Laz Alonso Talks Military School, Howard Business School, Working For NBC On Deception
Black Actor Laz Alonso has gained prominence over the last few years starring in motion pictures like Avatar and Jumping The Broom, and in TV roles on Southland, Breakout Kings, and most recently NBC’s Deception with Meagan Good.
He was recently interviewed by Black Enterprise where he talked about his background, as well as his ambitions in the film industry. Laz Alonso took up acting only after graduating from the Howard University Business School. He’s a scholar as well as an artist, and wants to write, direct, and star in films. Sounds kind of like Tyler Perry, but perhaps without the drag?
Though he plays a former lover of Meagan Good’s character on Deception, he says in real life the two have a brother-sister type relationship. They’ve previously worked together in the films Stomp The Yard (2006), and in Jumping The Broom (2011).
Laz Alonso shared more about his background before military school. He believes that going to military school helped him emit the nonverbal language of the authoritative figures he’s played in projects including like Southland, Deception, and Breakout Kings.
On why he switched from business to acting:
It was just kind of a trial and error thing. It was always something that I wanted to do…but you know, I just felt like regardless of what you do in life, everything is still somehow connected to business, so…whether I made it as an actor or not, whatever I did still was going to have a business element to it. My approach was always, I’ll study acting when I’m out of school, but while I’m in school I’ll study something that I can apply to a bunch of different areas.
On the TV big leagues and doing Deception for NBC:
When you have 120 people that are relying on you to know your lines and deliver them with emotion and make it something believable, you can’t show up on set and not be prepared. This is NBC; this is the big leagues. Every minute that they go over because you weren’t prepared, it costs money. If it’s your fault why they’re going overtime, then you better believe you ain’t gon’ be working for too long in this business. You have to come prepared and play the role.
Read the full interview at the Black Enterprise website.
