Jonathan Goldstein

In every summer camp show, he was placed in the back row.

In a children's production of The Hobbit the musical, backstage a kid dressed as a dwarf told Michael, my mom says your singing is awful.

But it didn't stop Michael.

He nursed his acting bug all the way through senior year, when one day he heard about a movie being filmed in Cleveland, and the director needed lots of teens to be extras.

Straight after school, Michael made his way to the auditions.

He was shown into a room with the director and some of the crew.

They gave him a script, and he started acting.

And again and again.

And all the while, Michael was overcome by a curious feeling.

I was doing a good job.

Had you ever experienced this before?

Like been in an audition where people were responding this way?

At the end of the audition, the director told Michael that he was not going to be an extra.

Michael was going to be the star of the whole movie.

Why was he going to be the star of the whole movie?

Was it his Brando-esque brooding?

His Shia LaBeouf-ian intensity?

The film was called The Messenger, based on a true story.

And the true story it was based on was a little-known World War II anecdote about a teenager named Thomas E. Jones.

Jones was a telegram messenger in Washington, D.C.