Dennis Baker's Journey into Hollywood

If you are an avid movie goer, or even watch television, you will notice that there doesn't seem to be much room for new talent. Nonetheless, gifted actors -- true actors, not pretty-boy models -- continue to prepare themselves with hopes that one day they will make it to the silver screen. Actor Dennis Baker, who is currently attending Rutgers University for his MFA in acting, is one of those actors who is studying and perfecting the skills that will eventually further his acting career. He has a role in the feature movie "Nostalgia" which makes its debut in New York in the ACE (American Cinematic Experience) Film Festival. The festival runs from August 24th to the 26th.

Actors like Dennis are tenacious, willing to work as waiters or extras and tackle the small parts, before they ever give up on their dream. Just like minor league baseball players they work on their craft and wait for that one chance to make it to the big show. Author Rob Bell once wrote, "My life work is fundamentally creative in nature. And creating has its own rhythms, its own pace. Inspiration comes at strange times when you create. And inspiration comes because of discipline. And discipline comes when you organize your life in specific, intentional ways. It means saying yes to certain things and no to other things. And then sticking to it."

Dennis Baker was born May 5th, 1980 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He has one sister. His family life was broken, and therefore not much was discussed about their past- outside of stories about his immediate family.

After his parents divorced in 1981, his mother moved them to California where she eventually married his sister's father. However, by the time Dennis was in Kindergarten she was divorced again.

"We moved up to Kingsburg, in the Central Valley, around third grade. She got married for a third time. My grandma lived in the same town, so my sister and I walked to her house every day after school. She became my second mom. By fifth grade, or around there, my mom married her fourth husband, who she is currently married to," Dennis said. "Stability came through people outside my immediate family. Looking back, my grandma and my youth pastor were my too big mentors in my life through high school. Grandma died suddenly in my freshman year of high school. That was life changing."

The following is an interview I did with Mr. Baker about his personal life, his goals, and his place in Hollywood as an actor who is also a Christian.
DA: How long have you been acting?

DB: About fourteen years so far. My first play was in junior high. I was involved in high school and did all the typical high school plays. My junior year I had the chance to go to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for a two-week summer intensive. That is when I decided I wanted my profession to be acting. I majored in theatre at Azusa Pacific University. And have been out for four years.

DA: When and how, or why did you become interested in acting?

DB: That is a hard question. I think I like it because it brings out the playful side of me. It is fun to play different characters, with different jobs, and different lives. Also it is the one thing I enjoy the most. I can't see my self doing anything else. I enjoy other things, but not with the passion and dedication that I do acting. I also see it like baseball. Professional baseball players get to go to work playing a kid's game. I don't think acting is a kid's game, so to speak, but I think it can (at times should) have that mentality. I would much rather be acting than going to an office 8am-5pm, Monday through Friday.

DA: How does one stay true to his Christian values in "Hollywood?"

DB: I don't think it is different than any other profession. Christians do not have the corner market on truth. Some parts of Hollywood are spiritual places. Just because they don't claim Christianity does not mean they are not sharing some truth that God would affirm. God created the world and all our ideas and concepts. So therefore, all truth is God's truth. With that mindset, we are able to have open discussions and shared lives with Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, Agnostics, New Agers, and Atheists because we don't have to feel that we have to convince them of everything.

That means we as followers of Jesus become tour guides. We take the truth that people proclaim and bring deeper meaning to it. We give a context to the truth that people are living out in their lives and interact with on a daily basis.

Doing that, along with the mitzvot, is Jesus' call to all his disciples, no matter if you are in Hollywood or Africa. What is the mitzvot? Mitzvot is Hebrew for good deeds. Look in the Bible. What does God look at the most from a person or community?-their good deeds.

Faith without good deeds is nothing. We need to balance the equation. The church's focus recently has been on faith. Both O.T. and N.T. call out to God's people to do good deeds to the orphans, widows, the poor, and other nations. We are to mitzvot everyone we meet. Where ever we meet them.

Do you see what will happen when we do good works in the work place,working side by side with people who might not be followers of Jesus? We can be their tour guides along the journey-a tour guide who has some insight into the deeper meaning of this world's truths.

A good tour guide also knows that they don't know everything and is open to hear what other people have to say on the topic. He or she will not lecture, but becomes a part of an active discussion with questions brought up and shared openly. This is done in an atmosphere of love, with no agenda.

We do these good works, and have these discussions, not because we are going to convert anyone, or be rewarded, but because God loves us with no agenda, or what some people call unconditionally. Read Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis, it will change your life, or at least it should.

DA: How would you like to influence Hollywood?

DB: I think it goes back to what I said before. I think the worst thing for Hollywood is if everyone there were Christians (especially the Christians who are around today). Look at the kind of films we would be getting; The Left Behind Series, Omega Code. I think these are some of the worst films out there, and Christians made them. I think the biggest "witness" Christians can be right now is to make good films.

The biggest advice I got was "Don't Suck!" It can be cliché, but I think it needs to be the motto of artists who claim to be followers of Jesus. Movies like Hoodwinked, directed by Cory & Todd Edwards, and To End All Wars, directed by David L. Cunningham, are paving the way. They are small steps in the long journey that has been undertaken.

Franky Schaeffer in his book, Sham Pearls for Real Swine, says that Christian films are justified because of propaganda (certain message) alone and not by the art. Art needs no justification, as it comes straight from God. Therefore the medium is just as important (if not more important) than the message. And since all truth is God's truth, not every film, play, television show, book has to have some overt spiritual message. I think this mindset is beginning to take hold. It is in its early, early phases.

Artists who are followers of Christ are beginning to realize that the medium does matter and the way the story is told is just as important as the story itself. It goes back to the fact that Jesus was purposeful with how he told his message. If artists who are followers of Jesus start telling stories like he did, they will not need to worry if Jesus is mentioned every other line, because the mystery behind the mystery will not be lost to those who truly have eyes to see and ears to hear.

DA: What are your future plans?

DB: My immediate plan is graduate from Rutgers in New Jersey. It is an intense time, but something I have been looking forward to for sometime now.

After that, my wife, Karen, and I will probably come back to Los Angeles. Her family lives here and we want to be close to them when we start a family. Hopefully, I will begin to adjunct to teach college while pursuing my acting. I feel like I have a lot to share with college students about the profession. Things I did not get when I was in school.

In addition, I have always wanted to write a book about the relationship of the artist, the arts and the church. The artists are the current day prophets, yet the church does not listen to them as much as they should. Look at Bono, he has been yelling for quite some time, and things are barely starting to get better. At the same time, the artist needs to be trained to be prophetic, and the church should be on the forefronts of this endeavor. Artists should be bringing to light what is going on in the world. They have a chance to speak for those who can't speak for themselves, and proclaim that God wants care and love for everyone. But they also must communicate this is a common language that all people can get behind, those who follow Jesus and those who do not.

DA: Who is your favorite actor/actress and why?

DB: This question, with the question of what is my favorite movie, is the two questions I get the most. I usually have to go "High Fidelity" and pick my top five, as how can you pick just one. Recently I have realized a pattern. The pattern is that I pick movies which take you on a journey. By the middle of the movie you are not quite sure what is going on, possibly a little confused, and then by the end you get the "ah hah" moment where it is all clear and you can't believe you did not see the clues that were right in front of you. I connect with these types of movies, and the actors that are in them, because I feel that is life.

At any moment, I am not 100% sure how life is going to end up. And when I come to a closing chapter in my life I look back and wonder how I did not see all the clues that were there the whole time.

There is always mystery behind the mystery. Dr. Monica Ganas, a mentor and dear friend of mine from Azusa Pacific, told to me that a good play has three things. What is going on, what is really going on, and what is really, really going on. There is reason why they say art imitates life, because life has these three things as well.

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Dennis graduated from Kingsburg High School, which is twenty minutes south of Fresno. He then attended Azusa Pacific University and received his B.A. in Communication/Theatre. He studied acting at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Ruskin School of Acting in Santa Monica. Last Fall he pursued his MFA in acting at Rutgers University.

He has performed in theatres in and round the LA area and finished a feature film last year entitled "Hyperlink." His latest film, "Nostalgia," has been accepted into the ACE Film Festival.