Danso Gordon at Impact 210 (Impact Worldwide)

The 26 year old Canadian is having a blast portraying 17 year old Clay Carlin on The N’s “South Of Nowhere.” But his true passion lies in playing more roles like the Sundance hit Dear Wendy, and writing short films like the one he just completed. Danso Gordon recently dropped by Impact210 to talk about which actors he respects the most, how he nabbed his current gig and what he values most about being in the public eye.

Impact210: What do you like about being an actor?
DG: What motivates me is I’m passionate about seeing films, TV and theater that have a message. I feel that you can entertain and teach. I dislike a lot of films that just want to make money. If you have faith enough to say I’m passionate enough about doing something that’s going to help people, but I trust that the money will be there, then the project is going to be that much better because your heart’s in it. You’re not just doing it for a paycheck. That takes a lot of courage to do that. That’s why I respect people who do that, who take something for less money because they have a passion for it and it’s going to touch people. That’s what makes me keep doing it.
Impact210: Why did you choose to be an actor?
DG: I like the attention. I was living in Canada. My dad was in LA for 19 years. It was the perfect opportunity. I moved to La La Land and started getting into it. I didn’t know anything about acting. I took acting lessons and I started getting more passionate about it.
Impact210: Talk about your first roles.
DG: The first role I ever got was American History X. If you blinked, you missed me. When I got it, I had just moved to LA seven months ago. Just to be in the film was amazing. Then I got a TV show that I was on for two seasons, “Hang Time.” That was a Saturday morning show. I got a Charles Barkley commercial. I did a Disney show called “In A Heartbeat” for a season. Then two years ago I did an independent film called Dear Wendy which came out at Sundance this past January. It didn’t do well in America. In Europe, it did really well. The way it was shot, it was all about the acting, real moments. Lars Van Treer wrote it. He directed Dogville. Great cast. Great experience.
Impact210: How did you get your part in “South of Nowhere?”
DG: Wierd story. I got the audition two days before I was going to go to Hawaii for my honeymoon. I said I can’t go. I came back a week later. I auditioned and got it. A couple of days later we were shooting. It’s geared toward 12-17 year olds. I’m 26 playing a 17 year old. I went into the audition trying to humor them.
Impact210: How does it feel to play a young character?
DG: It’s kind of strange. But I understand it. The character is basically me when I was 15. Real innocent, naïve, coming from a small town to Los Angeles. I understand all of that.
Impact210: Who are your influences?
DG: I love Al Pacino. Giovanni Medici. Sean Penn. I love the fact that Penn chooses roles… He even said in an interview, he could have been a millionaire years ago. He didn’t choose those roles because they had no substance. I respect the fact that he does that. That’s rare. I respect Terrence Howard. He’s an amazing actor and he’s been around for years. He’s intelligent. He says, I want to do projects with substance. We see so much garage. Out role models are few and far between. So when you see someone talking about something and they have a good head on their shoulders, we need more of those people. And he’s crazy talented.
Impact210: How do you approach the art of acting?
DG: I stick to more of myself. I like doing stuff off the cuff. I don’t like rigidness. I like being fluid. Being rigid is a skill too. Which is more TV. So I am building that muscle up. Being yourself is hard. Being yourself in real life is hard. Putting down the façade. Showing how you feel and then having the camera in your face. It’s hard to be YOU. I just want to be me in everything.
Impact210: Do you prefer working in TV or film?
DG: I had a problem working on the pace of a TV show at first. It’s like you’re working different muscles. It’s good to be challenged. I love to be challenged. It makes you grow. There were times I would go home and wouldn’t feel comfortable. You don’t have that feeling like, I hit it. You don’t have time to... It’s so fast paced. It was great to learn that. I like film. I feel like you have more freedom. You’re not stuck in the lines. In great films, they adlib. As far as what I want to do, me and a couple of friends just finished shooting a short film that we wrote and a friend of ours directed. That was so satisfying to create our own vision. We want to do more of that. I just want to see something of substance on TV.