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Tyler
Posey, 14, Going on 26 Years Old.
A
couple of months ago, I had the privilege of interviewing both John and
Tyler Posey. Last month the Official DOC/Sue Thomas FBEye Newsletter featured
John Posey, Tyler's father. This issue features Tyler. Tyler Posey is
the young actor, who plays the character of Raul on DOC and of Danny,
the son of a terrorist in the Sue Thomas FBEye show.
This young actor actually has a very diverse acting resume, which would
make most actors green with envy. As a young boy, he has ran through the
woods with Arnold Schwarzenegger with bombs exploding all around him,
been to New York City with Jennifer Lopez, Ray Phines and Stanley Tucci
and has ridden a horse in 20 degree below weather for the show "Into
the West." In the midst of this, Tyler is a very down to earth friendly
teenager, that has the maturity of someone almost twice his age.
Since Tyler's dad is in show business, Tyler grew up watching how shows
were put together. John remembers some of those early days. "From
the youngest age, I used to carry Tyler to the set with me, since he could
barely walk. He had an innate sort of desire to ask odd questions about
lighting and blocking, why are things set up this way or that way and
was very fearless. He would walk into a room and talk to complete strangers
and if you ask him to do something, he'd do it right away. So, there was
a true understanding of what it took to do more than just read your lines."
John recalls how he taught Tyler how to act. "I always taught Tyler
to first get the words out of the way and to get off the paper and then
try to understand what you're saying and why you are saying it, so that
there is the emotion. But more than anything else, try to find something
unpredictable, a little bit different about the character, something that
hopefully not everyone else's going to bring something predictable and
be sure to listen what the other guy is saying. If you're really truly
listening, like you're hearing it for the first time, your reaction will
be an honest reaction, so Tyler sort of picked up on that. It was always
interesting to watch him take his time. It appeared like he's really listening
and when people watched his words, specifically like movies like "Maid
in Manhattan," they always said it looked like he wasn't acting.
He was fully listening, responding, taking his time, sort of creating
things on the spot. He does a good job with that."
When
Tyler was just a young boy, he was featured opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger
in the film Collateral damage. Like most Arnold Schwarzenegger's film,
the movie contained much action, such as running with Arnold through explosions
in Mexico. He got to spend some time with the now Governor of California.
His dad recalls: "I remember him playing chess with Arnold Schwarzenegger
in his trailer, while nobody else could get in. Tyler could walk right
by the bodyguards and nobody would do anything. He would sit in Arnold's
trailer and play chess with him for an hour or two."
Tyler loved working on the DOC show. "It was weird, because there
were always new directors, there wasn't just one. He would always give
us some new material to work on. It was pretty fun, because Toronto was
so much fun. It was sometimes really cool. I had a blast working on that
show. That really brought me into the acting world, because that's really
the first thing, I've ever done."
John mentioned how working with different directors was actually quite
beneficial. "Different directors are giving you different approaches
to the same character, that's acting 101. So, as a ten year old, he's
got more knowledge than most kids coming into the business, because he's
shot 40 some odd episodes of a TV series with 20 or 30 different directors
with the same cast and different emotions, so it's quite a bit of training.
Tyler still hasn't taken any acting classes. As a dad, I would say, that
shouldn't become an issue till you're 14 or 15 years old. Once the world
becomes a little bit more dramatic and conflicted, when the stakes are
raised a little bit, it's probably a good idea to start getting into a
workshop and understand why these emotions are happening. These emotions
don't happen so much when you're ten. Now's the time, we're talking about
doing that. Otherwise, I think, you might ruin a kid if you throw him
into an acting class at the age of 8. There's not much they can teach
him. There's much more purity, when they are young. What they think comes
out anyway."
Tyler loved working with the DOC cast, especially Richard and Tracy. "They
were fun. They were awesome. I loved Richard and Tracy. Tracy was cool.
We stay in touch with Richard, because Richard recently had a baby, so
he sends us new pictures of the baby once in a while."
John
remembered how Tyler worked with the other cast members. "Tyler worked
mostly with Richard. It was more peripheral, when they had their early
scenes together. Cyndi (Tyler's mother) was there a lot of the time. I
was there early on. I think quite honestly, Billy was even learning from
Tyler, because Tyler had more experience in front of the camera and they
developed a rapport. I think, they had an equal respect for one another
and they had fun. I think the set was always a fun set, because the material
was always kind of lighthearted. I think Billy was able to learn from
everybody, because he was kind of new to this. All the actors on the set
were really Canadian. They were wonderful actors, so was Ruth, Paula,
I noticed a lot of the Canadian actors, they all had great theatrical
background. There is so much good theater there, like there is in England.
It was always a fun set. The producer, Larry McClean was always fun to
work with. They were always good to Tyler. They always kept it light.
After the pilot, I wasn't there as often. Tyler and I got a chance to
work together in a couple of episodes and that was fun. I always have
on my demo reel, the Donnie and Raul piece that we did together. That
was great. You had the directors and cast as friends. You're working with
your 11 year old son, doing acting work. It doesn't get more fun than
that."
In one of the episodes, the character of Raul was sitting on the dining
room table with Nate and Beverly. They were talking about celebrities
in New York City. Raul mentioned that Jennifer Lopez was in New York and
you don't see her. This was actually a bit of an inside joke, because
Tyler was shooting a movie called "Maid in Manhattan" with Jennifer
Lopez at the time.
John mentioned how Tyler was getting recognized everywhere. "When
he made "Maid in Manhattan," that was a 100 million dollar movie,
he was recognized everywhere. He's ok with that. He doesn't get too caught
up in the 'I'm famous, you're not.' In fact, sometimes, some of it kind
of bothers him. He'd rather not deal with it, but most people are good
about it."
Tyler did have a good time working with Jennifer Lopez on that movie.
"She was fun. I actually don't remember too much. I just remember
that she was really cool to me. I was invited to Jennifer Lopez' birthday
party about a year ago. I couldn't go, because I was shooting a movie."
Outside of acting, Tyler loves playing his guitar in his new band. "I
mostly just play Punk. I have a telecaster and I play with my friend;
we're in a little band. I play base also. We don't really have a drummer
yet." His dad had nothing but praise about how quick he learned the
instrument. "He's got a little recording studio and he's playing
really good guitar. He's picking it up quickly. He's selftaught."
John mentioned how unlike Raul, Tyler doesn't really get into trouble.
"Tyler is a good kid; he never gets into trouble. He steers away
from trouble. Tyler's world experience of working in Mexico, all over
Canada, New York has taught him a lot. He's working with adults and he
understands. He
has a maturity about him. Cyndi, my wife, and I we talked to him a bit
on our level. He's 14 going on 26 years old. He's a good kid. You know,
when you're thirteen and you suddenly want to bust out and get high and
see what trouble you could get into and try to impress your peers, that
doesn't exist with Tyler."
Richard Leacock agrees. "That's a good kid right there. He's going
to be a big star, no matter, what he chooses to do. I know that he loves
acting, and he loves music too, and I could see him doing his band thing
and becoming really big in that too. He's a great kid! We visit him, whenever
we go back to L.A. too. We always try to catch up."
John is looking forward to Tyler's future with great anticipation. "Tyler
is looking for new avenues in acting now. I think the roles are going
to become more complicated. He really is growing. He's almost as big as
I am. His feet are bigger. His voice is as low as mine. He's a teenager
now. It's a whole new thing now, where the roles, he's going to get are
something that are in tune with his age, with what he's thinking about
and I look forward to seeing the growth in Tyler and I think he's amazing
musician and I think he'll have a career in music somewhere. He writes
music, something that I've never been able to do. He writes lyrics. He
gets along wonderfully with his brother. They are the two best friends,
so we're just having a good time. And he knows that this career could
disappear with child actors, but he also has told me that he wants to
go to Cal Art, which is a university, right down the road from our house,
which was developed by the Disney people many years ago as a art college.
A lot of well known actors and producers have come out of Cal Art. It
is short for Cal institute for the Arts. So, he pretty much has his head
on screwed on right as he's looking at the future."
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