Acting the Part

By Gabbie Wade

By the time mosthigh school students have graduated, their biggest accomplishment is receiving their high school diploma. Not so for Dan Byrd. With a leading role in Warner Brothers' summer film A Cinderella Story, and appearances in numerous shows and movies, such as Joan of Arcadia, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and 28 Days, plus two awards under his belt - Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and Best Actor in a Feature Film, Dan Byrd is far from the average 18 year old.

While Byrd attributes his success to being fortunate enough to find something he is passionate about, it has been his determination to succeed in a difficult business that has earned him the respect and the accolades. "It's not easy to get the first gig," he said. "It's not easy to get the second one or even the third one. But if you stick with it long enough, eventually it will happen".

Byrd never had any formal training as an actor. He began his acting career doing community theater in his hometown in Georgia. Community theater led to bigger plays in Atlanta, which led to commercials. A couple of Independent movies led to the TV show Any Day Now and that's what eventually brought him to LA.

So, one might wonder, how does he have all the luck in getting picked for the roles he's done? Byrd, who said he never reads from a script at auditions and memorizes all of his lines in advance, says he looks for something interesting or different about a character and embellishes that. "I just look for different stuff that I can develop into something that might be good to watch," he said. "It's great of course if you get a chance to play somebody that is really well written and someone who has a lot of different sides to them - a complex character - but they are not all like that. The character I played in Cinderella wasn't like that but I still think I made him interesting enough so that he kind of stands out from the group."

With role models like Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Riley, Tom Hanks, and Johnny Depp, Byrd thrives in a theater environment. "I love everything about it," he said. " I love being able to explore characters and explore people in general. It's fascinating if you can really kind of get lost in another world. I guess in some ways it's a form of escapism, but it's like therapy for me. Honestly it's just like being able to act out emotions that you are not able to really feel in everyday life or sometimes just don't want to feel or want to confront in your real life. [Acting] feels safer because it's not you, it's the character you are playing - but it's still coming from you."

Every day on the set is a lot of work, often with some unexpected mess-ups and experiences that he'll remember for a lifetime. "In Cinderella, Hillary drove us around a lot," Byrd said. "She had not yet gotten her license and was just starting to practice driving. That got a little scary being the passenger."

Byrd, who has played many different roles, says he is most proud of his role as a schizophrenic on a show called The Guardian. "Screwed up people are always more interesting to play than normal people," he said. He's also proud of the fact that he's made-it in his younger brother and sister's esteem. "They think it's cool I'm in a movie with Hillary [Duff]. I finally got their attention." Byrd looks forward to doing more Independent movies and one day he said he'd like to direct movies. With the attitude, "Nothing worth something comes easy," it's likely Byrd will achieve his goals.