Jeovanny Rodriguez Becomes Actor In Netflix Film: Triple Frontier
Who says overnight success does not still happen in Hollywood? Twenty-six-year-old actor Jeovanny Rodriguez had a real-life screen debut that normally only happens in the movies.
With no professional acting experience, he landed a co-starring role in a $130 million action-adventure, performing opposite Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Garrett Hedlund, and Charlie Hunnam. And he wasn’t even looking to get into acting.
With aspirations of becoming a cinematographer for nature documentaries, Rodriguez was just out of college and working a day job as a production assistant while the action thriller “Triple Frontier” was in pre-production in Hawaii.
When he inquired if they needed any extras, the casting director, Katie Doyle, invited him to audition for a part, explaining they were having trouble finding Hispanic actors in Hawaii for a pivotal role. He went home, prepped all night and auditioned the next day. He had a second audition a week later and won the part.
“I play Adria Arjona’s brother. I’m working for the drug cartel. I get thrown in jail and they’re trying to get me out of there because she won’t leave the country without me,” explained Rodriguez, a native of Chula Vista, California.
With scenes opposite all the major stars, Rodriguez called his six weeks (four weeks in Hawaii, two in Colombia) of acting in the movie “exciting.”
“I lived the luxury life of movie star – first-class hotels, catered meals, chauffeured around,” he recalled. “And when my parents visited the set, they gave them the first-class treatment too.”
Directed by JC Chandor, “Triple Frontier” premiered on Netflix in March 2019 to good reviews, several noting Rodriguez making an impressive debut.
Now living in Hollywood, Rodriquez is busy auditioning for parts “like a monster.” He landed a role in a TV pilot and is also attached to a big-screen flick that he declined to name since it’s still in the early stages of production.
“I’m just working on my craft, constantly taking classes, constantly exploring new avenues in this thing called acting,” said Rodriguez whose first name of Jeovanny came about because the hospital misspelled “Giovanni” on the birth certificate and his parents never got around to correcting it.
Ironically, he had no interest in acting before “Triple Frontier.” He transferred from Chula Vista’s Southwestern Community College to the University of Hawaii in his junior year because he loved surfing. Enrolling in the film program, he took production classes as well as courses in film history, writing and directing.
As part of the directing class, he occasionally had to act so other students could learn how to direct them, but that was the extent of his experience.
“I was actually told a few times by my teachers, ‘Hey, you actually look good on the camera. That might be something you want to look into doing. You have something about you.’ I just kind of shoved it aside and never really thought anything of it. I was just trying to get a degree,” said Rodriguez who was more interested in the writing and cinematography aspects of the program.
After graduating, he worked on some nature documentaries and underwater documentaries, enjoying that work tremendously. His plan was to work toward being a filmmaker for Nat Geo or Planet Earth.
While he hasn’t abandoned those dreams entirely, he confesses the acting bug has bitten him hard and that’s his primary focus now.
“I’ve honestly fallen in love with acting,” he said. “I don’t think I can ever stop.”
Read More: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9713769/