Interview by Roman Portnoy
Photography: David Anthony
Styling: Alex Shera
Grooming: Bongbong Buan
Hair: Stephanie Hobgood
Cameron Saffle is a former Division 1 college football player. He started his entertainment career as an intern with Kevin Hart, and has studied acting under Lesly Kahn. His most recent project was acting on the set of Westworld, and he was also the featured leading male in Doja Cat’s sensational video Need To Know.
What was it like working opposite Doja Cat on her “Need To Know” music video?
The call for this role was extremely random – keep in mind that I hadn’t done any casting to be considered for this role. One day, I was on a shoot and I got a call. The person on the other end said “Hi Cameron, there is a music video shooting tomorrow with an artist named Doja Cat and we wanted to know if you would be interested in being in the video”. I was kind of taken aback and to be quite frank, I wasn’t super familiar with Doja at the time, so I said, “Well what is the role?”. To which he said “you’d be the lead”. I immediately accepted the role, and still to this day, I am so glad I did. When I stepped on set, I was absolutely blown away by the quality of the whole production – the props, the special effects artists, etc. I was sort of glad I didn’t know how big Doja was at the time, because I got to know her as Amala, an incredibly gifted and down-to-earth artist. We bonded over our cats, our obsession with food, and had an absolute blast filming the music video. I am a massive fan of Doja Cat’s work, I admire her authenticity and I hope I get to work with her again in the future.
Can you describe what influenced you to pursue a career as an actor?
I spent a lot of time impersonating different characters as a kid. I would transform into a ninja or a commander of an army of GI Joes and just put on performances for my family. My family was extremely supportive of my creativity and imagination as a kid and enrolled me in the local playhouse for a number of years. However, it wasn’t until my junior year of college that I revisited my younger self. During the beginning of my junior year at UC Berkeley I had to abruptly end my career due to yet another surgery-needing knee injury. Coming to accept that this was truly the end of my life as I knew it (any retiring athlete will feel me on this one) was one of the harder things I’ve had to overcome in my life. However, what followed was an opportunity to start a new chapter and explore interests I wouldn’t have otherwise explored. So I revisited my passion for entertainment. I worked as a production assistant for Kevin Hart’s production company in Los Angeles, I took up acting classes, and devoted more time to my studies. These last two years of college gave me a roadmap on how I wanted to go about pursuing a career in entertainment. I signed with an agency in the Bay Area and got to work building up my brand in every way I could, and LA followed shortly after.
Did playing football in college help you in your career as an actor, and how?
There are many values that 18 years of football gave to me – but one that I think holds the most weight within this industry is being able to take constructive criticism. Through college there wasn’t a day that passed that didn’t include some form of criticism or disciplining. So, when it came time to get into the world of acting – nothing particularly phased me. As many people already know, the entertainment industry is not for the faint-hearted. Of course, I have doubted myself before and this path is not always easy. But I actively seek out constructive criticism and take advantage of every “failure” to learn and improve my craft.
Which types of acting do you feel most suited for?
I feel that my energy as a person has naturally gotten me into more rooms for comedy roles – speaking of which I just recently shot a dark comedy in Oklahoma. Other than that, I also get casted for more serious roles that typically involve stunts. I would love to be part of a biopic or timepiece at some point. I always find time pieces super enjoyable. I would also love to take on a role that requires some sort of body transformation – I feel like those are always a huge challenge for actors and I’d love to take on that challenge.
Who do you consider to be your acting role model whose career you would like to emulate, and why?
The actors that I have been most drawn to are ones that are doing a multitude of things in their career but also came from a more unorthodox upbringing within the industry. People like Will Smith, The Rock and Kevin Hart. All started in one place but over the years they branched out into completely different avenues. I resonate so much with this because I to have modeled my career around this multifaceted structure. I do voice-acting, acting, modeling and becoming a producer and more recently have been constructing plans for a food business and learning different languages. Being able to pursue multiple careers and be extremely good at them is what I strive for.
What was your favorite TV show when you were growing up?
Animation was the original reason I even got into the industry so as you could imagine a lot of my time as a kid was spent watching cartoons. Codename Kids Next Door, Ed Edd and Eddy, Fosters home for imaginary friends and a plethora of sitcoms.
What is your favorite thing about acting?
People – I have always been inherently drawn to people’s character – I like to get to know people’s quirks, their strengths, their weaknesses. I want to know what aspects of their life story shaped them into who they are. I think this innate pull towards people comes from my parents raising me with the values of empathy, compassion and communication.
Do you get nervous before each audition?
I used to when I first started out. It’s an interesting thought to me because playing in front of 50000 people on Saturdays on ESPN never got me nervous but stepping in front of two casting directors to audition for a role was totally different. But I quickly adapted to this new kind of spotlight. At Lesly Khan (my acting school), I used to get extremely nervous not because I was afraid of “failing” but because I wanted to perform at a high level. Lesly’s teaching style really resonated with me because it resembled the feedback and coaching style I was used to as a football player. From day, she pushes you hard, and I mean hard – challenges you to think deeper about a variety of different things but really just trying to bring out the organic emotion in you. Through that process I now only get anxious for my auditions because I respect that I only get one shot at this opportunity and because I’m excited to show my skillset
Do you prefer acting or modeling, and why?
I really do prefer acting – modeling for me was something that I dipped my toes into over the pandemic because I wanted to enrich my career, and I have become a huge fashion fanatic. The reason I love modeling is because I get a chance to see myself in different characters which is kind of similar to acting.
What do you enjoy about performing on camera?
Performing on camera is like watching a huge orchestra finally come together. When the lights and cameras go on, every person in the production is contributing in their own unique way. Having had some experience working in multiple aspects of the production possess, I have really come to appreciate and value the contribution of every single member of a production team, both in front of and behind the scenes. What happens in front of the camera is always a fraction of the hard work that goes on behind the scenes. Navigating the scene from my role, the other actors’ roles, what the script had laid out and how you can and cannot deviate from that. This give and take creative process is extremely rewarding as well.
What has been your most challenging project so far?
Two things in this regard – First, during covid I was introduced to a guy named Mark Kubr (Narcos, Nice Guys and over 500 other films he has been a part of). He was kind enough to give me an opportunity to audition for a feature film called Lone Star Bull. I auditioned for a one scene role in which I was some hillbilly beating up a guy on the street. After seeing my audition, the directors and producers decided to throw me a bone and had me read for the lead antagonist role of the film alongside Luke Macfarlane. Although this opportunity fell through due to a number of unforeseen circumstances, this was an extremely transformative audition process. Ultimately, it helped me realize that I need to stay somewhat emotionally removed from manifesting the “what if” aspect of potentially getting a role.
Second, working on WestWorld with stunt coordinator Mark Norby (True Detective, Dunkirk, Interstellar) was challenging in the sense that there were so many moving parts – I was in a scene with Aaron Paul, Tessa Thompson and Thandie Newton. So, there was an element of not wanting to fuck up! The element of doing stunts for the first time and ultimately just wanting to make sure all the moments that needed to be hit were done perfectly. There is a lot of ambiguity sometimes on set where not much direction is given and you have to somewhat interpret the scene in your head and of course navigating that space alongside renowned actors and stuntmen is challenging.
Have you ever been mistaken for any other actor?
It’s funny you asked this question because this has been happening a lot more recently, but I have been told I look a lot like Jacob Elordi (from Euphoria). I don’t really see it but I’m not mad about it either.
How do you relax after a long day or week of work?
My ways to decompress after a long week may be unconventional. I want to feel that I am constantly getting better so for me this has involved dedicating time to passions I have outside of my entertainment career such as baking, cooking, learning Greek, and educating myself on a number of different topics through podcasts and online courses.
What’s in store for Cameron Saffle in 2022?
It will really be the first year I get to experience this industry under somewhat more normal conditions. I moved down to Los Angeles in February of 2020 and as you could imagine there wasn’t much going on. 2021 brought me so many incredible experiences such as being cast for the lead of a Tyler Perry comedy, being the lead for a Levi’s campaign and working on WestWorld. 2022 for me will be filled with many more opportunities as I just recently signed with APA in Los Angeles for Commercials, LA Models in LA for modeling, Crawford Models in NYC and a management company called Stein Management group in LA and NYC. With this incredible team by my side, I feel that 2022 will be a year that will continue to help build my career and give me the opportunity to develop my craft further.
