BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - Benjamin Pelham’s secret isn’t really a secret: A role in “Embattled,” a new movie filmed in Birmingham, has given him his breakthrough onto the silver screen, but the Mobile actor really wants to be on Broadway.
“It feels great and wonderful to be on stage,” said Pelham, 25, who has been participating in community theater productions for years.
His turn in “Embattled” is the latest accomplishment in a remarkable life. His mother, Lisa Pelham, reckons he was the first student with Down syndrome to graduate from St. Pius X Catholic School in Mobile, and possibly the first to attend McGill-Toolen Catholic High School. From there he became the first student to be accepted into the University of South Alabama’s PASSAGE USA program, which offers higher education opportunities to students with developmental disabilities, along with guidance to improve their independent living and social skills. That led to a job in the USA bookstore, currently on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
From early childhood, he was the kind of kid who lit up when a camera was on him. He was mesmerized by Disney musicals, and from there moved on to more adult fare. He seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s catalogue. When discussing something such as the way an actor delivers a specific song in “Hamilton,” it’s clear he has a keen eye for the mannerisms that accentuate the lyrics.
His favorite?
“I’m not going to lie about this,” he said. “I’m going to say it now. It’s always ‘Cats.’”
He even liked the recent film version, which got mixed reviews. “It was fun,” he said. “the characters were different … Idris Elba is my kind of actor.”
The leap from community theater to the silver screen happened somewhat abruptly. Lisa Pelham said that in late 2018 the family hired an agent, Suzanne Massingill of Barefood Model & Talent Agency in Mobile. She said she felt that Massengill saw real potential in her son and was “all in” on promoting him — but at the same time firmly downplayed any notion of overnight stardom. The expectation, Pelham said, was that it might take two or three years of plugging away before her son landed a part.
However, unexpected circumstances were in play. An independent film that had something to do with mixed martial arts (MMA) fighting was shooting in Birmingham. The project wasn’t just open to hiring actors with Down syndrome and similar conditions — it was actively looking for some. Benjamin Pelham auditioned.
He and his mother happened to be on their way to New York, when they got a call from Massengill. They were traveling so that Benjamin could accept the Dan Piper Award, an annual national honor that celebrates an individual with Down syndrome whose life “brings about a greater public awareness and understanding of people with Down syndrome in his or her community.”
He’d gotten the part, Massengill said. From there, things moved quickly. Before 2018 was out, the Pelhams had made a three-day trip to Birmingham, where Benjamin joined the cast of the project.
Then came the waiting. Aside from the usual time required for post-production, COVID-19 put the brakes on much of the film world. It was Nov. 20, 2020, before “Embattled” saw streaming release. (It can be rented via Amazon Prime and YouTube.)
Written by David McKenna and directed by Nick Sarkisov, “Embattled” is partly a fight film. Stephen Dorff of “True Detective” stars as cock-of-the-walk MMA champ Cash Boykins, and let’s just say this: There once was a boxing movie titled “Raging Bull,” and if this movie was purely about Cash Boykins, it could fairly be titled “Raging A—hole.” A ripped and physical Dorff makes Boykins as fascinating as a rattlesnake with rabies. The guy spouts profanity and sexual vulgarisms, leads every interaction with aggression and backs it up with a very credible threat of violence. He carries the flick’s “R” rating singlehandedly.
But “Embattled” really isn’t about its most mesmerizing character. Years ago, after he and his wife had Quinn, a son with Williams syndrome, Cash Boykins ran out. The one fight Mr. Toxic Masculinity wasn’t up for was parenting a special-needs kid. So now he lives in a mansion with a trophy wife and assorted groupies, while his ex-wife works as a waitress and his older son Jett fills the caregiver role that he shirked.
But Jett, now 18, has shown promise as a fighter and his dad is helping develop him. For Jett, played by Darren Mann, this presents a moral choice that this the movie’s real center: Does following his dad into the world of MMA mean accepting Cash’s brutalistic worldview, in which abusiveness is an essential component of strength? Or does a stronger, better version of manhood come from continuing to be the friend and protector that his younger brother needs?
Naturally this gets sorted out in a savage pay-per-view MMA fight between father and son, in which the father radiates his willingness to murder his son in a fighting cage while thousands watch. “Embattled” has drawn respectable reviews, with a common complaint being that it’s a little overstuffed with subplots. The climactic fight contributes quite a bit to its two-hour runtime, but it is a truly epic blow-by-blow confrontation.
Benjamin Pelham doesn’t throw any punches, but there’s real substance to his small part. Quinn’s disability is integral to the plot, not an afterthought. It is the fact of life that defines one fork of the decision his brother has to make. He’s played by the screenwriter’s son, Colin McKenna, who has Williams syndrome. The movie fleshes out Quinn’s life by giving him a couple of special-needs classmates and one of these, Gerry, is played by Pelham. So this is no cameo: It’s a speaking part spread across three scenes, some with “Scrubs” star Donald Faison.
“I did really love doing the thing in Birmingham,” said Benjamin Pelham.
It was three days of early calls and long hours on-set, waiting patiently (and very quietly) for the moments when he was needed. Mixed in were perks like getting to sit in a makeup chair while his appearance was tweaked for the role. “They did give me a couple of haircuts,” he said. “They wanted me to look good for my part.”
Lisa Pelham said the experience was a lesson in what hard work it is to make a film. And that, in turn, showed the value of all her son’s experience leading up to the moment.
“You’ve got to be resilient, to be in a film,” she said.
There’s yet another movie inside “Embattled,” one about the challenges that having a special-needs child places on a family. At one point the boys’ mother, played by Elizabeth Reaser, tells her son: “When a mother learns that she’s going to have to take care of a special needs child for the rest of her life, she requires a good cry.” Then you get on with it, she says.
Lisa Pelham paused for a good long moment before sharing her thoughts about that. Her husband Marc and her son Joseph are a big part of Benjamin’s support structure, she said.
“I like the perspective,” she said. “That she dealt with that and moved on. I’m like that. You have to see forward.”
Seeing forward is a little more difficult than usual at the moment because of COVID-19. It has shut down community theatre. It has shut down many film and TV productions. Broadway’s theaters are closed until spring, so even traveling to catch a show is out of the question. But eventually the possibilities will open up again. Benjamin is keeping his eye on community productions, and when they’re ready to hold auditions he’ll be there. He also has auditioned for a part in a police procedural on one of the Big Three broadcast networks. There’s no word yet on whether he got that part.
Eventually, he’ll get back to New York for another look at Broadway — even if it’s not from the side of the stage he wants to be on.
“Wouldn’t you like to be back on Broadway?” she asked, meaning as a visitor.
“I could be, one day,” he said, meaning something else entirely.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.