A Falls Church native never knew that his experience on the ice and love of hockey would help him land his first leading role in Hollywood.
Alec Reusch, who now calls the West Coast home, was selected to play the main character in “The Late Game” – a comedy flick that follows a young man who is lost in a new city until he joins a late-night recreational hockey beer league game.
“My father played hockey recreationally for years, so he first got me on the ice at 4 or 5 years old. I never played competitively, but I grew up playing for school teams and house leagues,” Reusch told AFP. “After taking a break in college, I got back into hockey over the past few years, and I currently play regularly in an adult recreational league.”
Reusch never dreamed of an acting career until his time at The Ohio State University where he received his degree in theatre.
“Growing up in Virginia, I never would have expected that I’d end up in LA pursuing an acting career,” he said. “I got into performing by doing plays and musicals in high school, but for a while I just thought it would be something I’d do for fun. It wasn’t until college that I realized there wasn’t anything else I really wanted to study, so I committed myself to try to be a working actor.”
Reusch admits he felt a little like a fish out of water when he arrived on the set of the feature film.
“Most of my acting background is in theatre, so I felt a little bit out of my depth on a film set at first,” he said. “But this actually worked out well because a lot of the other actors were just as inexperienced as I was, so we got to figure everything out together.”
He said working on the set was a “once in a lifetime experience” for him. He’s now busy promoting the film and on the lookout for auditions for theatre, film and television roles.
While he is making a name for himself in California, he hasn’t forgotten his roots in Northern Virginia.
“I grew up mainly in Falls Church, Virginia, which is a suburb of D.C.,” he said. “It’s a really nice area, and I do go back sometimes. That said, my immediate family has since moved out to the west coast as well, so I don’t visit too often, but I’ve kept in touch with a lot of friends from back then.”
“The Late Game” runs 1 hour and 25 minutes.
‘The Late Game’ trailer
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Crystal Graham
