Kelsey Caesar’s exclusive interview
A great determination hides behind the success of many faces in entertainment, such as Kelsey Caesar. Native Texas former athlete, hiking enthusiast and supporter of the Leonardo DiCaprio Environment Foundation for climate change. This charismatic actor has also worked with major networks such as MTV and Disney, and in 2017 had his first big screen debut starring in Slamma Jamma. We talked to him about his past and future plans.
We know that before you became an actor you were a track and field athlete. How did your career start?
I actually started pursuing TV/Film when I was in High School. While I was out of season with track and field is when I had the availability and time to do things. I managed to score a couple local commercials and TV/Film projects during my off season. That’s pretty much when it started.
Have you always wanted to be an actor? Was there a particular transition from sport to cinema?
Yeah, as a kid I always knew I wanted to be in entertainment, whether that was as an athlete or entertainer. While I was training for the USA Olympic Trials in 2016, I wanted to give my time in Track one last shot before I completely shifted gears to acting. As I. was training, I was still auditioning and I booked a film I did called Slamma Jamma and that took me out about 5 weeks of good training. After shooting the film I returned back to training, realized that I just wasn’t going to be ready to compete by then to make the trials. USA Olympics trials are no joke, I decided to pivot to acting and hang up the spikes.
You’ve started with roles since 2007, but it was 2017 that brought your first role to the big screens with the film Slamma Jamma. How did you experience the transition to the cinema?
It was pretty cool actually. It’s the whole experience of movie making, from table reads, to wardrobe fittings, the trailers, etc. So, seeing that and having the moment feels good, It feels right because you’re living your purpose that you manifested.
Are there any funny memories on set that you would like to share with us?
I remember being on set for a commercial I did for Fan Duel. It was really funny commercial because the Coach is ripping on a bunch of High Schoolers who aren’t good as if we are an NFL team. I just remember the actor playing our coach improving ripping on us. It was so funny.
What was it like being on a set the first time? Were there any difficulties you did not expect?
Oh man, My first time I was scared, nervous, and excited. It was a lot of feelings. But I remember thinking it’s a lot of people doing so many things. Who is doing what? And whose who? I think the only difficulty I had was realizing how much or less you do on set. Hurry up and wait is the truth.
How did you spend your quarantine days during the pandemic? We know that you are passionate about hiking, were you able to escape some stress?
During the 2020 era pandemic , I spent most of my time in Texas with my family, My parents live in a beautiful neighborhood in Texas called Bridgeland. The neighborhood has beautiful hiking trails and bike trails I would explore and decompress. But during the 2021 pandemic era, I did a lot of my hiking in Georgia! The hiking trails there are sooo beautiful. The countryside is so green in the summer and just nice and relaxing, and it just became so therapeutic for me. I would hike for hours into the woods.
We have seen that you are passionate about the environment and supporter of the Leonardo DiCaprio Environment Foundation. How do you hope you can give your contribution to climate change?
I would love to contribute by educating people what exactly is climate change and how it directly affects you regardless of where you live. I also would love to go to conservations that habilitate animals that are endangered to learn more about how we can help those species and again educate people. I do contribute currently by going completely electric and turning in my gas car.
Is there any advice you would give to young actors?
Do extensive research on every project that comes your way. Find your absolute reason for doing this as a career and then weigh the cost of your reasoning. If your reason weighs more than the cost, then do it!! Go for it and stick with it!
