By ALESHA CAPONE
A TEENAGE Williamstown resident has taken up acting after a chance meeting.
James Ibrahim works at a petrol station and one day last year he began chatting to a customer who mentioned he was en route to an audition.
After he expressed an interest in the field, the customer encouraged James to follow his passion for performing.
The customer was Adam Turnbull, who runs ATA adult acting classes in Williamstown, and James enrolled there.
“Acting has always been a hobby of mine, and if I hadn’t met Adam I might not have taken it up for a while,” James said.
In addition to studying Media and Communications at Swinburne University James said he enjoyed his acting classes.
“I would love to. It’s a dream of a lot of people, but it’s a dream of mine to be a performer and entertain people.
“You have to treat it like a hobby for as long as possible, but I would like to make it a career as well.
“Theatre is fun, but I would love to do more film and television.
“ATA and Adam’s classes are really fun and it has really helped me develop my skills.
“He tells us no to over-act because the audience can tell when people put on a personality. He tells us to be natural.
“At the same time, acting aside, you make a lot of news friends; there is a lot of sociability and also with acting it’s also a great experience to experiment with different characters and personalities.”
James has even been in a short film which was shot at the Holmesglen Institute of TAFE.
“It was really fun to do and I definitely loved the experience and the fact it was only a five-minute film but it took two days to film,” he said.
James also does graveyard shifts at the youth radio station SYN FM with a friend.
“It’s heaps of fun and I’m trying to do a lot of different things, so I can get plenty of experience,” he said.
