Green Days launches Sudai’s acting career

In his first film, the 16-yearold plays Shell, a poor 15-yearold boy with a terminally-ill father who is new to Pierre Hill.

“Although it was new, I was down for the challenge, I took everything and made it simply easy,” he tells Newsday.

The film, directed by Michael Mooleedhar and produced by Christian James, was chosen because of its simplicity and took three years to be completed. It is set to launch at this year’s Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival on September 19. The book is about a teenage Trinidadian boy who moves to a new village and is forced to deal with adult responsibilities after his father passes away.

The young actor had not done any form acting before but was always interested in acting. This interest led to him auditioning for the role.

“I didn’t know I was applying for the lead role and it surprised me,” Tafari said. “I was told that they had auditions and I checked out the page on Facebook and I sent in my information, but I hadn’t told my parents. I got called in and that’s when I told my parents.” Initially, his mother was not thrilled with him wanting to act, she told him to find something “more practical.” But Tafari pursued his passion anyway.

He said, “My mother would always tell me to look for something more practical and getting the lead role was surprising for her and she gave me full 100 support.” For him, acting was always a source of pleasure. The Mount Hope Secondary School student said, “I was always interested in acting. If you’re feeling down, you can bring me. I’ll cheer you up.” Tafari met with the book’s author, Michael Anthony during filming to get a “feel” of Shell, as well as to get an idea of what Shell would do in given situations.

For Tafari, there were similarities between himself and the character, particularly as it related to Shell’s personality– shy and just breaking out of his comfort zone–love and family life.

The period piece (the movie is set in 1950s Mayaro, Trinidad) presented a bit of a challenge for the young actor, particularly the dress code.

The teenager recalled how it was “awkward” in terms of the clothing as he had to wear short pants but he got used to it a few days after.

While love scenes are always daunting, even for Hollywood big wigs, the inexperienced actor was able to overcome the challenges associated with the scenes.

“Creating the chemistry was a bit easy, sometimes a bit challenging as well, a few days before the kissing scene I would be nervous but the chemistry was alright,” Tafari said with a shy smile.

The film’s director, Michael Mooleedhar remembers the shy boy Tafari was during the audition and his suitability for the role.

“From the very day he came in I think we really saw Shell in him,” Mooleedhar said. “I actually think we caught him at the exact same stage that the character was going through because he came in so shy, so we basically time cast it.

“He was already close to Shell persona, being timid… so I just knew that it would be easier to take that journey, to bring him out of that. You can’t put innocence back into someone.” Tafari was 15-years-old at the time of casting.

Tafari hopes this film captures the eyes and hearts of everyone who decides to watch it. Expect to see Tafari in more films in the future, even as he has plans of becoming a psychiatric .