Lights, Camera, All of It

It started when she caught the acting bug, but soon Lora Cunningham was directing, producing and coaching. She's now using those skills to give back to ABQ's non-profit world.

PHOTOS

The launch into showbiz might have seemed accidental for actress/writer/producer/director Lora Cunningham, but it was really the culmination of a lifetime’s worth of love for the craft of acting. In year two of earning her MBA at NMSU, Cunningham was snuck into an audition by a “very kind” production assistant—and it changed the direction of her life. “I was out in Mesilla Valley (shooting a scene) maybe 11, 12 o'clock at night, and the magic of it all was amazing,” says Cunningham. “I just remember feeling so lucky standing out there. I was in the hair and makeup trailer and (director Mark Medoff) peeked his head in, he came in and he said, ‘So what do you think?’ and I said, ‘Mark, how do I do this for the rest of my life? This is it!’”

That feeling of awe and wonder hasn’t faded for Cunningham, who has now been in the business for nearly 30 years. 15 of those were spent in Los Angeles, and by the time 2009 rolled around, she was finding moderate success and booking regular auditions. So what brings an actor with a quickly burgeoning career back to her home state? An earthquake, as it turns out.

As Cunningham was standing in the doorway, which she laments is not the thing you’re supposed to do during an earthquake, she had the thought that many people have in the middle of a possibly catastrophic event: what if I die? The quake itself was mild, but it was enough for Cunningham to reevaluate. “I thought to myself that if I would want to be with my family in my moments of death, then why on earth am I not with them in my moments of life?” she says.

Luckily, the film and entertainment industry here in New Mexico was beginning to grow quickly, and Cunnigham found her fulfilling life much more fulfilling when she was able to do the work that she loved with her family by her side.

Since moving back to the Land of Enchantment, Cunningham has had roles in films such as “The Book of Eli” and Denis Villeneuve’s “Sicario.” While there’s no doubt she loves to act, it’s Cunningham’s work behind the camera with nonprofits like ARCA that she feels has made the biggest impact. “ARCA provides quality of life and care for the developmentally disabled, and to be able to make PSAs that could possibly bring funding in and support what they do, I’m really proud of that,” she says. “All of the projects I’ve done in regards to directing are all things that I feel have meaning. I’ve done work for our firefighters union, our teachers, and every single time, it’s been an honor to create a message with them, and then visually create what that looks like. It’s a dream come true, truly.”

Cunningham’s experience in the industry is a narrative we don’t hear often: total positivity. She says that she still gets butterflies when her agent calls with an audition because she’s so excited for the next project, whatever that might look like. “I think people latch onto the horror stories because they’re more salacious, more interesting, but truly I leave every set walking on air because I’m so happy and fulfilled,” she says. “I believe a lot of it has to do with most of my work being done here in New Mexico, and our crews and our above the line people, we just have a bunch of hardworking, respectful people working in our industry.”

Lately, Cunningham’s been hard at work at the Albuquerque Actors’ Studio; she founded the company 14 years ago when she first moved back to the metro in hopes that she could help young, talented actors get their start. “I had learned quite a bit out there, pounding the pavement and figuring it all out in LA, and I felt like I could help build our own film community here,” she says.

There are also exciting developments for her on-screen—Cunningham has just wrapped on Eva Longoria’s feature directorial debut “Flamin’ Hot.” Of Longoria, Cunningham says that she worked hard to make the set fun. “She’s got enough personality for everyone on that set and such a sharp sense of humor,” says Cunningham.

Last September, labor union SAG-AFTRA reached out to Cunningham wanting to have her as a Feature Friday for Hispanic Heritage Month. “I was floored when they reached out because it’s just an honor. That is my union and they’ve had my back since 1999. To think that they thought of me was incredible,” she says. “The week after me was John Leguizamo and they’ve had a lot of people I’ve always looked up to, so just to be included was a huge honor. That’s the word that keeps coming to mind—honor.”

Reflecting on her career thus far, Cunningham says that right now, her trajectory just makes sense. “I think a lot of times when we look back on life at the end of our careers we can kind of see where the signs were pointing, but maybe we just didn’t know because we were young,” she says. “I always loved acting but I didn’t know that’s what I was doing—like putting on plays for my little sister, bless her heart, or spending the night with friends in high school and somehow ending up doing improv scenes. We had no clue what we were doing, we didn’t know we were improv-ing, but we just knew we were having fun and doing what we loved to do.”

—EMMA TREVINO

From World Traveler To Wood Worker

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