THERE WAS A LOOK of satisfaction on the face of award-winning actor, director, and writer Sean Field. Perhaps it was from the knowledge that his contribution to the local film industry is significant.
It was almost midnight, and he had returned to Barbados minutes earlier but in less than four hours would fly out again.
Just a week before, Field had a field day (pun intended) at the Barbados Visual Media Awards for the groundbreaking film Egress, winning six awards: Best Film, Best Actor, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Script and Best Director.
“I have so much more to do. I really haven’t done anything as far as I am concerned – not even the tip of the iceberg,” he admitted.
Even before hours of mirror work in preparation for the film, sleepless nights lying on pieces of cardboard paper on the ice-cold streets of New York wearing a pair of used gloves he found in the garbage, he knew he wanted a life in the arts.
From the time Field could remember he fantasised about being a star on the silver screen. However, when he graduated high school and then university the ambition wasn’t realised.
In fact, Field read for a degree in graphic design and went on to spend 100 per cent of his time in that area. That was until one day when he just collapsed.
“If you are going to drop dead, and just so unexpectedly, die doing what you love,” he suggested.
“When I moved home in 1999, I was working – burning both ends of the candle doing graphic designs, [but] my love was still acting. I was doing graphic designs full-time and I wasn’t doing any acting because I was in Barbados and I didn’t really see anything I wanted to do that challenged me.” an effort to explore his creative side, however, Field began engaging in another love, spoken word. His buddy, playwright Jason Mark Welch heard him perform one of his pieces and encouraged him to tag along to a reading in which he was participating.
When they got to the event, unfortunately there was only one spot available. Welch made way for Field to perform his piece titled The Warning, which ended up winning a NIFCA silver in 2005.
Unbeknown to him, cultural practitioner Annette Nias was in the audience and loved his interpretation. So much so that when he was finished she approached him to inquire if he had ever acted or was interested in acting.
Laughing out loud, Field recounted that he blurted out, “That’s my love”.
She suggested he to go to the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies to audition for a play about National Hero Bussa.
He said: “I had locks at the time and so there was only room for the dreadlock guy to be slave number three – coming in Act Three, Scene Seven – and I had my two lines. But when the newspaper review came out, I got mentioned for delivering a strong performance. I said, ‘Okay, maybe I can do more of these plays in Barbados’. From there I went on to be [National Heroes] Clement Payne [and] Grantley Adams [as well as playing] Frederick ‘Sleepy’ Smith.
“Then I did Oleanna [a two-character play by David Mamet], which is by far one of the hardest plays to do. At the time people said I could do LA [Los Angeles] because I had what it takes – and I decided I had what it takes but I was too scared and reluctant. And so in the process of getting ready and thinking everything through a blood clot developed and I collapsed one day at the gym. It led to migraines every day for 17 days straight – and after several tests I learnt there is no surgery to operate because it is behind my eye,” he recounted.
“That’s what made me realise if you are going to go out just like that, live your dreams,” the father of two stressed.
It took almost a year for the clot to dissolve, aided by a change in diet.
With that gone, his reluctance also went and around 2007 while watching some movie trailers one day, he had built up the courage to apply for film school. Three hours later the film school contacted him to requesting a portfolio of work.
“I could not believe one of the top film schools in LA calling me,” he said with a reminiscent smile.
“They asked me if I had anything I could submit and I explained to them I had this play I was getting ready to do called Oleanna. The lady said if I am going to attempt Oleanna she wants to see the reviews. Three months later – that was around March – I got my reviews, and they were glowing. I was put in the master class and by August I was in LA.”
But two days after his arrival in LA, he decided to go in another direction, and by the seventh day he was on set with Will Smith for Hancock.
“I still don’t know how that happened,” he exclaimed.
One day he signed up to be an extra, took three buses and a train to get to the scene, met another extra from South Africa and began to talk about Cricket World Cup. In walked this other guy from New Zealand so it was cricket talk galore in America. An hour later the same Kiwi returned to the room – and it so happened he was the first assistant director. Of the 150 extras he was walked to the front to be near to one of the lead actors.
He spent 14 hours on the one scene he appeared in, so when it came time to film Egress in November 2011 he was more than prepared for the gruelling schedule.
Field currently has another film making the rounds – Soucouyant, a variation of the duppy story. It recently won a jury selection at the Aruba International Film Festival, and won Trailer Of The Week (week 31 this year) on Vimeo.
Field has never made his own feature-length film, and with 11 ideas to bring to life that is the next step for him. He was also of the opinion that there needs to be more West Indian films that cover a large range of subject areas.
“This isn’t about me. Anybody in the Caribbean who is making films is a pioneer. My hope is 50 years from now Bim Films Awards can be like the Oscars. He has been dead for a while but Oscar is the man that everybody covets and wants to hold on to the Oscar.
“When I pick up that [Barbados Visual Media] it is heavy, it is valuable and I value that award and I value the six of them and I want to – 50 years from now – be a 93-year-old man rickety coming across the stage seeing 50 years of amazing work having passed. I think it is possible. And in order for it to happen and to get to that stage, those of us who are now and whatever know-how we have . . . . And so that is why I haven’t reached where I want to get to yet,” Field said. (SDB Media)
