Interview Photos by House Hopkins Photography
BYRON L. HOPKINS
Kicking A$$ and Taking Names... We caught up with Actor, Comedian, Producer, Model, and Writer... Byron L. Hopkins in Los Angeles. My very first acting experience was in the theatre in middle school. We were Putting up Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest” and I had the honor of playing the love-able and drunk Jester Trinculo. It was the first time I heard the English language spoken in such an amazing way, I was hooked right away. I stayed in the theatre all the way up until high school when sports became more of a focus for me. Plus I had gone from 5’9 to 6’3 over the summer and basketball was calling and the wonderfully loud voice of the theatre was slowly drowned out with screaming fans in bleachers. But I would return to my first love (Acting) eventually. Well, early on I would have to say, Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte were my inspiration to pursue a career in acting. They were definitely before my time but my mother loved them and I was so intrigued watching these two amazingly talented men on the screen who looked like me. They weren’t pimps or slaves or anything like that, they were leading men and darn good ones at that. I watched them and thought to myself “that’s gonna. be me one day”. Of course, id find out about Denzel and Will Smith as I grew older but those 2 men were my idols then I added Will and Denzel to my personal acting Mt Rushmore later.
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My biggest achievement is actually in the Voiceover world but... I can’t talk about it just yet because it isn’t slated to come out for a few months. But trust me its amazing and a dream come true and I am extremely excited about it. But I can tell you one of my most fun roles was playing a Navy Seal in the TV show StartUp on Crackle. I did my own stunts, I ran around and played in the dirt and shot weapons with a few of my friends who are also ex-military. So yes that was a great day of shooting. I have met and worked with some pretty amazing people. I think one of my favorite stories is when I met Will Smith. I had booked a non-speaking role as one of the Orcs on the Netflix movie bright. We were all sitting around waiting for the next scene and I hear a familiar laugh and I turn around and bump right into WILL FREAKING SMITH! after all the life left my body for a second I introduced myself and he greeted me and smiled and asked me if I was being treated ok on set. I said yes and he said good let me know if that changes. Watching him work for a full day was amazing, it was a master class in acting. At the end of the day, I was able to say thank you to him and he shook my hand and told me good job and started to walk away. I yelled to him and said we were gonna do a movie together one day. He stopped and turned and smiled and said we just did man and walked over to his trailer. That was and still is one of my favorite days in acting for sure.
