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CAMERA-READY:
RELOCATED
VAH BEACHER CAM POWELL LANDS LEAD ROLE IN SURF SCHOOL
By Matt Pruett
When
promising Virginia Beach, VA, surfer Cam Powell moved
out west nine years ago, like most budding young pros
he was simply looking for more exposure, the kind
that could only be found in California. But Cam got
more than he bargained for when a career-crippling
injury dealt his athletic destiny a swift blow and
forced him to adopt a more terrestrial lifestyle.
It ended up being a blessing in disguise, as the 25-year-old's
shifted gears to find himself enjoying the daily grind
today as a successful model, musician and actor. In
fact, after flirting with a series of smaller parts,
Cam just landed his first lead role in writer/ director
Joel Silverman's upcoming teen comedy Surf School,
starring alongside such Hollywood notables as Harland
Williams (Half Baked, There's Something
About Mary) and Taylor Negron (Better Off Dead,
Easy Money). ESM tracked down surfing's
newest Tinseltown two-timer to learn about the movie
and what it took to get him cast.
ESM:
The last time we saw you on screen was in Pat Stublen's
1998 video, The Wrong Side. Suddenly, you'd
gone all Hollywood on us. What gives?
CP:
Well, I first moved to Encinitas to do the traveling/
pro surfing thing. Then, right before my 20th birthday,
I did an air at S-Turns and tore my ACL, MCL and PCL,
just blew the whole thing out. I moved back in with
my parents for awhile to get surgery and was in a
leg immobilizer for two months, followed by three
months of physical therapy. Four months later, I moved
to Hawaii and slowly started surfing again, which
was a constant year of re-injuring my leg. I'd surf
for three days and right when I'd get back into rhythm,
it would hurt so bad, I couldn't surf for two weeks.
I'd get extremely frustrated. Then my friend Jason
Reposar (Transworld Surf photog) asked me to
sublet this rad studio he had in Venice Beach for
cheap and take care of his dog while he was on the
road. So I moved up there and started doing all sorts
of odd things--playing guitar, taking acting classes--because
I didn't have anything else to do. I went from surfing
16 hours a day to an hour if I was lucky, so I was
going crazy trying to fill my days.
ESM:
When did you score your first gig?
CP:
I got some commercials, then went to New York and
Miami to do some modeling for IMG. But I really wanted
to act, so I started devoting a lot of time to going
to class and studying. I didn't want to read for any
auditions before I actually knew what was going on.
I had no formal training but I was always fascinated
with movies growing up, so I felt like there was something
there for me. I read a lot of actor biographies--Harrison
Ford, Val Kilmer, Johnny Depp--guys I've always thought
could play many different kinds of roles. I'm intrigued
by how you can read a piece of paper and create this
character who's gonna carry the storyline. The story's
written, but at the same time it's up to the actors
to turn that dialogue into a real person. I enjoyed
that challenge and the creativity you could put into
all the development going on in your head.
ESM:
Kinda like riding a wave. You have this basic, moving
script and it's up to you how to adapt to the changes
within that existing framework.
CP:
Exactly. You're looking at the horizon waiting for
this wave to come in and figuring out where you wanna
put yourself--where the sandbar's lining up or where
the water's bending off the reef--and find those pockets
on the wave to ride it from start to finish as gracefully
as possible.
ESM:
With that correlation in mind, I guess Pearl Harbor
was your first major motion picture role, huh?
CP:
[Laughs]... Nah, my first big role was
for a Lions Gate horror move called House Of The
Dead 2. It just came out on DVD. It was one of
the first things I went in and read for, so I was
kinda sketchy. I read for a smaller part and ended
up getting cast as this kid Lonnie. Pretty, um...
interesting. At the end of my run, I get attacked
and eaten by four zombies and I'm just spewing up
blood. Then I come back as a zombie and get shot in
the head. So I die two brutal deaths in one movie.
It's pretty gross and that fake blood tastes terrible.
But while we were shooting, one of the kids I was
working with told me about Surf School. It
was funny because I'm trying to have a conversation
with the guy and he's got this freaky zombie makeup
on. He told me it was a comedy to be shot it Costa
Rica. They hadn't even started casting yet, so I told
my manager that I'd totally be right for a part since
I'd surfed my whole life. And I ended up getting the
role for Roach.
ESM:
Um, "Roach?"
CP:
Roach is the bad boy surfers' sidekick from Laguna
Beach. Another guy moves there from Maryland, this
lacrosse jock who we give a hard time to. Then he
meets some friends and they come to Costa Rica and
get in with this washed-up, wino ex-pro surfer who
whips these kids into shape. It all ends up coming
down to this big surf competition between the kids.
It was fun because I got to develop the guy over time.
I bleached the crap out of my hair and assembled my
own wardrobe.
ESM:
Yeah, we noticed from the press photos that you're
rocking your sponsor (Ezekiel) labels on your board
and clothes. How were you able to pull that off?
CP:
Well, first my friends from Virginia Beach who own
Shmack Clothing sent me a box of clothes and a couple
other kids in the movie ended up wearing the stuff,
too. Then I went to the Ezekiel warehouse and grabbed
all their stuff that was tripped-out to reflect the
character's essence. Because Roach was this throwback,
space cadet kid, I wanted to assemble the most colorful,
off-the-wall wardrobe, like, "Let me go into your
sample room and find the weirdest shit imaginable."
They're like, "Yeah, uh... knock yourself out, Cam..."
[laughs]... Ezekiel and I have a really cool
relationship like that. They're not just backing me
as a surfer but my whole lifestyle. I couldn't ask
for a better deal. It's not like the typical surf
sponsorships I've had in the past where they're like,
"What photos do you have out this month," or "Why
did you do bad in that contest?" They once even printed
up a bunch of shirts for my band, Knife Fight.
ESM:
Being a teen comedy, how much actual waveriding is
in Surf School?
CP:
There's a good bit of surfing in it. Obviously it's
not trying to be like Point Break or North
Shore. It's a comedy. But we got some insane surf
footage while we were down there. It's all shot on
film with a water housing, quality footage. I also
got my friends Anthony Petruso and Justin Shwartz
to come down and stunt double for actors. I got to
surf my own parts, but since Roach is such a throwback
I had to ride my single-fin the whole time. The first
couple days I got pounded at this double-overhead,
roping right pointbreak, just figuring out how to
ride the thing there. I'm trying to grab my rail dropping
in and going, "OK, I gotta scoot up a little more
and hold my line." Then I'd put too much weight on
my front rail and the fins would skip out and I'd
basically do 360s in the barrel while getting the
crap beat out of me. I'm not the best pro surfer ever
but I'd look at the movie people like, "I swear I
can ride the line on my thruster and come out of a
barrel [laughs]..." But it was the greatest
five weeks ever.
ESM:
What are you doing out there in Cal when you're not
surfing or acting?
CP:
My band has been playing clubs like the Viper Room
a lot. DJ Lethal from House Of Pain actually put us
up in his studio for a month. So I've been doing that
for, like, 12 hours a day. Now that we're finished
there, I'm in acting class two days a week, band practice
three nights a week, concerts once a week, and surfing
hopefully five days a week. I just look at it like
I've found three things I really love, so I'm not
trying to force any of them. I'm not trying to kill
myself going, "Oh, I gotta get another part or a record
deal..." "I gotta go on a surf trip..." I'd be losing
my mind if I were trying to instantly make everything
happen. Basically, I'm just a surfer with a SAG card
and a guitar. I just qualified for SAG insurance.
I'm getting a lot of gigs with my band. And tomorrow
I'll go surf Zuma Beach--clean water, barreling really
close to the beach like S-Turns with hardly anyone
out.
ESM:
Nice to know that you've found life after pro surfing.
CP:
When I blew my knee out and surfing was taken away
from me, it was a huge wake-up call. I was like, "Holy
shit. I've worked my whole life for this. Dropped
out of high school at 15, and now it's gone." But
there have been so many life lessons I've learned
since. I'm where I'm at, acting, for a reason. I once
had people also tell me a professional surfer could
never come from Virginia Beach, which is complete
horseshit. You can be whatever you want. I see kids
now doing the same thing I was doing when I was 13--surfing
all day long in windblown, knee-high crap in the middle
of February. You put your mind where your heart is
and you can make anything happen.
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