By Eric George Tauber
FB photo capture
SAN DIEGO — After Grossmont College’s Entrances & Exits, I hooked up with Sidney Franklin for an interview. I met Sidney years ago when he was a spirited and promising teenager and have watched him grow into a fine, polished performer. What follows is the bulk of our conversation –minus my own laughter as I was charmed by this bright and funny young man.
EGT: Sidney, how old are you now?
SF: I’m now twenty-three.
EGT: Why are you at a junior college?
SF: I’m taking classes there. They’re cheaper for me. I mean, to be a well-rounded performer, I feel that you have to know all the different sides of everything. So it just gives me an opportunity to take the classes and not spend a lot of money doing it.
EGT: So now you’re focusing on dance and you incorporate that as an actor?
SF: I got into dance before I got into acting, but I’ve always wanted to do acting. When I was in kindergarten, a boy named Patrick brought in tap shoes for show & tell. And I thought, “That’s so cool!” So I said, “Mom, I need tap shoes,” because I wanted to make sound with my feet. And my mom said, “If I get you tap shoes, then you have to take lessons.” So I said, “Okay, whatever. I’ll take lessons.” They had me do both tap and ballet. I wasn’t so keen on the ballet. But then we found a school where I could just do tap. But making loud sounds definitely drew me to dance.
EGT: So when was that ‘aha’ moment when you knew that acting was what you wanted to do?
SF: I don’t know when the moment happened, but it’s sort of like I was born knowing that this was what I wanted to do. When I was little, I remember one of the first shows I ever saw was the sea lion and otter show at Sea World. After I saw that, I came home and performed that at least fifty times.
EGT: How did you perform a sea lion and otter show?
SF: I just did all the parts, the sea lion, the trainer. Any part that I could perform, I just took on that role. But then I progressed and started making plays in my living room. The front window had a really big curtain. So I would take all of my stuffed animals to have my audience. Mind you, I had at least seventy different stuffed animals. Then I would stick my head out from the curtain and say, “Oh, the show’s about to start.” I would force my parents to sit and watch –in the front row, of course. I would give them tickets and tear their tickets and usher them to their seats. Then I would get behind the curtain and put on my shows.
So about that time, my mother moved the couch in front of the curtain so I couldn’t do that anymore. Because after five shows a day, you’ve reached your limit.
EGT: How supportive has your family been?
SF: They’ve been really supportive. Around the age of nine, Starlight Theatre was having auditions and she said, “Now’s the time to try it out.” So she let me audition and I got into both Peter Pan and Evita. I thought, “Cool!” but she was shocked because it was my first time out.
At that time, I was also taking stunt classes, fencing, rolling, hitting and using firearms … mostly because in elementary school there were these poles throughout the hallways and I thought it was the funniest thing to run into them. And my mom said, “If you insist on doing this, I’m going to make sure that you’re doing it properly.” So she found a school that taught that.
The teacher of that school was a tenth grade black belt and I also earned my black belt through them. He also worked with TV and they needed a kid who could box and take a hit, fall on cue and hit the same mark. And my grandmaster said, “Oh yeah, I have a kid.”
EGT: Who was your master?
SF: His name is Carroll Schumacher of Schu-Fu International. And he got me my first TV gig, which was before the plays. And I thought, “This is a pretty good start.” They haven’t all come so easily.
EGT: Let’s get to the ones that didn’t come easily.
SF: Right now, on TV, I’m still trying to make the whole transition from guest star to co-star and that’s a really big jump. As you’re going up the stairs, the stairs become a lot bigger. The first few steps are great, but then they get further apart.
(Note: Sidney plays a recurring character on ten episode’s of Fox’s Watch Over Me, and has also co-starred on Sons of Anarchy, Hank (with Kelsey Grammar) and The Ex List. Stalked at 17 previewed on Lifetime last October and This Magic Moment has finished shooting and is due to be seen on Hallmark.)
EGT: Have you ever gone for something that seemed like a good idea at the time and then regretted it?
SF: Yes, that happened just recently. Lawrence Welk is doing Spamalot and they needed guys who could do tap and that’s me. But I’m going to be in Florida for a family re-union and I haven’t been on vacation since I was at least eight. That would have been a really good show to be in, but I won’t be there.
EGT: One thing I’ve learned is that there will always be another show but there will not be another family.
SF: I know. I had to say, “I made this plan and we’re sticking with it.” It’s hard, though.
EGT: When I saw you after the show, I said, “I never knew you could hoof like that.” And you said, “Neither could I.” But you’ve been doing this since you were five. So what was that in reference to?
SF: Recently, I joined the California Rhythm Project and they do all of this crazy cool stuff. Pam Thompson-Spinner notated all the dances of Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly and the Nicholas Brothers and it was like she brought them back to life. The choreography was really cool. I used to be able to daydream while I was dancing. But now, if I think about anything but the rhythm, I’m off. And I like that because it takes so much focus.
EGT: I know that your family isn’t very religious, but can you think of any way that your Jewish background informs your aesthetic?
SF: Being Jewish is like a family altogether. It’s more of a sense of belonging. It’s kind of funny because the last film I directed was called “Sunday with the Reismans”. I didn’t write this, but a friend of mine wrote it for me. So the main character is also called “Sidney”. The whole plot line is about what it means to be Jewish.
In the last monologue is a quote by Mark Twain: “Everything else comes and goes, but the Jews are always there.” And it’s true. No matter what you do, they always make it through. They will always persevere. It’s like we have each other’s backs and that’s really cool.
EGT: Where do you see yourself going from here? You’ve done a lot at twenty-three.
SF: I have a lot more to do. I’m already behind. That’s how I look at it anyway.
EGT: How?
SF: Oh, the whole rich and famous thing. I want to have a spaghetti pool, like a pool full of spaghetti and then a regular pool for the summer. … I’m joking.
I want to make it as an actor first and then branch out into producing. I’ve been on a lot of studio lots that have these fake houses. And they’re pretty much real on the inside. If you needed a place to live, you could live in a fake studio house and it would have everything that you need. So, I have this whole crazy idea of having a production company that not only produces movies but, for families that have low income, working two or three jobs just to make rent, they could live in these studio houses for two years and they would get retrained for jobs that they could do on the lot. Instead of paying rent, they would pay money into their own back account, so that at the end of two years, they would move out and get back all of this money that has been saved for them.
EGT: What would you get out of it?
SF: I didn’t think of anything other than peace of mind at the end of the day. It would be really cool if I could get that, but I would have to get a whole studio lot first. I have a lot to do in order to get there.
EGT: What are you doing to get there?
SF: On Sundays, I go to LA to take these acting classes where you have to work your way up to get to the best teachers. But the first hour and a half is this meditation class where we listen to music and “open our hearts” to each other and we have to do these gestures. And I’m like, “Come on. Really?”
But then other people break down in tears and I think, “Oh come on. You’re doing that for extra credit.” But then I take a casting directors workshop where we’re actually working. And at the end of the day, I’m exhausted and feeling good about myself because I’m doing something for my career.
I don’t know what switched in my brain, but I’m more determined than I was. I kind of got tired of sitting and waiting for things to happen. Now I’m taking these acting classes and voiceover classes and I’m making things happen.
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Wow, from an audience of stuffed animals to Hollywood, this bright, charming and ambitious young man really seems to be going places. More importantly he’s bringing a real sense of menshlichkeit with him. And that’s what makes him an MOT-to-watch.
And if you’d like the Amazing Spiderman to drop in on your party, Sidney does that too. Check out his web page: www.sidneyfranklin.com for more information.
Do you have an MOT you’d like to recommend for a profile. Email me at mistereric1@yahoo.com and have the person send me a head-shot and a résumè.
Tauber is a freelance writer who specializes in the arts. He may be contacted via eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com