It was a chance meeting that got things going for actor Cameron Bright.
“I was six years old and we moved from Vic up to Nanaimo and we ended having a chance meeting with a lady at her husband’s golf course and one thing led to another,” Bright said. “She asked my mom if she ever wanted her kids to do modelling for, like, Sears catalogues.”
Eventually his mother posed the question to him and he in turn said yes.
“She asked us and of course what six-year-old would say no?” Bright said. “I got into some classes and two weeks later I booked my first role, which was commercial when B.C. Tel merged with Telus and that’s what started it all.”
By the time Bright was seven, he landed his first role in a television series called Higher Ground. Since then the Nanaimoite has appeared in Godsend, The Butterfly Effect, Thank You for Smoking, Running Scared, X-Men: The Last Stand and the Twilight movies.
Bright, now 23, will be starring in Floodplain, which showcased at the Vancouver Island Short Film Festival on Friday and Saturday (Feb. 7-8), 7 p.m., at Malaspina Theatre at VIU.
Floodplain is based off a series of novels by D.W. Wilson and is about a small-town teenager (Bright) who is forced to let go of his childhood sweetheart, while rafting across a floodplain in the Rockies, after he learns she is moving away to attend school. The short film was shot in Victoria, Port Coquitlam, and Delta and was directed by Jeremey Lutter.
“I signed on and had some fun with it,” Bright said. “We had a really nice location.”
Bright is best known for his role as Alec in the Twilight saga, which was shot in various locations throughout B.C.
Bright, who has acted alongside the likes of Robert De Niro, Paul Walker and Vera Farmiga, explained that while filming Twilight he admired the skills of actors Michael Sheen and Christopher Heyerdahl.
“[Sheen] was one of the most amazing character actors I’ve ever worked with,” Bright said. “We’d be acting and they would do their part and right after you would be like ‘holy, you’re an actor I want to be one day.’ So I just look at them and I observe and try to take what I can.”
Bright said that although he wasn’t in the movie series for many of the scenes, he still enjoyed his time as a cast member.
“We were still travelling around the world doing fan events and ComiCons and you get to meet all these people. Even though I was in the movies collectively for about 15 minutes, if that, it was great to see how many people will still show their appreciation for literally every role in the series. It was crazy,” Bright said.
