Phyllis A.S. Boros
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Connecticut Post
How does a former Central High School football star go from having hopes of a pro career on the gridiron to winning a Screen Actors Guild Award for his acting chops in the Netflix hit series "Orange is the New Black"?
The answer: A high school creative-writing class.
Germar Terrell Gardner once hoped the NFL might be his ticket out of Bridgeport. Central High coaches told him he might have a shot at a pro team after college.
But in the meantime, Gardner needed a few extra credits to graduate from high school -- a subject that wouldn't take a great deal of his time.
One of his football coaches suggested "creative writing," which, as Gardner pointed out, was not exactly a class that attracted lots of athletic males.
But as fate would have it, Gardner found something there that would alter the course of his life: "A love for words ... and making them sound beautiful."
He continued to play football (graduating from Central in 1998) and at Delaware State University, where he would major in communications and English, and make short movies. When the time came to consider a career, Gardner knew that football would not be it.
"My heart just wasn't in it. I just didn't feel the passion," said the affable, outgoing actor during a recent telephone chat.
He chose another route, one that has him again living in Bridgeport (where his parents and 7-year-old daughter reside) with a SAG statuette in his possession. He won the award at the end of January for an Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, which focuses on a public relations executive who is sentenced to a year in a minimum-security women's prison in Connecticut.
Now he has the opportunity to revel in words every day of his professional life, as Correctional Officer Charles Ford in the series, which is filmed in Queens, N.Y.
"In truth," said the 34-year-old, "from the time I was a little kid, 9 or 10, I've wanted to be an actor. I remember watching TV in the basement and seeing something I really liked, and running up the stairs and telling my father that I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I remember the feeling I had at that moment ... and believing that the sky was the limit."
He thinks he might have inherited his passion from his father. "Although my dad never spoke about it then, he was into acting when he was young and wrote poetry." Gardner said, recalling that his father, Glover (Sonny), a freelance photographer, would recite the poetry ofLangston Hughes to him as a child.
The road to acting was full of twists and turns -- and even a few dead-ends and deep ditches.
After graduating from college, Gardner said he had a number of jobs. He was employed for a time at the Aquarion Water Co. in downtown, where his mother, Denise, continues to work. A favorite job was that of a part-timer for New Haven's ABC affiliate, WTNH television, where he worked on the news desk and then in production (which suited his yearning to have a more hands-on involvement with the final product).
That was followed by substitute teaching at a private school -- and "then the economy tanked."
"It was July 2008 and I was laid-off" as a teacher, he said. Then his daughter and her mother moved out, the electricity was turned off for nonpayment of bills, he was evicted from his apartment and his truck was repossessed.
"Well," said Gardner, laughing, "I had nothing else to loose, so I said: `Why not try acting?' "
He saw an ad "somewhere, I don't remember where" for a workshop at the Alan Gordon Studio in New York and registered.
"The workshop was great, and I realized (Gordon) approached things the way I do, and I started to understand why I liked the movies that I did and why I liked the actors that I liked."
Gordon would eventually become Gardner's coach.
To provide for his family, Gardner took a job with a local cable company, but because he would frequently take days off to audition for shows in New York, he was not advancing in his job.
"And then my daughter's (private) school called one morning (in 2014) to say that if I didn't pay the (overdue) tuition bill that very same day, I would have to take her out of school.
"I was so tired" from all the concerns, Gardner said. "I decided to take a nap. I was there thinking about my life ... and decided to quit acting. I was doing all the calculations in my head, and figured I could be making a good living at the cable company" if he applied himself and stopped being absent so often.
"So I'm on the couch, and the phone rings. It's about 9 a.m. They were calling to tell me I had gotten the job as `the angry guard' on `Orange.' It was supposed to be for one episode."
But he made the role such a hit that it was transformed into a recurring spot; season three will air this summer.
As a "local guy makes good," Gardner was honored in the Park City when Mayor Bill Finchdeclared March 2 as "Germar Terrell Gardner Day in the City of Bridgeport." He also was presented a City Council Citation.
Recently, "I've been having these conversations with friends about fate, the universe and our connection with it. It really is amazing sometimes" ... that within a matter of minutes, life can change so dramatically.
"I love what I'm doing. There's never a dull moment" in the series "thanks to the show's writers and creator. I love every minute" and being in a series "is way better than I could have ever imagined."
pasboros@ctpost.com; Twitter: @PhyllisASBoros
