2nd Act: Danny J. Gomez

Film Transcript

I think an interesting place for me to start is present day, looking backwards. My mom and I were having this conversation the other day and she's like, "Did you ever imagine that this is where you would be right now?" Never in a million years. I would have thought it's because I almost lost my life from a crazy freak accident.

I was on location shooting this independent film where I played a shaman. The only reason I got the part is because I was brown. It was awesome. I was like, "Okay, this is the life that I want to live." I love being on set; I don't care if we're there 25 hours. I just love watching the process. I love being in the process. So when we wrapped I got home back to New Orleans completely flat broke because I hadn't worked in a month, and three days later Katrina hits.

Right before I was doing that little film I was a crazy party — and I had two DUIs. If I had stayed there and Katrina would have never happened, I probably would have been dead. No joke. My parents think that, my friends think that, I like to think that I went through a lot. I lost my house in Katrina and I came out with all that stuff to share. But once I got out here I didn't grow. I didn't take classes, I didn't learn anything new. All my experiences were partying and drinking and my confidence was awful. I was basically a shell of myself walking around every day.

There's been a lot of times where I had to start over. Katrina was the first major one, and then at 33, in 2016, that was my second time having to start over back to zero. Except this time I had half of myself — my physical body. I had to relearn how to dress, how to use the bathroom, wash my clothes, relearn how to cook. I was literally going through phases of life that I had already gone through. I was severely depressed, but I met other people in the community and that's what really started helping me grow as a person. I was with other people who were going through what I was going through and it forced me to open my eyes and realise what I came out to LA to do, which wasn't just about acting. It turned into me helping people and working with organisations that help people with spinal cord injury and brought me to the disability community.

I had no clue that there was a community for people with disabilities. I didn't know how to act around people with disabilities — I was ignorant to anything disabled — and I still didn't know where my path was taking me. I knew that I liked helping people, and then I get a text. It's from someone I don't know, just a number: "Hey, do you want to be part of this short film for the Easter Seals Disability Film Challenge?" I remember I was sitting in my small little studio thinking about what the hell I was doing in my life. I was about a year post-injury. I said, why not, let's do it. It was literally one of those forks in the road where if I had said no then my life would have turned out completely different.

I got signed off of Checkmate and I've been with KMR ever since. My career is a hundred times better than before my accident. I'm focused now and I'm taking my craft seriously and it's opened a lot of doors. I booked my first guest-star role on NBC's New Amsterdam. It's crazy because one of the best things that ever happened was getting hurt. So I'm just happy to be part of the disabled community. I feel uplifted. We all support each other. It has nothing to do with film, but in a way it has everything to do with film.

Now I look at my life like a series of small adventures and from each adventure I learn something and it builds me up and makes me ready and prepared for the next experience. I'm not as scared; I'm ready. I think now I'm kind of getting into the third act of my life. I just can't wait to see where that journey takes me.

2nd Act: Danny J. Gomez

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2nd Act: Danny J. Gomez

About this Short Film

Film Details

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