'The Glee Project' Interview: Mario On His Acting Ability

07/06/2012

Throughout his time on the show, Mario was always extremely confident in his abilities. Just as he has never let his blindness hold him back, he hasn’t let his elimination from the competition stop him from following his dreams as a performer. I talked with Mario about his determination to show everyone what he’s truly capable of.

You thought you’d do well with adaptability. How do you feel now about what [music video director] Erik [White] wanted from you in the way of acting?

It's tough because the mistake I made was being, because it was adaptability, the mistake I made was being too afraid to ask Erik for clarification for what he wanted because, you know, at the end of the day I am a blind actor. So if you say things like, you know, “Do it with more swag,” of course to a blind actor it’s kind of, “Well, what do you mean do it with more swag?”

But for me this week, with it being adaptability, I saw Erik as more of a judge than a director and it’s unfortunate that this particular week I got caught up in my head because of that and thus gave a subpar performance this week, which unfortunately cost me the competition.

After rehearsing with Charlie, how did you feel about your chemistry with each other on the final duet?

Generally, it probably wasn’t seen enough on the show, Charlie and I interact extremely well. I’m a huge fan of Charlie’s voice. I think he’s fascinating. Charlie and I are both very creative guys and we always take a song and make it our own, but Charlie is one of those people that he’ll do it with every song, you know, every single song that he gets.

So since it was a song that I didn’t know and that he didn’t know I was just kind of - I was like, “Don’t rewrite it because I don’t know it that well and if you sing a different melody it might confuse me,” but in the end things worked out. Things worked out well. I think that our voices fit well together on that classic song.

Would you have preferred to do a solo for your last chance performance?

I would have preferred to do a solo for my last chance performance because I feel like it would have been a better opportunity for me to really explain myself to Ryan. But I think at this point in the competition because of how things had gone everything I said was just coming off, you know, would have maybe have gone in one ear and out the other because of the moments where I was defensive earlier, which again would happen because I was trying to save myself.

So it would have been nice to do a solo to remind Ryan, “Hey keep me around. I’m really talented.” But it’s different when you’re sharing, so to speak, sharing the glory with someone else on stage, albeit I enjoyed the opportunity and I’m glad I did do the duet. But it would have been cooler to do something, since the last chance performance is, “I’ve got to save myself,” it would have been great to do it alone.

Was there anything that you wish that you could have shown the judges or the audience that you weren’t able to?

I wish there had been more direction, so to speak, as opposed to, “Here’s some props. Be improvisational and fit in.” Especially if you’re coming from - I mean my disability is the last thing on my list, but I am sightless, so I have to approach acting a slightly different way. So I wish that I were placed in a situation where it would really allow me the opportunity to really showcase my real talents. Like for example, people don’t know that, you know, I do animated voices; they don’t know that I try and do motivational speaking; they don’t know the appropriate way that I can be a dramatized actor.

And I’m sorry to say this, because [Glee casting director] Robert [Ulrich] always says, he’s a very great guy, I love him a lot, but he said some really important stuff to me that if you can’t emote with your eyes you’ve got to be able to do it with your body. Well, for the audience, if they’re wondering whether I have the ability to do that or not, I ask them to go look at the bullying video again and go look at every time when we’re standing on the stage and waiting for judges’ feedback and look at my face, and that says it all.

Now that it’s over do you feel you are ready for Glee?

That’s a tough question, because I don’t really feel like The Glee Project represented my real talent and I only feel that the audience was able to see a fraction of my personality and that was of course only during times where I had been filming for 17 hour days and I didn’t have the normal social filter I would usually have.

So it’s hard to say, so that’s why I’m like doing this like YouTube campaign to hopefully allow the audience to see things that they weren’t able to see through The Glee Project so then they can properly judge because right now they’re just judging on an edited character.

Could you talk more about that?

Yes. I did two YouTube channels. One is YouTube.com/planetarnauz. My stage name is Arnauz. I’ve started to put some acting videos up there so that people could see that I do have acting ability past, you know, lip singing on a video or past what they saw this week, where you could tell that I had checked out of the competition and that I was completely - I was nonplussed. And it’s totally my fault for not being in the proper mental space for asking Erik for clarification and all of that kind of stuff. The Glee Project tests your acting ability, but more importantly it tests your improvisational creativity. And when they handed me an iPod and glass of water, I didn’t make appropriate improvisational creative ideas enough.

So the second YouTube channel is YouTube.com/thearnauz. That’s a channel where, you know, I’m showcasing my origin of music and showcasing my ability to perform in covering other people’s songs because, as I stated before, it’s really important to me that people are able to get a real picture of the real Mario, the guy that is happy-go-lucky; the guy that laughs; the guy that is happy and not the guy that has just been depicted during moments of reality show tension.

So just the whole YouTube thing is really important. And I’m hoping the music channel does well because I’m actively seeking the attention of Interscope Records, that’s my focus.

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