Newark native Julian Manjerico went from being a struggling 25-year-old actor living with his dad last year to now being featured in a new movie trailer with Tom Hanks.
The Elkton High School grad is cast in a small role as Beepo The Clown in the new Hanks comedy, “A Man Called Otto,” directed by Marc Forster. Manjerico said this is his first acting credit in a Hollywood movie.
The Sony Pictures film hits select theaters on Christmas Day. The movie starts everywhere on Jan. 13.
The trailer shows Beepo making Otto Anderson (Hanks) upset after the clown performs a magic trick on him that goes left.
The film follows Otto, a grumpy old man who no longer sees a reason to live after his wife passed away. But things change after he meets the quick-witted Marisol (Mariana Treviño).
“A Man Called Otto” is based on the #1 New York Times bestseller “A Man Called Ove.”
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Manjerico grew up as a theater kid and attended Caravel Academy’s Lower School in preschool and left the Upper School after ninth grade. He didn’t fit in at the sports-dominated high school, he said.
“I was bullied a lot at Caravel,” Manjerico recalled. “I was crying in the car with my mom and I was just like, ‘I need to leave. I hate it here.'”He transferred and graduated from Elkton High, then later graduated with a bachelor’s in theater from Boston University in 2021.
His experience in acting includes performances at Delaware Children’s Theatre, Wilmington Drama League and more recently with Gloucester Stage Company in Massachusetts.
Manjerico appeared in “The Hero” in MakeSpace Storage Company’s nationwide ad campaign and originated the role of Monty/Trainer in Yo-El Cassell’s movement-based production of “Sunlight Interior,” according to his official bio.
After college, he moved back to Delaware to live with his dad and worked at Santa Fe Mexican Grill in Newark. His goal was to land a notable acting credit that would allow him to gain more work and move to New York City, he said.
In February, he finally moved to the Big Apple after landing the role of Beepo. The actor said he’s currently living the cliché life of juggling auditions while waiting tables at Balthazar Restaurant, which he enjoys.
Manjerico spoke to Delaware Online/The News Journal about why he calls Tom Hanks “the quirky uncle at a barbeque,” how he made the actor break character, and what’s next for the Delaware-bred performer.
Question: What was it like the first day you met Tom Hanks?
Answer: I was on set waiting for him. And then I see him with an entourage with his assistant, but also his stand-in and the makeup artists. There are people walking down the hall with him coming towards me and he’s in the front center. It literally looks like a movie because he looks exactly the same as he does in real life, which is crazy. He came up to me and was like, “Hi, I’m Tom.” And I was like, “I’m dissociating” … it was so crazy. In between takes, he said, “You almost made me laugh.” He said, “I keep breaking [character] because of you.” I tell people that Tom Hanks is like the quirky uncle at a barbeque. He’s everything I wanted [him] to be. Thank God this was a great experience.
Tom Hanks is beefing with Beepo in the trailer. How did you set off his character?
I don’t know if it’s a coin that [Otto] had from his childhood and he loves it… but I took it and did a magic trick with it. I kept [his coin] and I give him a different quarter back, because that’s what the magic trick calls for. Then he says to me, “This isn’t my quarter.” In that scene I’m like, “Yes, it is.” Then he’s like, “No, it’s not” and then it escalates from there.
What were you doing to make him laugh?
There’s one line in the film where I mimic him… and I just went full-on and made fun of him for saying [the line]. I was contorting my face. In the film, I look like an idiot, which is good for the role. But I was just doing crazy voices and stuff. I could see Tom trying to keep a straight face and I was thinking, “This is crazy!”
Does Beepo have a backstory?
For the film, they only gave me the name of the clown and didn’t give me anything else. So I had to do a backstory for the character. His real name is Tyler and he’s living at his parents’ house. And he’s coming to do this job because he’s trying to get a couple bucks on the side, like a part-time job. But he does enjoy doing his job and everything. He’s sort of at where I am right now, where he’s a struggling actor trying to get a job.
Are you going to the movie premiere for “A Man Called Otto”?
I would love to go to the premiere of the movie because the director and Tom Hanks never saw me without makeup on. They don’t know what I look like without makeup. People [on the movie set] came to the trailer after shooting when I was taking my makeup off. They were like, “That’s what you look like?!” It was very cool.
After this film, what’s next for you?
This film has given me a lot of great opportunities. It’s got such a great name. It’s such a great credit that when casting directors see it, they’re like, “Absolutely, bring him in.” So I’ve gotten to be in the audition room for “American Horror Story” like five times this past season. With “American Horror Story,” the Ryan Murphy world is very comedy, but also horror. And I love doing both of those things. Hopefully next season I can get in there and actually land something. My manager is amazing. He’s gotten me in for regular auditions, Off-Broadway productions and even Broadway shows and all of these different movies. It’s great. It’s been a good ride. I do feel like in a year, I’ll have [another acting credit] to my name.
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Andre Lamar is the features/lifestyle reporter. If you have an interesting story idea, email Andre Lamar at alamar@gannett.com.
