I have a lovely treat for you Superpeeps today! Wanna become a superhero? This is kind of an interview/guest post by superhero film actor @RickyDaVision: what can we learn about heroes by pretending to be them?
There are a lot of words that people often use to describe a superhero. Courageous, brave, sincere, compassionate, determined just to name a few. To be all of those things ultimately doesn’t require having the strength to move mountains or ability to read people’s minds.
(Although that definitely helps.)
@petr3pan In this scene I’m portraying a bulletproof young man named Joseph Henry who’s explaining to his cop dad why he uses his gifts pic.twitter.com/ZMhXLIo1bz
— Ricky Bell Jr. (@RickyDaVision) September 17, 2017
There are those that if they possessed those gifts would use them for their own selfish gain: hurting those weaker than them, stealing riches and valuables, forcing their will upon others…it’s because of people like those that the world needs its superheroes. A hero in my eyes is someone who genuinely does the right thing simply because it’s the right thing to do. Not because he feels he’s going to get some kind of award or bragging rights from it.
@petr3pan In this film here I was portraying Jabari, a new god who is in conflict with a dark god who has betrayed their pantheon of gods pic.twitter.com/t5LgncppBG
— Ricky Bell Jr. (@RickyDaVision) September 14, 2017
As an actor I love for the characters I portray to be the good guys, the ones who stand somewhere on the side of goodness. Even before I was an actor I was always known for being the good guy so in a way most of the roles I do are a reflection of myself. It wasn’t always that way; I’ve been through phases where I wanted others to look at me and see a tough guy or a roughneck. At the time I perceived that image as being cooler. I thought it would get the pretty girls to notice me more. I’d have given anything to be like everybody else. As time went on I began to realize how wrong I was about myself and how it was time that I started embracing who I really am.
Something I learned in portraying one of my characters “Jarmon” is that standing on the right side is not always easy. Have you ever found yourself bound in conflict with a good friend or relative? In a conflict where it seems as if you no matter what that person wants to challenge you and there’s no talking sense into him or her? That’s something I experienced in portraying that character. Sometimes we are tempted to give into that dark side and do more than just retaliate.
My character Jarmon is an immortal 1,000 year old alien who is one of two sole survivors of his lost race. The second survivor is his misguided younger brother Draymond, also immortal. Throughout the several lifetimes Jarmon’s lived, a large portion of that has been spent fighting with his brother and trying to keep him in line. Doing what he can to keep his brother from wreaking havoc upon others while deep down still loving him like any big brother would.
The immortality curse was placed upon Jarmon by the destroyers of his race. To play Devil’s Advocate, many mortals would kill for what Jarmon has. He is super strong, invulnerable, he can fly, he’s fast, and he can travel in outer space with no assistance. Under those circumstances the desire to be a hero should be a no brainer right?
But in his eyes it’s hard fighting the dark side that surfaced in his heart the day he saw his race decimated in front of him–he spent centuries experiencing the evil of others, finding out just how truly wicked the universe is. However, with the help of a good friend who mentored him he turned his curse into a blessing and dedicated the rest of his eternity to saving every soul that he can.
Being a hero means believing that there is always something worth fighting for. Someone worth fighting for. That in every darkness there is always a light. You, me, anybody can be a hero. A hero can be a soldier, a firefighter, a police officer, the person that gives a home to abandoned animal, the boy who defends his classmates from the assault of a bully, the coach that inspires his athletes to keep going in the face of adversity, the person that gives his friend a shoulder to lean on.
Every time you look in the mirror know that you can make a difference.
I enjoyed this post by Ricky, and I hope you did, too. I liked this because it seems Ricky’s become quite focused on using his art to teach him heroism. I wanted to include his words with this one final thought: we often become what we pretend to be. One of my superheroes, Carl, calls it “visualizing success”–practice makes perfect, so pretend, pretend, pretend. Let your mirror neurons light up and force your pre-motor cortex to practice, since they’re just a few synapses away from your motor cortex. Then, be a hero!
Want more inspiration to make you a hero? Check out these five free inspirational short stories: https://www.instafreebie.com/discover/author/11937/jen_finelli
Or browse the other #superheroalerts for charities you can help out with and tips to help you hero-ize!
One last thing: help a brother out and follow this guy on Twitter! Just click on the Tweet below, and retweet it!
Check out my actor showreel! Let’s see if we can take on the world#rickyvision #actor #actorlife #showreel pic.twitter.com/DrWgQ3Uu4G
— Ricky Bell Jr. (@RickyDaVision) June 26, 2017
