Meet the talented Film, Television, Voice Over, and Commercial Actor, Alfredo Trueba , who born and raised in Mexico City, Alfredo graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (cum laude with honors in Theatre), where he studied Acting at the Experimental Theater Wing.
US Mag : Tell us a little bit about yourself. Your background, education, etc. ?
Well I’m originally from Mexico City, where I was born and raised. No one in my family was really in the arts, but since I was a little kid I would make my sister and cousins perform different “shows”… After high school and doing theater in Mexico City, I applied to different BFA programs in the U.S. and decided to go to NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where I spent time training with amazing teachers and fellow actors. Toward the end of my time in New York I became interested in film and television, which is why I ultimately decided to move to Los Angeles where I continue to pursue my career as an actor.
US Mag : We’ve been hearing a lot about you, so we notice your starting to gain a lot of attention how does it feel?
It’s exciting! I feel very blessed because it’s just the beginning… It is kind of validating of all the sacrifices and efforts, when you, for example, go to a festival like Hollywood Web Series Fest and you have two series you star in [Paradise by the Dashboard Light and Showception] to cheer for, its surreal! Though of course sometimes its not the most artistic of endeavors one gets noticed for as a lot of people recognize me, or even my friends will joke about, all the different Boost Mobile commercials, which have aired nationally and consistently pop-up on Youtube and Instagram, but in its own way its always nice to get texts from people from across the country, like, “Hey! I saw you on TV again! By the way, is it easy to switch to Boost?” But it feels good, I can’t lie.
US Mag : What motivates you to do your best work as a actor? Where do you find or draw from to get the emotions you express in your films?
I mean the motivation I guess has always been there. Like I said, I’ve been putting up performances in my living room since I was a kid and I think the motivation was simply to create and to reach an audience – I guess to reach an audience might be motivating my best work as an actor. We don’t do what we do in a vacuum, we do it in performance or in front of the camera, and we want to tell a story, we want to affect people. In terms of the emotions of a character in my films, it depends on the project. You always want it to come from a natural, organic place, and it helps when the writing is there. For example in working with Stonestreet Studios, Paradise by the Dashboard was a mystery, dramatic, sci-fi series, with humanlike droids, that my character doesn’t know are droids! So you don’t necessarily play into the drama of “OMG, ROBOTS!” but you stay with the truth of the character, which in many scenes was, I’m being approached by a crazy person in New York, which is easy to relate to. And that was all in Gary’s [O. Bennett] script. On the flip side, Showception was a full-out comedy, a farce if you will, where the wackiness comes from what the character wants and the different character quirks, which as the actor you have to prep those quirks, and you have to be careful not to play the jokes but play the circumstance or else it falls flat. So I guess preparation, and a good script, is where you start to find the emotions.
US Mag : What are you working on now? What are your upcoming projects?
I’m working on a lot of different projects right now! I’m getting ready to play a soccer player, one of my artistic idols in Salvador Dalí, and I’m writing a lot and seeing projects that have been wrapped for some time see the light of day. Like I said Paradise and Showception have been in different festivals and are being frantically taken off the web to play at more festivals, the indie bible flick from Jared Masters and Frolic Pictures, Absolute Vow, will be at the Fake Flesh Film Fest, I have episodes on Mysteries at the Museum on the Travel Channel and Betrayed on Investigation Discovery coming out soon, so its an exciting time… Also I am a resident artist for the LA theater company, The Vagrancy, which is getting ready to cast for our 2018 Mainstage Romeo and Juliet, which is set to be my Shakespeare debut, though I will more likely have a bigger role behind the scenes for that one, as different shooting schedules conflict with the amount of rehearsal a Shakespeare show requires.
US Mag : Any specific kind of role you want to play at least once in your career that you haven’t yet?
Well I think my usual answer would be anything involving sports, but I’ve now played a soccer player and am going to be playing another one very soon… I’ve even got to play a bullfighter on stage in a piece I wrote, but I’d love to do that again. Yet what I’m most excited about now, as I grow a little older, is to play father roles, and father figures. I think there are so many juicy, emotional, scenes and roles for parents, and although I don’t have kids yet, I think fatherhood, or at least the concept of it is something that has always really resonated with me. So when I look old enough, or get that chance, I think it’ll be really special, and I think I’ll do it more than once probably.
US Mag : What are your future plans? Your vision for the coming years.
Continue to act and make art, and see where this crazy profession takes me! I’m focused on the roles I have coming up… I want to shoot my Directorial debut, my first short film, in Mexico later in 2018, so my “vision” for the coming years I guess is to get more involved with writing, directing, producing, but always having acting as my first priority and love and continue to make films, television, theater that hopefully make a difference and strike a chord with people.
US Mag : Do you have any advice for other actors like yourself?
I think no one has the answers, just work hard and keep at it. Surround yourself with likeminded people, and go act! Don’t just wait for the opportunities to come to you, but go make your own. Practice your craft daily, train, and be nice to yourself. I recently heard the mantra, “Life is too short to spend it at war with yourself”, and I think for actors that can be especially true. You don’t get a part you really wanted, you go through a “slump”, and it’s easy to lose confidence and fall away, but its important to get up, and keep trying. Its ok to be passionate, and to get emotional, it means you care about it, but you can’t let it consume you.
US Mag : Everybody needs time out. What do you do in your free time?
Like I said, I love sports; I’m a big American football fan, so on most Sundays I’ll be at home watching the games. I love playing soccer, and still manage to get in a pick-up game once a week when I can. Hiking, biking, eating, very LA… And speaking of LA, I love to go to screenings of classic movies, director cuts, and original 35 mm prints, stuff like that, sort of—live the magic of cinema, and LA is the town for that… Living the communal experience of the movies, with films that came out in theaters before I was born, it’s so fun and nostalgic.
US Mag : How can people find you and follow you online?
I’m on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, @alfredotrueba, but I must admit I’m not much of a social media person, though Instagram is probably my favorite… However, IMDb is always an accurate source for projects I’m working on, and people can always get updates at my website alfredotrueba.com