James Olivard reflects for a second, then smiles and says, “I shared a make-up trailer with Jon Voight. One day he leaned over and asked me, ‘So what other movies have you done?’ and I just started laughing.”
He laughs a bit now, sitting at a table in the RecPlex, perspiration budding on his skin after a hard practice. Continuing about Voight, he says, “He was a real humble guy, and a great teacher since he’s been around the industry for a while.”
Even now, when his face is being shown in theaters across America, Olivard, a marketing senior and member of the men’s basketball team, is modest about his experiences playing Louis Baudoin, one of the main characters of the new Disney film, “Glory Road.”
Born in Baton Rouge, Olivard has spent the past few years as a force on the court. But last year, he had the breakaway he never expected.
When he saw on the news last spring that there was an extras casting at the University of New Orleans, Olivard and Loyola alumnus Jonathan Hernandez thought trying out wouldn’t be a bad idea. “I never really pursued any kind of drama or anything in high school,” he said. “It was just something I wanted to do.”
But he wasn’t expecting what would happen when he got there.
“I actually look like the character; so they said, ‘Can you read this script for us?’ I read it, they said it was terrible, but they asked me to come back.” The second time, he had much better success. “Next thing I know I get a call a couple weeks later saying that Bruckheimer and Disney OK’d me for the role as [Louis] Baudoin.”
Olivard said the experience of being on set was a real thrill.
“You come across so many people that you’ve heard about, read about – people that you’ve seen on TV and in other movies. You also get a lot of perks like your own trailer, whatever kind of food you want to eat.”
Acting can sometimes be a bit more difficult than some may think, especially for a college forward.
“Being a basketball player, you want to keep going up and down, and they constantly yell cut,” Olivard said. “It was tough having to do the same play over and over again.”
With the movie in its second week in theaters, Olivard is now trying to readjust to life at Loyola. His primary focus is to graduate, and if acting doesn’t work out, go into public relations wherever a job is offered. Still, he’s not counting out a career in Hollywood.
“Now that I’ve done it, and I’ve had a little taste of it, I would love to do it again. Am I willing to move up to Hollywood and put all of my eggs in one basket? I really don’t know as of right now,” Olivard said.
Who knows? Maybe he’ll have a better resume to refer to the next time he runs into Jon Voight.
Colin Lacy can be reached at [email protected].
