Big "Bad" Actor in a Desert Town

This personable southwesterner is slowly but surely becoming a local heavyweight in TV and film here, carving his own character actor niche in New Mexico, which continues to take center stage, gaining in reputation as the new Hollywood.

His growing acting acclaim is not too shabby for a guy who came to acting rather late in life.

“I was a bouncer for many years,” Eiland gesticulates, talking enthusiastically about how he’ll soon be working on a Zombie-based web series. “It will take up my weekends. I’ll be playing a Zombie wrangler.”  He explains that they’ll be shooting 15 minute segments. He calls it the “future of filmmaking.” This will follow in the successful wake of a web series titled, “Enter the Dojo’ starring Matt Page that’s already completed six successful episodes of poking fun at martial arts (see Albuquerque Journal 12/25/11).

Slow and steady is Eiland’s mantra when it comes to making it in the movie/TV business. “I got my SAG card in 2004 and have worked pretty steadily ever since.” He had been working prior to that, landing his first role in 1998 when he played a bus passenger in a short film called “Drive”, which was about a son who tries to carry a stolen kidney cross country to his father.

Since then he’s played a plethora of persons, including a bar patron in “Blind Horizon”, a store customer in “Elvis Has Left the Building”, and a raver in “Death Valley”. Then he built momentum with a trifecta of roles in 2005 including playing two prisoners, one in “Social Guidance” and another in Adam Sandler’s “Longest Yard”, and then as Carmen Miranda in “Rx”, with Colin Hanks. Sadly most of that unaccredited cross-dressing role ended up on the cutting room floor, but it made him a screen actor’s guild-caliber actor and he’s darn proud of that.

In the next half decade, he played a Santa in “The Flock”, a punk in “Mall Cop”, gang banger in “Hamlet 2”, Big Mike in “Spoken Word”, Mordicai in “Saint John of Las Vegas”, a dandy Heavy #1 in “Doc West”, a taxi driver in “The Spy Next Door”, a customer in “Love Ranch” with Joe Pesci. More recently, he’s done TV, playing a tough guy named Ray Guzman on “In Plain Sight” and Miguel, a Mexican drug-dealer’s henchman, who dies after drinking poisoned tequila, on “Breaking Bad”.

Of all the movies he’s worked on so far, he gushes, “I really enjoyed working on “Saint John of Las Vegas” because I got to work with Romany Malco (“The Forty Year Old Virgin”), a pretty nice guy, and also Steve Buscemi (“Fargo”).”

So far so good for this native of Albuquerque, NM, who started out his workaday life as a licensed plumber. ‘I’m happy where I am at now and the level of work I am involved in,” remarks this late bloomer who came to acting because of his dislike of college algebra. “But every actor wants to make a living off acting otherwise there’s something wrong with him.” So Eiland, who currently substitute teaches for his day job, is intent on building upon his small acting successes. “There are a lot of doors opening up. I don’t care about making it big someday. I just enjoy working in this business.”

A card-carrying socialist, who comes from a long line of socialists, he says he’s got a close circle of friends that keep him grounded as his acting aspirations take flight. When asked if he’d move to Hollywood, he says he considers himself a “big fish in a small pond” here in Albuquerque and not interested in moving to Los Angeles at all.

Affiliated with Applause Talent Agency in Albuquerque, Eiland says he gets eight or nine auditions over several weeks; then he might go a month or two without any. When he does get an acting gig, like the one on “Breaking Bad”, which lasted a whole week, the payday is lucrative.

This evolving character actor, who’s never had a bad experience on set, boasts, “I don’t have a thin skin” when it comes to playing despicable me-type characters. “I like being considered a character actor,” he adds, noting a few of the not-so-nice characters he’s played. “There are a lot of roles I get seen for that no one else does.” One of those roles was Miguel on highly successful TV series, “Breaking Bad”, now entering its 5th season. In talking about that series, he mentions Shari Rhodes, a casting director at “Breaking Bad”, who died recently. “She was such a sweet woman,” he says, mentioning her cameo appearance in a wheelchair in one of the show’s first episodes.

“My wife, Sarah, is a big fan of the show. So she was all excited when I got the gig playing Miguel. She got to meet members of the cast, like Jonathan Banks (Mike the fixer).” Eiland gives us a heads-up about the upcoming season of “Breaking Bad”: “They’re going to do a split season, eight and eight episodes and the only way I’m coming back is if they do a flashback.”

A graduate of Highland High School, he spent years as a jock (Go Hornets!), not interested in theater. It appeared that there was a future actor camouflaged by the athlete. Eiland speaks about the roots of his acting career, saying “I’ve always been one of those guys who stand out in a crowd. I talk a little louder, make more gestures.”  But that didn’t translate into acting for another decade or so. “I was at UNM in my 30’s and when it came to declaring my major I found out that if you were in fine arts you didn’t have to take math (algebra). I was sold.” But he wasn’t yet ready to buy acting as a career choice. “I remember one of the professors said, ‘I’d like you to audition for this play,’ and I kind of blew him off initially.” With a little more encouragement he got bit by the acting bug. Eiland graduated with a BA in theater arts in 1996 and was soon plumbing parts on stage, TV, and in film.

“What I liked about being on stage or in front of the camera is was having a lot of people watching what I do. I’m an attention hog. When I get nervous I just turn it around and use the energy. Film is so much easier than theater,” he admits. “I have my call sheet with lines and between takes I keep memorizing what I have to say. I don’t think I’ve ever flubbed a line.”

He’s not currently doing local theater, mainly “because it doesn’t pay, and it’s a huge commitment. But I do love doing theater” which suggests he wouldn’t be adverse to it if the right role came along with decent compensation.

Eiland is hopeful: “There’s going to be a lot of things coming up because in New Mexico we have the advantage of the stability program, which means we won’t have to fight for the money in 2012.” He also claims that “there’s excellent crew and actors here in Albuquerque.”

When asked who he admires as an actor today, he answers, “My test of a good actor is to ask myself, ‘Would I go see a film with him or her?’” He mentions Chris Cooper (Academy Award supporting actor in “Adaptation”) as one of his favorite actors, with Kevin Spacey (Academy Award supporting actor in “Usual Suspects”) a close second. Both men starred in “American Beauty”, in which Spacey picked up an Academy Award for best actor. Not bad company to share popcorn with while watching a movie!

To sharpen his acting skills, this lead investigator for the Rio Grande Ghost Society takes acting classes with Ed Lottimer “He believes in Sacred Space, where you get into a place that you feel comfortable with the other actor,” the actor explains. In his free time, “I watch a lot of TV and also work on renovating my house, doing the plumbing myself. But don’t ask me to paint anything.”

Eiland is currently busy writing a script for a project called “Captain Creepy’s House of Shame”. “It’s going to be a whole anthology, similar to DC Comics,” he states enthusiastically like a dad in the delivery room. “It’s about a guy who does something bad and there’s karma to pay. It’s a morality play.”

He’s open to any role that comes his way, not just playing the heavy, which he’s gotten really good at. “I got my SAG card by doing drag,” he reminds us, which puts him in the same illustrious league as Johnny Depp (“Before Night Falls”), Dustin Hoffman (“Tootsie”), Robin Williams (“Mrs. Doubtfire”) and Adam Sandler (“Jack and Jill”).

He’s not adverse to comedy for example. Maybe “Kindergarten Cop 2” if Schwarzenegger’s not available?! “I like stretching myself, even though I really like playing the bad guy. I want to do really good parts that I’m proud of.”

One of his number one fans is his mom, who thought his acting “silly at first. But now she respects what I’m doing because I’ve done enough good acting work.”

No doubt Eiland’s fan base will increase as he continues to do “good acting work.” We might even see him strolling down the red carpet at the Academy Awards in Hollywood, CA someday. But don’t expect him to stay around tinsel town too long. His main stage will always be Albuquerque and the southwest, no matter how good a bad guy he becomes!