Casting Students as Actors: Meet the Lead in Real for Us
Zach is the lead actor in the film “Real for Us,” a film produced and directed by Ron Haese, Midwest filmmaker who takes on the tough subjects. That’s why Zach joined the cast, he says “because its’ about a subject that people don’t like to talk about.” He likes “doing something and being part of something bigger than yourself.” When asked to define bullying he responds: “it’s people taking little chunks out of you. Things like name calling, being mocked for how you look or how you dress.” He didn’t run into a lot of racism in his small, mostly white high school and he got along with everybody. He’s likeable in a Brad Pitt sort of way.
This is Zach’s second film. The first was about drunk driving and is called No Second Chances, also directed by Haese. He would have been cast in Haese’s summer film about prescription drug use but couldn’t make his schedule fit or take time away from studying. A student at Fox Valley Technical College in their Law Enforcement Program who is liked by and likes all his instructors, Zach made Dean’s List and is on a career track that takes all his time. His instructors don’t know about his work as an actor.
Those acting chops started in high school forensics where he learned public speaking and later graduated to storytelling and improvisational and stand-up comedy. “I’m sociable and I like to make people laugh,” he says. Haese who wrote the script and personally directed his actors says that ‘Zach, as an actor is really good and is likely missing his true calling.’ I agree; Zach is a natural. He stands out in the film as the one cast member who doesn’t look like he’s acting but actually inhabits the role and embodies his character. When I tell him that, he seems embarrassed and almost shy.
His dream is to become a good cop hopefully in the K-9 unit as “somebody who makes a difference, who builds relationships and community, who works to help people and to make an impact every day.” When asked what is the attraction to law enforcement he cites the draw of living a life moment by moment, a life different than the one he’s used to—a routinely predictable rural farm life. He appreciates his roots though, and hopes to keep them local. High School for him lacked the emancipation he sought from the captive audience of a small school and now he’s interacting with college companions whose interests are broader and more in line with his own. He doesn’t want to lose his roots and dreams of staying local because he likes the feel of small communities. His Alma Mater is Clintonville High with a graduating class of about a hundred and while he liked the camaraderie of knowing all your classmates, Neenah High School with five times the student body and diverse subcultures was a fascinating experience for him. His self-deprecating demeanor says folksy and still small town-Midwestern comfortable. He carries a certain charm as humble and a bit shy for all that he’s accomplished so far in his short life.
About bullying and teen suicide he says that “our culture seems to have built up a tolerance for bullying, has gotten used to it because it’s been going on so long.” Zach doesn’t believe drugs or bullying needs to be a rite of passage for kids coming up in a culture that is divisive instead of inclusive. He is hoping that in the future, law enforcement will evolve a way to use more leverage in those cases of bullying which are not crimes. Meanwhile, he says, “If someone is being bullied, and particularly cyber-bullied, they should never conceal what is going on or hold it inside. Nor, he says, should they try to navigate it in isolation but need to find a way to share, to tell, and talk with someone about it. Maybe that someone is even—a sympathetic and approachable folksy Brad Pitt kind of neighborhood cop.
~ Interview by Rev. B. Kaufmann, Founder: Words and Violence at Voices Education Project
Bio: Zachary is currently in the process of obtaining an Associate’s Degree in Criminal Justice/ Law Enforcement at Fox Valley Technical College, while living and working on his home dairy farm. He hopes to one day, in the near future, be working as a police officer for an agency located somewhere in Northeastern Wisconsin. Zachary enjoys the outdoors and shows true passions for hunting, agriculture, as well as community interaction and his education.
