This was a shared feature on five Calgarians having a breakout year in film. The framing below is the article's own; the profile is Ryan's segment only — the other four subjects' stories are reprinted nowhere here.
Many of us dream of being big movie stars. We fantasize about being stopped in the grocery store by a movie producer who can see we have what it takes to be the next big thing. We daydream that if we could just meet Brad Pitt, we could win him over with our charm and secure a lead role in his next movie. But that just doesn't happen. Generally it takes years of persistence and buckets of luck to cultivate a career in the film business.
This season there were several Calgarians whose hard work paid off in what amounts to a big break in the business. Here is one of five Calgarians who turned heads this year.
Ryan Perez — Big Break: Taught Matthew Perry how to rap for The Ron Clark Story.
Ryan Perez is a great rapper, but he's not a miracle worker. "Matthew Perry has no rhythm," says Perez of his experience teaching the former Friend to rap on the set of The Ron Clark Story. "I would have liked for him to get it, but it was too much and we only had one week to shoot. Anyway, the director wanted it like that. They wanted him to be the white guy that just didn't get it."
Perez was working as an extra on The Ron Clark Story when a casting director contacted members of his Calgary-based rap act ALLCITY looking for someone to teach actors to dance and Perry to rap.
"He was a really cool guy," says Perez, who has other aspirations besides acting. The 20-year-old recently won the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede Legacy Award for Youth for his work in the community. He has been working for five years as an extra, appearing in several films, including Jack Bull (an HBO Special starring John Cusack), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and No More Victims.
"When I was working on the extras side, I didn't get the kind of treatment that I did on Ron Clark, actually working on the movie," says Perez. "I could definitely get used to the latter."
