He’s only 24 and already New Zealand actor Beulah Koale has scored a lead role in the highly anticipated DreamWorks movie Thank You For Your Service.
The film is about a group of American soldiers who return from Iraq and suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of their haunting memories from war.
Koale, who grew up in a family of Samoan descent, will play the role of an American-Samoan soldier suffering from the condition.
“This is an opportunity and a dream come true for a Pacific Island actor from South Auckland,” he told SCOUT in an exclusive interview, “and one that I am going to fully embrace and make the most of.”
He beat hundreds of actors from American and around the world to win the role by saying to producers, “‘I’m not really scared of you or the process, I’m just going to do my thing. I’m going to be me.’”
“I dropped my American accent and spoke Kiwi, and the producers were amazed.”
Filming for Thank You For Your Service begins in February 2016 in the U.S. and will take three months. The movie is adapted from David Finkel’s book of the same name.
Koale also starred in the highly praised low-budget Kiwi film, The Last Saint (2014), written and directed by fellow Shorty actor Rene Naufahu.
The South Auckland actor is the latest Shortland Street star to make his mark in Hollywood, joining 18-year-old KJ Apa who is starring the DreamWorks production, A Dog’s Purpose. Both boys are represented by Auckland talent agency Red11 Management and together star in TV2’s upcoming family drama The Cul de Sac.
