"For me, my only option is to do well" an interview with Marvel's 'Runaways' actor Rhenzy Feliz

Please tell us how you got involved in acting?

My best friend's step dad John. He ran an improv class, and one day after my friend and I were finishing up practice (he and I were on the high school team) he mentioned that there was a class and his mom just invited him to it and asked if I wanted to go. And I feel like in the back of my head I’ve always wanted to act and so I jumped on the opportunity. So it was meeting John because after that class he saw something in me, potential I guess, and he told me about a few classes I should take and thankfully I did!


How did you hear about Marvel's 'Runaways'?

A simple as an email from my agent with the subject being “untitled marvel project”. Marvel tends to be very secretive about all things.

Tell us about your character and what it's like to shoot an episode of the show?

Alex is a highly intelligent and skilled hacker. He understands right and wrong and will jeopardise it all in order to do the right thing. A typical episode is maybe 9 shooting days not including the weekends. So typically takes about 2 weeks to shoot. It’s about 13 hour days either starting at 5:30 am or ending at 5:30 am. Definitely leaves you exhausted a couple months in, but I wouldn’t want to have any other job. 

What was it like juggling working as an actor and studying at the same time?

At the beginning it was a bit tough. My grades started to slip because I just wasn’t in class much. But once I had a pretty normal schedule with shooting I was able to work something out with the school where I could do a separate program that makes it easier for people who work like me. It got easier after that. 

What advice do you have for young people wanting to get into acting? 

To be able to make it through a lot of the rough patches you need a lot of belief in yourself. You need to visualise the career you want and push.

For me, my only option is to do well. I see a career that I want and I’m gonna make sure that at the end of my road I can’t look back with any regrets that I didn’t try hard enough. Or I didn’t commit to my dream. This is what I love to do and for anyone else that loves it, you gotta chase it.