Meet Mathieu Silverman
My love of acting began in the 4th grade. I auditioned for a school play and won a fun comedic role playing a disheveled and kooky female school teacher. I was really surprised by all the amazing comments I received after the performance. I had a lot of fun doing that play and it’s really nice when you enjoy doing something and other people enjoy it too. It was after that play that I thought acting might be something to pursue. My mother signed me up for some acting classes and I have continued performing in schools plays. It was all so much fun that I decided I would start auditioning for more professional opportunities, but I needed headshots. Someone who lives in my apartment building is a famous headshot photographer who has taken photos of the most famous actors in the world. He took some headshots of me and I started getting background work for television shows. Those onset experiences led me to student films and then short films. Last December I signed with an agent in New York City and this month I found out that I was nominated for a Young Entertainer Award for Best Young Actor in one of the short films.
Despite how much acting work I’ve done, it has been fairly smooth. That’s not to say it isn’t a lot of work. It is definitely tough to juggle school, homework, after-school activities like play rehearsal, sports, piano, acting lessons and coaching with going on auditions and doing the other things I enjoy like earning my pilots license and playing Minecraft. .
I don’t really specialize in one particular form of acting. I really love comedy and I think I have good comedic timing. But truthfully, I feel comfortable doing any kind of role, because there is always something I can find in a role that is true to me. Maybe its requires that I do things a little over the top, like when I played the disheveled aloof teacher in 4th grade, but that’s what makes it so much fun. It’s like someone giving you permission to be kooky.
I certainly feel successful when I earn a role after an audition, no matter how big or small. And of course if I win the upcoming award, that would make me feel good. But I think success is really something you feel looking back at the whole process. Of course, you could say a particular performance was a success, but really it was all the hard work, the training, the practice and the rehearsals that were successful. I love everything that is required in acting, so for me success is really the journey.
