Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Joel Celaya. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Joel, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
Oh boy, they’re so many! Let me tell you about two of them that I did back in Mexico. The first one is a short film called Decision Facil (Easy Decision, 2018), directed by Farid Evangelista and produced by Creando Redes MX, in which I played a street drug dealer named Tavo, who takes advantage of the desperation of this innocent fella to get money for his sick mother’s treatment and introduces him to the world of drug trafficking. I know it sounds crazy to mention this project been so dark and with such a controversial theme, but what I loved about it is that I got to play a character that’s so different than me, but at the same time finding how could I relate to him in a very human level. They did a whole characterization for me: they put tattoos on me, dressed me up, made my hair messy and gave me a gun, haha! All of that really helped me to immerse myself in the character and made me completely change my way of talking and behaving, it was such an incredible acting experience. On top of that, the short film ended up being part of the official selection of two film festivals! The first was Faro de Aragon’s 2018 Audiovisual Showcase in Mexico City — where we were also nominated to Best Fiction —, and the second was the Lift-Off Sessions UK 2019 in London! It was a thrill!
The second project it’s so different than the first one, haha! It was a short film called La Biblioteca (The Library, 2018), directed by Carlos Moreno and produced by Arte 7. That one is special to me because is a very sweet love story that takes place in a library; you know, boy meets the girl, awkward flirting and all of that, haha! It was also an interesting acting challenge because there were no lines; literally, nobody talks in the whole film (there’s even a deaf character), and it was all done with body language and facial expressions. It wasn’t over the top, but very realistic, subtle and nuanced, which is so different of the action projects I’m used to. This project was also part of the official selection of two film festivals, both in Mexico: Festival del Puerto 2018 and Ciudad Madero’s 2018 International Film Festival, where we were also nominated to Best Short Film, my co-lead Erandy Mondragon was nominated to Best Actress and I got nominated to Best Actor!
These nominations alone meant so much to me because we shot those two projects within days and it was a confirmation to me that I’m capable of having that kind of acting range: from being a very violent and aggressive drug dealer to an innocent guy who doesn’t know how to talk to the girl he likes. It made me felt that all my acting training in college paid off and cleared my doubts and uncertainties on whether I had a solid craft; to my own surprise, turns out I did, haha… And I still do.
Joel, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m the friendly, funny, cheerful guy who’ll always find an excuse to shoutout at the accomplishments of my friends and be there for them when they need help; if you”re my friend, you’ve got yourself a personal cheerleader at the front life of your life! I’m the ethnic flavor who likes to put some azucar on everything he does, dance my way around and resort to my Latino creativity to get out of sticky situations, haha! But I’m also the kind of guy who has gone through some stuff and likes to think deep about people, have strong opinions and principles, I’m fierce and brave. At the end of the day, never just an ordinary man.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
Acting makes me feel alive! And I act to make others feel joyful of being alive. I know it might sound so simple but it’s so necessary to do things because we like doing them, not because they’re obligations or responsibilities.
For me, acting is a calling that came from God himself. I feel this is His purpose for my life and a vehicle to bring love, joy, peace and live-changing catharsis to the people who sees me performing and that I get to meet. I’m not doing this particularly for the money or the awards, but because awhile ago, through many events in my acting journey, God made it clear to me that it was Him calling to the stage and in front of the camera, not people, and every time I get to do this joyful thing I give my best for Him and share what I have in my heart with the audience and the camera.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I’ll go straight to the point: I used to think that acting is hard, and preparing an audition or creating a character is a huge undertaking for which one must go to great lengths in order to get it “right”, so when I was told in my audition for the prestigious Art of Acting Studio of LA that acting is easy, and it should feel easy… whoah… it blew my mind! That statement alone made me rethink four years of theater school and everything I was told about acting until then.
You see, after graduating from theater school I booked many short films in a short period of time, but I wasn’t feeling confident enough on my craft to know when I “had” the character figured out every time I had an audition, I felt like a blind man using his cane to walk on the street, hitting everything around me trying to “feel” the right path. Most of my teachers used to taught me that if I wasn’t truly feeling the character’s pain, for instance, I was doing something wrong, so I used to fake it a lot, just so it looked real for the audience or the camera. Months later I learned that Stella Adler’s Art of Acting Studio in LA was coming to Mexico to audition people for their program, and I was curious about developing as an actor in a new arena, the US. So I prepared my audition, a monologue in which my character was reliving his parent’s murdering. I went upstage, and tried to really “push out” the pain, the tears and the suffering because, honestly, I wasn’t connecting with the story (but hey, a really intense monologue should be good enough to get me into a prestigious acting school, right?). I finished my scene and the teacher, Don, who was auditioning me, said to me: “you know, I can see that you’ve really worked on the scene; what if you try again, but think that acting is easy… yeah, acting should feel easy. Do it again in the easiest way you can”. So I did, I merely focused on what I was telling and I felt relaxed, and images starting popping up in my imagination; I wasn’t carried away by the feeling and no tears came out of my eyes, but I felt truthful in my acting for the first time in a long time. When I finished my monologue, I saw Don smiling from ear to ear, joyful. He said: “you see? Acting is easy. That was wonderful.” And I felt incredible after! I didn’t care if I was chosen for the program, I was just thankful for that piece of information that I knew that could change my whole acting career. And by the way, a month later I got an email saying that I was being offered a spot in their program. Yes!
Now, I don’t underestimate the importance of the craft, the need of on-going training, the usefulness of good acting theory or having a nurtured and cultured soul, but all of that is meant for the actor to just DO on stage and just BEING on camera! And when you’ve done the work, the rehearsal and the research, it’s only a matter of enjoying it, flow with it and… feel alive! As Nick Nolte said in Peaceful Warrior: “take out the trash” up there, in the mind. Very often, acting is more a matter of leaving out what you don’t need for the performance and just focusing on here, now, and the scene partner.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9978963/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_8_in_0_q_joel%2520celaya
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joel.celaya/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoelCelayaOficial
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/J_2Myr80WZE
- Other: Headshots, resume and reels: https://www.shine.us/joel-celaya
Image Credits
Mark Daugherty
Joey Snap
Kate Urban