LUCIDMEDIA

At his age, most teenagers have difficulty keeping their pants from stylishly sagging below their waist. But Cameron Bright is a little different, and perhaps it has something to do with the eclectic acting resume he has tucked under his belt.

Cameron Bright is not your typical teenage heartthrob.

Some of you may vaguely remember him from his co-staring role in Birth (2004) where he controversially kissed Nicole Kidman full on the lips, and climbed into her bathtub as the reincarnated version of her deceased husband.

Maybe you’d recognize him from the movie Running Scared (2006), as a marginally less messed-up kid who steals a gun from the basement of a low-level Mafioso, almost dies several times, and decides to shoot his abusive stepfather and cavort with some local prostitutes.

Or perhaps you’ll know him as a genetic anomaly named Leech in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), where he played a bald-headed anti-mutant antibody-producer, held captive by a malicious and xenophobic government agency.

You know, just your regular, run-of-the-mill coming-of-age kid stuff.

“People ask me how I played those parts, the ones in Birth and Running Scared, and I actually have no idea,” Bright quips. “It just comes pretty naturally, like it’s my job, it’s what I do, so I do it.”

Obviously, Cameron Bright likes to push boundaries. Yet despite his impressively eclectic resume, he doesn’t necessarily draw crowds. “I’ve never been a name,” says Bright. “But whenever I walk down the street, and I have like, half a beard now, people still recognize me from Running Scared and Birth. They’ll say to me, ‘your eyes remind me of that kid from that movie.’ To me, that’s better than anyone coming up to me and saying, ‘Hey, you’re Cameron Bright.’”

Which come to think of it, someone should warn him about, since it may start to happen a tad more frequently – especially now that he’s a new addition to the Twilight saga. In New Moon, the second Twilight installment, Bright plays Alec, a Volturi vampire twin with the gift of limiting an enemy’s ability to see or hear. Incidentally, Bright will be reprising this role for the next installment, Eclipse. But if we ask him very nicely, perhaps he will mercifully strike us all blind and deaf just prior to the June 30^th release date.

“It’s pretty crazy,” adds Bright. “Within two weeks of opening a Twitter account, 40 thousand people have started following me.” At the same time, being more of a third-tier actor means Bright gets all the benefits of the movie hype, without all the over-hype.

“I can walk around, and I don’t expect there to be anybody in the bushes taking pictures of me,” he says. “I feel safe. I’ve been doing this [acting] for two thirds of my life, and lot of it is luck, but it’s also hard work. I know I’m not gonna sell a movie with my name – I’m gonna sell it with my talent.”

Born and raised in British Columbia, Bright has also had the opportunity to work with fellow Canadian, director Jason Reitman. “He’s really cool,” gushes Bright. “We worked on Thank You for Smoking first, when he was just starting out, and you could just tell the movie was gonna go somewhere. He tried finding me a part in Juno, too, I ended up getting a small credit [as RPG nerd]. He’s just one of those guys, we’ve kept in touch, and I can’t wait to work with him again.”

When asked if he thinks Canadian directors bring a certain perspective to the film industry that perhaps others might not, Bright replies, “I don’t really think of it that way. It’s personality, not a regional thing that makes a director different.” He raises a pretty good point. These days, it’s difficult to look at a feature film and be able to tell if it’s Canadian or American. Canadian television, however, is a different story; it has that little je ne sais quois that makes it appear oh-so Canadian. Lack of production, maybe, or perhaps just less polished and shiny than most American TV shows.

But this is not necessarily a bad thing.

Still, there are definite limitations that a Canadian actor must overcome to find mainstream film success. According to Bright, the biggest hurdle is obtaining a visa to work in the US. “Location can be an issue, but it’s been alright, pretty easy for me, anyway, because I got a good foothold in the business.” He has been doing this since pre-pubescence, after all.

“But Vancouver has huge business right now,” Bright continues. “Canada is stepping up there, for sure. Do you know how much stuff gets filmed in Regina?” This is factually accurate. For instance, there are programs like Corner Gas and Little Mosque on the Prairie that are filmed in Regina, but such shows are barely watchable. That being said, Bright does make a valid point – Slowly but surely, Canadian content is on the rise.

Still, one can’t help but wonder if it’s a necessary rite of passage for Canadian actors to cross over to the other side in order to “make it”.

“For me,” says Bright, I’ve never lived in LA. It’s the talent – the producers go where they need to go to get the talent. It also depends on the company, if they decide that they want to pay for the visa to bring you over.” There’s no question that Bright is talented, but in this respect, he’s also quite lucky. The film industry does tend to rely on right place, right time scenarios.

“Still, though,” he continues. “Seven years ago there wasn’t much business in Vancouver at all, but look how much it’s grown since then. Productions are actually moving their projects from the States over to Canada.” The TV series Fringe is one such example, having recently picked up camp and moved shooting from New York to Vancouver.

Well if Cameron Bright is hopeful about Canada’s future in the film industry, Canada, too, should be hopeful. He has, after all, acted long enough to see it grow to the point where he doesn’t even need to leave BC. “I am very comfortable saying that you don’t have to go anywhere outside Canada to get good work,” he affirms.

Well this is very good news, indeed.

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