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In The Summertime...
Posted by archifCLICarchive from National - Published on 04/10/2009 at 00:00
Late in August, somewhere in Port Talbot, a dangerous young man with peroxide blonde hair is sitting in a red, sporty car, late at night, with the engine running. Outside, not too far away, his victim starts walking. He puts the car in gear; it starts creeping forwards...
Behind the wheel sits Kai Stroud, a mere handful of weeks after getting his provisional driving licence. Around him, cameras and crew, filming the motorised stalking scene for the movie musical Summertime. Kai plays Tris, the villain of the piece.
Earlier that day, he tells Glamlife: "Most of my scenes are at night. When Tris drives around in his car with his gang at night, there is a bit more to him that you don't quite understand. I've never met anyone like this guy before. This guy is brutal."
This is quite a contrast to the friendly young man sitting on one of the sofas in the University of Glamorgan's ATRiuM campus for the interview. After reading about his casting in WalesOnline, the Glamlife team decided to contact Kai and find out what it's like to star in a movie and what the secrets of his success are.
So, what is it like? "My first ever scene was getting beaten up. Pretty good way to start it off! (...) When you get a bad guy, you get all the action. The role I've been given is obviously not as big as the lead part, but I get to tease people, have fun with one of the boys, I get to beat people up, I get beaten up, I get to drive fast, ... a lot of physical stuff. I love it."
There are some small sacrifices involved though. His hair had to be coloured to fit with the character, landing the role of the villain means Kai did not get a chance to dance in the movie's big, choreographed disco scene, and the role requires him to smoke cigarettes. "Yes, I have to smoke. I used to smoke; I don't mind doing it again. I'm prepared to make sacrifices to do a good job. I think every actor would do that as well."
Acting is a competitive career to choose and Kai had to outdo 500 other actors to get the role of Tris. The audition process had several stages, starting with open dance auditions. 40 pupils from Kai's college (Coleg Gwent, Crosskeys campus) attended one set of these auditions, after a tutor mentioned the Summertime casting sessions. "They auditioned first with the dancers because there's more people who want to do dancing. I went to the second recall. There was an acting workshop. Maxine Evans (the director) told me she wanted me to audition for Tris. That's where it began, really. Then I went for another one and she rung me up and said 'I want to offer you the part.' It got a bit more challenging at every step."
Before landing this role, Kai had already been gaining acting experience. At the age of 12, his sister invited him to the school drama class, and he got the part of Edward Lyons in his school's production of Blood Brothers. "I should thank my sister, actually! If it wasn't for her inviting me to drama, I wouldn't be here right now," he says. In year ten in school, Kai tried his hand at a very traditional British type of acting, although he is quite definite about that experience: "I'm done with pantos! ...I played an ugly sister in Cinderella," he smiles sheepishly, assuring Glamlife that this was a long, long time ago, "There's a lot of laughter. It's hard to keep a straight face, especially when you make a mistake. They're all sitting, waiting"
While he's not too keen on pantos or movie extra work, Kai keeps an eye out for all other acting opportunities: "Anything that comes along in my way, if I like it, I try it out. I hope things will come more often now after this film. TV, theatre, all kinds of areas, really. You never know unless you try."
The movie shoot for Summertime finished on September 12th shortly before Kai would start his student life as Drama, Theatre and Media student in the Cardiff School for Creative and Cultural Industries. He picked the University of Glamorgan from a number of universities that offered him a place. "The ATRiuM is just brilliant. I had my screen test here, in one of the studios. (...) I think it's going to be tough but exciting, inspiring. I've got Freshers' Week first, but I'll be away by then. I've got a karate championship in Mexico. I've been doing shotokan karate for ten years. I'm going to the World Championships in Cancun on September 21st."
As it turns out, Kai is the number one karate martial artist in Wales in his category, has a number of bronze and silver medals at home, and has won the Welsh championships in June and a silver medal at European level. "The fighting directors in this film, they told me that they'd heard of my winning the Welsh championships. That made it a lot easier."
To top it all off, his karate skills did not just help with the fight scenes, but in rehearsals, Kai joined in the dancing for the main musical set piece of the movie. "I have never danced in anything before. But I was told by the choreographer and by other cast members that I dance quite nicely. So I discovered a new talent. It's all coordination and timing."
If your interest in the movie has been piqued, there are some short teaser clips from Youtube, embedded in this article.
This feature was originally published on Glamlife: - http://glamlife.glam.ac.uk/features/88-in-the-summertime
