Cameron Gellman

Cameron Gellman is Melting Hearts
By Alexandra Bonnet

Seen on STARGIRL, Cameron Gellman is melting hearts. Bringing such a bright and positive energy on and off set, the talented actor is someone to look out for. Learning from every experience, at different levels, Gellman takes it all in. From sports to arts, the handsome actor comes from a background of baseball which he matched with singing and acting! Due to an injury, he found himself being completely immersed in the creative world which has brought him here today. Here at BELLO, we had the chance to get to know Gellman a bit more and we can’t wait for you to as well!

Share with us the first time you stepped on set of STARGIRL. 

My first day on set I was in the cafeteria with the soon-to-be-JSA. I remember Anj and I both admitting we were terrified we were bad actors and we’d get fired. I went to Hunt’s trailer to get advice on how not to overthink my one line, and we laughed about it. I remember watching playback of our scene at the table on the monitors with the whole cast standing around, and Geoff told us that this was going to be our family for a long time. The new JSA. It felt so significant to be a part of it, and so exciting to know this was just day one of an amazing 6 month adventure.

Who was a cast member you connected with strongly?

Sharing a set with Brec as a fellow Type 1 Diabetic and Celiac buddy was pretty impactful for me. Both the unspoken understanding we had of each other’s challenges, and the times where we were able to step up and really look out for one another on set when one of us wasn’t feeling great were so meaningful to me. I loved passing management ideas back and forth, and am forever grateful for the ways she’s inspired me and supported me in being my healthiest self.

What are some obstacles you faced and how did you overcome them?

Moving to Atlanta and living on my own was a big adjustment for me. It felt like getting shot out of a cannon and suddenly being off to college. In my first week, I got my bank accounts flagged, had my mattress shipped to the wrong apartment, flooded my place via dish washer soap, shrank my clothes, and got my car booted. My castmate Hunt recorded the funniest video of me on the phone outside of the bank clearly accepting my defeat.

Feeling worthy of being a major part of this project took me time. I got to go on a really cool ride of believing in myself more while Rick was working on doing the same in the show. And just like he had a team to bolster him up, I had all these incredible mentors and friends checking in on me every week reminding me to lean on my self-care tools, to get my rest, get my workouts in and to do yoga with. I had my cast going through the same stuff.  Going through it together made it easier and brought us together.

Growing up, who was your favorite actor/actress you looked up to?

I’ve always loved and been inspired by Matthew McConaughey. As a kid I watched all of his goofier stuff, Dazed and Confused, Fool’s Gold, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days…but then I hit my later teens and saw movies like Dallas Buyers Club and Interstellar. Beyond being such a great actor, the things he speaks about publicly really resonate with me. He gave an Oscar speech about his hero being him in 10 years and that’s always stuck with me. He talks about joy and meaning in life coming from specifically defining YOUR vision of success and nurturing the accounts that define that, and I use this in my daily life.

How have your different projects shaped you as an actor today?

Every job I’ve worked on has encouraged some aspect of my artistry that needed a little love. The smaller roles I booked showed me how much value there is in watching others work, and that the kindness of leaders on set has a profound impact just as unkindness does. The bigger roles that came after called me out on the holes in my art and pushed me to learn as I went along on set. I don’t get too excited or too low anymore when projects become a huge hit or fade into oblivion because now I’ve experienced both. All that said, Stargirl is the project that gave me the support and the space I needed to learn how to act. I had 6 months to figure me out, work with all kinds of teachers, and learn from my very talented cast. After six years of pursuing this career, I know exactly the kind of team player, hard worker, and adventurer I want to be as an artist.

When you are not acting, what does a typical day look like?

Right now, it’s all about qua-routine for me to keep my overall health balanced. It goes like this: Wake up, couple minutes of free writing, cold shower, train, sauna, breakfast! That starts me off in the morning. Then, on a perfect day, I get to take a family walk with my puppies, adventure around LA grabbing cool art and furniture for the house I just moved into, play a few hours of guitar, and hang out with my best friends – lots and lots of facetime.

You are being sent to a deserted island and have 10 minutes to pack: what do you take first and who do you take with you?

10 minutes is not bad. My insulin comes first, gotta take the meds if I’m gonna endure my island stay. Then, a guitar is definitely the next thing I’d take to entertain myself and all the monkeys I become friends with. My two best friends Lexi and Georgia have to come with me as well. I’ll build the hammocks, Lexi will find all the fruit, nuts, and fish, and Georgia will make us a schedule and sing for us.

What is an ideal role for you?

To switch things up from what I’m working on now, I’d love to jump into a Westworldian, Peaky Blinders-type project where everything is different from the norm: the clothing, the rules of the world, the dialects. Most importantly, I want to continue working on projects like Stargirl where I have creative freedom, and get to be surrounded by collaborative, invested castmates where every day is an adventure together.

Share with us your journey before you started your acting career. 

I was a happy go-lucky, cookie consuming, baseball playing kiddo living in St. Louis, Missouri. Even though I was always super creative I focused on sports because my big brother was an athlete and I looked up to him. I blew out my arm pitching, and while I was healing, I finally had time to explore my creativity. I painted, acted, and sang during that time, fell in love with the arts, and now here we are.

What kind of projects do you hope to work on in the future?

I just want to do something super weird, abstract, and meaningful. Deeply collaborative, character driven, engaged director, and either a massive cast or two people. I think of filmmakers like Jordan Peele, Ari Aster, Greta Gerwig, Christopher Nolan, Dee Rees, Jill Soloway, and Sam Levinson. When tons of different mediums converge to tell a story in atypical fashion, that stuff really inspires me. I love when creators use coloring, SFX, fashion, choreography, and music to bring stories to life.

TEAM CREDITS

Photographer: David Higgs
Styling: Wilford Lenov
Grooming: Emily Zempel