The rumour mill has been abuzz with excitement over Michael Bay’s TV outing, Black Sails, being shot in Cape Town. With notable Hollywood and home-grown talent being cast in the series, Debashine Thangevelo caught up with Sean Cameron Michael to find out more about his role as Richard Guthrie, and his ongoing love affair with Hollywood. Having already worked with Kiefer Sutherland and Jon Voight (24: Redemption), Denzel Washington (Safe House) it won’t be long before Los Angeles comes calling again – especially now that he has an agent there…
CHARLIZE Theron will always be South Africa’s symbol of success. But prior to her, John Kani made a trailblazing impression with his plays and movies like Sarafina!, Ghost and the Darkness, A Dry White Season and Endgame.
To date, we have Sharlto Copley (The A-Team, Elysium and the forthcoming Men in Black III) as well as Gavin Hood (Tsotsi, X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Jonathan Liebesman (Battle Los Angeles), Wayne Kramer (The Cooler), Stelio Savante (Ugly Betty) and Arnold Vosloo (The Mummy), infiltrating the once impenetrable industry.
The point being – Hollywood is a reality. And 43-year-old Cape Town-based Sean Cameron Michael has spread his wings in several international offerings.
Chatting from his home, Michael, blessed with a conspicuously calm disposition, tells me he has been fortunate to be doing film and TV in his almost three decade long career.
With his mother a modern dancer and his father an opera singer back in the 1980s, Michael gravitated towards the entertainment industry very early.
At 12, he featured in The King & I and that passion for stage has endured since. After serving his compulsory two years in the army, he moved to Jozi and branched into TV first as a presenter on Teleschool and then as Brett, a drug dealer in the now defunct M-Net soap, Egoli: Place of Gold.
Michael says he moved back to Cape Town about 20 years ago and with the Mother City becoming the hub for international TV series, he wasn’t starved for opportunities.
“I’m lucky in that I haven’t had to jump on a plane and fly to Hollywood,” he laughs.
And he can be proud of his achievements to date. On the home front, he has done This Life, based on the UK drama, Faith Like Potatoes; while exploring a more global scope with Crusoe (NBC), 24: Redemption (Fox), The Triangle (US Sci-Fi channel), Supernova (Hallmark Channel), Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House (20th Century Fox) and C15: The New Professionals. And that’s not forgetting his credits in Death Race 3: Inferno, Safe House and working opposite William Hurt for The Challenger Disaster.
On the Challenger, he shares, “I believe it premiered this month in the US. It was the most watched TV special on the Discovery Science Channel this year.”
As for landing the role of Richard Guthrie in Michael Bay’s Black Sails, he offers, “Working on a Michael Bay production is certainly every actor’s dream. For me, it was the first time I was working in a production where every single person – from the cast, crew, make-up, costume to set design, and so on – were out to do their best work. My wigs were brought over from London. It is done in a very authentic way. The level of stan- dards went through the roof.”
The seasoned actor continues, “I did get to chat with Michael. As the producer, he oversees every facet of the production so that when audiences watch the series – it has his stamp all over it.”
Shedding light on his character who is the antagonist to Captain Flint (played by Toby Stephens) in the Starz original series, he reveals, “Richard Guthrie runs this smuggling operation on this new island called New Providence.
“It is the year 1715 and the island is controlled by pirates. Richard is this wealthy, powerful black marketer of the fencing operation.
“All the stolen goods they (the pirates) sell to him, he resells to passing merchant ships. He is feared and dangerous.
“Loosely based on Treasure Island, Captain Flint’s path and mine cross every now and again.”
With him being more sought after for villainous characters, Michael says, “Over the years, when I got into TV and film acting, I was this goody-two-shoes charming guy. I have always played characters with this duality to them. So it’s either a good guy who turns out to be the baddie, or vice versa. About 10 years ago, as I was getting older, I made the cons-cious decision to play baddies with a little more depth. I wanted roles more challenging that stretched me as an actor.”
Although he has had some train- ing for the action scenes and admits, given the genre, that there are lots of swashbuckling sword fights, his character is very much a “nobleman” in a sense – so he isn’t in the thick of the unfolding action mayhem.
Recalling his interaction with Hollywood’s giants, he says, “I remember my first day on set (for 24: Redemption), it was quite surreal.
“The director came to the car, welcomed me, gave me the tour and then introduced me to Kiefer Sutherland, who was also one of the executive producers. No stress there. What I didn’t know is that they shoot it as fast-paced as viewers watch it. You have to be incredibly well prepared. I remember at one point when we were doing this action sequence, my character was face-to-face with Kiefer and he said: ‘Sean Cameron Michael, you are doing such an amazing job, I love what you are bringing to this character’.”
Having recently shot The Salvation with Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal TV series), he adds, “It is a Western. Some are calling it a Nordic Western. What is amazing, aside from playing a cowboy, was having the director, when he arrived in South Africa, sit down with me and say he watched all my work and would love the opportunity to work with me. It is rare that that happens. I was really quite honoured.”
With Michael already bagging himself an agent in Los Angeles during a recent visit there, it is only a matter of time before the actor spreads his tentacles in Hollywood.
After all, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Michael nods, “I think very often as South Africans, we tend to put ourselves down and think we aren’t good enough to compete interna- tionally. The truth of the matter is, when we spread our wings and put ourselves out there, we are as good and can compete in that arena.”
Here’s to another South African flying the flag high in Hollywood.