When it comes to acting, no one knows it all when it comes to who will be good and who won’t, especially when it’s someone’s first time. Teenager Alex Shaffer knows best as he shines in is debut. Shaffer stars alongside award winning actors in Paul Giamatti (Sideways, Cinderella Man) and Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development) in “Win Win.” Directed by Tom McCarthy, this film is a heartwarming story of a young boy looking for a home
Mike Flaherty is a typical American attorney, trying to make ends meet for him and his family. Unbeknownst to him, a deal he makes with a judge and one of his elderly clients, leaves him with an unexpected house guest. Kyle Timmons, played by Shaffer, has runaway, with his mom in rehab, to live with his grandfather, the elderly client, but is taken in temporarily by the attorney. Flaherty, who moonlights as a high school wrestling coach later discovers Kyle is just what he was looking for, as Kyle had left his home as a top ranked wrestler. Kyle’s mom later shows up to take him home but neither Kyle nor Mike want anything to do with it.
Alex, who was a nationally ranked wrestler in real life, sat down with us.
How did the character affect you in real life, did you spend time as the character?
“Well, you know it was never really like that, [Director] Tom [McCarthy] set me up with an acting coach. What she taught me mostly was to become the character. That’s kind of what I had trouble with the most, but it also helped me the most. I realize that you’re not just thinking about what the character’s thinking right now. You’re thinking about what happened a week ago, two weeks ago, three weeks ago, a year ago. As far back as you can think. What Kyle really went through, you don’t know how many times he came home with his mom and she has a needle in her arm and you don’t know how many times he came home to guys all over her. How many times she’s passed out and he thought she was dead. You don’t know what he’s gone through. That’s what I really got into,. his mind in most of the scenes is that this kid has had such an emotional past.”
Did you enjoy the filming process?
“Yea it was so much fun. I wasn’t intimidated going into it, but I could have been, it could have been really bad. What they did best was that they always made me feel really comfortable on set. They could have been the actors that are stuck up and said ‘Oh I’m working with a kid that’s never been in a movie before, who’s never acted before.’ and they weren’t. They were always so supportive and so nice. It really made me feel comfortable.”
Did you take any special steps to build the relationship between you and Paul Giamatti’s character?
“There were not exactly special steps, I guess me and Paul just had really good chemistry. It was always just a lot of fun to film it. I think that’s what really made it easy for our characters to get along. The fact that me and Paul got along so well definitely helped our characters get along so well.”
You were a state champion right?
“Yea I used to wrestle when, well not WHEN I used to go to high school, I’m still in high school but when I used to actually go to a high school I used to wrestle. I wrestled a lot. I kind of transitioned that into acting. When I was wrestling I always liked to put on a show, I always want people to be interested in me. I want them to say, ‘holy shit, how did that kid just do that move.’ I guess that’s what I want when I’m acting. I want people to see me act and say, ‘holy shit that kid’s actually good’ or ‘holy shit he’s really in character.’ I always wanted to be the best of wrestling and I want to be the best of acting.”
Are you still wrestling?
“I’m actually not still wrestling, I broke the L5 vertebrae in my back, so wrestling’s out of the question.”
Do you have any plans, any films you have your eyes on?
“You know what, not necessarily. I’m, still just auditioning around. More or less I just want to become better at acting.”
How did you get into acting?
“My friend texted me, told me to audition for it. I was like ‘alright man, NO.’ Because this is during wrestling season, I didn’t want to go and do this stupid acting thing. That’s how I kind of looked at it, not stupid but, just something I didn’t want to do. Then he said, ‘you know it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity’ and I really thought about that, I guess that’s what really got me to go in the fact that it is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I was not going to get that opportunity again.
Do you have any advice for people wanting to get into acting?
“You know what I got extremely lucky, so I don’t know how to tell anybody how to get into acting but I can say that is something that, its definitely really hard to get into and I necessarily didn’t have to go through all of it. One thing is, to get into acting, is to become the best at acting. If you’re the best actor in the world, I don’t see you not getting into acting. You just got to be the best.”
“It’s a lot about becoming the character, that’s something I realized early is that it’s not really putting on a fake smile and being fake. It’s becoming that person. It’s not acting like that person, its literally becoming that person and trying to do and say the things that they would naturally do.”