There were four familiar names this year among the nominees for the 2007 Film Independent Spirit Award for best actor -- Don Cheadle, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Frank Langella and Tony Leung. But there was one name few filmgoers had heard of before: Pedro Castaneda, who was nominated for his work in the leisurely paced Spanish-language drama "August Evening."
The stocky, gray-haired Castaneda had never acted, much less made a movie, before "August Evening," for which he and his cast mates were honored at last year's Los Angeles Film Festival. The film opens Friday.
The 53-year-old native of Laredo, Texas, was working in the computer business in San Antonio when he was spotted by filmmaker Chris Eska. The writer-director, who makes his feature debut with "August Evening," thought the soft-spoken Castaneda had the perfect look for the role of Jaime, an undocumented farmworker toiling on a Texas chicken farm whose life is turned upside down when his beloved wife suddenly dies.
"I was meeting potential crew members at an art space in San Antonio called Urban 15," recalls Eska, who won the Spirit Awards' prestigious John Cassavetes Award for best feature made for less than $500,000.
By chance, Castaneda was there too, to repair a computer system.
"I kept looking at him," Eska says. "I was in the middle of casting. He had this great sort of quiet dignity on his face. He was wearing these great pair of boots."
So Eska, who shot the film for a meager $40,000 partly in the small Texas town of Gonzales, where he used to go to school, went up to Castaneda.
"I said, 'You have a great look. I'm making a movie. Have you ever thought about being in films?' "
Castaneda was initially taken aback.
"He asked me to read some lines," he says. "He said I had the look he wanted and he liked my boots -- they were just old, beat-up cowboy boots. I told him I especially don't like to talk in front of people. But he showed me the script and I liked it a lot. I thought it would be nice to do. I talked to my dad about it. It is something I can show my kids, that no matter how old you are you can still do things. . . . Here would be something I could have for the rest of my life."
Eska's hunch paid off beautifully in the case of Castaneda and Veronica Loren, a singer (who also had never acted before) who plays Lupe, Jaime's devoted, widowed daughter-in-law. The two bring a quiet, poetic dignity to their roles, especially in the scenes in which they move to San Antonio to live with Jaime's son and daughter, neither of whom is thrilled by their arrival.
