jones went to another actor. Rehearsals began on the last day Tim Beachum was scheduled to fly home. Luckily, the actor withdrew from the film to take a series regular role in a network drama. One last call was made to play the role of drug dealer Tommy Jones. Tim Beachum delayed his trip home to give him one more chance. This time he got the audition. The female lead said that he was the best with whom she ran the scenes. He got the part.
Since then, Tim Beachum still loves to edit movies, but he is also known to be into acting. He attends acting workshops and classes regularly, building a strong acting foundation. He feels that editing movies helps him better understand what it takes to act. Both newcomers are still trying to get their names engraved on movies.