Today we’d like to introduce you to Manuel Zopiyaxtle

Hi Manuel, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.

I have always been an introvert. I know people don´t like to classify others in those terms anymore but that is how I define myself. My best work and my biggest energy comes when I am alone. I value my loneliness so much. I have my family, and friends on my side but when I feel the most inspiration coming to me is when I am alone.

I remember hours and hours of me alone in my room, in the park, in my backyard, just thinking, by myself. And in those times I remember doing very weird stuff. Just singing, acting, imitating others, creating my own movies, playing my own characters, dancing, screaming, crying, everything, by myself, my imagination was floating and going to crazy places.

I have always been that person. I like it. I like losing myself in my own thoughts and imagination and creating, in my mind, because those creations now serve me for a purpose: acting. I didn´t always wanted to be an actor, although I do believe it is meant for me, the thought of it was not fully real until a few years ago. My mom made me do a lot of stuff in my life, playing piano and violin, painting, playing football, then swimming, and even math classes, everything that she could imagine she would make me do. At the time, I remember thinking, “why can´t my mom leave me alone?” I wanted my mom to let me be a normal kid and just stay at home. Now, I thank her everyday of my life because of that, Those actions of her made me learn so much about myself, and gave me a lot of discipline which is what keeps me going everyday. But most importantly, that made me realize what I liked and what I didn´t like. Because she made me try so much things, I started being very aware at a very young age what I wanted to do, and so, one day, when I was 12 years old, there was a litte theatre workshop at my school and we had to attend, I believe it was mandatory, so I had no other option than to go. You can imagine that I ended up liking it.

I told my mom about it and she was not very convinced, and she told me something that I will not say now because I know she will be reading. But mom, if you are reading this, thank you. My mom made a not very nice comment about me trying to get into acting that made me want to pursue acting even more, and from then on I realized one thing about myself. And that is that when someone tries to tell me that I can´t do something, that is the perfect fuel that I need to get what I want.

Anyway, I got into acting and I liked it, I mean that is what you have got to know. Acting is my passion, film as well, something that I got from my dad since he made me watch so many movies since a little kid, especially Mexican movies. I got a lot of inspiration from it and at the end of the day it is the thing that I want to do. I can´t tell you how much acting moves me. It´s my passion, it´s what I love to do. I knew from the start that there was something in me that was moved by it, but I realized that I wanted to be an actor when I was 14 years old. I was presenting my Aladdin show, where I was playing Aladdin, it was opening night and you can imagine I was very nervous. The group had been rehearsing for more than 5 months. Moments before coming onto stage my heart was trembling, my breath was agitated, and I was trying to focus. However, life doesn´t wait for you, and as nervous as I was, it was the time to go out on stage and do what I liked. And so I did, and I remember putting myself out there, and feeling it.

Many people have described it as “the zone.” This state of mind that you find yourself in where you are highly focused and hyper aware, it is a unique state of mind and if you practice any high discipline or art, if you are committed enough it is very possible that you might have found yourself experiencing one of those moments. So, I was doing my Aladdin show and I experienced it for the first time. I also felt I was alive, I felt like nothing else mattered. I said before that I am an introvert, and sometimes being an introvert makes you go away of the things that you like to do. But when I went on stage, I felt like myself, I felt like it was the most truthful version of myself out there. And just then, I remember thinking for a quick fraction of a second, “I want to do this for the rest of my life.”

So now I am doing it, living the dream, coming all the way from Merida, Mexico to New York City. Many people may think it´s impossible or very hard to do. Let me tell you something, I am not special, I am just a normal person trying to follow his instinct, and I have been doing that since I was little and I really want to continue doing so. This whole story of mine is not to prove anyone else what I am capable of, it´s more a story to prove myself what I can do. If you follow your dream, with passion, I mean real desire, then nothing is out of the picture for you. You make your own path, you make your own advice, you make your own luck, that is what I believe in.

Here I am, that little introvert kid that once rejected everything his mom made him do, That kid that would lose himself in his own thoughts so many times creating and inspiring himself to fulfill his dream. That kid that was so lonely because that is how he energized himself. I am happy to say that I have the right people with me at the moment, They know who they are. And sometimes when I lose myself in thought and inspiration and creativity, I know that right at my side there are people backing me up. And I go to accomplish what I want everyday because of them, but most importantly because of myself, because I deserve the life that I want, and so does everyone. All you have to do is follow your instinct.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?

Not at all. I have not had an easy life, but I have definitely not had a hard life. I know many people in my life and around the world that can experience much harder paths than me, especially those living in war zones and where their life is endangered every day.
I have not been one of those but I got to tell you, my road here has not been smooth at all.

First I got to say my parents have supported me since day 1 and they are the reason that I am here. I know they have been struggling to keep up with the supoort they provide for me but I thank them everyday to keep up to keep me here.

Then, emotional circumstances. It has been hard, I won´t lie. In this life, you got to realize that sometimes you will face people that you won´t like and people that won´t like you, and that is something that I have been strugglin with my whole life. Accepting others even when they hurt you or those close to you. That has been very hard for me, but I guess accepting them for who they are and realize that everyone tries their best is something that keeps me out of that.

Also the hypocrisy that you face. Especially in this industry it gets really hard, there will be people that you think are a certain way and they end up disappoiting you, and that really can bring your morale down. It has to do a lot with the power that you give to people and how sometimes you really get hurt by stuff that doesn´t even concern you, and it all has to do with how much power you give others to hurt you.

Finally, sometimes you do get depressed. It gets lonely and not necessarily in a way where I can just be by myself and think about what I like, as I described previously, but more like, you feel that there is no one behind you. Sometimes it gets like that, feelings of pain, and being lost are something very common, so you just got to stand your ground and support yourself. At the end of the day, the most important partner you should have is yourself, because that is the only one that remains when you are born and when you die.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?

I am an actor! Proudly so. I like to do everything. Film and Acting. Those are my things. I always look forward to create, innovate and try new stuff, whatever it is I am always down to do it! I like to be on set, sometimes if I don´t have much to do, I just like to be around so that I get as much experience as I can but in general I love to be around that environment.

My primary focus is on film, but as most actors know, acting is based on the theatre, and being on stage is my favorite thing. I feel like being on stage I can just enjoy myself, be myself and be someone else and put on crazy and serious work at the same time. I am just in love with being on stage and that´s what I enjoy the most! Being on camera is a complete different work, I love it as well, but it is just a different experience. For me though, the adrenaline of being in front of hundreds of people is what makes me fall in love with acting in the first place, so being there is my thing. I can do both anytime though.

Right now I just did a two night show at NYFA. It was an anthology written by Asanté Pulliam, “On What Is Confidential.” It was a terrific experience, working with so many people of different backgrounds was so exciting and I had one of the lead roles. It required a bunch of physicality which I am always happy to work on (my character experienced a heart attack.) Next semester at NYFA, we should be putting on a play, so I am looking forward to that, it is going to be one hell of a ride!

I have done numerous short films around NYFA and NYC. So far I believe I have participated in more than 45 of them. So, not too bad. I am credited in IMDB for three of them, “Good Morning America”, “Overthinking” for lead work, and “Party Boy” for background work. I am also an extra in an upcoming feature film called “For Lila”, which I should be shooting soon, and more details to come!

Apart from that around my school environment I am the Senior Student Ambassador at NYFA. Which means that I work with current and upcoming students from the school to make sure to provide events for the student life and to assist with anything regarding the daily life on campus.

I got to say I am very proud of my discipline and commitment. Those are things that make me strive me for more and keep me up with this dream of mine. I am someone that will do the necessary work to get what they want and who will take each and every opportunity to show the world who I really am.

We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?

Tough times definitely. Mostly caring for my family. I mean it was a time where I lost some of my relatives and it was hard. Staying in family is all that mattered to me in that moment and still does. For me, family is all, and if there is one thing that COVID proved to me was that without my family I am nothing.

Also give me a lot of patience. Big amounts of them. It was a time of a lot of stress and finding that patience and hope that everything will be okay was very hard to find but we made it, and I am very grateful every day of my life for that.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm15569175/?ref_=nmwrk_rvi_nm_t_1
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/manuelzopiyaxtle/