Franklin Ojeda Smith had a callback for a role on an HBO pilot, Last of the Ninth, created by David Milch (Deadwood and NYPD Blue). Smith also earned a role in a short film.

How was the callback for Last of the Ninth?

It went very, very well. At the end of the piece, [Milch] said it was very, very lovely work. I suspect that even though I didn't book that role, something will come from that down the road.

Tell me about the short.

It gives me the chance to sing. I play an old singer from the '50s.

I didn't know you sang.

I don't.

Can you sing?

Everybody can sing, so I'll sing.

Can you carry a tune?

I think so. They told me I can.

How was the audition when you sang?

It was beautiful. I just let go; I didn't think about it.

You are so relaxed and have such equanimity about your work. Why is that?

You know what I found out? It's like Meisner teaches us: Live truthfully through imaginary circumstances. At my age, I've had so many experiences in so many circumstances; I can live through them. I've lived through these circumstances before. I just get the circumstances and be me, or what the writer requests of me.

Franklin Ojeda Smith had a quiet (for him) month: two voiceover jobs and an audition for a television pilot.

What did you do to stay busy?

I'm always trying to increase my learning curve by reading autobiographies of people in the industry. I try to grow through other people's experiences. I don't have the 20 years of [acting] experience. How do I gain experience and not actually have the experience personally?

Whose autobiographies have you read, and what did they teach you?

John Huston's. Toward the end of his [directing career], he said he didn't even look at the camera anymore. He just listened, and if it sounded right, it was right. For my voiceover work, that was very, very important.

Who else have you read?

Elia Kazan. That was interesting and powerful. I was trying to get the background on so many classic pieces of work I've seen by him from that era. Actors were just letting go and being driven by impulses — and being driven by impulses is wonderful. I had an audition for a pilot called Bottom of the Ninth. It was an interesting experience. You know how you do the background work on the character? I did the background, I was relaxed going in, sitting in the waiting room, and the people were very warm. When I started, a voice came out of me, and I didn't know who the hell it was.

What did it do to you?

It kind of shook me up — in a good way. I didn't try to correct it or anything. That was the voice of the character for that day. Look at the power of that background information. It jumped out, and it was a strange voice, and I never heard that voice before come out of me. That was the lesson to learn on impulse.

How do you think it went?

I have a callback tomorrow.

One of Franklin Ojeda Smith's early ambitions was to play professional baseball. He was even offered a contract but turned it down, feeling he was low-balled because of his race. Last month he had a principal role in a baseball-themed commercial for Bank of America.

What are you doing in the ad?

I'm an old fart playing checkers on a porch with another old-fart buddy, listening to the baseball game and being carried away by our excitement.

I think about your baseball career and you turning down a contract, and now you're acting in a baseball commercial. What's that like?

Isn't that something? We never can predict how things are going to go; we just go and flow with it and ride with it. I thought about that.

How so?

As an athlete you got to work so hard to climb that ladder — and it doesn't happen. All of a sudden, all these years, all these decades later, I'm sitting here doing something involving my first love. For me it was like a giveback to the game.

That's great that you can look at it like that and not be bitter.

Oh no, no, no, no, no. Baseball is what opened the doors for me. I used it as a tool to open the door. Whenever opportunities came, I jumped at it. I guess we use whatever tools we have available to us.

You did a reading of a new play, This Train Is Bound for Glory. What was it like to be on stage again?

Oh my, oh my. Before I went out, I just said, "I'm giving it to God. I'm not thinking about nothing. I'm going to trust." And I trusted, and I let it go. I could hear so well, and I could listen, and react.... A beautiful experience.

Franklin Ojeda Smith spent the first 10 years of his life in Johns Island, S.C., part of the Sea Islands that stretch from the Carolina coast to northern Florida. The African Americans there are known as the Gullah and have retained much of their African heritage. For the film Cayman Went, Smith traveled last month to one of the Cayman Islands, Cayman Brac, which is about 900 miles south-southwest of Johns Island. To Smith, the two places are as close as Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Why did you feel such a powerful connection to the Caymans?

We have a very important climactic beach scene where a whole crowd is coming together for an Irish wake Cayman Brackian-style. When the Brackians gathered, the elders arrived in their Sunday best, including their straw hats and print dresses. It was a very, very important occasion for them, because nothing ever happened like that [film shoot] on Cayman Brac. When I was in that mix, it just tied me to the old images I carry around of my ancestors on the Sea Islands. That's where I reached for the impetus and impulses to do the climactic monologue.

You have a commercial agent, but you just had an interview with a legit agency. How did that go?

They thought that I'm ready to make the step up to bigger roles. Given my résumé and my chops, they think I'm prepared for it. They told me that I'm competing against people who have very long résumés because they've been doing it a long time, and my response is, "I'm competing against them now in the commercial world and I'm having success, and I look forward to the competition."

You were offered a film audition from another agency that you turned down. Why?

It was for a park attendant. The language was very profane.... It was a nothing piece. And I felt good telling them no.

Would you have turned it down five years ago?

Probably not.

How does that sit with you, knowing that you would have taken it five years ago but turned it down this time?

It means that I'm progressing. I'm learning a little bit. I'm getting to know what I want to do a little better…. It's time for me to show my humanity, what my life experience is, and what I bring to this art.

Franklin Ojeda Smith has been continually busy for the past six months, but things began to slow in May. He was doing voiceover work for Lemur Kingdom on Animal Planet, but it will not be renewed.

Was it hard to hear about Lemur Kingdom?

No, that's fine. I had some great experiences, met some really good people, and as a voiceover actor I felt I really improved. I gave it everything I had. I was real committed to it and committed to a high level of performance. I was thankful that I had a chance to do it. I got some wonderful stuff for my reel. Something may come from it.

You were going gangbusters at the beginning of the year. Do you appreciate the down-time?

Oh, I sure do. You take it for granted when you're always running like that, running from audition to audition. You tell yourself, "There's always another one, there's always another." Is there? I get a chance to reflect some. I also did have an audition. They're running this commercial by Morgan Freeman about the Olympics and Visa. I did a read for that. I heard Morgan do it, and I felt so good about my read. Of course Morgan's fantastic, but I didn't feel diminished at all.

Did that surprise you, that you didn't feel diminished?

Yes. And I think that's probably part of that intense involvement with Lemur Kingdom.

One day Morgan Freeman will be offered two really good roles and he can't take both, and the other will go to you.

[Laughs] You know, someone else told me that, Jerome Bates [Seven Guitars]. He was so gracious when he said that. He said, "You know, you could be understudying for Morgan right now." That was gracious of him.

Franklin Ojeda Smith had another strong month, getting a three-month tryout with the agency KTA, doing a second commercial for acclaimed director David McNamara, and continuing his voiceover work for Animal Planet's Lemur Kingdom.

What is it about David McNamara that you respond to?

David encourages you to have fun: Try this, try that, do this, do that, let it go and flow.

That seems to be a recurrent theme for you with directors. It's not so much about directing you as it is about them getting things out of your way.

I think you're absolutely on it. They encourage my inner aspirations.

How much does that have to do with your experience as an actor and how much does it have to do with your age?

It's probably age and the experience that comes from age. There's a great stockpile. I can just go rumble around within those experiences.... And when the impulse comes through, that's the strong one — get on it and ride it. Don't filter it, don't try to modify it or refine it, just get on it and see how it bucks you.

Talk to me about Lemur Kingdom.

I think I'm becoming more of a storyteller in that piece. I'm much more connected with what's going on and the reality of their situation, supplementing what the visual is saying to the audience and trying to be less intrusive.

There it is again, that whole thing about doing less.

Exactly. When I did the piece with David, he gave me a wonderful compliment: "Your voice is so very powerful; you need to draw it way, way back, because you have such wonderful timbre in your voice." I took that to heart. I was in a session today; my director for Lemur Kingdom said, "Franklin, just let your voice tell the story."

Franklin Ojeda Smith decided to become an actor about 10 years ago while recovering from Stage 3 colorectal cancer. In the past month, he began a regular voiceover job for Lemur Kingdom: Animal Planet on the Discovery Channel and worked on two movies: The Undying, with Robin Weigert of Deadwood, and Cayman Went, a comedy in which he has a leading role.

You're having quite a year.

This year is starting off fantastic. I feel good about it, you know? But when I'm engaged with how well I'm doing, it's tricky with [actor] friends. Because you want to talk about your work, but they aren't working, so you don't want to overdo it. I try to downplay it. Because their need at the moment is much more important than mine, so I try to uplift them rather than talk about my work.

What was it like working with Robin?

What a wonderful pleasure. What a wonderful, wonderful person. She just gives you so much to work with.... She just doesn't push. She's so much about making things real. We were just able to flow with each other. Working with her is like a form of therapy, because she's tension-free.

You've had scenes in movies with Mark Wahlberg and Timothy Hutton. What's it like to work with actors of a certain stature or experience level?

They make it easier…. If you don't push, in your own way you can just flow with them. They've worked hard to get where they are, and they make it so easy for you. I just get out of my own way and just flow with it. As they go, they will take you with them…. We all have enough experience to teach us, and our body has enough learning, so that if we get out of our own way, we'll just be real.