We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mauricio Ovalle a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Mauricio , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Funny you asked, I used to say, the next one. It’s something to look forward to but in this case I’ll have to say, The Best Gift in Life is Life Itself. A short I wrote, directed, acted in and produced. I wrote this script 2 years ago and to be able to bring this project to life has been  a life changing experience.

The Best Gift in Life is Life Itself is the story of Antonio, a man  dealing with depression since finding out about an accident in his childhood that left a mother, father and their child in critical condition followed by their unfortunate death. To Antonio, as a child, the death of this other child (named Emma), was like losing a sister and this event marked the beginning of his battle with depression.
As an adult, Antonio starts to lose the battle as he finds himself at the end of the rope when suddenly there’s a knock on his door and……… You’ll have to watch the film to find out :).

Mauricio , 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?

Born in the beautiful island of the Dominican Republic, I felt the acting bug sting at an early age. I used to fabricate stories as a child that I would then share with other kids, but it wasn’t until I moved to NY that the idea that I was an actor really came true.

I started taking acting classes and it was in one of those classes that I was given the opportunity to perform. My very first performance was  a scene from the play, The Boys in the Band where I played Michael. My then teacher Jeffrey Alan Davies liked it and I stayed at this theater program at the Princeton high school in NJ for another year until I decided to try back home in NY and  that’s when I then went to HB studio in NYC where I had the honor to study with Sam Groom.

Sam brought the best out of me by telling me that there has to be a little fear (nervousness) in confidence in order to make things work. He was right. I took 2 Classes with Sam and had the privilege to also have some other coaches cover for Sam when he was out.

Although my intention was to be a film actor, I’m very glad I got to start my acting career performing on stage. The transition afterwards was very easy and so I began pursuing my film acting career.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an actor is to be able to get into someone’s life (character) and convince the audience you are this person. To be able to portray someone other than you… It’s  just fascinating.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

A few books. I’ll start with Acting in Film by Michael Caine. Although I read other acting and coaching books like, Uta Hagen ( A challenge for the actor) Magnificent book, Michael Chekov (To the actor) another fantastic book and Stanislavski System, and a few others, it wasn’t until I read Acting in Film by Sr Michael Caine that I started feeling more comfortable with my own experience since Michael in his book doesn’t tell you what you should do but rather what he’s done. It made sense.

When it comes to writing, it was Face to Face by Brian Grazer that truly made me wanna write more. I’m a procrastinator so my stories stay longer in my head than they should but after reading this book and then his first one which was titled, A curious mind, I happen procrastinate much less.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @officialmauricioovalle
• Facebook: Mauricio Ovalle
• Linkedin: Mauricio Ovalle
• Twitter: @MauricioOvalle
• Youtube: Mauricio Ovalle
• Yelp: Mauricio Ovalle
• Other: The Best Gif in Life is life Itself will screen at the Culver City Film Festival this Saturday Dec 2nd at 12:00 noon and it has already won for Best Actor and the Denver movies awards, Best Supporting actor at the Indie X Film festival, Best Director and the Catskill int film festival and Best Director at the Los Angeles Int Film Festival.

Image Credits
Said Anvar and Paul Martinka