Eric Benet has had a few minor acting roles (“Glitter,” anyone?), but typically, they didn’t require too much heavy lifting on his part. So when he was offered the lead as a single father of a young girl for the new GMC film “Trinity Goodheart,” Benet knew he had to get serious, even though the movie had parallels to his own life. (He raised his 19-year-old daughter as a single dad after her mother passed away.)
“This was the first time when I did more than just memorize my lines. This was the first time that I actually worked with an acting coach. Some of the scenes in ‘Trinity Goodheart’ called for emotional moments,” he said during a recent interview. “I really wanted those emotions to ring true.”
How do you think you’ve grown as an actor?
I don’t know what kind of grade to give myself, but I can grade how I feel about the job that I did when I see it. It feels like an honest portrayal and one of the things I feel like, to portray a convincing role in acting, is you have to build layers to a character. So some of the things I did with my acting coach was just that. We had to create a whole back story to this character that isn’t necessarily in the script. … There were some emotional places that I needed to get to, and this is all very new to me.
What’s next for you in acting?
This was such an enjoyable experience, and it’s being received very well. [But] … I got my day gig. I’m going to keep making music. … I can just take my time and pick the things that really resonate strongly with me, that I would really like to sink my teeth into.
This is your second marriage. What have you learned?
Benet: Marriage is one of those things, like having a baby. You may think you’re ready, but nobody is really completely ready for everything that it’s gonna bring to the table, and I just feel like I’m so much wiser and more attentive and more communicative about what’s going on with me emotionally than I was 10 years ago, and so far in my relationship with my wife, it’s been like night and day.
