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Tinsel Town Calling Tamworth Tween
The Intelligencer
By: Jennifer Pritchett
TAMWORTH – He’s not a household name yet, but it looks like 11-year-old Ben M. may have found the road to stardom.
The spiky-haired sixth grader from Tamworth was just crowned child actor of the year at a national talent competition in Toronto. He has an offer to shoot commercials in New York City for the summer and plans to spend next winter in Los Angeles, where he hopes to get cast in a pilot for one of the networks.
Last weekend at the Canadian Model and Talent Convention, he received nine offers – call-backs, as they’re called in the business – from agents across the U.S and Canada. Ben is still considering which one to accept.
“I really want to go in some movies or to do some voice over work for cartoons,” he said.
At the Toronto competition, he came first in all five acting categories – TV commercial, monologue, kids casting (improv), cold reading scene and singing – for his age group, four to 11. Ben said he was shocked when he won all five categories and then won actor of the year.
The awards he received on the weekend are a welcome addition to an already impressive resume, which describes him as four-foot-four, with brown eyes and light brown hair.
It also said he’s won a school board gold medal in public speaking, has a talent in accents and celebrity voices, singing as well as writing stories and plays.
Ben is confident, but not overly so. Incredibly articulate for an 11-year-old boy, he’s only slightly precocious. He’s very cute and looks like a younger version of Doogie Howser – TV’s teenage genius who was a medical doctor.
And when asked if he wants to become a movie star, Ben almost shyly said with a slight smile, “yes, I do.”
For his mom, Shari, it’s all a little overwhelming.
“He would say, ‘I want to be an actor’ and I’d think ‘Yeah, sure,’ but it’s funny to see everything falling into place for him,” she said. “Especially when you live in the country, you feel very removed from this sort of thing.”
As for moving to New York or Los Angeles to work, she said the family plans to stand by Ben and allow him to follow his dream of becoming a movie star.
“You can’t just go to New York City to work – you need a work visa,” she said. “This summer, he’ll probably work in Toronto while the paperwork is being done to go to (the U.S.) from January to April next year.”
If young Ben hits the big time, it may eventually mean a move to tinsel town for the whole family including his father, Tim, a mechanic at Goodyear in Napanee, and his older sister, Sierra, who’s 14.
“I have to let him see where this takes him,” said his mom, “and if this goes the way (the agents) say, this is huge for the whole family. We just don’t know what to think of it all at this point.”
She’s incredibly proud of her son.
“You always think your own kid is doing a good job, but when other people confirm that, especially in this industry, it’s amazing.” She said.
“It’s also amazing to see this little guy who’s been saying for years that he wanted to do this and now he’s doing just what he said he was going to do.”
Since Ben was a young child, he has always been a movie buff who watches the special features on the DVD before the actual movie.
His favourite movie is Titanic, and he loves A-list comedic actor, Toronto’s Mike Myers.
“I like all of his movies,” said Ben. “I like to make people laugh as well.”
It was about this time a year ago that Ben enrolled in an acting and modelling course at the Belleville-based talent agency Mode Elle. His grandmother had suggested it and he was interested.
The course, he said, taught him how to act in front of a camera, how to carry himself, act, model and how to be graceful.
Last fall, he auditioned and was selected to compete in last weekend’s national event. For that, he prepared for months.
Ben got the acting bug three years ago while starring in a Kingston production of Robin Hood. He had been taking drama at Tamworth Public School when his teacher, Ursala Barbier, recommended that he try out for a part in the play.
He got the part of the Sheriff of Nottingham. He loved it.
Later, he would play the starring role of Mowgli in The Jungle Book, a production by Not-So-Amateur Amateurs in Kingston.
Ben said he thinks he got his acting ability from his nanna, Carol, a local actor who has done plays around the Kingston area.
Ben is also in the middle of rehearsals for a lead role in the play, Potato Conspiracy, by the Not-So-Amateur Amateurs.
