WITH NICHOLAS BALLAS
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SFR: When did you get into acting?
NB:
I came to Santa Fe 22 years ago. I had just received my MFA from Cal Arts. The first thing I was cast in was an NBC miniseries called
Independence
in 1985. Unfortunately, I ended up entirely on the cutting room floor. I suspect it was because they gave me the ugliest costume ever.
What was the costume?
It was like 90, 95 degrees, and I was playing a young doctor. They gave me this wool suit with the buttons all the way up and a wool overcoat and a hat. I didn't know enough then to say, 'This really doesn't suit my character.' But I did get my SAG [Screen Actors Guild] card. So many people ask, 'How do I get in the movies?' You gotta be part of the union.
What've you been working on recently?
I've worked on three TV projects and one feature film. I did a small role on
Into the West.
I play an abusive prison guard. That was sort of my Abu Ghraib 19th century channeling those guys. I worked on
Into the Night
last fall, a Hallmark movie of the week.
What's that about?
The star, Marcia Gay Harden, takes on her [sibling's] child-troubled teen. And he really starts messing with her life to the point where her budding writing career is jeopardized. I play her writing instructor. After that, I started doing my art-mirrors-life kind of stuff. I was in a film called
First Snow
with Guy Pearce. I play a bartender at a country-western bar not unlike the local establishment I happen to be part of called the Cowgirl. And then, interestingly, when I was on vacation in Europe my agent calls me up and says, 'You know, you auditioned for this
Wildfire
series a while ago, and now they want you…It's a guy who owns a restaurant where all the kids hang out.' The series has been picked up [and is now on air], so you can see me playing a restaurant owner here at the Cowgirl, or you can see me on
Wildfire
playing the restaurant owner.
What was it like to work with Marcia Gay Harden and Guy Pearce? They're major.
You know. I'm not a name actor. I'm just some local New Mexican actor that they brought in to play [Harden's] writing instructor. But she treated me with the same amount of dignity and professionalism that I thought that she would any other actor from Los Angeles or New York. I thought it was interesting working with Guy Pearce, too. He's probably one of the most highly structured and organized actors I've ever worked with.
Is it me, or does Guy Pearce look like a different person in every role?
When I first saw him on set I didn't actually recognize him. He's playing a slightly down-and-out salesperson for
First Snow
, hustling jukeboxes.
Have the state's new film incentives affected you?
It's like night and day. I would go literally months and months without an audition. My agent never called. I'd give her a jingle every now and then just to let her know I was still alive, and now there are calls coming in all the time.
You went to grad school in California. How'd you end up here?
I ended up working my summers up in Taos and, on a blind date, I ended up conceiving my now 22-year-old daughter.
Did you ever consider returning to California?
I thought about it several times. I ran a small theater company here for about eight years in the '80s called Santa Fe Actors Theater. During that time, you know, there'd be talk, 'Oh, let's take this show on the road.' But having a child here kind of kept me tied to northern New Mexico.
There's been a lot of hoopla about the Jennifer Lopez film Bordertown. Are you involved in that?
I did not get cast in that one. I auditioned for it. That was my first audition entirely in Spanish, which was kind of cool.
What were you auditioning for?
A psychologist who interviews the character J Lo plays about her seeming demonic possession.
Huh?
The film focuses on the disappearances of women in Juárez, so there's these undertones of Satanic cults, and all these different theories about what's going on there, so this particular psychiatrist is dealing with J Lo's feelings of having been possessed by entities.
How do casting directors see you?
I don't know. I'm half-Hispanic and half-Greek, and everybody thinks I'm Italian. It's interesting because a lot of the Westerns that are shot here tend to go for the stereotypical kind of Anglo settler look, even though historically speaking that isn't even close to being accurate. Kudos to
Deadwood
for actually casting a multi-ethnic West. So in the Westerns, I'll end up often on the bad guy side of things in the old equation of dark equals bad and white equals good.
What's in store for New Mexico-film-wise?
I think, as more and more filmmakers become aware of the resources we have in New Mexico, we can count on being pretty much near the center of the film work in this country.
