Interview with Jaime Callica

(photos via Kurent Designs)

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1. I know you, but some people may not. 
So could you please introduce yourself to the world?
 
"My name is Jaime M. Callica, originally from Trinidad Tobago in West Indies, I grew up in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I am currently an actor, but that wasn’t my first love, my first love was actually dance. Saw Michael Jackson as a kid and I was like “I wanna do that”. However, my path didn’t lead me to entertainment right away. You know, I was gonna go to school, or I was going to school for law, I wanted to practice law as a lawyer, so I was doing criminology in college and then I was in a bad car accident and then I kind of lost faith in the criminal justice system. The person that hit me, on a really bogus technicality got off on all of the charges. So I finished the degree, but I never practiced, I didn’t wanna practice as a result of how things went. I got into business and then one day I just woke up and was like “hey, I wanna act”. Called my realtor, sold my businesses and my real estate and started taking classes and we are where we are now. That’s a quick little bio into who I am and how I got here. Oh, I love my mom, I love gardening, I love wine and I am an only child, yea, we could sprinkle some of that into who I am."
 
2. What was your first job in the entertainment industry? 
Also, what did you do before that?
 
"My very first job, actually as a kid was impersonating Michael Jackson. So back in the day from probably 8, 9 years old I used to get paid at weddings, birthday parties, community events to impersonate Michael Jackson, so that was actually my very first job. Then fast forward, a bunch of years, at probably about 18 or so I started dancing, so I did some film and television commercials and so on and then you gotta leap forward a bunch of years again, I’ve threw out  the business and then after that, that’s when I got into acting. So my very first entertainment job was impersonating Michael Jackson, my very first acting job was on the Secret Circle on the CW, it only had one season, I only did one episode, but that was my first official acting gig."
 
3. Did you study acting before getting into the industry?
 
"When I decided that I wanted to act, I basically called one of my friends, Zak Santiago prominent actor and I was like “what do I gotta do” and he was like “you gotta take class”, actually no, I’m sorry, it was my boy Phlippo, Phil, Zak got me my publicist, it was Phil and he suggested his acting coach and at the time he was only, he wasn’t taking newbies, he was only taking seasoned actors, so Phil called him kind of belch from me and my personality, which is how I  was able to get into my very first class with Andrew McIlroy in Vancouver, so I trained with him for a couple of months before he told me I was ready to get an agent and then I went and got an agent and started auditioning like everyone else."
 
4. What does a normal day in your life looks like?
 
"There’s no normal day. I mean, these days the most consistent thing is the gym, I’ve been.. I’m that guy.. I mean I am not posting gym selfies every day, topless, but I’m an addict no, like I moved to LA in February and it’s lonely, you know, I only have a few friends and what it did is it pushed me into the gym twice a day and then you start to see the results, so that’s the most consistent thing on my day. I wake up, I go to do my cardio. I come back, I have some lunch, do some gardening and then I go back in the evening to lift, come home, make some dinner, watch some TV, I always have a glass of wine before sun down like drizzy Drake and that’s when I am not working. If I am working or have an audition, I would remove any fluff from the middle of the day and I would basically, you know, hit the gym in the morning, take my size for my audition, read my lines weather it would be for an audition or for set, if I’m on a project, like right now I am shooting two movies. I go home, you know, have some lunch, whatever it is and the I get back to the lines, I’m kind of addicted to making sure that I’m word perfect weather would be an audition or on set, it is my job to know my lines, so I’m one of those actors, go back to the gym, come home, read my lines, so anytime I am working there’s not a lot of leisure, I am not going out, I’m not doing a lot more outside of gym, eating and preparation for the next day."
 
5. Where is your favorite place to be and why?
 
"My favorite place, I’m gonna give you two. I’m from Trinidad, so I love Trinidad, it’s kind of like a, it’s kind of like an unspoken favorite place in the world for me, but I really love Italy, I feel like if, you know I’m a catholic and we’re not supposed to believe in reincarnation, only Jesus will come again, but if I were to have lived before, I would have been Italian, man, I feel so comfortable there, my soul feels at rest when I’m in Italy and I’ve been a bunch of times. Other than that, I really love, I’m a little bit of a home buddy, like, I love being at home in my sweats with some wine, watching TV or a movie or read my book, hanging out with my mom, she’s an avid gardener, I love gardening, you know, I’m most comfortable and happy when I’m with my fam or if I’m in Italy."
 
6. If you could, what would be the one advice 
you would want to give to your younger self?
 
"The advice I would give to my younger self, that’s hard, because, I’m a firm believer in everything happens when it is supposed to happen. It happens in it’s time. And, the first thing that comes to mind it’s <start earlier>, cause I think, okay, if I had started acting when I was 19, you know, I’ve been in this business I’d say for 6 and a half, 7 years, you know, with God’s grace, I’d be an A-lister now, like I’m on my way to that, but at times I feel like I’m a little bit behind, when in reality, everything in my life had to happen the way it has happen for me to be here. So I would tell my younger self is <stay on the course bro, cause your life is about to be really, really great and stay grateful, and just do exactly what you are going to do, cause you’re gonna shape up to be a pretty decent human>."
 
7. What is one of the best advice that you've got? 
Who was the person that gave it to you?
 
"My mom, my whole like teen, young adult life, you know, she would look at me and say “popularity is overrated, if in your life you have 5 people that truly, genuinely care for you, you’re blessed, you’re fortunate” and I remember thinking, I remember being 19-21-25 and just wanted to be in every friend circle, I just wanted to be the most popular, I wanted to be everywhere and as you get older you realize, man, my mom was right, you know. If I could just have a small group of really loyal, great friends around me, I’m good, so that’s one piece of advice I look forward to give to my kids whenever I have them. 
Quality over quantity."
 
8. What is your biggest accomplishment so far?
 
"Biggest accomplishment in my life or biggest accomplishment with my acting?! In my life, I trained for many years, I was a martial artist, karate, shotokan karate, and getting my black belt was honestly one of the greatest accomplishments of my life. The discipline that is pasted upon me, the confidence, yea, that’s immeasurable. In my acting career, I would say, you know, getting my visa, you know, working hard for those 5 or 6 years to a mass a book of work that I was able to get a visa at the time where the US is granting the least amount of visas they ever granted and then taking the leap to move to Los Angeles by myself. Screen, you know, I’ve got flown down by Warner’s to screen test for the new Batwoman show, now I’m working with Kelly Rowland and I just got booked on this Disney movie, so I think, in my acting career, it would be doing what was necessary to get my career to the next level, which was moving to Los Angeles to, you know, pursue my dreams of being a leading man."
 
9. If you could book any role in the next years to come, 
what would that dream role be?
 
"Dream role? Bad guy! Oh, actually that’s a lie. Dream role is the first black Bond, I mean, is not a color thing, but I am black, haha, cause if I were white, I’d still wanna be the next Bond, but I am not, so that would be epic, I love Bond, I’ve seen all the Bond films, 300 times each, that’s a dream role. What I think might come more… sooner than that, would be to play the villain, I wanna to be the the bad guy, but not in a stereotypical capacity, I don’t wanna just be the drug-dealing bad guy, God, I’m not dealing drugs, it’s gonna be a white collar crime, I’m gonna be a genius stock broker or something of that nature. There’s not gonna be anybody coming for me with guns, it’s gonna be... it’s not gonna be stereotypical, but I wanna be the villain on a story."
 
10. Is there anything you can disclose about any new project?
 
"Actually I touched on slightly in the one before, which I’m actually gonna announce today, but I’m shooting, Kelly Rowland is the executive producer on a lead of a new movie, called “Merry Liddle Christmas”, which is gonna be on Lifetime this year and I am one of the lead roleopposite Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child, Bresha Webb, LaTonya Williams, so we got a great cast and crew, and it’s just been such a blast on set. The second one, Disney bought the rights to these 4 books, novels, children’s novels about magic, and it’s called “Upside Sown Magic” and I’m playing Number 1, the lead of the movie, I’m playing her dad, so that’s a huge opportunity, for me to be in the Disney family now aswell, I’m really looking forward to both of them. I’m feeling eternally grateful."
 
11. What is the best part about life on set?
 
"Best part about life on set? Being here! Like, when you..for me at least, just being here, like, I can go to the studiolot, for a fitting or for a table read or rehearsal, camera test, but just being in the lot makes me smile. Being on set, I get to come and play. I get to like, bring these scenes to life, it’s really being here. I love.. I love acting, but I love this business. I just really (…) enjoy being here, in totality and there’ll be times when they’re like “oh I’m so sorry that we’re running behind” and I’m like “Running behind? I’m good, I’ve nowhere else to be. I just love being here, you know."
 
12. In the end, is there anything you'd like to say to the people who support you?
 
"I wanna thank everyone that has shown me love, from the bottom of my heart and as, you know, say my roles get bigger and they’re on TV more and people message me.. people message me everyday, you know, “I just saw your movie, Best Friend’s Betrayal on Lifetime” or “I just watched you on Lucifer”, you know, “I watched you on UnReal” or whatever may be in and “I loved it, you were great”, and I respond and they respond with “omg, I never thought you’d respond, you just made my month”. I talk like that, because I’m not responding elicit for that responds. I’m responding because I’m genuinely grateful for the fact that you watch whatever was that I was in and then you took the time out of your day to message me to say “ I enjoyed it”… and for so many people I think that, people would get to a… either they’re just not cut from the same cloth and I think that’s part of it. People get to a point where they think they’re too big to respond to a fan and yea, I get maybe 100, 150 DMs a day, The Rock and Will Smith are getting 10.000. I get that it is impossible to respond to everybody and I will get to that point on some point, but my gratitude is never going to change. That is why, when you look at The Rock and Vin Diesel and Will Smith and these people that actually interact with people, it’s their gratitude. So to everybody that shows me love and watches or comments or double taps on my photo, whatever it is you do, thank you, I appreciate you, trust me."